Page 43 of Marriage Bargain with His Innocent
Georgina watched with some amusement as he tried and failed to find a suitable response, resorting to raking his fingers through his hair and squirming ever so slightly in his chair. For the first time in his life he was being openly called out on his behaviour and he didn’t know how to deal with it. That was obvious.
‘You like variety. Your father and I... Well, we knew we were meant for one another from a very young age, and we never wavered in our conviction or in our love.’
‘I... I... We’re not all the same...’
Georgina thought that if ever a person had looked as though they were being slowly spit-roasted over an open fire, then that person was Matias. The look he shot her was positively despairing, and it sent his appeal for her shooting into the stratosphere. If her heart hadn’t already been handed over to him, then it surely would have been handed over right at that very moment.
‘If you intend to toss Georgie aside, Matias, then you must do it before I go under the knife. I don’t think I would be able to make it through if I thought that you were going to break her heart. I’ve been praying and keeping my fingers crossed that this lovely relationship you have goes the distance, but I’d rather face the worst-case scenariobeforeI have the operation than go under general thinking that I might wake up to find that you’ve decided to break up—’
‘Rose!’ Georgina interrupted brightly. ‘I’m right here! You’re talking as though I’ve left the room! I’m more than capable of taking care of myself should we...should webothdecide that things aren’t working out between us!’ She did her best to look as cheerful as possible. ‘You really shouldn’t be worrying about any of this. You’ve got enough on your plate.’
‘She’s right,’ Matias said seriously. ‘This is the last thing you should be thinking about. Especially when...’ His dark eyes roved over Georgina’s face. ‘Especially when,’ he continued gravely, ‘we’ve both been waiting for the right moment to announce our engagement.’
For a few seconds Georgina didn’t register what Matias had said. She continued smiling her glassy, soothing smile, but then the smile fell away and hot red colour flooded her cheeks.
It seemed that Rose was congratulating them both...saying something about a ring... And it also seemed that Matias was answering. But their voices were coming from a long way away, and only penetrating her brain the way a very fuzzy light might penetrate dense fog. Her brain certainly felt very foggy.
She was barely aware of Matias escorting his mother upstairs, because somewhere along the line she appeared to have lost the power of speech and of coherent thought in general.
He reappeared after fifteen minutes and stood in the doorway for a few seconds before strolling into the kitchen.
‘Not exactly the reaction I was expecting,’ he drawled, circling her before dropping into the chair facing hers and promptly leaning forward, arms on his thighs, legs spread apart. ‘Where’s all the girlish excitable chatter?’
‘Matias...’ Georgina blinked and then focused on him, still blinking like an owl. ‘Engaged?How could you tell your mother that we’reengaged?’
Suddenly galvanised into action, she leapt to her feet, sprinted over to make sure that the kitchen door was firmly shut, and then positioned herself in front of Matias, hands on her hips, her green eyes glinting dangerously.
‘What choice was there?’ Matias countered without batting an eye. ‘You heard her. She’s terrified of the operation ahead of her—which, as it turns out, is to have a pacemaker fitted. A routine procedure. She’s genuinely concerned that things between us are going to go belly-up—that I’m going to revert to my bad old ways, but only after I’ve well and truly broken your heart. I think she believes that if she’s braced for the worst, then she can steel herself to face it.’
‘So just like that you decided that you’d expand our relationship into something a thousand times more serious...?’
‘I’ll admit,’ he said grudgingly, ‘that I’ve done what I accused you of doing, when you showed up at my house and informed me that we were a loved-up, starry-eyed couple. I’ve involved you in something you hadn’t anticipated. But this is just a temporary add-on that will take my mother past this hurdle...’
Georgina’s mind was in freefall.Engaged to Matias Silva?Under normal circumstances it would have been a dream come true. Under these circumstances it was a complication he couldn’t begin to understand. It shouldn’t make a difference, but somehow it did. It was like being within touching distance of nectar, but knowing that you were never going to reach it.
‘What’s the problem?’ Matias asked. ‘You saw how she reacted.’ He paused. ‘My mother has never discussed my life choices. Naturally, I’ve always known she disapproves, but to hear that disapproval voiced for the first time...’
He shook his head and turned the full wattage of his attention onto Georgina.
For a few seconds she was lost. This was a Matias she’d never thought she’d see. He was actually confiding in her, telling her things about himself that she knew he would never have told anyone—would probably never have admitted to himself.
A little voice whispered inside her:A pretend engagement...with a man you’re in love with...a man who, for the first time, is opening up about himself...
It was hard not to feel quietly privileged.
It was also dangerous. And she banked down the seductive little voice that was beginning to question whether Matias perhaps felt more for her than he himself knew.
‘It’s a sign of how much closer you two have become in a short space of time,’ she mused thoughtfully. ‘She trusts you enough to say what’s on her mind instead of holding it in.’
‘So, back to the matter at hand.’
He slapped his thighs and stood up, all business now. That window of emotion had been shut. Georgina wished with all her heart that she could push it open again. Instead, she followed suit and moved to finish tidying the dishes.
‘Back to the matter at hand?’ she asked.
‘Rings.’
‘What about them?’
