Miranda felt the muscles in her spine tighten like concrete. ‘Not yet.’
Nicole glanced at Leandro. ‘So are you two...?’ She left the sentence hanging suggestively.
‘No,’ Leandro said. ‘We’re old friends.’
Miranda knew it was silly of her to be feeling piqued that he hadn’t made their relationship sound a little more exciting. But the woman was clearly an old flame of his, by the way she kept giving him the eye. Why couldn’t he have pretended they were seeing each other? Or was he hoping for a little for-old-times’-sake tryst with Nicole? The thought of Leandro bringing someone like Nicole back to the villa made Miranda’s stomach churn. Nothing against Nicole, but surely he could do better than that? Nicole seemed...hard—too streetwise to be sensitive. But maybe that was all he wanted, Miranda thought. Sex without sensitivity. Without strings. Without attachment.
‘So what are you doing in Nice?’ Nicole said.
‘I’m seeing to some family business,’ Leandro said.
Nicole’s green eyes met Miranda’s. ‘And you’re helping him?’
‘Erm...yes,’ Miranda said.
Nicole turned her cat’s gaze back on to Leandro. ‘How about we meet for a drink while you’re here?’ she said. ‘I’m here another couple of days. Name the time and the place. I’m pretty flexible.’
I just bet you are, Miranda thought with a savage twist of jealousy deep in her gut.
‘I’ll give you a call tomorrow,’ Leandro said. ‘Where are you staying?’
‘At Le Negresco.’ Nicole lifted her hand in a girlish fingertip wave as she backed away to join her friends who were waiting for her at the end of the lane. ‘I’ll be seeing you.’
Miranda waited until Nicole and her cronies had disappeared before she turned to Leandro with a look of undiluted disgust. ‘Really?’ she said.
He looked down at her with his customary frown. ‘What’s wrong?’
She blew out a breath. ‘I swear to God I will never understand men. What do you see in her? No, don’t answer that. I saw the size of her breasts. Are they real? And is she really blonde or did it come out of a bottle?’
Leandro’s frown softened. ‘You’re jealous.’
Miranda cast him a haughty glare. ‘Jealous? Seriously? Is that what you think?’
‘She’s just someone I hang out with occasionally.’
‘Oh, I understand,’ she said with icy disdain. ‘A friend with benefits.’
‘You disapprove?’
Miranda didn’t want to sound like a Sunday school teacher from the last century but the thought of him hooking up with Nicole made her insides twist into painful knots. ‘It’s none of my business what you do. I’d just appreciate it if you’d spare me the indignity of having to hear your seduction routine while I’m under the same roof.’
His expression didn’t change. He could have been sitting at a poker tournament but she still got the feeling he was amused by her reaction. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I never bring women like Nicole home. That’s what hotels are for.’
Miranda swung away. ‘I don’t want to hear about it.’
He walked alongside her. ‘Do you lecture Jake like this?’ he said after they had gone a few paces.
‘No, because Jake isn’t like you,’ she said. ‘You’re different. You have class—or so I thought.’
‘I’m sorry for being such a bitter disappointment.’
Miranda flashed him a glare. ‘Will you stop it?’
His look was guileless. ‘Stop what?’
‘You’re laughing at me. I know you are.’
He reached out and gently tucked an escaping tendril of her hair back behind her ear. ‘It’s just sex, ma petite. No one is hurting anyone.’
Miranda’s breath caught in her throat. His fingers had left the skin at the back of her ear tingling. Was he as tender with a casual lover? Did he touch that woman Nicole as if she were a precious piece of porcelain? Or was it wham, bam, thank you, mam? ‘How long have you been—’ she put her fingers up in air quotes ‘—seeing her?’
‘A year or two.’
A year or two? Did that mean he was serious about her? Miranda had always got the impression he was a casual dater. But if he’d been seeing Nicole for that long surely it must mean he was serious about her? Was he in love with her? He hadn’t looked like a man in love. He had kissed Nicole in a perfunctory way, and on the cheeks, not on the lips. He hadn’t even hugged her. ‘That seems a long time to be seeing someone,’ she said. ‘Does that mean you’re thinking of—?’