‘What?’ She blinked again in confusion, her cheeks flushing as she stared at him, still not quite able to believe that it really was him. What on earth was he doing here? Oh no, was he on the cookery course, too? Please, no! He couldn’t be. What were the chances? She swallowed. Maybe he’d followed her to give her a piece of his mind. If the shoe were on the other foot, she’d have been furious if someone treated her like that. Shoe! Had he followed her to bring her shoe back?

‘Conor,’ she croaked, wanting to die of embarrassment. This couldn’t be happening. Gone was the flirtatious charmer; instead, an angry dark-eyed tornado stood over her, his eyes full of fury and his mouth curled in disgust.

The clichéd words danced on the tip of her tongue: I can explain. What, that she was a complete coward and hadn’t been grown up enough to own her first one-night stand? Pitiful, Hannah, pitiful.

‘I’m s-sorry. I—’

‘You’re not the first, you know.’ His eyes narrowed as he glared at her.

Despite the mortification flooding through her, his sharp anger pricked at her. It wasn’t as if she’d committed the crime of the century – what did he have to be so cross about? It was her right to leave if she wanted to. If she wasn’t mistaken, he knew the score – he’d probably written the damn thing – but something inside her refused to be cowed. ‘I’m well aware of that. No one could doubt that you know what you’re doing.’

Clearly taken aback, he opened his mouth and shut it with pleasing incoherence as if lost for words. She couldn’t help grinning, proud of herself for scoring that little hit. Where had this new Hannah come from? Talk about sticking your whole arm right into the mouth of the lion. No prizes for guessing he hadn’t taken too kindly to be being abandoned in the middle of the night – which she might have apologised for if he hadn’t come steaming in, all guns blazing, with a bug up his butt.

His scowl darkened. ‘You really had me fooled with that wide-eyed, innocent act. I suppose you think you’re clever.’

‘A few people have remarked upon it.’ And there she went again. It was as if she had no control over her mouth around Conor. Maybe it was because he was so far out of her league that she had absolutely nothing to lose.

‘Well, it won’t get you very far. I know what your game is. I never sleep with the guests.’

‘I wasn’t aware that I’d asked you to.’ Cheeky so and so, although she did wonder what guests he was referring to. It hadn’t stopped him when she was a hotel guest. ‘It was good but not quite in the sex-god category. Must try harder.’