it a rest. You have done nothing but argue with me since the second you met me. You’ve made telling comments about every restaurant, about the value of money, about people who think they can rule the world from a chequebook … You’ve covered all the ground when it comes to letting me know that you disapprove of wealth. Course, how was I to know that those were just cleverly positioned comments to downplay what you were all about? But let’s leave that aside for the moment. Why did you dump the poor guy?’
‘If you must know,’ Aggie said, partly because constant arguing was tiring and partly because she wanted to let him know that Stu had not found her in the least bit argumentative, ‘he became too jealous and too possessive, and I don’t like those traits.’
‘Amazing. I think we’ve discovered common ground.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Chloe went from obliging to demanding in record time.’ They had finally cleared London and Luiz realised that unless they continued driving through the night they would have to take a break at some point along the route. It was also beginning to snow. For the moment, though, that was something he would keep to himself.
‘Never a good trait as far as I am concerned.’ He glanced at Aggie and was struck again by the extreme ultra-femininity of her looks. He imagined that guys could get sucked in by those looks only to discover a wildcat behind the angelic front. Whatever scam she and her brother had concocted between them, she had definitely been the brains behind it. Hell, he could almost appreciate the sharp, outspoken intelligence there. Under the low-level sniping, she was a woman a guy could have a conversation with and that, Luiz conceded, was something. He didn’t have much use for conversation with women, not when there were always so many more entertaining ways of spending time with them.
Generally speaking, the women he had gone out with had never sparked curiosity. Why would they? They had always been a known quantity, wealthy socialites with impeccable pedigrees. He was thirty-three years old and could honestly say that he had never deviated from the expected.
With work always centre-stage, it had been very easy to slide in and out of relationships with women who were socially acceptable. In a world where greed and avarice lurked around every corner, it made sense to eliminate the opportunist by making sure never to date anyone who could fall into that category. He had never questioned it. If none of the women in his past had ever succeeded in capturing his attention for longer than ten seconds, then he wasn’t bothered. His sisters, bar two, had all done their duty and reproduced, leaving him free to live his life the way he saw fit.
‘So … what do you mean? That the minute a woman wants something committed you back away? Was that what your ex-girlfriend was guilty of?’
‘I make it my duty never to make promises I can’t keep,’ Luiz informed her coolly. ‘I’m always straight with women. I’m not in it for the long run. Chloe, unfortunately, began thinking that the rules of the game could be changed somewhere along the line. I should have seen the signs, of course,’ he continued half to himself. ‘The minute a woman starts making noises about wanting to spend a night in and play happy families is the minute the warning bells should start going off.’
‘And they didn’t?’ Aggie was thinking that wanting to spend the odd night in didn’t sound like an impossible dream or an undercover marriage proposal.
‘She was very beautiful,’ Luiz conceded with a laugh.
‘Was that why you went out with her? Because of the way she looked?’
‘I’m a great believer in the power of sexual attraction.’
‘That’s very shallow.’
Luiz laughed again and slanted an amused look at her. ‘You’re not into sex?’
Aggie reddened and her heart started pounding like a drum beat inside her. ‘That’s none of your business!’
‘Some women aren’t.’ Luiz pushed the boundaries. Unlike the other times he had seen her, he now had her all to himself, undiluted by the presence of Mark and his niece. Naturally he would use the time to find out everything he could about her and her brother, all the better to prepare him for when they finally made it to the Lake District. But for now it was no hardship trying to prise underneath her prickly exterior to find out what made her tick. They were cooped up together in a car. What else was there to do? ‘Are you one of those women?’ he asked silkily.
‘I happen to think that sex isn’t the most important thing in a relationship!’
‘That’s probably because you haven’t experienced good sex.’
‘That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life!’ But her face was hot and flushed and she was finding it difficult to breathe properly.
‘I hope I’m not embarrassing you …’
‘I’m not embarrassed. I just think that this is an inappropriate conversation.’
‘Because … ?’
‘Because I don’t want to be here. Because you’re dragging me off on a trek to find my brother so that you can accuse him of being an opportunist and fling money at him so that he goes away. Because you think that we can be bought off.’
‘That aside …’ He switched on his wipers as the first flurries of snow began to cloud the glass. ‘We’re here and we can’t maintain hostilities indefinitely. And I hate to break this to you, but it looks as though our trip might end up taking a little longer than originally anticipated.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Look ahead of you. The traffic is crawling and the snow’s started to fall. I can keep driving for another hour or so but then we’re probably going to have to pull in somewhere for the night. In fact, keep your eyes open. I’m going to divert to the nearest town and we’re going to find somewhere overnight.’
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