The Billionaire Boss's Bride(60)

‘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.

‘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?

‘I don’t see any reason why we should meet again. And I’d really rather Personnel posted the cheque to me. I’m going to be out and about looking for a job. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to pop in at the drop of a hat.’

‘Sure. Well, whatever.’

‘Just slam the door behind you. It self-locks.’ With that, she turned away, dismissing him.

Suited him just fine, Curtis decided, striding out of the room and slamming the front door behind him.

It had all gone according to plan. Really. He had come to state his case and state it he had. What she had said had only confirmed his suspicions that she had been a dangerous near miss. She had wanted more and she had told him so in no uncertain terms. He was a free man. He would spend the rest of the school holidays juggling his work so he could take Anna out, maybe even buy her some new clothes in the sales, before she went back to school. He thought back to that day when his daughter and Tessa had gone shopping, the glow of achievement on her face. Well, he didn’t think he would be able to match that as far as shopping partners went, but so be it.

It would be his first step in getting his life back to normal, back where he wanted it to be, where he was in control. Leave the unpredictability for his job.

He drove to his mother’s house, having originally planned to return to the office where he would be able to submerge himself in work. In his head he played out the conversation he had just had with Tessa. He didn’t want to. What he wanted was to now wash his hands of her altogether. But his mind was refusing to co-operate.