CHAPTER THREE

      ‘GOOD MORNING, LIA.’

      Lia felt all the colour drain from her cheeks as she stared up at the man standing on the other side of the reception desk at the London Exemplar Hotel.

      She had always thought that a person feeling the colour leeching from their face was a ridiculous concept: people couldn’t actually feel the colour leaving their cheeks.

      Except Lia just had. In fact the blood seemed to have drained from her head completely, settling somewhere in the region of her toes and leaving her feeling slightly light-headed as she continued to gape across the reception desk at Gregorio de la Cruz.

      He tilted his head, a mocking smile playing about those sculpted lips as he saw her reaction to his being here. ‘I did warn you that in future you should anticipate seeing me where and when you least expected to do so.’

      Yes, he had—but it hadn’t occurred to Lia that Gregorio might turn up at her new place of employment.

      Deliberately so?

      Or was it purely coincidence that Gregorio had come to the Exemplar Hotel on the morning she began working there?

      Lia very much doubted that. With a man as powerful and well-connected as Gregorio there was no such thing as coincidence.

      Which meant he had known she would be here. How he knew was probably by the same means he had acquired the address of her new apartment.

      She narrowed her eyes. ‘Are you having me followed, Mr de la Cruz?’

      ‘Followed? No,’ he dismissed. ‘Am I ensuring your safety? Yes,’ he admitted without apology.

      Lia’s brows rose. ‘Why on earth does my safety need ensuring?’

      ‘You are now alone in the world.’

      ‘We both know why that is!’

      ‘Lia—’

      ‘Is there a problem here—? Mr de la Cruz!’ Michael, the hotel manager, quickly hid his surprise as he greeted the other man warmly.

      ‘Good morning, Michael,’ Gregorio returned smoothly as the two men shook hands. ‘And, no, there is no problem. I just came down to say hello to Miss... Faulkner,’ he finished, with a knowing glance at the badge Lia had pinned on the left lapel of her jacket.

      It was a surname Gregorio knew didn’t belong to her.

      And he also apparently knew the manager of this hotel by his first name’

      An uneasy feeling began to churn in Lia’s stomach, growing stronger by the second and making her feel slightly nauseous.

      There was no such thing as coincidence where Gregorio de la Cruz was concerned.

      Which meant he had known exactly where she would be starting her new job this morning.

      He really was having her followed—might he even have had some influence in her attaining this job too?

      For what reason?

      The churning in Lia’s stomach became a full-blown tsunami as she searched for the reason Gregorio was doing these things.

      That guilty conscience she had accused him of having?

      No, he had denied feeling any guilt in regard to her father’s death.