‘It’s my afternoon off,’ she said finally, glancing at him and then quickly looking away. ‘Can’t it wait until tomorrow? I’ll be back at work then.’ The gentlest of breezes caught her hair and, suddenly conscious of his focus, she felt her face grow warm.
‘It’s not work-related,’ he said softly.
Their eyes locked and Prudence flushed. ‘Then we have nothing to discuss.’
He laughed softly. ‘In other words, we have a lot to discuss. Let me guess: you’re mad at me for going off like that?’ He lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘I’m sorry I disappeared. I had to be somewhere. But if it’s any consolation I’ve been thinking about what happened a lot.’
Prudence stared at him in silence. ‘Did something happen?’ she said slowly, trying to affect an air of nonchalance. ‘I didn’t notice. Just like I didn’t notice that you’d disappeared.’
A slow smile spread across his face and then, shaking his head, he reached out towards her. Her heart contracted. It would have been so easy to give in, to let him take her into his arms, to lean in to his warmth and strength. But instead she raised her hands, curling them into fists.
‘Don’t!’ she said fiercely. ‘Don’t even think about it! Honestly, Laszlo. You’re unbelievable. Did you really just think you could roll up after two days and expect to carry on like before?’
His eyes narrowed. ‘I said I was sorry. What more can I say?’
She stared at him helplessly. ‘What less could you say? You didn’t even say goodbye. But don’t worry, I’ll say it for you now. Goodbye.’
She turned to walk away but he reached out and grabbed her arm.
‘Let go of me!’ Jerking
her wrist, she tried to pull herself free, but he merely tightened his grip.
‘I’m sorry, okay?’
Shaking her head, she tugged herself free of his hand. ‘It’s not okay. How could it ever be okay?’ She grimaced. ‘Laszlo. We broke the rules.’
‘I’m aware of that. But I don’t see why you’re getting so upset about it. We’re both consenting adults.’
Gritting her teeth, she took a step towards him. ‘It’s not that simple.’
His face stilled and her skin seemed to catch fire beneath his gaze.
‘Oh, but it was. Simple and sublime.’
She caught her breath, achingly aware of just how sublime it had been. How sublime it had always been. For a moment she hovered between desire and anger, and then anger won.
‘It’s not simple and you know it. It’s a mess,’ she snapped.
He studied her dispassionately. He hadn’t intended to argue with her. On the contrary, he’d been looking forward to seeing her again despite the fact that she was right: it was a mess. He smiled grimly. After they’d made love he’d held her in his arms, trying to rationalise his behaviour, and on some levels it had been easy to explain. It was perfectly natural for any man to be attracted to any woman—and what man wouldn’t be attracted to Prudence? She was beautiful and clever and poised.
His face tightened. Only then he’d started to think about their marriage, and about lying to his grandfather, and suddenly he’d wanted to be free of the tangled mess of his thoughts. A flush coloured his cheeks. And so he’d simply walked out, fully intending to stay away until the cataloguing was complete. Only after just two nights he’d changed his mind, driven back to the castle by a sudden inexplicable need to see her smile.
She wasn’t smiling now. Her face was taut and strained, and he knew that his sudden disappearance had angered and hurt her. Hell! Why couldn’t she just accept his apology and move on?
He stared at her coldly, his dark hair falling across his forehead. ‘What do you want me to say, Prudence? I thought you enjoyed it. I certainly did.’
She was staring at him as though he were speaking in Mandarin.
‘This isn’t about whether I enjoyed it or not.’
‘Then you really don’t know yourself at all, Prudence. You slept with me for the same reason I slept with you. Because what we have is incredible. Physically, we couldn’t be better matched.’
Prudence blushed, heat seeping over her throat and collarbone. There was a loaded silence.
‘Fine. I agree,’ she admitted finally. ‘But that doesn’t change the fact that our doing what we did makes everything so much more difficult. Even you must see that.’ She stared at him agitatedly. ‘I can’t believe you just left. That you didn’t think we should at least have one tiny conversation about it.’
He shrugged and glanced across the lawn, his gaze drifting away towards the horizon. ‘What’s there to talk about?’