The wince was tiny but he caught it and something stabbed him in the chest. ‘London gets a trifle dull after a while, don’t you find?’
‘No.’
‘Oh.’ She frowned. And then shrugged. ‘Well, each to their own.’
Barriers were springing up all around her telling him to back off. But as she’d pointed out, he was persistent.
‘I don’t buy it,’ he said, deceptively mildly.
‘Tough.’
Matt leaned forwards. ‘Tell me.’
‘No.’
But she was wavering.
‘Maybe I can help.’
‘You already did,’ she said, and then went bright red.
‘How?’
‘Doesn’t matter.’
‘If it involves me it does matter.’
‘Let’s just say I met you at a time when my self-esteem wasn’t exactly sky-high.’
‘And I boosted it?’
‘Something like that,’ she muttered.
‘You used me.’ Matt sat back and wondered whether he was hurt or amused.
Her gaze flew to his. ‘No. Of course not.’
Oh, she was terrible at lying. He didn’t say anything, just lifted an eyebrow and stared at her until her cheeks went even redder.
‘Well, maybe just a little bit.’ She screwed up her eyes as if not wanting to see his reaction.
She needn’t have worried. He had no complaints. ‘Charming,’ he said mildly, folding his arms over his chest and grinning. ‘I’m devastated.’
Her eyes flew open in shock and then she relaxed and returned his grin. ‘I can tell.’
‘Nevertheless, I think you owe me an explanation.’
‘I don’t see why. Can you honestly say you didn’t use me?’
‘This isn’t about me.’
Laura nodded and took a deep breath. ‘OK, fine. The day I was made redundant I got home early to find my boyfriend at the time with his secretary. In our bed.’
‘Ah.’
‘I know. Tacky, or what? They’d been having an affair for three months, would you believe, and I hadn’t a clue. I’d rented my flat out when I moved in with him and, what with three being a bit of a crowd, I couldn’t exactly stick around. So I trawled through the websites of a number of rental agencies and found the cottage in Little Somerford and I left.’
‘What a jerk.’ The hammering urge to hunt her ex-boyfriend down and pummel the living daylights out of him thumped Matt in the chest, taking him completely by surprise.