Rosie hated herself for letting her thoughts stray into that dangerous territory. She was determined to think and live in the moment but her heart clenched in disappointment and frustration.
‘Eat, I think.’ She needed a bit of time to get back into the right frame of mind, away from the barrage of muddled thoughts assailing her. ‘The café in that resort halfway down the hill is very good. Although it might be packed.’
He had confided in her, Rosie thought as they slowly made their way past busy, brightly lit restaurants, cafés and boutiques, past the laughing, chattering crowds. He had told her stuff about his past, but did she occupy a unique position because of that? Or had he said as little as he possibly could simply because, in this game of theirs, he’d decided that she needed, at the very least, to have some sketchy background information about him?
And the information had been delivered without the benefit of emotion. He had simply told her facts about himself without telling her how those facts had impacted on him, made him the person that he had become.
It wasn’t his fault that his omissions had left her more curious rather than less.
The café was crowded but a table was miraculously produced for them from thin air. She had noticed that he had that impact on people and it wasn’t simply because he oozed wealth. It was a combination of his striking good looks and his cool assumption that the duty of everyone around him was to jump through hoops to give him what he demanded.
That curious blend of urbane sophistication and dangerous, wrong-side-of-the-tracks toughness inspired awe, fascination and a healthy respect in everyone he met.
She couldn’t imagine what it might be like to work for him. He had offered her a job in one of his companies as a way to becoming independent once they returned to London but she had immediately turned him down. It had felt like a salve to his conscience for any discomfort he might subconsciously feel when their time was up. But, when she thought about him no longer being in her life at all, she felt sick. He had made her question her life and her choices and that had been a good thing, long overdue, but had his offer been genuine? It would certainly be useful, at least to start, if she were to enter the work force as opposed to returning to full-time education, which was also an option.
And she might get to see him. He wouldn’t vanish completely out of her life. He would still be there. Maybe, subconsciously, by offering her a job, he had been thinking the same thing...?
All those questions were finding air time in her head as she sat down so it was hardly surprising that the woman’s voice from behind her took a while to penetrate.
She wasn’t expecting it. She wasn’t expecting anyone to recognise Matteo and she spun around as he stood up, his silver-grey eyes revealing nothing, although he was smiling at the tall, striking brunette weaving her way towards them.
Rosie watched.
An old flame. That was the thought that raced through her head. The woman was in her thirties, with a sharp, dark bob. She was very tall, very slender and very pale.
‘Bethany.’ Matteo made the introductions, his voice formal and polite. ‘This is... Rosie.’
‘Rosie...’ Bethany’s curious brown eyes looked at Rosie, gauging, intelligent, speculative. ‘Have we met anywhere? I don’t believe I recognise you. Are you and Matteo...?’
‘Tell me what you’re doing here, Bethany. Didn’t think you found much time to take to the slopes. Join us for a drink?’
‘Quick Chablis? Rob’s going to be joining me in twenty minutes. You remember Rob, don’t you? Melstorm? Head of Asset Management at Frazier and Co? We’re an item now.’ She flashed an enormous engagement ring in their general direction and sat at the chair Matteo had pulled out for her.
At which point, Rosie was relegated to spectator.
It wasn’t so much an intimate catch-up as a conversation about finance and what was going on in their relative worlds of law, asset management, mergers and acquisitions and big business. Names were bandied about and small in-jokes made that elicited the sort of secret smiles from the brunette that made Rosie’s teeth snap together.
Chablis finished and about to leave, Bethany finally turned her attention to Rosie and asked pleasantly what she did for a living.
‘Don’t tell me,’ she drawled lightly, head tilted to one side as though trying to work out a conundrum, convinced that the right answer would be found. ‘Maybe company lawyer for one of those start-up companies? Dylan Sync, maybe? If this rogue’s dating you—and I gather he must be, because it’s not exactly his thing to be in the company of any woman he isn’t dating unless he’s in an office wearing a suit—then you surely must be big in the corporate world.’
Rosie stiffened, sensing an attack under the glossy smile.
‘I must be the exception to the rule because I... I’m currently employed as a ski instructor at the resort a little further up the slopes.’
‘You’re a ski instructor?’ Bethany stared at her as though she had suddenly grown two heads and then she burst out laughing. ‘I don’t believe it!’ She waggled her fingers in a little wave at the fiancé who was obviously behind them ‘Matteo Moretti and a ski instructor! That’s a first. You must have something special, my dear!’
‘I suppose I must have.’ Rosie realised in that instant that Matteo wasn’t going to intervene, he wasn’t going to stand up for her, and that hurt because it put everything in perspective. ‘What do you think, Matteo?’
‘I think it’s getting late and it’s probably time we headed back to the lodge.’
‘How did you two meet? I’m curious.’ Bethany’s eyes darted slyly between the two of them.
‘How we met is irrelevant,’ Matteo drawled. ‘Good luck with the wedding, Bethany. Should I expect an invite to land on my doormat in due course?’
‘Oh, I shouldn’t think so, Matteo.’ Her brown eyes cooled. ‘I don’t think Rob would like that very much. Ex-heartbreakers always pose a threat.’
Then she laughed again and said to Rosie, ‘Have fun with Matteo, Little Miss Ski Instructor, but be warned—he’s not a guy who likes sticking around for any length of time!’
‘Don’t worry about me.’ Rosie bared her teeth in a stiff smile. ‘I won’t be leaving this with a broken heart.’ She saw, from Bethany’s face, that her jibe had hit home. It wasn’t in her nature to be uncharitable, but this time it felt pretty good.
Little Miss Ski Instructor? No way was she going to get away with that dismissive insult.
But this was the sort of woman Matteo enjoyed and not just for her novelty value. This was the sort of woman who appealed to him on an intellectual front. Rosie had watched the way they had talked to one another, their conversation on a level she could barely keep up with. They had friends in common, work in common—an interest in the business of making money in common.
‘Apologies,’ Matteo said, turning to her.
‘Why?’
‘You were uncomfortable. I had no idea Bethany would be here.’
‘If you thought that I was uncomfortable, then why didn’t you say something?’
‘Say something?’
‘I get it that she was an ex-flame, and you had lots of exciting catching up to do about the stock market and which dull company was doing what, but it got personal, Matteo.’ Rosie’s heart was thudding so hard, it was making her giddy. ‘She was just plain nasty to me and the least you could have done was to say something. When did you two break up anyway?’
Matteo looked at her narrowly and in silence. ‘Where are you going with all this?’
‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m reacting just the way any other woman you were sleeping with would react!’
Pinned to the wall, Matteo experienced a surge of searing discomfort. She never backed down. He should know that trait of hers by now. She was persistent with him in a way no one else was. She didn’t wince or back away in
the face of his obvious, unflinching disapproval. He didn’t want to discuss Bethany, or any of his ex-girlfriends, for that matter. She should be able to suss that out. He knew that she did, but she just kept crashing through his boundary lines as though they didn’t exist.
What was it with the woman? Did he need this?
‘How would you feel if some ex-flame of mine showed up and was rude to you? How would you feel if I just stood there and didn’t say anything?’
‘I wouldn’t have a hysterical outburst,’ Matteo returned grimly. ‘I also wouldn’t expect you to rush to my defence.’
‘Well, you might have rushed to mine!’
They stared at one another in silence and Rosie was the first to look away. She was feeling so many things. Hurt, disappointment and most of all the sinking knowledge that he felt nowhere near for her what she felt for him. She’d let herself get carried away, had let her imagination play tricks on her, and she was paying the price now. He wasn’t going to defend her because he didn’t see the point.
‘You did a pretty good job of taking Bethany down a peg or two.’ Matteo shifted, deeply uncomfortable with the raw emotion of this conversation, yet seemingly unable to shut it down the way he knew he had to.
What was she looking for? He was no one’s knight in shining armour. He’d never applied for that job and he never would, and he knew that she deserved better than someone whose entire life had geared him towards turning away from rescuing damsels. But something twisted inside him at the expression on her face.
‘You’re right. I did.’ She paused and looked him in the eye. ‘Would you have told her that I was your girlfriend, Matteo? If she hadn’t jumped to the conclusion off her own bat? Or would you have passed me off as the ski instructor you were having a drink with because you’d just had a good lesson and wanted to say thank you?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said, flushing darkly. ‘Why is that women can fixate on one small thing and magnify it to ridiculous proportions?’
‘It’s patronising to stereotype women and to try and diminish what I’m trying to say. I’m not fixating on one small thing. I’m being perfectly reasonable.’
‘I can’t believe I’m having this conversation.’
‘You mean you don’t want to believe that you are, because the only talking you’re interested in doing is between the sheets.’
‘It works, doesn’t it?’ he grated, crashing into the barrier of her arctic coldness and not knowing how to deal with it, because he had become so accustomed to her soft, sweet accommodating nature. She was so ultra-feminine. He angrily wanted to backtrack and rush to her defence, as she’d wanted, just so that he could have her back.
But maybe this was for the best. In fact, it was for the best. This was supposed to be fun. He wasn’t interested in having to justify his behaviour to anyone. He’d never done that in his life before and he wasn’t going to start now.
‘You might think it’s terrific being repressed,’ Rosie said through gritted teeth, getting angrier and angrier by the second, ‘But it’s not. It’s just sad and I feel sorry for you. And, if you don’t want to be having this conversation, then that’s fine. I’ll head back to the chalet and you can do whatever you want. Stay here at the hotel. You’ve signed your precious deal so there’s really no reason for us to carry on with this any more.’
She didn’t rush or run off, and anyone might have thought that she was simply getting up to go to the bathroom, but she wasn’t looking at him as she weaved her way towards the door, heading straight for the cloakroom so that she could collect her padded jacket.
Would he follow her? Rosie didn’t know and she didn’t care. She knew that he didn’t do so many things, of which emotion was obviously one, but his indifference to her feelings hurt her beyond belief.
She thought of Bethany and she felt a rush of pure misery. It was one thing knowing that he went for women like that but it was another thing actually to be confronted by one of them.
That unexpected meeting had really brought home to her that to Matteo this really was just a game and she was no more than a passing indulgence.
Whilst for her...
She couldn’t be casual about him the way he was about her because she had made a crucial mistake in her dealings with him. She had somehow managed to pretend that she could be as tough as he was. She had forgotten that she had a heart, and that hearts got broken, and hers was breaking now because she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she had stupidly gone and fallen in love with the man.
From pointing at a random stranger in the foyer of the resort, a stranger clearly removed from the festive chaos all around him, she had galloped towards heartbreak. He had seduced her with his wit, his charm, his intelligence and with those glimpses of someone he was at pains to conceal. He had thrown her tantalising titbits about himself and about his childhood and she had gobbled them up and wanted more. What had started as a charade because he wanted to complete a deal, and he needed to go along with the pretence of a relationship with her in order to get there, for her had become an obsession.
And now they were lovers and everything was...a mess.
She knew that he was behind her before he said, in a low, gritty voice, ‘You don’t get to make outrageous statements like the one you just made and then run away.’
‘Go away. I don’t want to talk to you.’
‘Tough. You opened a box and now you don’t get to shut the lid until we’ve gone through all the contents.’
Rosie felt the chill of an imminent break-up whisper over her. Pride came to her defence.
‘You’re right.’ Somehow, they were outside the hotel and heading towards the car. Her feet had propelled her in the right direction and she hadn’t even noticed. She wasn’t looking at him as she headed to the car and she was revving the engine before she deigned to glance in his direction, and then only briefly. ‘ I thought that I could do this. I thought I could have a fun fling with you, but you’re a stranger, and having a fun fling with a stranger doesn’t make me feel good about myself.’
‘Where is this coming from? One crazy encounter with an ex?’ He frustratedly raked his fingers through his hair.
‘It’s not about your ex, Matteo. It’s about the fact that I don’t know you. You keep everything to yourself.’
‘You know more about me than any other woman I’ve ever gone out with.’
And that was why she had deluded herself into thinking that what they had was somehow special. He’d opened up about his past and she had read all sorts of things into that. She’d been wrong to do so.
‘Because, as you pointed out,’ she said coldly, ‘You had no option because of the situation. You were desperate to get your deal done. You had to pretend to be my boyfriend and so you ended up having to share a few details about your past to keep the fiction believable.’
She laughed shortly. ‘You couldn’t take any chances that Bob and Margaret or someone from my family might ask a question, only to find out that I didn’t know a thing about you aside from your name. You shared what you did because you didn’t think you had a choice. I don’t even know what your deal was all about or why it was so important to you! You never shared that, did you?’
‘Want to know about the deal, Rosie?’
‘Nope. You can carry on being as secretive as you like, Matteo.’
She wasn’t going to beg. She’d made the biggest mistake of her life falling in love with him and she only had herself to blame because he had been honest from the start about his intentions: sex, fun and nothing else. She’d chosen to ignore the hand in front of her because trying to rearrange the cards into a different, more exciting hand had been too tempting to resist. In the end, it was always going to come back to the same place, though. They were never going to have a relationship, not the sort of relationship she craved.
It was going to end but she wasn�
��t going to cry, plead or declare her undying love.
They were back at the lodge. She’d barely noticed the short drive. Now, she flipped open the door and jumped out, landing squarely on pristine white, then she trudged to the front door and opened it to let herself in without bothering to look back at him.
‘Jesus, Rosie...’ He pulled her towards him as she was striding off towards the kitchen. ‘The deal...’ He shook his head and scowled. ‘They own a farm.’
‘You don’t have to share, Matteo. I told you that.’
‘It’s no state secret.’
‘Then why act like it was?’
‘It’s who I am.’
Rosie didn’t think much of that answer and her expression said as much.
‘They’re very particular about...the plot of land that this farm sits on. The land is valuable. It wouldn’t be impossible for a developer to get planning permission to stick up a load of executive houses with manicured lawns and double garages. It’s in a prime location in the north of England.’
Rosie opened her mouth to repeat that he could keep his story to himself, because it was too late, but curiosity got the better of her.
‘Why would making more money by developing land matter so much to you, Matteo? Haven’t you got enough?’ She wished that she could pigeon-hole him as a greedy capitalist but it didn’t work. He had got under her skin by being complicated.
‘There’s a...for want of a better word...facility there that provides...’ He shook his head and stared at her in silence for a few seconds.
‘A facility?’ Rosie prompted coldly. Was this his idea of a concession? He didn’t want to explain his past to her. He had brushed their relationship aside, when put to the test, because for him it didn’t actually qualify as a relationship. She had asked him about the deal but did she really care about it? She had cited it because it had been the first example to come to mind of something else he felt compelled to keep silent about. It would be just something else to do with making lots of money. As if he didn’t already have enough. He wasn’t interested in talking about what she wanted to talk about, which was his emotional past. That was very firmly off-limits!
The Italian's Christmas Proposition (HQR Presents) Page 14