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‘Is that your experience?’
Maude frowned at the sudden change of subject. How did he do that? How did he manage to take her down one road and then, when she was dutifully following him, swing down a side alley and lead her completely astray?
Maude hated that sort of thing. She liked to know where she stood. Growing up had been an insecure business, a balancing act between displaying the confidence she knew was expected of her while tackling the uncertainty of never quite fitting in. And then that painful episode at university, when she had foolishly given herself to a guy who had ended up rejecting her...
Over the years, she had got her act together. She was in charge of her life. Was that why she did what she did—a job driven by the precision of numbers and equations? When it came to structural engineering, there was no room for uncertainty or doubts. Either the maths worked and the structure was solid or it wasn’t. She liked that. It was so different from the business of emotions and all the angst that came along with them. When she’d been studying design and the dynamics of concrete and timber, those days of being painfully shy—of growing up so much taller and bigger than everyone else, of avoiding parties because of the gnawing fear that she would be the wallflower glued to the side—had gone and were long ago and faraway.
‘What do you mean?’ Her voice cooled.
‘Remember I asked you why you were still single at your age?’
‘I’m not yet over the hill!’
‘Remember I said that the reason I was puzzled was because you’re a beautiful, intelligent woman? Did you get your fingers burnt in the past?’
‘My private life is none of your business!’
‘It is now that we’re engaged.’
‘We’renotengaged!’
She glared at him and in return he slowly grinned back at her, his expression suddenly relaxed, amused andboyishlyappealing.
‘You’re teasing me.’
‘Partially,’ Mateo admitted. ‘Maybe I like the way you blush. Like you’re doing right now. Really, though, we need to know a bit about one another if we’re supposed to be a serious item. Your parents might think it odd if they ask a question only to find that we have completely different answers. They might also find it odd if I don’t seem to know the slightest thing about your personal life.’
Maude hesitated. She’d embarked on this charade without thinking through the possible consequences and now, as she stared at him, she had a feeling of sinking further into quicksand.
Yet what he said made sense. He would have to know the bare bones about her and vice versa. In truth, she already knew the bare bones abouthim. He was a player who went for blondes and had made a fortune from ground zero.
And he was also a guy who had lost his mother... Who had grown up with all the insecurities of knowing that he had been abandoned, whether he ever admitted to those insecurities or not...
Looking at her with brooding intensity, Mateo was riveted by the expressions flitting across her face. He knew that he was shamelessly fishing but he wanted to know more about her and, ifhewas unrevealing, then she wasn’t too far behind.
What she gave away, she gave away without really verbalising any of it in passing remarks...a look on her face...the way she turned her head to the side, shied away from whatever she didn’t want to answer.
She wasn’t interested in trying to garner his attention and so, rather than the usual coy remarks and flirtatious, targeted innuendo, she preferred to say as little as possible. And therein lay what, Mateo was discovering, was an irresistible appeal.
‘You must have had dozens of boyfriends in the past,’ he murmured encouragingly, and watched as the blush deepened.
‘I’ve been busy with trying to forge my career!’
‘Too busy for...?’
‘Okay, I’ve been out a few times, but nothing serious!’
‘Ever?’
Maude shrugged, mouth set in a stubborn line, and Mateo backed down, knowing full well that he would pick up the thread of the conversation at a later date.
‘We should go down.’ Maude interrupted the stretching silence. ‘Face the music. We can decide what happens next...well...maybe before you leave.’
‘There’s a big lunch, I hear?’
‘It’s the last thing I fancy.’
‘Your parents can’t wait. I suspect announcements might be made.’
