‘… you still look good enough to… eat.’ The sentence went up at the end, punctuated by a wince and everything wound up inside me seemed to burst like heated glass.
‘Whatdid you say?’
His Adam’s apple bobbed. ‘Forget it.’
‘Did you say I look good enough toeat?’ I rolled my eyes and poked him for emphasis.
He stared at his feet as he chuckled. ‘Yeah. You only have to ask.’
My nerves must have short-circuited because I tripped on a rock. Instead of landing heavily on the ground that was rushing up at me, a wrench on my arm and pressure around my middle halted my fall. He eased me upright, one hand splayed at my waist, his thumb brushing my ribcage, and I couldn’t get enough air.
This is bad. He’s the talent. You want a job.
Trying to give myself a pep talk couldn’t quite erase the memory of him apparently offering oral sex. Or perhaps I’d lost the plot entirely and that wasn’t what he’d meant. I should not be having sensual thoughts about my talent, the golden boy – emphasis on theboy– of my old team.
Then he swallowed heavily and his hand shifted, exerting just enough pressure to turn my insides to liquid. An inch higher and his thumb would stroke the underside of my breast. His jaw clenched tight, he looked as though he was pouring all his energy into resisting exactly that move.
‘Christ, you feel good, Lees,’ he said, his voice as jagged as cobblestones under a bike wheel. His chest rose and fell with uneven breaths and I was no longer sure what planet I was on, where Colin seemed to be all undone – for me.
He straightened all of a sudden, lifting one hand. For a heartbeat I thought he was going to touch my face, a tender action I would never have expected from him, except he hesitated and said, ‘You… Uh, there’s a bug in your hair.’
My lungs deflated like a hot-air balloon at the end of the day. This was a familiar routine from Colin, the prankster. ‘There isnot.’
‘I’m serious. Do you want me to get it out?’
‘And then what? Don’t you dare put slime in my hair. If you had any idea how much work these curls are—’
‘It’s worth it,’ he cut me off with an echo of the soft words that had tied me into a pretzel a few minutes ago. But he was failing to stifle a wobbly smile that was unfortunately every bit as charming as Wil had warned me he could be. ‘I’m not going to put slime in your hair,’ he continued smoothly. ‘I’m telling you, there’s a grasshopper heading for your ear.’
Just the word ‘grasshopper’ was enough to induce a full-body shudder.
‘I promise I’m not shitting you. I know you don’t like insects.’
‘Which is why you put a fake beetle in the light fitting of the women’s toilets that time in Milan!’
He stifled a snort of laughter. ‘That was when I found out you don’t like insects.’
‘And you proceeded to order a bulk batch of clear insect stickers for every time you saw me afterwards.’ I took a deep breath. ‘There’s no grasshopper. I’ll never belie—’
Something skittered near my ear and I shrieked.
Chapter 7
Colin
I didn’t mean to laugh at her, but she had her face screwed so tight she could have been on the cover of one of the depressing literary masterpieces Amir liked to read. Her curls made freeing the poor insect a strategic operation, especially with Leesa a jittery mess.
But I still had time to appreciate the fact that I had my hands in her hair, the soft, springy curls tickling my skin. A minute ago I’d had my fingers an inch from her breast and the distinct impression she would have let me go higher.
I was screwed. Every course of action would get one of us into trouble. Even if she’d made the sweetest sigh while my hand was teasing both of us, she’d also said it sucked that she had to work with me. Excuse me for having a bit of dignity – a little bit. It had been a close-run thing, not letting the touching go any further.
Now I was wondering if this grasshopper was a lucky creature, since I was allowed to be close to her without the potential to screw anything up.
‘Get it off!’
‘I’m trying.’
She jumped, narrowly avoiding shoving my nose back into my brain. ‘It touched my ear!’
