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‘Trust me,’ he prompted quietly.
‘Why?’ Suspicion warred with curiosity.
‘Do you trust me?’
The question was so much more important than he’d intended. And her answer suddenly carried that much more weight.
Instead, Alex chose not to say a word. She lifted her eyes to his, scanning his face and searching for answers to questions she couldn’t bring herself to ask. And then, just as he was about to wonder at the sense of what he’d done, she crossed the floor almost as if against her own will, and fitted her hand into his as he led her to the helical staircase in the centre of the room.
Wordlessly she kicked off her heels and jogged lightly up the stairs behind him, her fingers still laced through his and her trust in him implicit.
Something barrelled through Louis. He needed to call a halt to everything now. It suddenly felt all too intimate.
She felt too intimate.
Sex was one thing, but being emotionally close to someone? That was something he didn’t want to risk.
Instead, he pulled her next to him, his arm slipping around her waist, not sure whether he was talking about the view or what was happening between them.
‘Open your eyes,’ he ground out brusquely.
CHAPTER SIX
ALEX STARED AT the full-size snooker table, a gurgle rumbling up from somewhere deep inside her.
‘It isn’t quite the quality of table I learned on.’ She grinned. ‘But I appreciate the nostalgia.’
Louis laughed. ‘It isn’t quite the quality I learned on either. I was taught by Arnaud, our estate hand—though he’s now the estate manager. They had a beat-up pool table in one of the old stable blocks. My grandfather used to sneak in there a few times and he and I would have a game. When he died, Arnaud was the closest thing to a father figure I had left.’
‘Is the table still there?’
‘I doubt it. But the stable blocks are mine, maybe I’ll renovate them one of these days. There’s a covenant to say I can use them for any activity, providing it’s legal and doesn’t damage the estate.’
‘You want a game?’ she asked quickly.
‘Why not? Snooker, billiards or pool?’
‘You choose.’
It was daft and fun and none of the ways she would ever have imagined her evening with Louis ending up. No doubt he would say the same thing.
It was amazing how the time disappeared after that. Lost in a haze of happier childhood memories—at least, comparatively—and the unexpected discoveries that they loved many of the same books and bands, shared some similar interests and wanted to travel to similar destinations. Even politics wasn’t off limits and they marvelled at their similar opinions and indulged in a couple of lively debates where they did differ. They laughed, drank wine and talked, even finding an old action film they both remembered, which spawned yet more nostalgic memories.
Her only real moment of envy came when he told her he’d visited Machu Picchu on a trek with his grandfather, while she knew she would probably never get that opportunity. When she remembered how their lives had differed. Still differed now.
It was the kind of first date she could only have dreamed of in the real world. The fact that it had happened so organically, so unexpectedly, with Louis—on a first date that hadn’t even been real—made it both inspiring and aggravating at the same time.
‘You’re a revelation,’ he told her abruptly, stopping as they passed one another around the table, allowing his hand to cup her cheek.
And all she could do was stand still and let him, afraid to move lest she break the spell. Her insides turned molten, not least when he dragged his thumb across her lower lip.
‘Why don’t you act like this in public, Louis?’ The question slipped out before she could stop it. ‘Why always the playboy act?’
‘Who says it’s an act?’
She might have thought regret shadowed his eyes, but that couldn’t be right.
‘I do. I don’t think you enjoy it any more, if you ever really did. But I can’t help but wonder if it’s how you protect yourself from forming relationships. Because you’re afraid you’ll lose someone else the way you did your mother.’
