Marriage Bargain with His Innocent

by Cathy Williams

  ‘Don’t be crazy,’ she said gruffly. ‘Why would you get that idea? I keep telling you that you’re not my type...’

  ‘Ever thought that you might be attracted physically to a guy who isn’t your type?’

  ‘No. I like to believe that I approach relationships with my head and not my body. Especially after the business with Robbie—which you’ve made sure to remind me was the biggest mistake a girl could ever have made.’

  ‘I was under the impression that he was definitely an approach with your head situation...’

  Georgina flushed and fidgeted.

  Matias shifted uncomfortably and raked his fingers through his hair. He stared down at her, his body rigid with tension.

  ‘You don’t have to worry that I’m going to throw myself at you, Matias,’ Georgina said impatiently—because how much more obvious could a person make it that he was worried she might start making a play for him?

  ‘What makes you think I would be worried if you threw yourself at me?’

  Thick silence settled between them. Georgina had no idea what he was trying to say. Was he actually flirting with her?

  She stared at him, open-mouthed, and he brushed his finger along her lower lip. Conflicting sensations flooded through her. Shock...unbearable excitement...shameful arousal...and absolute fear. Because this was definitely unknown and unexpected territory.

  He didn’t take his finger away. Instead he stepped towards her and cupped the side of her face with his hand.

  ‘I don’t know...what you’re trying to say...’ she stammered, for want of anything better.

  ‘Liar. You know exactly what I’m trying to say.’

  Matias smiled slowly. He took his time. He leaned in to her. It was an easy, slow movement that paralysed her to the spot. This time he kissed her gently and tenderly, and she couldn’t stop a sigh of forbidden pleasure as she leaned up and closed her eyes and kissed him back. Because she was lost and she couldn’t help herself.

  Her arms were doing just what she’d hoped they wouldn’t do—winding round his neck and drawing him towards her. Her breasts were squashed against his chest as they unconsciously closed the gap between themselves, and she could feel the scratchy tingle of her nipples against her bra.

  She wanted him to touch her so badly that it was a physical ache. And she wanted to touch him. More than anything else in the world she wanted to take his bigness between her hands and feel him.

  The craving inside her was so intense that it took her breath away. It terrified her.

  She had no idea what was happening because she had never felt anything so powerful in her life before. It carried the force of a tsunami, and some primitive instinct told her that it was a force she had to keep at bay or beware the consequences.

  With a gasp, she pushed him away. He immediately stepped back, although he continued to stare down at her, his beautiful eyes unfathomable.

  ‘This isn’t part of the deal,’ she hissed fiercely.

  She wrapped her arms around her body and met his stare head-on. She wondered if he thought he was so irresistible that she just wouldn’t be able to help but melt into his arms like a Victorian maiden.

  ‘This is an...an...arrangement... And if I remember correctly it’s an arrangement you rejected until you decided that you had no option but to accept because you couldn’t face letting your mother down. This isn’t real. Fantasy isn’t going to get in the way of reality.’

  ‘But that’s not what this is about, is it?’ Matias purred, infuriatingly calm.

  ‘Then what was...what was...that...?’

  ‘You mean our passionate kiss?’

  Georgina glowered, her colour high, her whole body aflame with a longing she couldn’t quite manage to douse.

  ‘Lust,’ Matias murmured succinctly.

  One word but it couldn’t have been more erotic or more devastating. Because it was stripped of all the pretty packaging that he might have used to soften its naked potency.

  ‘I don’t get it,’ he continued in a low, lazy, wildly sensual voice, ‘but I want you.’

  ‘No,’ Georgina whispered, ‘you don’t. I get on your nerves! How many times have you told me that? You and I have nothing in common! We’re like chalk and cheese! And don’t even think about telling me that opposites attract, because we’re not just opposites...we’re so different we could have come from different planets!’

  ‘Mysterious, isn’t it?’

  ‘Is that all you have to say?’

  ‘I’m being honest.’ He shrugged. ‘So what if we’re from different planets? What does that have to do with whether we want to find the nearest bed...or table...or sofa...or patch of ground...and rip one another’s clothes off? This isn’t about confusing reality with fantasy, Georgie. This isn’t about us actually having a relationship. No, this is way more elemental than that. I see you and I want to taste you.’

  ‘Matias...stop!’

  ‘Why? Am I turning you on?’

  ‘No! I don’t want you! You’re mistaken!’ Georgina heard the pathetic desperation in her voice with dismay. ‘Your mother is waiting for us! I... She’s going to come out in a minute... She’s going to want to know what’s going on...’

  ‘She won’t come out,’ Matias assured her in a deep, velvety voice that was just ever so slightly amused. ‘She’s leaving the love birds to have fun together without her getting in the way. Why do you think she propelled us off for a session at the beach? Why do you think she insisted on us being together under the same roof while we’re here?’

  ‘Well, she won’t find us doing anything together! That kiss? It never happened!’

  ‘No?’ he drawled, eyebrows raised. ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘Because I’m not you, Matias.’ She was relieved that she had regained control over her vocal cords. She wanted to sound cool and dismissive and she wasn’t too far away from succeeding. Logic and common sense might have flown through the window for a few seconds, but both were back now. ‘I don’t do passing-ships-in-the-night relationships.’

  ‘Have you ever tried?’

  ‘I don’t need to. I know that kind of thing is not for me.’

  ‘So instead you make a checklist for the perfect guy and see if reality tallies up with the picture you’ve got in your head?’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with knowing what you want when it comes to finding a partner.’

  ‘And tell me how that worked for you last time round, Georgie. Tell me how that’s been working for you since.’

  ‘That’s not fair.’

  ‘I know,’ Matias said roughly. ‘I apologise. But sometimes you have to jettison the checklist and take what you want.’

  ‘Not me. Robbie wasn’t right. I know I got seduced by the fact that my parents approved, and they’d never really approved of any of the boyfriends I’d ever brought back home, And I know that since Robbie I’ve had a break from men...who wouldn’t? but it doesn’t mean that I have to do something just because...because...’

  ‘Because it feels good?’

  He shrugged and stepped away from her, and suddenly the air between them felt cool, the void too gaping for comfort. She wanted him back, closer to her, and she fought the impulse to step towards him.

  ‘Just because something feels good it doesn’t mean that you have to reach out and take it. I’m not a kid in a sweet shop with permission to grab whatever candy takes my fancy before I get bored with the game and move on.’

  ‘So serious...’ Matias said, heading towards the sitting room, leaving Georgina to traipse along in his wake. ‘So intent on passing up on the fun elements of life.’

  Georgina heard the lazy amusement in his voice and realised that he didn’t really care one way or another whether she took him up on his offer or not.

  He was attracted to her, and he’d probably picked up similar v
ibes from her. She could try and argue that he was off target but why waste her time doing that? The man had vast experience when it came to women and he would burst out laughing if she tried to pretend that she didn’t find him attractive.

  But sleep with him?

  No way!

  ‘I am not passing up on the fun elements of life just because I’ve turned you down!’ She yanked him to a stop so that she could glare up at him. ‘Matias, you...you’re the most egotistical man I have ever met in my entire life!’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Okay? Is that all you have to say?’

  ‘What more do you want me to add to the mix, Georgie?’

  ‘You have never been attracted to me in your life before,’ she snapped, hands on her hips, one eye on the sitting room door, which was slightly ajar, making sure to keep her voice low because she knew walls had ears.

  Matias looked at her, his head tilted to one side in thoughtful contemplation. ‘Because you’ve always taken such pains to be irritating, Georgie. Always on a soap box...always dressed like a hippy with a cause. Why have you never made the most of your looks?’

  ‘How dare you...?’

  ‘You opened this conversation. Don’t start trying to shut it down because you don’t like the direction it’s taking. You’re sexy as hell, but this is the first time I’ve ever noticed because you’ve always kept your voluptuous curves hidden away.’

  Sexy as hell? Voluptuous curves? The man was so shallow, Georgina thought weakly. But something inside her was twisting and melting. Her body was letting her down badly, responding to his superficial compliments as though they really mattered.

  ‘You really just have one thing in mind when you look at a woman, don’t you?’ she threw at him.

  He didn’t look unduly bothered. ‘We could keep going round in circles for ever on this one, Georgie.’

  He took her arm and she bristled at his touch, as though she’d been plugged into an electrical socket.

  ‘But, much as my mother is keen on giving us some downtime together, there’s only so long she will hang on before curiosity kicks in and she comes out to make sure we haven’t dropped dead in the hallway.’

  Which left the conversation in mid-air. He’d started something that she somehow hadn’t managed to finish, even though she’d tried. She’d made a big deal of telling him that she wasn’t interested in any sort of casual sexual relationship with him that would never go anywhere, but she hadn’t ended up feeling victorious or satisfied with the stance she had taken.

  * * *

  Georgina spent the remainder of the evening in a state of restless flux. She felt as though she’d been put into a washing machine with the cycle turned to spin. All her preconceived notions about Matias had taken a beating, and so had her precious principles about what made sense when it came to relationships.

  He’d come along, a devil in disguise, and she couldn’t stop her mind from playing over and over what he had said to her.

  His casual touches over the course of the evening burned through her clothing and made her shiver. The deep, sexy timbre of his voice sent chills racing up and down her spin. The proud angle of his head and the startling beauty of his lean face made her shiver and think forbidden thoughts.

  And soon they would be leaving together. He would be spending the night in her house. In a different room, but still... The thought of them being alone together after what he had said, with the atmosphere so charged between them, brought her out in a cold sweat.

  The conversation drifted around her. She participated, but her voice seemed to come from a long way away, barely penetrating the chaos of her thoughts, which were all over the place.

  She surfaced to hear Rose asking her about the upcoming shoot.

  ‘How will those pictures of my carrots and asparagus come out, do you think?’ She was smiling at Matias. ‘You wouldn’t believe how talented she is,’ she confided proudly. ‘And always doing her best to promote the produce here.’

  ‘I saw some samples of her work.’ His silver-grey eyes settled on Georgina, bringing a pink tinge to her cheeks. ‘She’s brilliant.’

  The pink tinge turned to a deep red—a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment at the flattery. She launched into a jerky speech about the chef who had commissioned her for the photo shoot, and heard herself babbling on about the procedure for getting just the right shots put together so that everything looked natural, but enhanced.

  ‘Anyway,’ she concluded, wanting to feel more relieved than she actually did at the thought of having a perfectly valid excuse not to spend the next day with Matias, even if the night ahead lay before her like the threat of the hangman’s noose, ‘the shoot is tomorrow and then I shall be going to her place in the evening to show her the mark-ups, get her opinions. So...’

  She turned to Matias with a phoney smile and he raised both eyebrows, unfazed.

  ‘It’ll be a perfect opportunity for you to catch up on all that...er...work you told me you had to do...’ she said, and turned to Rose with a woman-to-woman look. ‘He’s a workaholic... Sometimes I have to drag him away from that computer of his! I shall have to change that or we’ll soon find ourselves at loggerheads! That’s just the sort of thing that can bring a relationship crashing down. You know how women love attention...and a man whose first love is his work...? Well...’

  Rose looked at her thoughtfully. ‘You could take Matias with you in the evening. I’m sure Melissa wouldn’t mind meeting your boyfriend, Georgie, and Matias...? Georgie’s right. Relationships are all about compromise. It would do you good to see her in action...’

  ‘But it’s going to be baking hot,’ Georgina protested, hanging on to her smile by a thread. ‘And she lives up a hill! I usually walk up for the exercise! But Matias...’ She looked over to him and said, with complete honesty, ‘He doesn’t do walking...’

  ‘I could start,’ Matias returned without batting an eye. ‘How steep can a hill be around here? I might not tackle Everest, but I’m as fit as the next man, my darling—as well you know.’

  Rose looked delighted. Matias looked highly amused. And Georgina... She felt the pit of her stomach fall away, even though she knew that she was being silly.

  Matias wasn’t going to chase her like a horny teenager pursuing a hot prom queen. He could have any woman on the planet he wanted. And if he wanted her for a couple of seconds because they’d been thrown together, because he was bored and between women and she happened to be wearing less hippy-like clothes, then the feeling wouldn’t last.

  * * *

  ‘Nice try.’ It was the first thing he said on their way to her house. ‘I’m a workaholic you’re going to come to blows with sooner rather than later because you want romance and I’m too busy staring at my computer to indulge you...’

  The night air was humid and still. Georgina was keeping her distance but she could still feel his powerful personality wrapping itself around her, wanting to draw her close.

  ‘It’s true. You are a workaholic... I’m not breaking new ground by pointing out the obvious.’

  ‘But there was just a whiff of desperation when you started clutching at that straw...and in your eagerness to make sure I’m not around tomorrow. Are you nervous at the prospect of the both of us in the same house?’

  ‘No! I told you that I don’t believe in...in...’

  She eyed her house with relief. They had chosen to walk there rather than take the car and it beckoned to her like a port in a storm—because once inside she could flee to her room and shove him into the guest room she had prepared.

  ‘Casual, scintillating sex? Don’t worry. I won’t come knocking on your door in the middle of the night...’

  Which immediately conjured up all the wrong images in her head.

  ‘And I’ll leave you alone during the day too, to do what you have to do, because as it happens you’re right.
I have a lot of work to get through. I shall take myself off to a business in Padstow I’ve been contemplating buying for the past couple of months. So you can relax. Reluctance in a woman has always been a turn-off for me.’

  They’d reached the house and he lounged against the door as she unlocked it and then preceded him into the hallway. When he paused she reluctantly turned and looked at him.

  His dark eyes were cool. ‘I’ll be ready at six for this walk I shouldn’t be able to do because the only exercise I’m capable of is getting into the back seat of my chauffeur-driven car.’

  ‘Matias...’

  ‘Goodnight, Georgie. Sleep well in your empty bed.’

  With which he vanished in the direction of her father’s office at the other end of the house, leaving her to pointlessly mull over the joyless coldness of her empty bed and to spend the night tossing and turning, wondering where he was in the house and whether he was thinking about her at all, before finally falling into a restless sleep at a little after midnight.

  * * *

  She barely looked up from her work the following day. True to his word, Matias had disappeared, but his absence—perversely—did nothing to quell the tumult of her thoughts, and she was keyed up when, at a little after six, he appeared in the doorway of her studio without warning.

  She was ready to go and had done away with any girly dress code. There was too much heavy humidity in the air, and the strenuous walk up to Melissa’s house would be impossible in something frothy and frivolous.

  He, likewise, was in practical gear. Faded jeans, a dark grey short-sleeved polo shirt and walking boots. For a few seconds she lost herself in just looking at him, because he was drop-dead gorgeous, but then she gathered herself and began collecting everything she had to take with her, stuffing tablet, portfolio and camera in a weatherproof rucksack which he promptly took from her.