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Blanking his mind to that possibility, he leaned forward, the muscles in his arms swelling against the fabric of his jacket. ‘Thanks to you, I never got those calls or messages—because you took my phone and switched it off. Or did you forget that little detail from the night? “Oh, please, Basa, let’s shut the whole world out.”’
Watching the colour drain from her face, he wanted to stop and rewind, erase his remark, but another part of him—the part that still stung from being played—wanted to hurt her.
‘You know, I actually thought it was poetic.’ He shook his head. ‘It didn’t occur to me that you meant it literally—that you were shutting the world out to give Charlie and Raymond time to cover their tracks.’
Mimi stared at him in silence. She looked stunned.
‘That’s not what I was doing,’ she said shakily.
‘Really?’ Basa shook his head. ‘So why didn’t you come and find me to say goodbye?’ He felt a spasm of fury, remembering the moment when he’d seen that nameless guy with his hand resting on Mimi’s back. ‘Oh, sorry—I forgot. I already know the answer to that one. I saw you with him. About five foot eight, stupid floppy hair, even stupider orange car...’
His voice sounded raw, and he hated the note of jealousy that had crept in beneath the anger, but he didn’t care about anything now except getting her to admit the truth and prove he’d been right about her all along.
‘Do you see my problem, Mimi? You want me to believe you wanted me so much you were willing to give me your virginity—but if that’s true, if you really were innocent, why did you sneak off with lover-boy?’
Her face was as white as paper now.
‘I did want you.’ She took a step closer, her hands trembling by her sides.
‘And he wasn’t my lover. I just overheard him saying he was going back to London. I wanted to go home so I asked him for a lift.’
‘Right. So I’m supposed to believe that the pair of you driving off into the sunset was just a coincidence?’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘It wasn’t a coincidence. It was a necessity.’
‘I don’t understand.’
Her eyes flared, a sudden flash of blue in the darkness.
‘Of course you don’t. You’re Bautista Caine. You have women chasing you on every continent. Nobody leaves you—nobody walks out of your life as if you don’t matter. When you didn’t come back I thought you’d changed your mind.’ She breathed in sharply. ‘That you’d been curious but I’d been a disappointment. I just wanted to get away.’
She stared past him into the darkness, and through the confused tangle of his feelings for her, the anger and the hurt, he heard the shake in her voice and knew she was an inch from tears.
‘You weren’t a disappointment,’ he said quietly. How could she think that? ‘And I wasn’t just curious. I was captivated.’
He could still remember every pulsing second with punishing clarity. The slow slide of her skin against his, the urgency of her mouth. Had she no idea of how sweet she had been? How desperately he had wanted to fuse his body with hers and the weight of his disappointment when he’d had to bring it to a halt?
But how could she? If she was telling the truth then she’d had nothing to compare it to.
His breathing slowed. He could remember his own first time—how nervous he’d been, how anxious to do it right and to give pleasure as much as to receive it. What would he have thought if he’d been in her position?
He frowned. ‘But why Alicia’s birthday party? If that was to have been your first time, why did you choose that night?’
‘When else was it going to be?’
In the still night air her voice scraped against his senses. Her eyes were deep blue on his, and she was so close now that he could see her whole body was trembling.
‘I know Alicia’s my friend, but I didn’t mix in your circles. I knew you’d be at the party, and when you asked me to dance I thought it was our one chance to be together. That’s why I took your phone and turned it off so...’ She hesitated. ‘So we didn’t lose our chance.’
He knew it was what she would say if she was trying to manipulate him, but her words made sense in a way he didn’t want or need to question.
‘Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you tell me you’d never had sex?’
Her eyes slid away from his. ‘You could have anyone. I thought if you knew I was a virgin it might put you off.’
His chest felt as though it was in a vice and he took a step closer, feeling again that need to take her in his arms.
‘When I left you I did go and look for some champagne. I had every intention of coming back. And I would have done except—’
