‘Yes, Basa, it doesn’t matter.’
‘It matters to me.’
‘Why would it? Oh, right.’ She stopped abruptly. ‘I get it. You didn’t believe me yesterday.’
‘That’s not true. I did believe you.’
‘So why the shocked expression?’
His dark gaze narrowed. ‘I don’t know...maybe because you said all that stuff about sampling new flavours.’
She felt her face grow hot. It was true, she had—but only so as not to lose face.
‘Why would you lie about that?’ His mouth tightened.
‘My sex life was...is none of your business. And, frankly, I don’t see how my being a virgin then or now has any effect on this.’ She couldn’t keep the shake out of her voice. ‘Unless in some mad way you think being one makes me some kind of innocent?’
‘No, of course I’m not saying that.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘I’m saying that you being a virgin changes the facts, and if you’d just told me that, right at the beginning at that stupid lunch with Alicia and Philip, we wouldn’t have had to go through all of this.’
A red veil was slipping in front of her face. Was he blaming her for his actions? ‘That’s not fair...’ The injustice of his words felt like a blow to the head. ‘You didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say.’
‘Oh, I promise you, Mimi, if you’d told me that I would have listened.’
‘Okay, maybe you would.’ Her pulse was dancing with indignation. ‘But you wouldn’t have believed me, would you?’
He didn’t reply, but she felt no satisfaction at having been proved right. Instead, she was feeling slightly sick—and trapped.
‘So now you know everything there is to know about me, Basa,’ she lied, ‘so this conversation is officially over.’
Spinning around, she walked quickly back into the house, wanting to get as far away as possible from the truth that had followed her halfway around the world. Not the fact that she was a virgin, but the fact that he didn’t trust her and never would.
* * *
Watching her leave, Basa felt his whole body tense. He’d made such a mess of this. And he couldn’t blame Mimi. Although, true to form, he had done exactly that.
He breathed out unsteadily, a splinter of guilt stabbing between his ribs. It had never occurred to him that she might still be a virgin and her admission had caught him off balance. He’d felt angry with her for not telling him, so it had been easy to blame her for making him act irrationally.
But really he was angry and disgusted with himself.
For not bothering to check her level of experience and not letting her give her side of the story.
For not completely believing that she had been a virgin that night.
And for blaming her for his own selfish and shoddy behaviour.
Without realising it he was walking through the house, driven by a sense of purpose he hadn’t felt since the morning after Alicia’s birthday party.
He was going to make this right. And he was going to do it now.
He caught up with her just outside her bedroom door.
‘Mimi—’
‘I don’t want to talk any more, Basa.’ She stepped into her room, holding up her hand to halt him.
‘I know, but I have to say this—please, Mimi.’
He watched her hand tremble as she lowered it.