Wow, I really am not usually one to go for the kind of guys I meet at these family events but I could make an exception for an earl, right? However, as we all know, I am not the kind of girl that an earl would go for. Maybe I should be? I mean, come on, I’ve got the family name. How hard can it be?
‘Ethan, listen, while it’s just us, I need to tell you something,’ I say in hushed tones.
‘What’s that?’ he replies.
‘We need to abort the mission,’ I tell him.
He just laughs.
‘I’m serious,’ I reply. ‘There’s been a change of plan. I don’t want to cause any trouble, at all, I want to be good – for my sister.’
The second part is a line but the first part is absolutely what I need to do, if I want to woo an earl.
‘This is a test, isn’t it?’ he says with a knowing grin.
‘No, it’s really not,’ I insist.
‘Yeah, okay, sure,’ he replies. ‘Like I’m falling for that one. Don’t worry, you’re going to get what you sort-of paid for – what your family paid for, I guess.’
Okay, so now isn’t the time or the place, but I can explain it to him, that the plan really has changed.
I came here thinking I was going to make a mess. Now, I guess I need to clean up my act.
28
‘So… our first night sharing a bed together,’ Ethan points out.
‘Except it isn’t,’ I remind him.
‘It’s the first time we’ve done so in the normal way,’ he replies.
‘Because this issonormal,’ I add.
If we were actually in bed togetherlike thatthen the scene would be perfect. I’m wearing one of my more attractive sleeping-vest-and-shorts combos – one of the ones that I don’t somehow lose a boob from while I’m sleeping – and Ethan is wearing a tight-fitting pair of boxers, not that I’ve noticed (of course I’ve noticed). It’s warm but it isn’t too warm. There’s a breeze drifting in through the open door that leads out onto our balcony. It’s so relaxing, watching the sheer curtain blowing gently. The room smells like an expensive diffuser with a name like ‘ocean bliss’ and the only thing I can hear is the roar of the ocean (and maybe my heart thumping in my chest a little stronger than it usually does).
The scene is set for romance. Proper Mills & Boon-type shit. If I weren’t thinking straight I could just pull back the covers, climb on top of him, and forget about everything else. I am,however, thinking straight and I know that if we did it would probably result in us – I don’t know – dislodging a block that sends the entire house crashing into the sea, just bringing it all down like the end of a game of Jenga.
‘So, how was your day, honey?’ he asks me.
I laugh.
‘Don’t do that,’ I tell him.
‘What?’ he replies, chuckling innocently.
‘Turn us into some old sitcom, where we’re both lying here, side by side – essentially like we’re in twin beds – wittily debriefing our day. I’m half expecting to hear a laugh track.’
‘I’m just asking,’ he insists. ‘But I’ll drop the honey. I’m taking my role as your fake boyfriend very seriously.’
‘Right, but I meant what I said, I don’t want to do that any more,’ I tell him.
‘I thought that was a test,’ he replies.
‘No, I really don’t,’ I insist. ‘Like, stay, enjoy the holiday, have a lovely normal time – but I am officially abandoning the plan.’
He laughs to himself, ever so quietly.
I roll onto my side, to face him.
