Page 22 of Marriage Bargain with His Innocent
‘Why are you still working here? Living here? In your parents’ house? I would have thought that after you were let down by that loser this would be the last place you would want to stay.’
Georgina turned to look at him for a few seconds, then looked away. The questions felt invasive, and way too personal. She’d barely talked to anyone in any depth about the break-up all those years ago. She’d just got on with her life and side-stepped the pity and the sympathy.
‘There’s a big, bad world out there,’ he mused, ignoring everyNo Entrysign she was erecting and barging through. ‘Maybe you’ve stayed here because, for all your talk about still being a fan of happy-ever-after fairy tales, it’s safer for you to avoid putting it to the test and you can do that by burying yourself in your parents’ house and daydreaming about a world of possibilities you have no intention of exploring.’
‘This suits me at the moment.’ She was holding on to her temper with difficulty, but she wanted to throw something hard and heavy at his beautiful head. ‘I can save while I’m here. And, trust me, Matias, if something came up and made me think about leaving then I would.’
‘Something like what?’
‘I’m finished with this conversation!’
She sprang up and began walking fast in the direction of the car, not looking back to see whether he was following or not. He was making her confront deep-seated insecurities about the direction of her life and she loathed him for it.
Yes, ofcourseshe knew that there were more adventurous roads she could go down! But he didn’t understand and he never would. He had blown off this village when he was a teenager and he had never looked back. He had left as one person and morphed into a completely different one. He had pursued wealth and power and now he thought the way wealthy, powerful people thought. In black and white.
She glanced behind her to see him sweeping up the picnic, hardly touched, and carelessly flinging everything inside the basket which had been provided.
‘What I think...what I choose to do with my life...is none of your business!’ She turned to him with furious eyes as soon as they were in the car and the engine was switched on.
‘You’re right.’ Matias looked at her levelly—a long, unflinching look that she had difficulty returning. ‘But do you want to know something?’
‘No!’
‘Well, I’ll tell you anyway—considering you’ve made it your life’s work to tellmewhat you think ofmeandmylife choices. You’re a coward. You talk the talk, but you don’t walk the walk. You’re in your parents’ house because you’re afraid of all the crap that happens out there in the big, bad world. You might have in your head some nonsense about the perfect man, but you won’t be looking too hard for him because you don’t want to get hurt again.’
‘That’s not true!’
Her huge green eyes held a mixture of hurt and defiance and Matias knew that he had put that look there. But she’d never been backward at coming forward, and if she couldn’t stand the heat, then she had to get out of the kitchen.
‘Did he hurt you that much, Georgie?’
‘Ihateyou.’
‘No, you don’t.’
He smoothed his finger over her cheek and this time he let it linger there. And she couldn’t push him away because she was mesmerised by his touch and by thenearnessof him.
She leaned towards him, the palms of her hands flat on the smooth leather of the passenger seat. ‘What doyouthink?’ she muttered gruffly.
He cupped the side of her face with his hand. ‘I think you were probably a lot less hurt than you should have been if you actually loved the guy, but you never loved him.’
‘How wouldyouknow?’
‘He was never the one for you,’ Matias said gently. ‘Which I said to you at the time. But your parents approved of him and that was enough for you to get sucked into something that never had legs in the first place.’
‘You think you know it all!’
‘I know enough.’
‘You’ve never had a long-standing, successful relationship!’
‘Never wanted one.’
‘Because...?’ Georgina looked at him with mutinous, challenging green eyes.
‘Because I prefer to direct my energies into the more tangible business of making money.’
‘Why the fixation with money?’ Georgina dared to ask, even though his shuttered expression was directing her away from any more personal questions. ‘It’s not as though that was the sort of thing that ever mattered to your parents.’
