We’re supposed to be an item…For whatever mysterious reason, Georgie knew that she had been suddenly thrust into some kind of role that she was expected to play. She also knew that the deck wasn’t stacked in her favour when it came to having a choice in the matter.
He’d mentionedjail.
She watched the way he half turned towards the shrill voice before resting his eyes on her and, in that instant, Georgie read something,feltsomething. Resignation…was that it? Or maybe the patience of a long-suffering man who had reached a point of desperate measures.
She couldn’t put her finger on any of the feelings that raced through her, but she did know, with some weird but very definite sixth sense, that he was a fair guy even though he’d had no trouble in blackmailing her into doing what he wanted.
She wondered how that made sense.
‘Since when does he give a woman keys to his chalet? Since now!’ Georgie trilled, sidestepping Alessandro as she reached into her pocket to dangle the house keys in front of her.
The expression on the other woman’s face was priceless. A combination of utter astonishment and utter rage.
If they were no longer involved with one another, then why was she livid at the thought of another woman having the keys to a chalet?
Her busy speculation had managed to banish every shred of nerves or anxious foreboding of where, exactly, she would be left after this little charade. She wasn’t expecting what came next.
She should have been.
She should have felt the slide of his hand on her waist, been aware of the way he lowered himself towards her and then the low whisper when he thanked her.
Maybe deep down she knew that he was going to kiss her but there was no way that she had prepared herself for the shock of it.
His cool lips touching hers, a kiss that was feathery light and yet felt impossibly intimate. Caught up in the moment, she felt every rational thought leave her head in a whoosh and she leaned into him, reaching up on tiptoe to curve into his body and feeling the hard muscularity of it with devastating sensual awareness.
She could have stayed there for ever, oblivious to an audience of three, but common sense and a gut realisation that she needed to protect herself from this sort of crazy, visceral reaction to a complete stranger made her tug back, horrified at herself and her weakness.
How could she? Hadn’t she learned anything at all? Didn’t she know how important it was to protect herself and her vulnerable heart? How vital to actually count to ten before you flung yourself into situations that weren’t based on reality? Had she completely lost her senses?
He released her just like that.
‘We can continue this conversation in a while, Sophia,’ he threw over his shoulder as he began guiding her away from his ex-wife, hand still on her, making sure, she thought, that she didn’t bolt. ‘I hadn’t expected Georgie to have come here to surprise me. For the first time and hopefully not the last.’ He turned to Georgie with a sexy, wolfish smile. ‘Don’t think this surprise visit hasn’t made my day. It has.’
Georgie thought that lying had never sounded so seductive.
‘So,’ he continued to his ex and her companions, ‘you’ll understand if I excuse myself for an hour or so just to play catch-up? It’s been the better part of a very long fortnight without one another. Henry… Miguel…can I trust you to get through some of the preliminaries before I head back down? Ensure that Sophia fully understands everything that will be signed and the ramifications if they aren’t.’ He looked once again at Georgie. ‘Can I leave you for a short while this evening, my darling? To wrap up a few thorny and much overdue issues? Trust me, I’ll be sure to make it up to you later.’
‘Er…’
The smile he flashed her was wicked, sexy, devastating and left no room for debate because he began urging her up the very staircase she had earlier descended without a care in the world.
The further up the stairs they climbed, the more his hand on her waist lost that loving touch and by the time they hit the top of the impressive staircase and were out of earshot, it had dropped abruptly to his side.
‘Right,’ he grated, stepping back and looking at her with forbidding cool, ‘what the hell are you doing in my house?’
CHAPTER TWO
GEORGIE SPRANG BACKon wobbly legs.
‘I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here!’
‘That doesn’t answer my question. Follow me. I’m not having this conversation here. Walls have ears.’
He spun round on his heels and began striding down the wooden-floored corridor towards the sprawling, seldom-used office at the end of the landing. Georgie knew precisely where he was going because she wafted a feather duster through the room on a weekly basis.
Massive space…the same floor-to-ceiling windows that characterised the rest of the chalet…polished hardwood flooring and a custom-built desk made of reclaimed, burnished timber that was as big as a single bed. There were chairs, a sofa and bookshelves with books left behind by guests and heavy, dense financial tomes.
He shut the door behind her just as soon as they had entered, at which point the nervous fluttering in her stomach ratcheted up several notches.
