Page 50 of Marriage Bargain with His Innocent
Tonight she had been for a casual meal in a lively bar with three of her colleagues and she was exhausted. Exhaustion was good, though, because the minute her mind stopped working in overdrive the thoughts began kicking in, and when that happened it was like spiralling down a bottomless hole.
Thoughts of Matias...of what it had been like with him and the way she had discovered that you didn’t need to spend years finding out about someone to know that you loved them. It could happen in the snap of a finger. She thought about the way he had made her body sing, the things he would murmur when they made love. She hated it, but she was captive to the torment of remembering.
She was a million miles away when she became aware of someone stepping out of the shadows—a looming figure that sent her into a panic.
She didn’t think. She acted completely on impulse. Because figures stepping out from the shadows were never going to be pleasant surprises.
She swung her handbag and she swung it hard. She aimed straight for the torso and she struck with perfect timing.
‘Georgie!’
Georgina froze. She recognised that low, velvety voice instantly, but it still took her a couple of seconds to react, and then she sprang back and stared up, open-mouthed, as Matias straightened.
‘Matias?What are you doing here?’
‘I...’ He shook his head and looked away briefly. ‘I’ve come to talk to you,’ he said in a low, driven undertone.
‘Is that right? Well, I can’t think of anything we have to talk about—and how did you get hold of my address? How did you even know where I was?’
‘My mother told me.’
‘She had no right.’
‘She didn’t think it was a state secret. Let me in, Georgie.’ Matias paused. ‘Please. Remember there was a time when you showed up at my house...did I refuse you entry?’
Georgina eyed him sourly. He was in black jeans and a black tee shirt and some kind of bomber jacket, and he looked utterly and unfairly drop-dead gorgeous.
‘Time’s moved on since then, wouldn’t you say?’ She was proud of how she sounded, which was a lot more controlled than she was feeling. ‘One cup of coffee, Matias, and then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.’
They rode the elevator in silence, and she opened her front door and preceded him into the apartment without looking at him, although she was aware of his presence with every ounce of her perspiring body.
She dumped her handbag and the backpack holding her camera equipment on the granite counter separating the kitchen from the living room and faced Matias with her arms belligerently folded.
‘Why are you here?’
‘I had no idea that you’d taken yourself out of the country. Do you have anything to drink?’
Georgina gritted her teeth and glared. ‘I have coffee. Like I said.’
‘Anything stronger?’
‘No.’
‘I deserve this...’ he muttered.
‘You broke off an engagement that wasn’t even an engagement.’ Georgina shrugged. ‘No big deal.’
‘Why did you feel that you had to take a job over here?’
She flushed and her eyes skittered away. Her whole body was rigid with tension. Why had he come? She didn’t want tolikethe fact that he was here, but she did. She didn’t want her body tofeellike this, hot and flustered and excited, but it did.
Would he ever stop having this sort of effect on her? she wondered despairingly. Would she bump into him in three years’ time, when he had another woman hanging like a limpet off his arm, and feel this same surge of unwelcome attraction? Was that her fate?
‘They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.’ She lowered her eyes and started making a pot of coffee.
The apartment was purpose-built, in a new block, and the gadgets were all brand-new. It was very different from her parents’ house, where everything harked back to days gone by, from the crockery to the appliances.
‘I thought you were going to take something in London.’
