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Alice swung the plastic bag around in her hand. “Oh, you know, just everyday practical stuff. Sports bras.” Somehow, on the downward swing, the bag caught and got tangled in a suspender and G-string set on the “Passionate nights” rail, grinding her to an abrupt standstill.
Carts stopped too and immediately went into action trying to free her purchases.
Why was it that embarrassing things always happened when you told porkie-pies, Alice wondered as, on Carts’ final tug, the bag did a backflip and a plethora of bras landed in a brightly coloured heap between them.
Carts bent down and scooped them up, then handed them back to her, the tiny red satin and black lace number taking pride of place like the cherry on top of an ice-cream sundae.
Alice’s scalp prickled.
Carts, to give him credit, kept a straight face—though one of his eyebrows twitched.
“Thanks.” She crammed the offending articles into her bag as Polly joined them, holding up a cameo set in a soft shade of cream with offsets of coffee-coloured lace.
“Now this,” Polly said, waving it in front of Carts’ face as Alice stuffed the offending bag behind her back, “is pure class.”
* * *
Where was she? Aaron’s palms were sweaty. It was twenty minutes before the scheduled drinks with the partners—and theirwives—and they still had to walk from the station to the beachside house—bound to be a freakin’ mansion—where Archie Bendt lived. Alice had texted to say she was on the train but that was fifteen minutes ago. He glanced impatiently at his phone and wished he’d insisted on meeting her at work. But Alice was having to wait for Polly to fill in for her at the shop and Polly had to get there from the hospital and blah, blah, blah.
Christ, how come he wasthisnervous? It was just, well, he needed to make a great impression, needed it to look like he and Alice were a loved-up item. What if she let something slip that made it clear they weren’t… or turned up looking a bit too casually Alice-ish in jeans and sneakers? It would let his image down.
A strange heat made its way down his spine and landed alarmingly close to his groin as he thought about their outing on Sunday. She’d looked okay then, hadn’t she? No, go on, admit it, she’d looked great. Hot.No!Not hot. Classy. Pretty. Cute.
Whatever. Just don’t use words with overtly sexual connotations.
Aaron did a turn of the station platform and saw the train lights in the distance. A minute later, Alice was alighting with a gaggle of other commuters.
Aaron’s breath whooshed from his lungs. She wasn’t wearing her glasses. She looked so different without the heavy frames that he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Alice was synonymous with spectacles. That’s how it was. Except not tonight, clearly. Her face without them formed a perfect heart shape; delicate brows fanning above the biggest, softest, brown-sugar eyes. Her nose, which reminded him of a squashed button with the scaffolding of her glasses bridged across it, was unobscured, and perfectly tip tilted. Somehow the whole symmetry of her face had changed. To top it off, her hair swung in a silky curtain to her shoulders, gleaming in the combination of the winter dusk and station lighting.
Holy cow. Alice was—almost—beautiful.
She wrinkled her nose as she gazed around the platform, then spied him and her lips turned up. She waved a hand close to her side, a typically Alice gesture that grounded him, at least for a second, before the dispelling crowd allowed him to take in the rest of her appearance. A short black jacket over a dress in a flattering shade somewhere between blue and green, and though he was no expert on women’s fashion, the way it moulded to her body as she walked held him in thrall. His eyes dipped lower. Slender calves were accentuated by the glimmer of sheer stockings and black shoes with little bows adorned her feet.
Why did he suddenly feel like he was screwed?
As she drew up in front of him, Aaron ground his molars together and slapped on a smile. Alice cocked her head and smiled back. Should he kiss her? He should kiss her. There was the flirting deal to consider. Better they did it in public, otherwise there could be consequences… unwanted, potentially disastrous… consequences.
“Hi,” he said and pecked her cheek. She smelled great. Her skin felt like silk against his lips and his body stirred an alarming response. He moved abruptly away as she murmured “hi” back.
“We’d better get going, it’ll take us a good ten minutes to walk it from here.” He turned and strode off, trying to ignore the tightening against his fly. Alice fell easily into step.
“How’s your week been?” he asked after a moment.
He was ridiculously aware of how close she was, thetap-tappity-tapof her heels, the rustle of fabric as she walked. The fact that, if he were to put his arm around her, her head would nestle perfectly into his armpit.
Alice shifted her bag strap over her shoulder and he felt her casting him a sideways glance.
“Pretty busy. What about yours? Did you hand in your notice?”
“Of course.”
“How did they take it?”
“I’d say not overjoyed. We’re in the middle of a big case that I’ve been doing the groundwork for, so it’s inconvenient for them.”
“They value you, Aaron.”
“They value how many billing hours I can squeeze into a day,” he snorted.
