Read Online Love: Classified by Sally-Ann Jones - Free Book Online

distorted from crying and my thumping headache.
         “Come on girlie,” Jake said, stroking my back comfortingly. “Magnus is waiting on the front verandah. You’ll be right when you’ve heard him out. He’s been with me for the last half hour, desperate to know what to do, how to get to see you. He thought me and Josie’d be able to help. He’s a good man, Ginny. Give him a go.”
         “I can’t see him like this.”
         “Well go and rinse off the tears and I’ll show him in.”
         When I’d made myself look a little less horrible, Jake led me into the room where, a few nights earlier, I’d laughed at a movie with the handsome, desirable man who now sat in my favourite chair. Jake must have let himself out but I didn’t notice. All I could see was Magnus.
         “I’m sorry,” he said.
         He was still in the expensive Italian suit and silk tie he’d been wearing at the art gallery and he looked, more than ever, even in my own house, completely out of my league and beyond my reach. He was an enigma and I wondered yet again why a man like him would want to drive away in an old Kombi with a total stranger – least of all one who looked like me.
         “You’re a bastard. You should’ve told me you were married, had a little boy…”
         “I’m not… I’ve been caught up in something pretty awful and…”
         “Magnus, please. This whole travelling thing is just a mad dream. I was crazy to reply to your ad. You were dishonest to have placed it in the first place. Please go away.”
         “I want so much to get into Matilda and drive away into the sunset with you. Believe me. Won’t you let me explain what I was doing in the gallery and why I didn’t come over, as I’d said I would, to plan our trip?”
         “I know why. Look at me. Look at you. I’m not in your orbit.”
         “Look at you? I can’t take my eyes off you,” he said and his voice sounded hoarse, as if he was getting a sore throat. “You look fabulous. Titian would have given his right eye for the chance to paint you. Your body shape may not be in vogue right now, but that doesn’t mean red-blooded men don’t hunger after it. Real men who love real women.”
         Despite my confusion and anguish I recognised the sincerity in his voice. I was familiar with reproductions of Titian’s work as I’d done a few art appreciation courses. One miniscule, doubtful part of my brain supposed Magnus could be right. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder.
         “Do you know what I see right now?” he asked.
         “A stupid fat chick who…”
         “A glorious femme fatale with gorgeous russet hair that ripples down her back, setting off the dewy whiteness of her throat and the emerald sparkle of her eyes.”
         “Rubbish. I don’t want to hear your platitudes and excuses. I’ve decided I’m going to stay here for my holiday. I’m going to learn Italian.” Even as I said it, I amazed myself. I’d never seriously considered learning a foreign language, but perhaps it wasn’t such a bad idea.
         “You can learn Italian in Italy if you come with me, or Chinese in China. Or…”
         “I don’t trust you, Magnus. For a short moment I was deceived by the promise of a wonderful holiday with you. What a misguided fool I was! It was a fairytale, but I’m no Cinderella though I’d like to be.”
         “Let me regain your trust. Let me come and see you tomorrow and we’ll go and visit Josie together. Would you like that? I’ll cook you breakfast. I’ll bring all the ingredients. Please, Virginia. I know we’ll be good friends, at least. I don’t remember talking to anyone the way I talked to you.”
         I was falling for it again. His earnest caramel-coloured eyes, his curling lashes, his mellow voice, his God-damn good looks, made me powerless against him, against my better judgment. Why didn’t I put up