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And he kissed her, long and hard until she was breathless, and then put her aside and slid into the
Lamborghini seemingly in one fluid movement.
She was still standing exactly as he had placed her, one hand touching her tingling
bruised lips, when he roared out of the drive into the street in a flash of gleaming metal. And
then he was gone.
CHAPTER FIVE
GEORGIE didn't sleep much that night. She spent most of the long silent hours trying to
sort out her feelings, but by the time a pale, pink-edged dawn crept stealthily over the morning
sky she'd given it up as hopeless. This was disturbing and outside her understanding, or more to
the point Matt de Capistrano was disturbing and outside her understanding! She corrected herself
wryly. And she didn't want to feel like this; it horrified her.
For the last few years she had been in control. Once she had recovered from the caustic
fall-out of Glen's rejection she had changed her mindset and her goals. She had known exactly
what she was doing, where she was going and what she was aiming for. And now ... now she
wasn't sure about anything and it terrified her; in fact it was totally unacceptable.
For some reason Matt's dark face seemed to be printed on the screen of her mind. She
didn't want it there, in fact she would give anything to have it wiped clean, but somehow there it
stayed.
She was sitting in front of the bedroom window, Annie asleep in her small single bed in
one comer of the room, and as the small child stirred and then settled down to sleep again
Georgie's eyes remained on her. It was true what she had said to Matt, she told herself fiercely.
She had more than enough to do to cope with the twins and Robert. If he couldn't understand that
then it was tough.
She turned and looked outside again to where an adolescent song thrush was sitting in the
copper beech outside the bedroom window. Its bright black eyes surveyed her for one moment
and it seemed to hesitate before rising up into the sky in a glorious swoop of freedom, the earth
and all its dangers and difficulties forgotten in the wonder of being alive. She mustn't hesitate
either. She nodded to the thought as though it had been spoken out loud. Matt had made it quite
clear he wanted her for one thing and one thing only, and if she didn't put him behind her and
escape-like that bird into the sky-he would clip her wings in a way Glen would never have been
able to do. She had recovered from Glen; she had a feeling Matt de Capistrano was the sort of
man you never recovered from.
At five o'clock she was in the shower and by six she was dressed and downstairs,
preparing breakfast for everyone and four packed lunches. She paused in the middle of spreading
mashed egg and salad cream on to buttered bread, glancing round the small homely kitchen as
she did so. What had Matt thought of this home? His lifestyle was so different as to be another
world away. He had staff to cater to his wants, to serve him breakfast and anticipate his every
need. And in his love life she was sure there were plenty of willing women to supply everything
he needed there too! He was rich, ruthless, selfish and shallow. He was. She reiterated it in her
mind and didn't question why she needed to convince herself of his failings. She saw it clearly
now, she reassured herself as the pile of sandwiches grew. Crystal-clear.
The crystalline certainty continued until the moment she saw Matt.
He arrived prompt at five and drove her away from the office after a word or two with
Robert in private, and when the Lamborghini entered a winding drive some twenty-five
minutes later, after a sign which said, 'Private. EI Dorado'. She turned to him with
questioning eyes.
'It means the golden land,' he answered her softly, 'a country full of gold and gems.'
'And have you filled your EI Dorado with gems?' she asked a little cynically. No doubt
the house would be a monument to his success and full of all the trappings of wealth. Which was
fine, of course it was, if that was what he wanted. It fitted the image.
'In a manner of speaking,' he answered somewhat cryptically.
She opened her mouth to ask him what he meant, but the words hovering on her tongue
were never voiced as in that same moment the car turned a corner in the drive and the sort of
sprawling thatched farmhouse that belonged in fairy stories came into view.
'Oh, wow .. .' It wasn't particularly articulate but the look on her enchanted face must
have satisfied Matt because he smiled slowly after bringing the car to a halt on the end of the
horseshoe-shaped drive.
'Come and have a look round inside first,' he suggested quietly, 'and then I'll show you
where we could have the barbecue if it is wet, and of course the bouncy castle.'
His accent lent a quaintness to the last two words that made her heart twang slightly, and
as they walked up the massive stone steps towards the big oak door she said, aiming to keep the
conversation practical and mundane, 'This is very nice; did you have to do much work to get it to
this point?'
'The place was almost derelict when I purchased it,' he said, taking her arm as he opened
the front door to reveal a large hall panelled in mellow oak that was golden in the sunlight
slanting in from several narrow windows above them. 'An old lady, the unmarried daughter of
the original farmer, had lived here for years alone, getting more and more into debt as the house
fell down about her ears.'
'What a shame.' As Matt closed the front door Georgie stared at the curving staircase a
few yards away which was a beautiful thing all on its own. 'Why did she decide to sell in the
end?'
'She became too arthritic to continue,' he said shortly. 'Poor thing,' Georgie sympathised
absently, her eyes on a fine painting on the far wall. 'She must have hated leaving her home.'
'Not so much the house, more the animals she had here,' Matt said quietly. 'She needed to
go into a nursing home for proper care, but she had used the house and the grounds almost as a
sanctuary for the remainder of her father's farm animals and the pets she had accumulated, who
had grown old with her.'
Something in his voice caused her eyes to focus on him.
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