Page 179 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

He drew in a sharp breath and sank a little lower in his chair.

‘You don’t do movies.’ She ticked off each point on her fingers in a very prim manner that was also something of a turn-on. ‘You don’t do dessert, which means you probably don’t do chocolate or ice-cream; you clearly don’t do sharing of confidences, and you probably don’t do love and marriage either, because you prefer to have fun, no strings attached...’

‘I admit that’s a fair summary of me.’ He grinned. ‘Thereare, however, quite a few things that Idodo.’ He relaxed in the chair and realised that he was thoroughly enjoying himself. He took his time sampling some of the Brie and then pushed it over to Alice, gratified when she distractedly wedged some off with one of the crackers. He vaguely thought that it would be highly satisfying to take her to one of the terrific restaurants he went to in London and have her sample some of the finest food the capital had to offer. Not, he reminded himself, that that was on the cards.

‘Ido...’ he tabulated on his fingers ‘...work hard and Ido...’ he looked at her from under sooty, long lashes ‘...play hard.’

Thickening silence greeted this remark. Mateo noted the heightened colour that stole into her cheeks. She had a wonderfully transparent face, devoid of all artifice and guile. It wasn’t just the way she looked, though. It wasn’t just the satiny smoothness of her skin, the luminosity of her hazel eyes or the fact that her perfect hourglass figure did something crazy to his libido.

Her appeal lay in more than that. She dared to be one hundred percent genuine around him and that was a novelty. She didn’t play games—maybe because she didn’t know who he was, but he wanted to think that she just wasn’t a game player. He could spot those a mile off, whatever tactics they used and he could deal with them. In many ways, game players were a known quantity and when you were a billionaire, he figured they came with the territory. The woman who had just given him a stern critique of his failings was unique in all her differences.

He could tell from her expression that he had embarrassed her. Most women at this point would have fallen over themselves to explore his ambiguous rejoinder. She, however, was looking at him as though he had suddenly decided to do a striptease without warning her in advance.

‘Apologies.’ He held up his hands in a gesture of rueful surrender, belying the fact that his erection was still as hard as steel. ‘Just a thoughtless, light-hearted remark.’

‘No! No, no, no! OfcourseI understand that. When you’re freelance and having to work every day to get a pay packet, because if you have a day off you don’t get paid, then you need to let your hair down now and again.’

‘My life isn’t exactly that tortured.’ Mateo had the decency to flush at this sweeping misunderstanding of his position in life. He could frankly walk away from it all tomorrow and still have enough money to cruise through life in a way most people could only dream of doing.

‘And I can also understand,’ Alice said with bald sincerity, ‘why you were so annoyed when I banged on your door and you were forced to let me in, a complete stranger.’

‘You can...?’

‘You probably don’t get heaps of time off.’

‘I do work long hours, now that you mention it.’

‘So you get your one week here, or maybe two, and it’s interrupted by me. Can I ask...where is your permanent home?’

‘I...’ Mateo opened his mouth to say what came naturally to him, which was that he had several places. Although, he might be hard pushed to call any of themhome, as such, which implied open fires and a dog somewhere, along with a partner waiting for him every evening with a hot meal and his slippers at the ready. ‘I live in London.’

Her face lit up.

‘So do I!’ She looked at him sympathetically. ‘I guess you probably don’t live in the sort of place I live in.’ She smiled without rancour. ‘If you can afford this as a holiday home then you’re not broke, which is good. Poverty can be a burden that pushes many off the cliff edge.’

‘I guess you could say that I’m not penniless.’ Mateo’s antennae vibrated because the last thing he wanted was to get involved in a discussion about what he could or couldn’t afford, even though he could see that she was utterly guileless in her questioning. A fundamental caring nature shone through everything she said. It was fascinating. The world he inhabited was dog-eat-dog and the women he dated enjoyed the challenge of dating a guy who lived in the fast lane. Right now he could be talking to someone from another planet.

‘Or maybe you rent this place out when you’re not using it? That would pay the overheads...’

‘Indeed.’

‘And then gives you enough to have somewhere modest, because honestly, getting onto the property ladder in London is a nightmare, isn’t it?’

‘Total nightmare.’ He thought of his six-bedroomed house in Holland Park with its manicured gardens in the front and rear and its own gym and swimming pool in the basement.

‘I have no idea whether I’ll ever be able to afford anything bigger than a box on my salary.’ She sighed. ‘Anyway, I get you value your time here, and didn’t want it interrupted.’

‘Well,’ Mateo mused silkily, ‘now that it has been, I must tell you that I’m finding it far less onerous than I ever thought possible...’

CHAPTER THREE

THEBLIZZARDABATEDbut the snow kept falling, a steady sheet of never-ending white.

They stood outside surveying the scene.

He’d washed her stuff so she could get back into her thermals but, rather than don the whole ensemble when she wouldn’t be going anywhere near her skis, Alice had opted to wear some more of Mateo’s clothes. She tugged the sleeves of the jumper to cover her balled fists but, despite all the layers, five seconds outside made her exposed skin pinch with cold. Next to her, she could feel Mateo’s warmth and the unsettling power of his proximity.

The night before seemed like a dream. Had she imagined the frisson that had shimmered between them, tantalising and forbidden? She remembered landing on his doorstep like an unwanted package. She remembered how antagonistic he had been when he’d opened the door and found her outside. He hadn’t been downright hostile, but he’d made it clear that she wasn’t wanted, that he was only taking her in because there was no alternative. On a scale of one to ten, his welcome had scored a paltry four.

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