Page 30 of Marriage Bargain with His Innocent
‘That’s because you were too busy dreading the prospect of sharing a bedroom with me.’
The buttons of his shirt were undone and her hungry eyes were inexorably drawn to the sliver of hard brown chest. Her pulses raced faster. She felt that in a minute she would forget how to breathe.
‘Why do you think that is?’ Matias murmured conversationally. ‘Do you think you can’t trust me not to try something because I’ve told you I fancy you? Didn’t you believe me when I told you that I’m not into begging a woman to share my bed?’
Georgina croaked something. She knew what she wanted to say, and the person she wanted to be, but what emerged was nothing like what she had in mind. She wasn’t controlled or cool or together. She was a nervous wreck and her body language was saying it all.
‘Of course I believed you. That’s not what this is about!’
‘Maybe you don’t trust yourself. Is that it, Georgie? Do you think that if you’re too close to me you’re not going to be able to help yourself?’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything so egotistical in my life before!’
‘But then that’s me, isn’t it?’ Matias told her, his voice cooling and his eyes hardening. ‘An egotistical swine. No matter what I say or do, that willalwaysbe me, won’t it?’
Somehow that level self-criticism felt like a slap in the face and Georgina knew that it wasn’t true. Maybe once upon a time she had had those preconceived notions about him, but things had changed. He wasn’t one-dimensional, he wasn’t the cardboard cut-out of a callous son who never visited his poor mother and was only interested in making money.
She had seen the way he interacted with Rose and had glimpsed the vulnerable man beneath the cool mask. He had made her laugh with his quick wit and his sense of humour and had floored her with his intelligence and the breadth of his knowledge.
When she wasn’t spoiling for a fight with him he got under her skin and opened her eyes to the man she’d always known existed, deep down. The man who still had the power to enthral her. And then there was his sizzling sex appeal, like nothing she had ever experienced... The last thing he was, was the arrogant egotist she had described him as being.
Honesty compelled her to say, ‘You’re not that.’
Matias shot her a surprised look and stilled. ‘Meaning...?’
‘I thought you were one thing,’ she told him awkwardly, looking away and licking her lips nervously, but determined that he must know what she really thought. ‘I thought you were cold and heartless for not coming down here more often. I thought you were just another arrogant guy wrapped up in making money and being rich, without any depth, but you’re not. I can see the way you are with Rose...’
She reddened and stumbled over her words. She felt a bit as if she had thrown herself down a hole without knowing how far she would have to fall, and right now this meandering conversation made her feel that she was falling without a safety net.
‘How’s that?’ Matias questioned gruffly.
‘You do small things for her...reach for her if you think she needs help getting to her feet. You’re solicitous. I think you feel you’re really getting close to her and that you want to try and bridge whatever gap is there between you. Someone arrogant and selfish wouldn’t care about bridging gaps.’
Georgina wondered whether she had said too much. His face was cool and remote. It was impossible to gauge what he was thinking.
‘And I’ve seen the way you look around the house, looking for anything that might need replacing, keeping on top of things without Rose even really realising what you’re doing. So, no. You’re not an egotistical swine. Although...’
‘Although...?’
‘Although,’ she said, bringing herself back on point, ‘you’re still really full of yourself. And if we’re sharing this bedroom then you keep to your side of the bed!’
She folded her arms and tilted her chin.
Matias laughed softly and then disappeared into the bathroom.
No change of clothes—nothing. Georgina eyed the tee shirt Melissa had left for her, and for good measure the pyjama shorts in soft cotton. Both were made for a size eight slightly built woman, but in the absence of anything else they would have to do.
She had no idea how long Matias was going to take, but somehow the thought of following behind him and showering in the shower he had just used made her skin tingle.
She tiptoed out of the bedroom and two doors down found the family bathroom. The cottage was small, but wonderfully equipped and eclectic, but Georgina was in far too much of a rush to admire the mosaic tiles, or the ornate gilt mirror over the old-fashioned sink, or the claw-footed bathtub.
Melissa would be downstairs, experimenting with food. Georgina knew that her friend was a night bird. But she took a very quick shower and was back in the bedroom before Matias was done. Who said that women took their time when it came to their ablutions?
The tee shirt was stretched tightly across her breasts but she had forgone the shorts, which hadn’t fitted at all.
She huddled under the quilt on her side, all lights in the room off, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Her heart almost stopped beating when she heard the bathroom door open and then the soft footsteps of Matias before he slipped under the duvet next to her. The room was in darkness and the torrential rain, still banging against the window panes like angry fists, was strangely cosy and romantic.
She expected him to say something—something sarcastic or teasing or irritating.Something.He didn’t.
