‘Hullo, Pierre. This is a surprise. How are you? Have you just dropped Didi off? I could have sworn she told me that she would be coming back with your driver.’ If she had known that Pierre would be in the vicinity, she would have taken evasive action. The past months had been a nightmare and the last thing she needed was this, him standing in front of her for a courtesy visit, one of his ‘we’re adults, aren’t we?’ situations.
‘Aren’t you going to invite me in?’ He gave her a twisted smile and placed one hand on the door, a semi-threatening gesture that she didn’t fail to notice.
‘I was just about to do some marking, actually, Pierre, so not a very good time…’
This time he stepped towards her. He was scaring her and that made him even angrier. Did she think that he would do something physical? Maybe she figured that he would try and force himself on her and naturally that thought would scare her, considering she had leapt into bed with another man in the space of seconds.
He tried to banish that thought but it crept into his head like poison.
‘Now, now, that’s not very sociable, is it?’ He literally brushed past her into the hall, an immovable force now, and watched as she closed the door and leant against it. Barring the exit was just fine as far as he was concerned because he wasn’t going anywhere. God he had missed her, missed her quirky ways, her laughter, her teasing, the way her hair looked as though it was waging a permanent war against restraint. She was wearing some faded jeans and a long-sleeved tee shirt and he had to shut his mind to the image of hands touching her under that tee shirt, pulling down those jeans.#p#分页标题#e##p#分页标题#e#
‘Would you like something to drink?’ Georgie asked grudgingly. ‘I could make you a quick cup of coffee.’
‘Coffee would be…good.’
While she walked past him through to the kitchen, he looked around, searching for evidence of her new lover. He obviously hadn’t as yet set up permanent camp in her house or else he wouldn’t have been leaving, but that wasn’t to say that he hadn’t already begun the process of transferral.
‘You’ll have to be quick, Pierre. I haven’t had much time today to work and I really need to get cracking.’ Georgie stood politely by the kitchen door and waited.
‘You know something, Georgie, forget the coffee. Just…tell me what you’ve been up to.’ He folded his arms and leaned against the wall. ‘Today.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Today. What have you been up to today? No need to get all bowed down with details of the past three months.’
‘Today…well…this and that…you know…the usual…’ she stammered. ‘You know…’ If this was his idea of normal conversation, then why did it feel like a full-frontal attack? And if she was beginning to piece her life back together, then why was her heart doing all sorts of desperate things? ‘I want you to leave,’ she said more forcefully, resenting the fact that he had virtually barged his way into her house and was now sabotaging all the hard work she had done trying to put her life back together.
‘Why?’ Pierre gritted. ‘Expecting visitors? Or should I say a visitor?’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘No?’ he mocked, taking a couple of steps towards her. ‘Don’t give me that innocent expression, Georgie. Didi told me everything.’
‘Didi told you everything?’
‘That’s right. The musician, apparently now the love of your life, and don’t even try denying it. I saw him as he was leaving.’ From a position of lifelong invulnerability, Pierre now realised that he would have to take the most terrifying leap of faith in his life. He loved her and he would have to sacrifice his pride and his self-control to tell her how he felt even though he felt, somewhere deep inside him, that it would all be for nothing. This, he was discovering, was what love did: it stripped a man of his defences and laid him bare to someone else’s decisions.
‘I…’ He shook his head and glared at her. ‘I…’ He began again. ‘I had to come here because I couldn’t stand the thought of it, of another man in your life…’
This was a first, Georgie thought. She had seen all sides of this wonderful man with his complex personality, but never before had she seen him lost for words. And what on earth was he on about?
‘Are you talking about Michael?’
‘Whatever his name is.’
‘What are you saying to me, Pierre? That you’re jealous? I didn’t think you did jealousy.’