Marriage Bargain With His Innocent (HQR Presents)

by Cathy Williams

  ‘I’ll carry it,’ he said smoothly. ‘I’m stronger than I look.’

  He grinned and she reluctantly smiled back, relieved that a truce appeared to have been called. She’d spent a lifetime bickering with him, so how was it that she now felt at odds with herself, unable to function properly, at the thought of him withdrawing from her?

  He obediently followed her to her old car, and immediately turned to her once he was inside. ‘Tell me about your friend Melissa.’

  The sexy teasing was gone, replaced by a genuinely friendly interest—and Georgina hated it. A Pandora’s box had been opened but now everything was changing back. How was she going to deal with it? She missed the way those dark, lazy eyes had made her feel like a woman. She missed the way his husky drawl had made her melt and feel restless, as though there was an itch deep inside her that needed to be scratched.

  She asked him about his day, returning polite interest with polite interest, but once they’d parked the car and begun trekking up the hill to Melissa’s house conversation flagged because it was just too unbearably hot and still to talk.

  For once, Georgina felt too puffed to appreciate the undisturbed countryside around her. The winding trek up was usually something to be done slowly, but this time she was relieved when it was over—when the front door was opened and the cool of the house greeted them.

  Melissa suited her surroundings. It was something Georgina clearly scarcely registered, but as introductions were made Matias was startled to realise that as little as two months ago he would have had no time for the chef’s wildly eccentric dress code. It would have been a little too reminiscent of what he had grown up with, and what he associated with the sort of carefree irresponsibility that never got anyone anywhere.

  Now he had to concede that a lot had changed on that front. He’d switched off from the small details of his mother’s life, accepting the limitations between them as just the way it was. The further he’d travelled away from his past, the greater the chasm between them had grown. He didn’t know when that journey away from his parents had begun. He just knew that it was a journey from which there had been no turning back.

  That was life.

  Until now, when everything he’d learned to accept had been turned on its head. He and his mother were daily groping their way towards a deeper connection, and that involved him hearing the ins and outs of her life—the small things he had missed from the bigger picture. He could understand now how and why Georgina had taken it upon herself to tell the little lie that had led them to the place they were now, and he wasn’t sorry about any of it.

  * * *

  Caught up in the business of cropping images and discussing final layouts, Georgina only noticed the passing of time when Matias appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.

  ‘I think you two might want to come out here and have a look,’ he said.

  Georgina looked up and blinked. It took her a few seconds to register, but she didn’t have to go out to see what was happening and neither did Melissa. They were both accustomed to the swift weather changes in this part of the world and she looked at her friend with dismay.

  ‘I knew it!’ Melissa stood up, stretched, and gathered up her long brown hair into an unruly ponytail. ‘I spoke to my brother on the phone this afternoon and I told him that it was getting way too hot and way too humid for comfort!’ She laughed and began moving towards the kitchen door. ‘Stay put, you two. I’m going to head upstairs and make sure that all the windows in the house are shut!’

  ‘Melissa...’ Georgina sprang upright. ‘We need to get going...’

  There was the sudden whiteness of lightning and then, a few seconds later, a crack of thunder loud enough to make her jump. She moved to where Matias was hurriedly shutting the kitchen door and closing the window against the pounding of rain that was as sudden as it was fierce.

  She raced to the window and peered out. The rain was a sheet of water driving across the horizon. The sky, which had been so bright and blue for weeks, was an angry black. The wind was gathering momentum and howling. There was no way they were going to be able to walk back down that hill to her car.

  ‘There’s no point worrying about the weather,’ Matias said from behind her.

  Their eyes met, reflected in the window pane with the stormy evening an unfolding drama outside. A frisson of apprehension rippled through her and for a few fraught seconds she couldn’t break the connection as they both stared at one another in the glass pane.

  ‘Matias, you don’t understand...’ She edged away, got past him, and then turned round to look at him.

  ‘So it’s raining?’ He shrugged. ‘I’d forgotten how fast this kind of thing happens down here.’

  ‘This is a disaster...’ Her voice was barely audible over the pounding of the rain on the roof and against the windows.

  Flash flooding.

  Matias might stand there looking as though he didn’t have a care in the world, but he never came to Cornwall and, despite what he’d just said, he wouldn’t remember how brutal these downpours could become. He lived his charmed life in the city, where the weather was a lot more polite.

  ‘You need to revisit your definition of disaster.’ Matias dumped his glass in the sink and then turned to her, leaning against the counter just as the kitchen door flew open and Melissa made a dramatic entrance.

  ‘Windows all shut!’ she cried gaily, with the joyful satisfaction of someone announcing the winning raffle ticket number. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before! I should have guessed, though! The heat we’ve been having over the last couple of weeks... Well, everyone’s been saying we’re due for a storm!’

  ‘“Storm” is a bit of an understatement, isn’t it, Melissa?’ Georgina smiled weakly and followed her friend to the fridge, to give her hand getting stuff out for a meal.

  ‘It’s wild out there!’ Melissa peered past Georgina to where Matias was still lounging against the counter. ‘But no matter!’ She winked at him. ‘You city gents need to experience a little of what this part of the world is all about! Now, scoot—both of you! I shall fix you a gourmet meal and then you can get cosy in the bedroom I’ve prepared!’

  CHAPTER SIX

  BEDROOM I’VE PREPARED...

  They were supposed to be an item. There was no way Georgina could express to her friend the horror she felt at the prospect of sharing a room with Matias. What young couple, going out with one another, slept in separate bedrooms? Like survivors from the Victorian age?

  Melissa would burst out laughing, would think that Georgina was having her on. They lived in a village. How long would it be before gossip did the rounds and someone told someone who told someone else that the ‘loved-up’ couple were as distant as two strangers?

  It was a risk that Georgina was not willing to take—not now that they were in the thick of this ill-thought-out charade.

  She could barely enjoy the fabulous meal Melissa had prepared. She heard herself making all the expected appreciative noises at the ingredients that had been used in its preparation—ingredients provided by Rose, produce from her farm.

  She knew that Matias was laying on the charm. For all his ruthlessness, his indifference when it came to emotions and his coldness, he could be persuasive, and by the end of the evening, with the rain still slamming against the window panes and no hope at all of risking any kind of trek back down the hill to the car, Melissa had joined his fan club.

  ‘He’s brilliant,’ she whispered, tugging Georgina back while Matias preceded them up the stairs. ‘Honestly, Georgie, I was beginning to despair that you would ever move on after that creep.’

  ‘Brilliant?’ Georgina asked weakly. ‘He should be the last person you think is brilliant.’ She laughed to dilute the urgency of what she was saying. ‘He’s the least laid-back, least relaxed person in the world! He’s a workaholic who has no time for much except the busine
ss of making money.’

  ‘I know!’ Melissa smiled. ‘And I love that he doesn’t try and gloss over that fact. Honesty in a guy is so refreshing. And besides, aren’t we both workaholics in our own way?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Brilliant? Refreshing? Honest? Suddenly Matias appeared to have attained all the attributes of a saint in waiting.

  ‘Well, I don’t know about you,’ Melissa said wryly, ‘but try tearing me away from the kitchen! Charlie says that I never have time to go to the movies or have days out because I’m always desperate to try some new idea for a dish! Now, if that’s not being a workaholic, then what is? And I know you can be a slave to your camera. How many times have you told me that you’ve spent a Saturday looking at photos and working?’

  ‘That’s different,’ Georgina said uncomfortably.

  ‘No, it’s not. It’s fantastic that you’ve met your soul mate. I can tell there’s a real connection there.’

  They’d reached the spare bedroom and Melissa pushed open the door, and Georgina knew in that instant what it felt like to have tunnel vision because all she could see was the double bed.

  ‘I know you love your space...’ Georgina turned to Matias, who looked right back at her without revealing anything at all ‘...I’m sure Melissa won’t mind if you want to sleep here on your own. I mean, this bed is really tiny—barely any room for two people to share. Matias likes his space...’ She looked at her friend without actually meeting her warm brown eyes, realising, not for the first time, how hard deception could be. ‘Don’t you? Darling?’ She turned to Melissa. ‘He’s a restless sleeper. Thrashes around.’

  Share a bed? Inconceivable. Especially when the atmosphere between them was so...so alive with tension. No way!

  ‘And you snore,’ he said. ‘You don’t see me complaining.’

  ‘I love it!’ Melissa was looking between the two of them with bright-eyed interest and delight. ‘I love it that you two are just so comfortable with one another.’

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of putting our host out,’ Matias said smoothly, nailing the conversation dead.

  He strolled towards Georgina and slung his arm over her shoulders. The warm weight of him stirred the melting pot of confusing reactions over which Georgina seemed to have no control. She could feel his skin burning into hers, insistent on making its effect felt.

  ‘I’ve popped a couple of towels on the bed,’ Melissa was saying, moving into the room and doing her best tour guide impression. ‘There’s lots of hot water—and, Georgie, I know we’re not the same size, but I’ve put a tee shirt in the bathroom and you can use that if you want to...’

  Georgina blanched. Matias had moved off to peer out of the window, where the rain continued to launch itself against the panes like bullets.

  Her brain was beginning to malfunction. She couldn’t take on board any further nightmares. The fact that Matias was as cool as a cucumber enraged her. Did he think that this was somehow going to play into his hands? No, of course he didn’t, she told herself, because he would never pursue a reluctant woman—far less one who had shot him down in flames.

  The door shut behind Melissa, and as soon as it had Georgina folded her arms and looked at him with undisguised horror. In return, he didn’t look in the slightest bit concerned. He wasn’t uncomfortable with the situation at all.

  ‘Forget it,’ he drawled as he began the process of undressing without so much as a by-your-leave.

  ‘Forget what?’ Georgina said tightly. The closer he was, the faster her pulses raced and the higher her colour became.

  ‘Playing the outraged virgin. I didn’t conspire to change the weather and your friend is simply being considerate in offering us a room for the night. I’ve phoned my mother and told her the situation.’

  ‘I didn’t see you do that!’

  ‘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 will always be 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. Georg
ina 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.

  He rolled onto his side, depressing the mattress with his weight. It made her cling further to her side, like a drowning man clinging to a lifebelt. His silence was oppressive. It made her wonder whether he was asleep. She found herself listening to his breathing and was then conscious of her own...

  Georgina didn’t know quite when she fell asleep, but she did know when she woke up.

  The room was still pitch-black and for a short while she was utterly disorientated. The driving force of the rain had softened to a persistent patter, going from sounding like rocks against the windows to pebbles. She needed the toilet, and she cursed under her breath as she tiptoed her way through the bedroom, groping and taking her time because she didn’t want to switch any lights on.