“I asked that stall vendor, the one selling hand pies, if he’d heard of her,” Declan says. “He hadn’t.”
I exhale through my nose. “Yeah… I had the same luck.”
“I guess getting sneezed on by that camel wasn’t quite the blessing it was rumored to be.”
I grab a cushion from the bed and lob it at him.
With a laugh, he ducks and moves to jump on the bed.
I point the second cushion at him like a weapon. “You cannot get on that bed in those grimy, sweaty clothes.”
He lifts his hands, dark eyes glinting with mock innocence. “So you’d rather I take them off?”
Slowly, he pops open the first button.
“Declan.”
Pop.Another button.
“That’s not what I meant.”
He pauses just long enough for a sly smile to lift his cheeks before the third button pops free, revealing a strip of bronzed skin over smooth, lean muscle.
“Just following orders.” He shrugs, fingers moving to the next.
“You’re more of a menace than Fennel.” I fling the cushion, and he catches it midair.
The shirt parts wider, baring the ridges of his abs, the breadth of his chest, and those solid muscles I’ve already felt pressed against me twice in reality and countless times in my head. Heat floods me so fast, it’s dizzying, a hot rush straight to the pit of my stomach.
His mouth moves, lips parting like he’s speaking, but I’m too deep in the mental gutter to catch any of it.
“Yes. No, wait,” I blurt and tear my gaze away, fanning myself with the flimsy dress. “Sorry, I was just, uh, thinking about…costumes. And performance structure. Blocking. You know, theater things.”
Declan’s gaze narrows, and that slow, devastating smirk spreads like wildfire across his face. “You’re fantasizing about me, aren’t you?”
I nearly inhale my own tongue. “What? No. Absolutely not. That’s ridiculous.”
“Mm.” With a wink, he pops another button. “I know when I’m being eye fucked, Amanda.”
My cheeks burn. “You are mistaken.”
“Am I?” He takes a step closer, close enough that the air between us hums. “Don’t forget I was on the other end of all those messages you sent.”
“Being physically attracted to someone is very different from having actual chemistry with them.” I cross my arms, pretending not to notice how my pulse stutters.“If you were half as smooth as you think you are, we wouldn’t be arguing about it.”
He leans down. “Who says I’m trying to be smooth?”
“If this is younottrying, I’m terrified to see what happens when you put in effort.”
Almost on cue, Fennel brays from outside so loudly it rattles the tent poles.
I suck in a breath and stand. “We should get ready. Figure out what we’re going to say. It’ll be sunset soon.”
“Yeah.” Declan rubs a hand across his jaw. “And Tarek wasn’t exactly clear about what happens if we don’t show.”
Gathering the dress and the sandals, I slip behind the velvet divider. “I feel like the murkiness was its own kind of clarity.”
The trunk creaks open, and metal clinks softly as he rummages through it.
