Page 51 of Marriage Bargain with His Innocent
‘Does it matter? Is that why you rushed over here? Because you were concerned that I wouldn’t be able to cope with a change of country?’
‘You don’t have much experience of big city living,’ Matias muttered. ‘You’ve lived in a small village all your life.’
‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’ Georgina dumped the cup of coffee in front of him and then sprang back and glared at him. ‘How incompetent do you think I am, Matias? First you thought that you had to run as fast as you could because I’d made the mistake of falling for you! Did you think that I was daydreaming about actually marrying you and living happily ever after? With a guy who’s made a career out of making sure he doesn’t get too involved with a woman? Oh, yes, ofcourseyou did! I mention that I might find it helpful to move to London to progress my career and all of a sudden I’ve turned into a starry-eyed idiot who wants to settle down with you for real!’
She heard the ring of outrage in her voice and felt the sting of pain in her heart. She’d started deluding herself into thinking about happy-ever-afters. She’d been a fool and he’d run away for a very good reason. She would never admit what she felt for him to his face, but it was something she would never be able to hide from herself, and denying her love, as she was doing now, was an agonising reminder of the truth.
‘It’s possible you may have got that impression,’ Matias muttered, not giving an inch, programmed to defend his choices, whatever the provocation.
‘And second—’ Georgina had to stop herself from yelling as she overrode his interruption ‘—to add insult to injury, you storm over here on a mission, I presume, to save me from myself!’
‘Did I say that?’
‘Pretty much, Matias! I’m a simpleton from Cornwall, who’s so accustomed to village life that I couldn’t possibly handle the trauma of big city living!’
‘You’re putting words into my mouth,’ he said, but he was uncomfortably aware that that was precisely the impression he had given when he had shown up unannounced. The time had come to set the record straight. But setting records straight had never felt so momentous an uphill climb, and he was so far out of his comfort zone that he could scarcely corral his thoughts.
‘I’m doing no such thing, Matias Silva!’ She glared. ‘That’sexactlywhat you said! Did you think that I would find it all too much, living over here? In Paris? Well, for your information, I’m absolutelylovingit over here!’
‘Are you?’
‘Yes! The job is invigorating! I’m learning all sorts of new camera techniques! I’m working alongside a talented crew of people and it’s fabulous being in a corporate atmosphere instead of doing my own thing!’
‘So you don’t miss anything about...anything at all...?’ Matias inserted roughly.
She tilted her chin at a challenging angle. The thought of him feeling sorry for her was unbearable. Had Rose somehow implied that she was having a miserable time over here? She had made sure to sound as chirpy as a cricket in all her conversations with the older woman! But had Rose heard the unhappiness in her tone of voice and mistakenly assumed it was down to the job rather than down to the fact that her heart had been broken in two?
‘Nothing,’ she asserted firmly. ‘Nothing at all.’
