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Maude groaned aloud as yet more tangled, complicated strands wove in front of her, strands that would need unpicking just as soon as Nick and Amy were married off and her mother’s attention was no longer focused on the big event.
‘This feels like it’s all getting out of control.’ Maude looked at him with shooting despair.
She had gone to the door and was standing with her hand on the knob, watching as he slowly moved to join her.
‘You’re the inveterate bachelor,’ she tacked on acidly. ‘Your ex really knew how to interfere with the smooth running of your life.’
‘Is there anything more dangerous than a woman scorned?’ He was standing close to her, gazing down, and Maude was held captive by his eyes.
A frisson ofsomethingwhispered through her and she stumbled a couple of inches back, heart picking up speed.
‘I’ve never understood why a woman would want to get revenge if she’s been dumped,’ Maude mumbled. ‘The best revenge you can ever get is by moving on with your life and showing the guy who dumped you that you really don’t give a damn.’
‘Is that right?’ Mateo murmured.
Maude yanked open the door and stepped out into the corridor, which felt huge, light and airy after the enclosed intimacy of her bedroom.
She sucked in a deep breath and spun round on her heels, feeling his soft tread at her side and wondering what he was thinking.
She found out soon enough when he whispered into her ear, ‘We have parts to play. I’ll let you take the lead when it comes to being as vague or as graphic about the details of our searing, sudden love. Trust me, I’ll be as curious as your parents to hear about how we fell deeply in love in the space of...how long? Not hours, I would suggest.’
Maude stopped abruptly, on the verge of reminding him that there was nothing funny about the situation. But before she could say anything he continued, his voice firm, inflexible and suddenly very serious.
‘But, trust me when I tell you that I don’t like this situation any more than you do. I also realise that I carry the full brunt of the blame for what’s happened.’
‘What are you talking about? We both entered into this...arrangement of our own free will.’
‘I should have...’ Mateo raked his fingers through his hair and skewered his eyes onto her, only the tic in his jaw giving away the fact that he was furious at what had happened out of the blue. ‘Foreseen certain possible outcomes.’
‘How on earth were you to predict that one of my brother’s fiancée’s friends would know your ex because she works in the fashion industry?’ Maude sighed. ‘I don’t blame you. We overstepped, you know, boundary lines...and maybe that was the mistake we made.’
‘And yet...’ Mateo breathed ‘...what’s the point of boundary lines if you can’t occasionally step over them? I didn’t get where I am today by obeying every single rule in the book.’
Maude shivered.
He was being honest. Mateo Moreno was the maverick whose genius had got him to the very top and mavericks had their own rule books.
‘I’ll try and be as vague as possible.’ Her voice was a little shaky and this time it was because of the effect he was having on her, his proximity, his uncompromising masculinity and the way it made her feel—soft, fluttery and feminine in ways she had never felt before.
‘If the tabloids have an angle on this, then the paparazzi won’t be too far behind. I know how they operate. I also know how fast these stories die down.’
‘Okay...’
‘It would work for us to disappear for a few days. I have a place close to where I’m planning an ambitious project—a select housing development using the local natural resources and making every building as green as possible. It would be quite easy to take some time out there in the safe knowledge that prying eyes and wide-angled camera lenses won’t be able to pay any unwelcome visits.’
‘A place? An office? Is it the Scottish branch you’re opening up, to explore expanding communities up there? Sounds perfect. We could work on whatever project this is in the meantime.’ It sounded like manna from heaven to Maude—no conflicting emotions, back to an office environment where normality could be resumed. She could stay somewhere local, where no one knew who she was, and if Mateo said there would be no paparazzi, then there would be none.
She thought wistfully of an outpost in deepest Scotland where she could pick up being the woman she was and not the one who had suddenly decided to make a disruptive appearance in her well-ordered life.
‘That’s a really good idea.’ Maude relaxed. Her parents could also be put on hold for a bit, as well as friends. By the time she returned to London the fuss would have died down and, as he said, they’d be yesterday’s news. Gossip had a way of doing that.
They headed down to the kitchen, following the sound of voices.
Everyone was there—her parents, Nick and Amy and several family members who had stayed over.
The large kitchen, with its long, rectangular wooden table, bore the remnants of the full English Mateo had earlier refused. Amy was by the sink, rubber gloves on, stacking the dishwasher.
As they entered, however, all heads swung in their direction. Catching her mother’s eye, Maude wasn’t surprised to see pleasure on her face mixed with bursting excitement and the gleaming look of someone with a million eager questions. Even her dad, normally the more sanguine of the two when it came to digging deep into her private life, looked thrilled to bits.
