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How could it possibly when he had to know:
He could have done whatever he fucking liked. He could have just gone ahead, and she wouldn’t have faulted him for it. She wouldn’t have faulted him for anything. Her whole bodywas now so ripe and aching he could have shoved her dress up to do it. Just got it around her hips and slid a hand over her underwear-covered backside.
Or more.
Or worse.
Oh Jesus, just put your hand inside, her mind moaned.
And she knew that her mind wasn’t talking about getting under her outfit.
It was talking about these little knickers she was wearing. It was talking about him pushing his hand inside them and squeezing and stroking whatever he found there. First the curve of her ass. Then other things, hotter things, wetter things, things that were actually not great to be thinking about right now.
Because suddenly the door was closed.
And he was pulling away.
And okay, yeah, he seemed reluctant about it. Butreluctantdidn’t really help her. She still wound up in a dimly lit vestibule, with a head full of horny thoughts about a man she was only supposed to pretend to want, while the man in question was right in front of her.
So now she had to somehow pretend she wasn’t affected at all.
While being more affected by anything than she’d ever been in her life.
It was honestly all she could do to stay on her feet—and she didn’t even do that well. She could feel herself sort of sliding sideways along the hallway wall. He had to shoot out a hand and haul her back to something like standing. And the rest of her was faring no better. Her face was on fire. She felt flushed all the way to her toes.
It probably looked like she’d been punched.
In fact, she knew it did, because he looked pretty despairing about the state she was in. “Oh Christ, that was too much, wasn’t it. I went too far,” he said the second he managed to meet her gaze. Which was very fast, all things considered. He didn’t even seem to need to catch his breath.
Whereas she… well.
She knew she sounded like she’d just run up a mountain.
It took her what felt like half an hour to get words out.
And that didn’t help when the words she wanted to get out were these:
“You didn’t go too far, Alfie. I’m totally fine,” she said, but not only had she taken this long to do so, she also sounded like a broken set of bagpipes when she did. So it wasn’t a surprise when he gave her his most incredulous look.
“Doesfinenow mean looking like you’ve been clobbered?”
“I don’t look clobbered,” she protested. “I look normal. Ordinary. Boring even.”
“If you did I don’t think you’d still be sliding sideways down a wall.”
“Give over, I’m not doing anything of the sort. And even if I am it’s just because of these shoes. They’re making me stand funny,” she said, then pointed, for good measure. As if perfectly stable flats were going to prove anything at all, other than the fact that she was a liar trying to cover her own tracks.
Because he was right: she did currently look like she couldn’t stand up straight. And that wasn’t even the only thing she was doing wrong—as he was only too happy to point out. “Are they also making you breathe like you’ve just wrestled a shark?” he asked. But she wasn’t about to concede just yet.
No, she was going to be inadvisably mad instead. “I swear to god if you mention sharks one more time I’m going to kill you.”
“That doesn’t seem like much of a threat, coming from someone so weak they can barely stand up under their own power,” he said, then glanced at her face. “And who is also apparently dying of what looks like extreme sunburn.”
“Oh, don’t exaggerate. My cheeks are not that red.”
“Mabel, they are glowing. I can feel the heat from here.”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have almost grabbed my bum.”
