Page 54 of Marriage Bargain with His Innocent
‘I never knew...’ she murmured softly.
Her heart was pounding, her pulses were racing and the time for games was over. He’d said so much, and now it was her turn to go the final mile and say what was in her heart.
‘Why would you? I barely knew myself,’ he said.
‘I...’ She took a deep breath. ‘I never,everthought we would end up in bed together. When we did, it felt so good, Matias, soright. Only afterwards, when the dust had settled, it slowly dawned on me that the reason it felt so good—the reason I hadn’t had a moment’s doubt about losing my virginity to you—was because Ilovedyou.’
He moved to speak.
‘Please don’t say anything. Please let me get this off my chest and finish saying what I have to say. You’ve come this far to say your piece. Well, I might as well return the favour. Being engaged to you, even though Iknewthat it wasn’t a real engagement, felt like a dream come true. I didn’t like it that it did, but I couldn’t pretend otherwise. And then, somewhere along the line, I started thinking that we got along so well... I fantasised that you might realise that it was more than just the fact that we got along between the sheets. But the weird thing was that even though Iknewit was all going to end in heartbreak for me, I never regretted a single second of what we had.’
‘And now here we are again.’
‘I can’t believe you’ve come all the way over here, but I’m glad you have.’Glad that I’ve put my heart on the line, whatever the outcome.It felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
‘I had to. I’m in love with you.’
Georgina had spun so many daydreams about Matias uttering those very words, and in all those daydreams she had squealed with delight and clapped her hands and smothered him in kisses. But actually, now that he had spoken them, what she felt was a spreading warmth, as though a candle had been lit inside her.
He pulled her towards him, manoeuvred her so that she was sitting on his lap and kissed her—a soft, tender kiss that melted everything inside her...a kiss she never wanted to end.
When, eventually, he drew back from her, she wished that she could bottle the loving expression in his eyes.
‘So will you marry me, Georgie?’
‘Do you even have to ask? Surely you must know the answer to that? Just try and stop me, Matias Silva.’ She linked her fingers behind his neck and smiled. ‘Don’t forget you’ve already bought me the engagement ring of my dreams...’
* * *
Georgina heard the sound of Matias’s car on the gravel outside and her heart leapt, as it always did at the sound of his arrival.
She looked around, making sure everything was just right. Dimmed lights. Candles on the table. The smell of wonderful food.
She had followed three of the fantastic recipes from the French cookery magazine on which she had worked. It had felt strange to look at the photos she had taken and attach them to the recipes she’d so diligently followed.
Her stint in Paris felt like a lifetime ago, but then, as she’d reflected on more than one occasion, it would, wouldn’t it? Because so much had happened since then.
On that dreamy morning after the night when every single wish she’d ever had and a million more she hadn’t even been aware of having had all come true, she’d woken up with Matias next to her in bed. In her wonderful apartment in Paris.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ he’d drawled, pulling her against him so that their warm, newly awoken bodies were pressed against each other. ‘You should stay here and finish what you’ve started. I have an office in Paris and, coincidentally, I also have an apartment. We could have some fun here together before we return to London.’
They’d had a lot of fun. Her six-month secondment had been absolute bliss. She’d debated whether to remain in her own apartment, but in the end it had seemed silly because she’d spent so much of her time with Matias—who, in fairness, hadn’t objected when she’d wanted to go out with work colleagues on her own, and had always been willing to accompany her if she asked.
They’d returned to London and the preparations for their big day had begun in earnest, with Rose having a lot of input—more than Georgie’s own mother, who had descended in a flurry of excitement only a month before the big day.
Which, as it happened, had been just the right size sort of day. Friends, family, a handful of her work colleagues—including some of the people she had met in Paris, with whom she was determined to stay in contact. And some of Matias’s colleagues as well—a couple of whom had privately confessed to her that they’d never thought they’d see the day.
Nor had he, she’d wanted to say.
They were married in the local church in Cornwall, and then he’d whisked her away to the Maldives for their honeymoon.
It was the first real holiday he had ever had as an adult. Which was just one of those incidental admissions that made her see how much he trusted her by confiding in her.
And as soon as they’d returned the big decision had begun as to where they would live.
Not Cornwall, and Georgina was happy with that—especially after her stint in Paris, where she had tasted life in a big city, and not just in the capacity of tourist. She had made numerous connections while she had been out there.
She’d told Matias she was happy to acquiesce to life in his London house, which was big enough to house a small battalion. But Matias had looked at her thoughtfully and suggested that perhaps London wasn’t quite the place for them.
