Lusty Billionaires Bundle(181)

‘Oh, right! When in doubt, just fall back on the caveman principle, why don’t you?’

‘Answer my question and I’ll go.’

Tessa sat back down, furious and helpless at the same time. ‘I never saw you as relationship potential,’ she spat out. ‘Never.’

‘Then I expect you’ll be wanting your job back, in that case? Now that we’ve established that there’s nothing going on between me and your sister?’

‘And slide back into being your casual fling till you get bored of me? No, thanks!’ The words were out before she could take them back, and they flew through the sudden, thick silence with the efficiency of the contents from Pandora’s box. Tessa could feel the blood rush to her face and she had to stop herself from groaning out loud. Everything she had been trying so hard to deny was wrapped up in those few careless words and he knew it. She could see it on his face.

‘Because that wouldn’t be enough for you, would it?’ Curtis said softly. ‘You’re just not the type of woman who can have flings.’

Tessa hoped he wasn’t expecting an answer to that because he wasn’t going to get one. She would just have to let him spin his yarn and then he would leave. His life would carry on its own merry way and she would pick up the pieces and start again.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. Horribly, he sounded as if he meant it. Tessa cringed inwardly and wished she could somehow magic herself out of the room, out of the house, maybe even out of the country. Anywhere she could escape to where those piercing blue eyes couldn’t bore into her soul and read what was written there.

‘I don’t want commitment. Not yet. Maybe not ever.’ He stood up slowly. ‘I don’t get turned on by the prospect of shopping for rings or by the thought of coming back home to the smell of home-cooked food.’

He had an image of her, waiting for him at the end of the day, smiling when he walked through the door, asking him how his day had been.

‘I don’t need anyone asking me how my day went,’ he ground out more forcefully than he had intended. ‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’ he snapped, angry with her because somehow she had made him think thoughts he had no business thinking.

‘What’s there to say?’ Tessa asked wearily. ‘You’re right. I’m not a casual kind of girl and I never could be. I was stupid to ever have gone to bed with you, but we all make mistakes.’

Curtis didn’t much care for being called a mistake. Why, he didn’t know.

‘I thought I could just have fun, but I was wrong. I knew that when Lucy appeared on the scene and I thought you were interested in her.’

‘You were jealous, in other words.’ That was much better. He really rather liked the idea of Tessa being jealous. More than liked it. It made his heart sing crazily. What man’s heart wouldn’t? he thought to himself. Perfectly normal human reaction.#p#分页标题#e#

‘I was realistic,’ Tessa corrected coldly. ‘You’ve chosen the road you want to go down, and good luck to you. It’s not the road I want and I don’t intend wasting time indulging in something that’s going nowhere.’

‘I couldn’t agree more.’ Curtis moved towards the door, waiting for her to stand up to see him out, which he soon realised she had no intention of doing, although she wanted him out. That was pretty clear from the shuttered, cool expression on her face. ‘I don’t personally see it as wasting time, but there you go. Different strokes for different folks.’

‘That’s right.’

He hesitated, wanting to ask her about her foot but knowing that that was stupid when they had just waged World War III, bar the shooting. ‘Tell Lucy to get in touch with me so that we can formally discuss details of this job. And tell her to make sure that her passport’s up to date. She might need to fly out to one or two proposed sites at short notice.’

‘Sure.’ Tessa looked at him, taking him in for the last time.

‘You can come in with her and collect your pay-cheque,’ Curtis heard himself say. His face darkened at the sudden crack in his armour but if she noticed anything, she didn’t show it.

‘I’d rather you posted it to me.’

‘Look, we’re adults. There’s no need for you to avoid me like the plague. Chances are that we’ll even bump into one another in the course of things, if Lucy takes on the commission and things go according to plan…’

The thought of bumping into him was enough to make her feel sick. Since when did convalescents expose themselves witlessly to the cause of their illness?