Page 31 of Marriage Bargain with His Innocent
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.
She couldn’t have tried harder to be quiet, but the flush of the toilet and the sound of running water as she washed her hands resounded like the booming of church bells on a Sunday morning.
Tense as a bowstring, she crept stealthily towards the bed. Intent on making no noise, her narrowed eyes pinned to the inert dark shape on the bed, she took her eye off the ball. While her eyes were as keen as an eagle’s, and her breathing as silent as a sigh, her feet were not quite so obliging.
An errant item of clothing on the ground was her downfall and she stumbled, panicked, reached out and fell with a crash.
She had a second’s worth of mindless dismay and then Matias was there. He’d leapt from the bed, slammed on the lights and was kneeling on the ground before she had time to screech that she was perfectly fine.
Mortified, Georgina could barely look at him.
‘What’s going on?’
‘Nothing! Nothing’s going on.’ She tried to scramble to her feet and winced in discomfort. ‘I went to use the bathroom. I’m sorry I woke you up but it was dark and I didn’t want to switch the light on.’
‘Let me have a look.’
‘Go away! Go back to sleep!’
‘Don’t be an idiot, Georgie.’
Georgina didn’t answer. She was miserably conscious of her state of undress and the wretched many-sizes-too-small tee shirt which Melissa had kindly lent her. Not to mention the fact that she was in her underwear because she hadn’t been able to squeeze herself into the insanely tiny pyjama shorts. She was aware of her legs on show, her thighs and her breasts, which were bursting out of their over-tight confinement. She was conscious of her body in a way she had never been in her life before.
She jumped up—and subsided just as fast with a little yelp of pain.
She abandoned the struggle as Matias scooped her up in one fluid movement and carried her to the bed, depositing her as carefully as if she were made of china. He was thoughtful enough to switch off the glaring overhead light, but then he immediately switched on the lamp by the bed, which at least had the benefit of being more forgiving.
Georgina kept her eyes tightly shut. Matias examined her foot, gently turning it in his hand, pressing here and there and asking questions that she could barely answer because her mouth was so dry.
‘You’ll live,’ he said drily, straightening, at which point Georgina risked looking at him.
He was wearing a pair of boxers and nothing else. He was so beautiful that she felt faint. Her heart was hammering and she knew that he would be able to suss out perfectly well what it was she was trying so hard not to convey—because there was a watchful stillness about him, an electric awareness of the situation and only a tenuous thread tethering them both to the straight and narrow.
He broke the connection, turned around.
‘Matias...’ She heard the hitch in her voice.
‘What?’ He slowly swivelled to look at her, a taut, towering, brooding presence that was all shadows and angles.
‘Nothing...’
‘Nothing?Nothing?In that case I’ll go downstairs and work,’ he said, not looking at her. ‘That way you can sleep in peace and you won’t have to try and creep around like a thief if you need to use the toilet.’
He began dressing, and for a few seconds Georgina watched him in tense silence, safely tucked under the duvet, legs drawn up to her chin.
Maybe I don’t want you to go downstairs to work...maybe I don’t want to sleep in peace...maybe I can’t sleep in peace or do anything in peace with you around...maybe, just maybe, I’m sick to death of fighting this thing between us because, for me, it’s been there for ever...
Never had she longed so much to say the unthinkable, to risk it all by throwing herself at him. She’d never had time for lust—but, then again, she’d never known what it felt like to be tempted.
Hands balled into fists, she bit down hard on the temptation and remained silent.
He didn’t stick around. He got dressed fast and walked out of the room without a backward glance, and when the door was shut Georgina sagged back against the pillows and closed her eyes.
Her mobile phone was telling her that it was still very early in the morning. The sounds outside were reminding her of what awaited when dawn broke—water everywhere and rain turning the landscape into a miserable, sodden grey lake.
