Page 17 of Twin Surprise for the Italian Doc

‘We do.’ There was a gap between them now but that couldn’t entirely explain the chill she could feel. ‘But that’s just it. This ishere. Anywhere else would be...impossible.’

She had to meet the intense gaze she could feel on her face. Even in this dim light she could see the expression in those dark eyes.

She was hurting him and shehated herself for that.

Enough that she could change her mind and break her vow? Take the risk that her heart was insisting would be worth it this time?

She actually parted her lips to tell him that but she didn’t get the chance to speak.

Matteo was rolling away from her. Getting to his feet and starting to gather his clothes.

‘So this was just a one-night stand for you?’ He had dragged onhis underwear and now his trousers.

The slip in his excellent English was poignant enough to make Georgia catch her bottom lip with her teeth. To generate the prickle that warned of tears she would never allow to fall.

Matteo didn’t bother doing up his belt. He was pushing his arms through the sleeves of his shirt with jerky movements.

‘There’s someone else, isn’t there?’ He sounded angry now.‘Someone in Scotland? You’recheatingon someone?’

Oh, how was it possible for one word to convey such ultimate disgust?

Georgia closed her eyes.

She remembered the conversation over drinks that first night. When Kate had been shocked to discover not only that Luke was no longer married but that his best friend had never known his ex-wife’s name and only referred to her as ‘the cheating cow’?

She could hear Matteo’s words echoing in the back of her mind.

‘If someone cheated on me or lied to me like that, I would never let her name pass my lips again...’

This was it. The easy way out. No further excuses would have to be found and Matteo’s attitude to both cheating and lying would ensure that he didn’t try to contact her again. He believed he’d been used for no more than a bit of fun.Worse, fun at someone else’s expense. Someone who would possibly be devastated if they found out.

She knew that Matteo had been aware of the same level of connection she’d discovered with him so she couldn’t blame him for being so angry. If the situation were reversed she would feel exactly the same way.

Getting her next word out was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever done.

She couldn’tdo it, in fact. All she could manage was a single nod of her head and that felt like an acknowledgement of how justified Matteo was to be reacting like this but, of course, it was interpreted as a confirmation of his accusation that she was cheating on a boyfriend back home.

And, maybe, the sane corner of Georgia’s brain had intended it to be taken that way.

As she closed her eyes, she saw Matteoswoop on his shoes and socks but she knew he hadn’t bothered to put them on.

Because she heard the door of her room slam shut only seconds later.

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