‘Later.’ He gave her a quick smile. ‘Indulge me.’
Her stomach swooped. ‘Do I have any option?’
‘Not a lot,’ he said, his eyes glinting with amusement and turning her head inside out. ‘According to the records, disobeying the king used to result being thrown in the dungeon.’
‘Charming.’
‘Not in the least,’ he said cheerfully. ‘It’s damp and crawling with vermin. You wouldn’t like it.’
Probably not. Although she was pretty sure it would be less uncomfortable than having lunch with Matt when her common sense had gone AWOL. ‘Wow,’ she said, arching an eyebrow and crossing her arms. ‘Absolute power and blackmail. That’s quite a combination.’
‘I like to think so.’
Laura tilted her head. ‘I thought I was supposed to be staying out of your way.’
He glanced at her for a second and then grinned. ‘That was one of the things I wanted to chat about.’
Now he wanted to chat? She narrowed her eyes. ‘Don’t you have better things to do? Like a country to run?’
‘Even kings need to eat. And I thought we could get round to some of that small talk you mentioned.’
The small talk they’d been too busy getting horizontal and naked to bother with…
Laura’s insides tangled into a mass of longing and frustration. Why was she always on the back foot with this man? What was it about him that had her feeling totally at sea? And more importantly why hadn’t the two weeks she’d spent staying out of his way done anything to reduce the effect he had on her?
She nibbled on her lip. Maybe small talk was the way forward. If she could get him to reveal a bit about himself, maybe he’d turn out to be hideously arrogant, irritatingly patronising and possibly insanely boring. If she was really lucky, he’d also expose a couple of nasty habits. Like interrupting her. Or dismissing her opinions as if batting away a fly. As her ex had had a tendency to do. Hah. That would certainly put her off.
Laura sat down and gave him a cool smile. ‘What would you like to talk about?’
Matt leaned down and took a bottle and a couple of glasses out of the hamper. ‘It’s occurred to me that the apologies I owe you are beginning to stack up.’
Oh. Damn. Not that hideously arrogant, then. She lifted a shoulder. ‘Are they?’
He pulled the cork out, filled the glasses and slid one across the table to her. ‘First of all, I never apologised for jumping to the conclusion you were a journalist.’
He’d made up for it in other ways, Laura thought, drawing the glass towards her, and then wished she hadn’t as her cheeks went red.
‘And then when you turned up here, I overreacted.’
She took a sip of wine and felt the alcohol slide into her stomach. ‘Why?’
Matt frowned. ‘I’m not sure.’
Hah. As if. She’d never met anyone less unsure of themselves. ‘Let me guess,’ she said with a flash of perception. ‘You thought I was here to see you.’ He stiffened and she felt a jolt of triumph. ‘And I bet you thought the worst.’
‘Possibly.’
‘You really ought to do something about that suspicious nature of yours.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Have lots of people crawled out of the woodwork now that you’re king?’
His face tightened. ‘Some.’
‘Well, I don’t know what sort of people you usually hang out with but you should look at getting a new set of friends.’
‘You’re probably right.’ Matt sighed and then snapped back from wherever he’d been. ‘So how am I doing?’