Bedded at the Billionaire's Convenience(47)

It was cold but she didn’t intend to let the weather dictate her outfit.

A black and white woollen miniskirt, legacy of a long-forgotten university era, a tight black jumper with a flattering cowl neck, which was the last word in impracticality considering her neck would freeze, and some high black boots even though she was sorely tempted to dress down by wearing her usual flats.

And her hair. Out came the straighteners and, at the end of half an hour, the curly fly-away hair and bane of her life had been tamed into submission and lay in a flat, shiny sheet down her back. Not bad. In fact, rather startling, Georgie thought, doing a little twirl. It wasn’t very often that all three aspects of her appearance came together. Normally the outfit would be let down by the shoes, or the shoes by the hair…the list was endless, but tonight…#p#分页标题#e##p#分页标题#e#

She carried on marvelling at her reflection when the doorbell went at seven and then she took her time teetering on her high heels to answer the door.

‘Oh, hullo,’ she said frostily. He was wearing a bow-tie but it was undone and his black coat was slung carelessly over him. He looked as if he had exited the house in a hurry and probably had, she thought sourly. Drinks down at the local would put a person behind schedule. ‘I’ll just fetch my coat.’

Pierre leaned against the door and watched her. He should have left the school and headed straight back, but no. Instead he had veered off in the opposite direction and, like a loser, had sat on his own in the pub nursing a pint, which had done nothing for his frame of mind. He felt irritable and trapped by a peculiar sense of indecision. He was almost surprised when she returned, shrugging on her coat and then glancing around her the way people did when checking their house one last time before leaving it. For a few seconds he had been miles away. And not thinking about work. Thinking about…he rubbed his eyes and stepped outside. He wasn’t quite sure what he had been thinking about. He only knew that he would have to get his life back in order and soon.





CHAPTER EIGHT




‘THANK you for what you did this afternoon.’ This to break the silence stretching between them. All semblance of pleasantries, Georgie noticed, seemed to have bitten the dust. Not one comment on her appearance, never mind that Pierre had always felt free to be derogatory about it in the past. Even that would have been preferable to his stony silence, which she could only put down to his disappointment at having to drag himself away from the charms of her fellow colleagues and wherever they had gone after she had left.

‘I told you that I would. I expect you assumed that I would let you down.’

‘No! Of course not!’ More awkward silence. ‘You made a very good Santa Claus,’ she continued, clearing her throat. ‘Very convincing, all things considered. The kids loved you. Really good idea to get them sitting around you like that.’

‘Good.’

‘Didi says we’re going to that new fish restaurant.’

‘Yes.’

‘That’s a relief.’ Course, she could give a hoot what he thought of her. ‘Because I wouldn’t want to end up anywhere overdressed.’

Pierre glanced briefly at her. She looked stunning. It was a description he had never imagined he would ever have used for her, but she did. ‘You won’t be,’ he said shortly, returning his attention to the road.

‘I’m sorry if you feel that you’ve had to drag yourself out to dinner with me,’ Georgie burst out, increasingly irritated by his foul temper, for which she wasn’t to blame. ‘You could have made an excuse with Didi. I would have been more than happy to have cancelled.’

‘I’m sure, but Didi would have been disappointed and I’m not having that. Whether you would have preferred to have ducked out is irrelevant.’

‘In that case, the least you could do is to be polite.’

‘I’m sorry. Is that not what I’m being?’ He eased his car in front of the restaurant and killed the engine, but before getting out he swivelled around so that he was facing her, one arm resting loosely on the steering wheel.

In the shadowy darkness, his face was given harsh definition and Georgie had to remind herself that this was, after all, just an ordinary human being.

That consoling thought gave her the strength not to cringe back into the passenger door.

‘Maybe you’re piqued because I didn’t compliment you on your feminine look,’ he gritted. ‘I don’t flatter myself that the effort was for me, which isn’t to say that I shouldn’t have known that you would want to be noticed. So, is that it? Shall I help you along with your fishing session by telling you that you’re a triumph of beauty?’ Pierre felt as though he had reverted to being a teenager again and worse, a teenager who hadn’t got his way with the girl he was after. He raked his fingers through his hair and looked away, angry with himself for his loss of self-control.#p#分页标题#e##p#分页标题#e#