‘We need to talk,’ he said, as kindly as he could although he was already seething inside at imaginary scenarios in which she brought her specials talents in bed to someone else to sample, some long-haired, bearded vegetarian who would probably charm his way into her life by feigning interest in her chickens. And she, newly released from a life of sexual inactivity, would of course be as horny as hell and rearing to go.
‘What about?’
‘About you, actually.’ Pierre thought about how to phrase his next statement without sounding patronising and then decided that he didn’t care how he sounded. ‘I don’t know how to say this, Georgie…’
‘You don’t know how to say something, Pierre?’ Georgie laughed, but her heart was beating furiously with a mixture of dread and panic. ‘That’s a first. I must remember to write it in my diary tomorrow!’
‘You’re not experienced in…men—’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Let me finish. Being inexperienced makes you vulnerable and you’re even more vulnerable than the average inexperienced woman because you’re impulsive, you do things without thinking them through first.’
‘I don’t know where you’re going with this,’ she said, stung, but Pierre, having gathered the necessary momentum, ignored her protest.
‘You’ll walk into the arms of another man because you’ll feel confident of your sexual abilities and you won’t take time out to really check where you’re going, work out who you’re going to hand over your body and heart to…’ He could hear himself losing the kindly tone of voice and took a deep, steadying breath. ‘All I’m saying is that you have to be careful. There are a lot of sharks out there.’
Georgie, having expected a ‘Dear John’ speech, wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved that she wasn’t being ditched or irritated because he thought she was an idiot.
‘I can take care of myself, Pierre.’ She lay flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling.
‘Can you? Can you?’ He pulled her back to face him and, as expected, she was wearing a mutinous expression that made him all the more determined to make her see his point of view. ‘You’re a sexy, hot-blooded woman, Georgie, and I should know. You could have any man you wanted but are you going to make the right choices?’#p#分页标题#e##p#分页标题#e#
‘Probably not,’ she admitted, thinking of the number-one wrong choice she had already made, which was to fall for him, the one man guaranteed to bring her heartbreak and misery.
‘And that’s supposed to reassure me?’ he demanded roughly.
‘What can I say? Life’s full of chances. How do you know if you’re going to end up involved with the wrong man?’
These weren’t the answers Pierre wanted to hear, although he didn’t really know what he wanted to hear. Perhaps that she would return to her state of cheerful singledom, but fat chance of that now that the joy of sex had reared its ugly head.
He resolved that in future he would make sure to avoid having other people’s welfare at heart. Here he was, trying to give her some helpful advice, and in return she was pretty much confirming that she would launch forth into the heady world of men mentally programmed to make mistakes.
‘Anyway…thanks very much for the advice, but don’t we have better things to do in bed than talk about what might or might not happen at some point in the future?’ The last thing she wanted was to think about that particular place. If she could hold back the hands of time then she would. ‘I might, just might…’ She conjured up in her head the ideal scenario: no more games; Pierre madly in love with her; in due course a white wedding, or at least a cream one, and thereafter the pitter patter of tiny feet ‘…find my ideal soul mate, the man I’ve been searching for all my life. These things have been known to happen, you know. It’s not a given that I’ll be unlucky enough to run slap bang into a man who’s going to use me and then toss me aside.’
‘And who would this ideal man be?’ Pierre demanded.
You. But of course it would never do to say that, not if she wanted any kind of time with him. ‘Oh, just someone kind and thoughtful and considerate with a good sense of humour.’
‘A real high-flyer, in other words,’ Pierre said tersely.
‘You know I’m not very materialistic. Sometimes the happiest people are the ones who don’t have much.’
‘So you’re in search of a down-and-out who can laugh at his situation while asking if he can borrow some money to buy you flowers and take you out for a romantic meal.’