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She had been badly prepared for the unexpected.
She had not really paid attention to the fact that her period had failed to show up when it should have, even though she was as regular as clockwork.
She had not even really braced herself for that little stick giving her a positive result when she had reluctantly decided to buy the pregnancy testing kit.
It had all come as a shock.
Instead of spending the first week on her return to London looking for a new job, she had spent it in a daze doing three more tests, staring at each positive result with the same shock every single time.
Until she had finally done what she knew she needed to do. She had texted Mateo and requested a meeting.
Right here—in a public place, busy but not too busy, quiet but not too quiet.
She propelled herself forward. The sunny skies they had left behind weeks ago were no longer in evidence. Instead, it was a grey day with a light drizzle dampening everything, still warm, but not warm enough for any of the sundresses she had shoved in a trunk and stuffed into a cupboard because they reminded her of Tuscany.
She was wearing a pair of trousers, trainers, a short-sleeved tee-shirt and an anorak. Not exactly chic, but that was the last thing on Maude’s mind as she took a deep breath and headed inside to meet Mateo.
Mateo had no idea how keyed up he was about this out of the blue meeting until he saw her.
Three weeks. With a push, and much to his fury, he could practically count the time in minutes and seconds. He hated it because it smacked of emotional weakness which was something he had no time for.
She’d dumped him. That was the long and short of it. The guy who was never dumped had been dumped.
She’d walked out on him and hadn’t looked back, and Mateo had not been able to get her out of his mind ever since she’d done that.
Why?
Was it because he was so damned arrogant that his pride had been wounded? He liked to think himself bigger than that, but then the only alternative was one he had no intention of accepting—she was still in his head because he missed her. He’d grown accustomed to her being around. He no longer enjoyed the solitude of an empty bed. She’d opened his eyes to the joy of spending the night with someone sleeping next to him, and then she’d vanished and taken that joy away with her...
Mateo had buried himself in work and taken himself out of the country, returning to bury himself in work once again, but for the first time in his life it had failed to do the trick.
And then she’d texted him to meet up.
She’d had time to think, had time to work out just how good what they’d shared had been—that was the obvious and only conclusion he could read into her desire to meet him. Because he knew that everything had progressed and finalised when it came to her handing in her notice. He hadn’t stood in the way, hadn’t demanded she work out her notice, but indeed had given her a glowing reference. He expected some people might think he’d been biased, because they’d been an item, but Mateo could not care less because he’d never allowed other people’s opinions to influence his behaviour.
So, she obviously wanted to pick up where they’d left off, at which point Mateo was torn.
He wanted her back.
They’d had a good thing going and it was only natural to want to prolong it. Why not? And, on the plus side, wasn’t it always better to let things reach their natural conclusion? If he didn’t, wasn’t there the danger of experiencing the frustration of an incomplete situation? A painful, driving need to see things through?
But Mateo knew that this was not a normal situation. In truth, his preoccupation with Maude had made him uneasy and wary. It would be important to lay down ground rules just in case they had become blurred in the interim. He wasn’t into longevity with any woman and nothing had changed.
All these things had gone through his head when he had read her brief text. A ‘when and where’text, brisk and to the point, which he had appreciated. No need to state urgency when it was a given.
For the first time in weeks, he had felt...content.
Now, as he watched her glance around, frowning as she tried to locate him, anticipation rippled through him.
God, he’d missed her body—her generous curves, the feel of her breasts weighing heavily in his big hands...
All of her... He’d missed the whole package deal.
She was dressed in the sort of frightful outfit that had become a thing of the past when they’d been in Italy but, for some weird reason, he found he didn’t mind. The fewer stares she got, the better, as far as he was concerned. He almost laughed at that sudden bout of old-fashioned possessiveness.
Since when had he morphed into a chauvinist? Not him at all!
He signalled to her and saw a shadow of hesitation cross her face before she headed to where he was sitting at one of the low tables in the bar area.
