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Oh lordie, if only he knew the half of it.
Alice stood to attention. Aaron rubbed one of her arms briefly, which was probably meant to reassure but made her feel weak as a kitten again. “Relax your stance a bit, you look like you’re on parade.”
“Could you stop touching me? I haven’t given you the cue yet,” she replied, far more sharply than she meant.
His lips quirked. “Sorry.” He dropped his hand from her arm.
Alice pulled herself together, cleared her throat. “Okay, here goes. I’m in character now.”
“Go for it,” Aaron said
Think sexy, think sexy.She pursed her lips and glanced up at him from under her lashes the way she’d been practising in the mirror for the past week. “I really had fun tonight—with you.”
Aaron leaned towards her. It made a shiver cascade all the way down her spine. “Yeah, so did I,” he murmured. “Maybe we should do it again sometime?”
“That could be pleasant.”
“No, no. Come out of role for a sec.”
Alice blinked, momentarily disoriented. “Don’t saycould,” Aaron said. “Could is too vague. Would is more positive. And get rid of the word pleasant. It’s meh.”
“I’m trying not to sound too keen.”
“Why?”
“I—I, it’s not cool.”
“Who says?”
“I read somewhere it puts guys off.”
“Yeah, maybe if you texted him a dozen times after the first date or followed him home from work, but you’ve got a lot of wiggle room here. Here’s this guy panting for you and you’re behaving like the vicar’s wife out ofMidsomer Murders.”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll try again.”
For a second, she closed her eyes. Then, with all her might, she channelled Polly. The habit Polly had of kicking out one hip, the angle of her head, the way her eyelashes swept over her eyes just before she went in for the kill.
“I’d love that.”Gosh!That was almost a Marilyn Monroe“Happy Birthday Mr President”purr!
Their eyes locked. She heard his intake of breath, sensed a sudden wired tension in his body.
“Great. I’ll call you.” Was she imagining it or had Aaron’s voice dropped an octave? Her heart was pounding so loudly, surely he could hear it?
His eyes searched her face, lasering into her soul, laying all her secrets bare. The five years she’d pretended she found him nothing more than good fun, laughed too hard at all his jokes, teased him about his conquests. Died a little inside each time.
Every last skerrick of her crazy blind love for him, exposed.
No, she couldn’t risk it.
Alice twisted away, her feet scrabbling for purchase on the sand. From somewhere inside her bag, her phone started to play the opening riff of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”.
“Oh, I—that’ll be for me.” She dived for it, feeling like an ungainly seal pup. Finally, she located her phone and saw the wordMumlight up the screen. She pressed the green icon.
“Ah, there you are, darling. Did I wake you up?”
Alice mouthedRowenaat Aaron. He rolled his eyes.
“I’m at the beach.”
