“Alana.” Lily’s lips twitched. “She’s very pretty.”
“I’m not interested and not in the mood to reject someone tonight. And I did rescue you from Kyle the prick, so you owe me,” I teased.
“How did you rescue me?” She shoved me playfully. “I think it was pretty clear the evening would end that way from the moment he showed up with his phone glued to his bloody ear.”
“Moron,” I muttered under my breath.
“What?”
“Nothing. Will you come?”
She turned around suddenly, walking backward so she could face me. The short hem of her little pleated skirt bounced around her thighs, and it took everything within me to keep my eyes on her face. “Fine. But only because I’m nosy about this flat on the Royal Mile.” She gestured around her. “Very fancy.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re not going to think too badly of me when you see it, are you?”
“Why? Do you have a butler called Wakefield who waits on you hand and foot?”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Not quite.”
“Then I’ll only gently mock your fanciness, I promise.”
Lily didn’t mock me at all, but I found myself watching her every reaction as the lads and I led her and their companions into the penthouse. Lily took everything in with a guarded expression and then strode across the living space to the three tall windows overlooking the Royal Mile.
I sidled up beside her. “What are you thinking?”
“It’s so modern. You wouldn’t think it was from the outside.” Lily smiled at me. “It’s fantastic. What a view.” She pressed a hand to the glass, her pretty, polished nails making a tapping sound on it. A sudden flash image of those nails raking down my back had me squeezing my eyes closed. “I’ve lived here my whole life, and I never tire of the history.”
I opened my eyes as I watched her lean to look farther up the thoroughfare that led to the castle.
“Do you know the last time the castle was inhabited was 1633?” She looked up at me. “Can you imagine what life was like then?”
“Smelly,” I joked. “I imagine it was very smelly.”
Lily laughed, those dimples deeply indenting her cheeks, and I decided my new mission in life was to make her laugh every time we met. Which would hopefully be often.
“Harry’s asking if you guys want a drink?”
We turned to the voice to find the girl from the bar staring at me. “I’m fine. Lily?”
“I’m good.”
“We’re good, Illiana, thank you.”
The girl’s face fell. “It’s Alana.” She grimaced and strode off toward the kitchen where the others were.
“You do that deliberately, don’t you?”
At Lily’s odd tone, I replied, “Do what?”
“Get their names wrong. When you’re not interested in a woman, you deliberately get her name wrong.”
Christ, she was way too perceptive for my own good. I shrugged guiltily. “It seems like the least shitty way to make it obvious.”
“It’s not.” She gave me a disappointed look.
The thought of Lily finding anything about me disappointing stung. “Then I won’t do it again,” I promised.
She squeezed my arm to let me know she wasn’t mad at me. Then she sighed. “I really should get going.”
