she finished weakly.
‘Georgie.’ Before she could object he had turned her round, his hand lifting her chin as he looked down into the green of her eyes. ‘Tell me. I’m a big boy. I can take it.’
It was the mockery that did it. He was laughing at her again and Georgie stiffened, her eyes slanting green fire as she fairly spat, ‘You’re going to spoil this beautiful land, desecrate it, and you just don’t care, do you? You’ve got no soul.’
For a moment he just stared at her in amazement, and she observed—with a shred of satisfaction in all the pain and embarrassment—that she had managed to shock him. ‘What?’ he growled quietly.
‘I used to play here as a child, camp out with my friends and have fun,’ she said tightly. ‘And this land is still one of the few places hereabouts which is truly wild and beautiful. People come here to breathe, don’t you see? And you are going to destroy it, along with all the wildlife and the beauty—’
‘People have been allowed to come here because I didn’t stop them,’ he said impatiently. ‘I could have fenced it off but I didn’t.’
‘Because it was too much trouble,’ she shot back quickly.
‘For crying out loud!’ He stared at her with very real incredulity. ‘Is there no end to my crimes where you are concerned? Don’t you want Robert to build this estate?’
‘Of course I do.’ She stared at him angrily. ‘And I don’t. Of course I don’t! How could I when I look at all this and think that in a few months it will be covered with bulldozers and dirt and pretty little houses for people who think the latest designer label and a Mercedes are all that matters in life? But I don’t want Robert to lose his chance of making good; I love him and he’s worked so hard and been through so much. So of course I want him to have the contract.’
He shut his eyes for a moment in a way that said far more than any words could have done, and she resented him furiously for the unspoken criticism and the guilt it engendered. She was being ridiculous, illogical and totally unreasonable, but she couldn’t help it. She just couldn’t help it. This meadowland had healed something deep inside her in the terrible aftermath of her parents’ death. The peace, the tranquillity, the overriding continuing of life here had meant so much. And now it was all going to be swept away.
It had welcomed her after the Glen episode in her life too, reaching out to her with comforting fingers as she had walked the childhood paths and let her fingers brush through grasses and wild flowers that had had an endless consistency about them in a world that had suddenly been turned upside down.
‘I’m sorry.’ Suddenly all the anger had seeped away and she felt she had shrunk down to a child again. ‘This isn’t your fault, not altogether.’
He said something in Spanish that she was sure was uncomplimentary, then said in English, ‘Thank you, Georgie. That makes me feel a whole lot better,’ in tones of deep and biting sarcasm.
‘You won’t take the contract from Robert because you are angry with me?’ she asked anxiously.
His mouth tightened still more and now the hand under her chin became a vice as he looked down into the emerald orbs staring up at him. ‘I think I like it better when you are aware you are insulting me,’ he said very softly.
Under the thin silk shirt she could see a dark shadow and guessed his chest was covered with body hair. He would probably be hairy all over. Somehow it went with the intoxicating male perfume of him, the overall alienness of Matt de Capistrano that was threatening and exciting at the same time. And she didn’t want to be threatened or excited. She just wanted… What? She didn’t know what she wanted any more.
‘Georgie?’
She heard Robert calling through the buzzing in her ears as the warm hand under her chin held her for a second more, his gaze stroking over her bewildered face. And then he let her go, stepping away from her as he called in an unforgivably controlled voice, ‘We are just coming, Robert. Georgie has been reminiscing about her childhood up here. It must have been fun.’
Philistine!
CHAPTER THREE
GEORGIE felt it wise to keep a very low profile during the rest of the morning, quietly taking notes on all that was said as she plodded after the men in her flapping wellington boots. She made sure she had no eye contact at all with Matt, even when he spoke directly to her as she found herself walking with him to the parked cars. ‘Thank you, Georgie, that’s your job here done for today,’ he said easily. ‘We are going to grab a spot of lunch before we finish off this afternoon. Would you care to join us?’
‘I don’t think so.’ She looked somewhere in the middle of his tanned throat as she said quietly, ‘I’ve things to do back at the office.’ The last thing, the very last thing in all the world she wanted to do was to sit in a social atmosphere and make small talk with Matt de Capistrano.
‘But surely you will have to eat?’ he persisted softly.
‘I’ve brought sandwiches which I’ll eat at my desk.’
‘How industrious of you.’
Sarcastic swine! ‘Not really,’ she answered tightly. ‘I want to telephone a few places and set up the arrangements for Robert’s children’s birthday party. It’s been pretty busy over the last few weeks and it’s only just dawned on us they’ll be eight in two weeks’ time. We want to make their birthday as special as we can for them.’
He nodded as she forced herself to meet the grey eyes at last. ‘What are you planning?’ he asked, as though he were really interested.
Which she was sure he wasn’t, Georgie thought cynically. Why would a multi-millionaire like Matt de Capistrano care about two eight-year-olds’ birthday party? ‘A hall somewhere with a bouncy castle and so on,’ she answered dismissively.
‘Ah, yes, the bouncy castle.’ He looked down at her, his piercing eyes glittering pewter in the sunshine. ‘My nephews and nieces enjoy these things too.’
He was an uncle? Ridiculously she was absolutely amazed. Somehow she couldn’t picture him as anything other than a cold business tycoon, but of course he would have a family. Robert had mentioned in passing some days ago that Matt de Capistrano was not married, but that didn’t stop him being a son or a brother. She brought her racing thoughts under control and said quietly, ‘Children are the same everywhere.’
‘So it would seem.’ He looked at her for a second more before turning to glance at Robert in the distance, who was still deep in conversation with the chief architect. ‘I will take you back to the office while the others finish off here and meet them at the pub,’ he said expressionlessly.
‘No.’ It was too quick and too instinctive and they both recognised it. Georgie felt her cheeks begin to burn and said feverishly, ‘I mean, I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble and Robert won’t mind. Or, better still, I could take his car and he can go with you—’
‘It is no trouble, Georgie.’ The words themselves were nothing; the manner in which they were said told her all too clearly she had annoyed him again and he was now determined to have his own way. As usual.
Could she refuse to ride with him? Georgie’s eyes flickered to Robert’s animated face
