Page 55 of Marriage Bargain with His Innocent

‘At least, not central London,’ he had mused. ‘I think I’ve become accustomed quite quickly to having peaceful downtime with you. Without the sound of traffic outside my front window.’

‘You hardly live on a busy street over a parade of shops, Matias,’ Georgina had pointed out wryly, which had made him burst out laughing.

In the end they had decided to move out towards Richmond. Close enough to the city for Matias to commute—although he was fast discovering the joys of flexible working hours which, as the guy who ran the whole show, he could take at the click of a finger.

The house was enormous by London standards, with a sprawling garden, and the entire transaction had been completed in record time. Money talked.

Now they had been living here for a little over four months and...

Georgina looked around her. Looked at the beautiful kitchen table, the impeccable worktops, the flagstone tiles on the floor which they had chosen together.

Every single little thing had been hand-picked. Having lived under her parents’ roof while they were on the other side of the world, Georgina had been able to bring precious little to the table, so Matias had insisted on starting from scratch.

She looked up to see the man of her dreams standing in the doorway. He had shed his coat and was rolling up the sleeves of his white shirt, but he paused, eyebrows raised, taking in the table-setting.

‘Tell me I haven’t missed an important anniversary,’ he drawled, smiling and pulling her towards him so that he could kiss her—a long, lingering, loving kiss.

Georgina breathed in his unique, woody smell, clean and musky at the same time, and as powerful an aphrodisiac as anyone could ever dream up. She wound her hands round his body and slipped her fingers under the waistband of his trousers.

‘Nope...’ she breathed a little unsteadily. ‘My birthday isn’t for another few weeks and there’s no anniversary yet.’

‘In that case...?’

He nodded to the elaborate setting and she smiled and tugged him into the kitchen, fingers linked, where she poured him a glass of wine while he peered into the oven, sniffing the aroma appreciatively.

‘I just wanted the right mood board to tell you what I have to tell you.’

‘Which is...?’ He held her at arm’s length and looked her directly in the eye.

‘When I showed up on your doorstep and informed you that you were going to be my loving boyfriend,’ she said seriously, which made his eyebrows shoot up with rampant amusement, ‘I never thought that a year later I would be wearing your ring on my finger and I’d have gone from pretend loved-up girlfriend to wife for real...’

‘Tell me about it... One minute I was dispatching a blonde because watching paint dry was turning out to be more fun than being with her, and the next minute my life was being turned upside down by a girl who’d been holding me to account from the day she’d learned to speak her first word...’

Georgina grinned, then stepped towards him and stroked the side of his cheek with the back of her hand. ‘Someonehad to hold you to account, Matias Silva. But now that we’re happily married it seems a little selfish to keep you all to myself, so I’ve decided to share you.’

‘With...?’

‘Gender to be decided. I should tell you that for the first couple of years conversation might be a little limited, but I can guarantee that you’ll be in love with him. Or her.’

She patted her still flat stomach gently and then smiled when she saw his reaction, because it was everything she could have hoped for and more.

‘My darling...’ Matias breathed huskily. ‘I love you so much.’ He covered her hand with his. ‘I don’t know how I ever survived before you stormed into my life and took charge, even if you didn’t know you were doing it...’

He grinned and nuzzled the side of her neck, and when their eyes met his were so full of love that the breath hitched in her throat and her eyes welled up—which was crazy.

‘I’m going to be the best husband it’s possible to be, Georgie, and the best father. And now...’ He looked over her shoulder to the impeccably laid table. ‘I think the food can wait for a bit, because I can think of a few more inventive ways for us to celebrate...’

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