Blood was slowly trickling down my nose and onto my expensive silk shirt. I hated it when that happened.

The guy who had hit me was standing laughing at me while his friends congratulated him in Spanish. I hated that too. To be fair, there wasn’t a lot to like about this situation.

The red mist came down over me and I lost all control. Didn’t these idiots even know who I was?

I had only been in Buenos Aires for 3 days and this was my third argument with locals. If that wasn’t a sign that the city was filled with horrible people then I didn’t know what it was.

I couldn’t let these guys get away with hitting me. As a big guy of well over 6 foot who worked out in his private gym every day I could handle myself, even if taking on a group of guys on my own seemed a bit too ambitious.

I shouted the only Spanish insult I knew and it had the desired effect on them, as the group abruptly stopped celebrating and looked at me. The blood thundered round in my veins. Getting into fights and showing people that I was boss was what gave me my greatest pleasures in life lately.

I threw a chair that hit a guy square on the head. He staggered backwards and sent several glasses crashing to the ground. On the way out I would toss a few thousand pesos to the owner to pay for the damages and he would be happy.

The biggest, ugliest guy in the group stepped forward towards me. So, it was going to be a personal duel to settle it, was it? He was even bigger than me and looked almost as mean as I guessed I looked at that moment.

Just as I was about to launch into the attack, a strong hand held me back. Joe was there now. Joe Thompson, he was the guy who currently took on the role of looking after me. He was doing a good job, even if I didn’t admit it to him very often.

“What the Hell kept you, Joe? You left me here all alone with these savages.”

“Sorry, Adam. I was parking your car and I got lost on the way back. Do you need some help?”

“Go and get him, buddy.” I laughed as I took a couple of steps back towards my table. “He’s all yours.”

Joe didn’t complain, just like I knew he wouldn’t. Instead, he rushed in and sent the guy flying backwards.

I sat down with a fairly decent bottle of Argentine wine and lit up a cigar as the fight progressed. Joe was in trouble now as the guy got him in a headlock. I almost felt sorry for my little helper who was also currently my only friend in the world, but I had to admit that it was great entertainment.

It was only fair that I gave Joe a few pesos tonight to make up for the bruises he was going to have. God, this wine was actually awful but I forced myself to swallow the rest of the glass.

I must have spent tens of thousands of dollars on food and drink in the last few months but I couldn’t remember enjoying any of it. Life just seemed to lack flavor these days for some strange reason.

Ouch. That must have hurt. It was getting boring to watch now.

“Stop fighting! Paren de pelear!”

Every single person in the bar stopped what they were doing and turned around. Well, except me. I puffed slowly on my cigar and then looked round as coolly as I could (which was pretty damned cool, to be fair).

Wow. Who was that girl standing there with her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes? This night might get interesting after all.

“Joe. Get out of here.” She grabbed my friend and pulled him away from the gang while the others just stood and watched. It couldn’t be his girlfriend, could it? There was no way he could get a girl like that without my help but why else would someone in this city know who he was? I was the famous one here and no-one had even recognized me yet.

The two of them were arguing at the other end of the bar now while the guys we were fighting left the bar giving us dirty looks and what sounded like vague promises of finding us in the city at some other time. My cigar was raised in a cheerful salute that made them all shake their heads.

I took the opportunity to look the girl up and down very slowly without her noticing what I was doing. She was very, very attractive indeed, I had to confess.

In fact, upon closer inspection, she was exactly the kind of woman that I like best. Tall and slim but with curves in all of the right places, she looked a lot like the famous model that I had dumped a couple of months ago due to boredom.

Her long, blond hair tumbled down over her shoulders as she argued with Joe. It was the sort of wild and untamed yet attractive hair that I would have loved to run my fingers through.

I could see that she had an intense stare and a way of gesturing as she spoke that made watching her a real pleasure.

It was clear that she was wearing pretty cheap clothes but she made them look as good as fine as the most expensive designer gear. She had on a faded denim shirt and a pair of stone colored pants with several zipped pockets on them.

Going by her appearance I decided that she was probably a backpacker or some other sort of budget tourist visiting Argentina but how did she know Joe?

I strolled over to them as slowly and casually as I could manage. The truth was that I was longing to find out more about her. It was a long time since I had been so intrigued by a strange woman.

“Hey Joe, you never told me that you had such a beautiful friend in this part of the world.”

The girl turned to look at me. Her light blue eyes were shining wildly with an emotion that I couldn’t quite put my finger on but that put me on guard right away.

“Adam, this my sister, Jessie. Jessie, this is the great guy I told you about the other day.”

I took her hand up to my lips and kissed it. Well, I tried to kiss it at least. My lips had barely brushed her smooth, tanned skin when I felt the hand pull itself away, leaving me to kiss thin air.

I looked at her furiously. No woman had ever done that to me and I felt utterly humiliated.

“So you’re the famous, rich playboy that I have heard all about.” She looked down her nose at me as though I was a piece of trash rather than one of the planet’s richest and most eligible bachelors. Most sane women would have given anything to be there with me, so I was going to take a wild guess at her being clinically insane or playing hard to get. Very hard to get.

“The very same, Adam Hargraves. What about if we go back to my hotel for-“

“I want you to stay away from me and my brother. You rich people sicken me, taking advantage of kind-hearted people like Joe just because he is such a nice guy.”

“The only person taking advantage of anyone here is your delightful brother. I give him somewhere to stay and plenty to eat every day, no questions asked.”

“Just like you do with your dog, eh? What don’t you leave us both alone?”

“I’m a gentleman, Jessie. I would never normally dream of arguing with such a highly attractive lady but Joe is my friend.”

“Your nose is still bleeding.” She nodded curtly in the direction of my bloody nose.

I wiped the blood away with one of the monogrammed handkerchiefs that I always took away with me.

“That group over there didn’t show me any respect. They spilled my drink and I hate when that happens.”

“So why was it Joe that was fighting them instead of you, little rich boy?”

“Your brother is a brave and loyal friend.” I gave him a thump on the shoulder as a mark of respect and tried to ignore her rudeness, even though I could feel my anger levels rising.

“And you’re a cowardly weasel who uses other people.” Her eyes burned with passion as she spoke.

I let my eyes wander down to where she had left the top buttons of her faded denim shirt unbuttoned, showing a generous amount of cleavage that tempted me to pop open the rest of the button and discover more right there and then.

A hand quickly closed the buttons. I looked up and saw her glaring at me as though I was the worst person she had ever met. Maybe I was.

“Why are so quiet, Joe? Why don’t you tell your sister how good I am to you? We’ve been through a lot in the last year while you were…” It just clicked in my head that she must be the sister who had gone off to hug trees and kiss sick monkeys better in the jungle. “…making the planet a better place for future generations.”

Hadn’t he called her a painfully shy nerd? She turned away from us. As she flicked her hair and leaned against the bar she looked anything like a nerd to me. She certainly wasn’t too shy to speak her mind either.

If she had been a timid little nerd before then a year in the jungle had apparently given her a degree of confidence in herself that intrigued me. No woman had ever treated me like this before and it was turning me on like crazy. Her supermodel looks were helping as well, to be honest.

Joe was looking uneasy, though. He grabbed my arm to get my full attention.

“The cops are outside asking questions of that group of guys we were fighting with.”

It was time for me to make a speedy exit.

Too late, though.