Page 40 of Tamed By Her Touch

“Wait—was that a joke?”

He frowned.

“No.”

“It was! Doctor Kaelus made a joke.”

“I did not,” he protested.

Clair was still grinning as she made a note on her tablet.

“Okay, fine—next question. When did we become romantically involved?”

He stared at the viewscreen.

“We did not.”

“Oh, come on…” Clair sighed. “Pretend, remember? We’re supposed to be married. So when did we get together?”

Kaelus's expression became pained.

“You decide. I will adhere to whatever fiction you make up.”

Clair thought about it.

“We should probably say it happened gradually. We were sharing the lab…we got to know each other…you stopped acting like I was contaminating your oxygen supply…” She shrugged. “And eventually we realized we liked each other.”

Kaelus glanced at her.

“Is that what happened?”

The question caught Clair off guard.

“What?”

“You said eventually we realized we liked each other.”

“For the story,” Clair said quickly.

“Oh—of course.”

Something about his tone made her look at him, but his face was unreadable.

“Anyway,” she continued, “the next question is who made the first move.”

Kaelus frowned.

“Why is that relevant?”

“Because couples tell stories about that kind of thing,” Clair explained. “Trust me—it’s relevant to our backstory.”

He sighed.

“Very well. You may say I did.”

Clair raised her eyebrows.

“Really? I figured you'd argue with me for twenty minutes about this part.”