What? ‘How is it my fault?’
‘I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind. I haven’t been able to concentrate. I haven’t been able to do anything much.’
Laura’s breath hitched and her heart thumped as that flicker of hope she’d tried so hard to extinguish flared into life. ‘That’s not my problem.’
‘Isn’t it?’ He sighed and rubbed his face. ‘You don’t want my house.’
She bit her lip. ‘I don’t understand why you gave it to me.’
‘Don’t you?’
‘No. I’ve been going over and over it in my head and I just can’t work it out.’
‘Can’t you? I’d have thought it was simple.’
Simple? Nothing was simple when it came to her and Matt. ‘Then think again.’
Matt shrugged. ‘I gave it to you because you love it.’
Laura went very still. Felt a rush of pain shooting through her and bit back a gasp. Oh, she was such a fool. Hadn’t she secretly been hoping that he’d given it to her as a sign that he’d changed his mind? ‘Well, I don’t want it.’
Matt flinched then tilted his head. ‘And what about me? Do you want me?’
Laura’s heart skipped a beat. What kind of a question was that? She wanted him with every breath she took, with every cell of her body. And he knew that. So what was he trying to do? Torment her even further?
‘Absolutely not,’ she said, steeling herself against the way his face paled beneath his tan and made her heart clench. ‘So I hope you haven’t come to try and persuade me back to Sassania. Because nothing on the planet would tempt me to do that. You were right about us,’ she said, her need to protect herself from him lending strength to her words and fire to her voice. ‘You know it’s a good thing you finished our fling when you did, because I’ve decided that I really don’t need another relationship.’
Matt went very still and his whole body tensed. ‘Is that really what you think?’
Laura nodded so violently her head nearly came off. ‘Absolutely.’ Not.
He frowned. Took a step back, hit the fireplace and stumbled. He looked shaken. Uncertain all of a sudden. ‘Then it seems I’ve had a wasted journey. Forget about the house. It was stupid of me. I’m sorry to have interrupted your morning.’
Laura watched him frown, then nod to himself and shove his hands in his pockets. Her heart lurched as realisation dawned and then began to thunder. ‘Oh, my God, you were going to persuade me back to Sassania, weren’t you?’
Matt’s gaze collided with hers, but his eyes were completely unreadable. ‘Don’t worry about it. I dare say I’ll get over it.’
‘No, wait.’
He stilled. ‘What?’
Ignoring her churning stomach and all the hope and doubt and nerves tangling up inside her, Laura took a deep breath. ‘Why did you come here, Matt?’
‘To offer you all those things you’ve just said you don’t want.’
At the bleakness in his voice her throat hurt. Her head began to spin. ‘But I thought you didn’t do relationships.’
‘So did I,’ he said with a short humourless laugh. ‘But then there are a lot of things I thought I didn’t do which I apparently now do do.’
‘Like what?’
‘I sold my business.’
Laura blinked. ‘Oh.’
‘And my flat.’
‘Why?’