NATE
The following morning, I needed privacy to call Bim, so I used Jane Austen as my excuse to leave the house. I was glad Alex wanted to come with me. I was enjoying his company far more than I’d expected to when we’d agreed to work together, even without what had happened last night. Enjoyment didn’t begin to cover how I felt about that.
“I thought we were doing the fashion museum,” Alex said when I turned towards the Royal Crescent.
I stopped and stared at him. “Youwantto go and look at old clothes?”
“Of course not, but you know Fiona’s going to be quizzing you about breeches at the most awkward and public moments.” His lips twitched. “For some strange reason, I don’t think she believes our Jane Austen alibi.”
I’d never been able to resist a challenge. “In that case, we’ll just have to learn everything there is to know about breechesso we can satisfy her curiosity.”
I wouldn’t say we learnedeverythingabout breeches, but we came close, questioning the curator closely. She said that everyone interested in breeches asked how they unfastened. No one, apparently, asked how theyfastened. Alex’s eyes filled with laughter, and I had to turn away. Otherwise I’d have either laughed out loud or kissed him.
I’d lain awake last night, thinking about Alex. I couldn’t regret giving into temptation. It had been fantastic, and I wanted it again.
But there was a good reason why I didn’t do repeats. The risk of someone seeing me for who I was would grow exponentially if I did. And IlikedAlex. The thought of that bright smile turning to weariness and then disgust as he learned how little I had to offer, how clingy I was—no. I wasn’t going down that path again. Never again.
But I’d told him last night that I realised it was just sex between us, that it hadn’t meant anything. He knew I didn’t expect anything from him. If I was careful, he wouldn’t see anything except another hookup.
And if it meant I could have that again with him, I’d be more careful than anyone had ever been.
Finally satisfied that my breeches knowledge was up to whatever Fiona might throw at me, I suggested we head back to the coffee shop we’d found the other day. It wasn’t very busy, and no one seemed to mind us sitting there for hours as long as we bought something every so often.
I tried to concentrate on some more Jane Austen research, but I was hyper-aware of Alex across the table fromme. He was so close, yet I couldn’t touch him. And Iwantedto. Good as the sex had been, holding him afterwards had been amazing.
Don’t be clingy, I reminded myself firmly and tore my attention away from him to read about famous Georgian actors. My cover story needed to look convincing by the time I left my phone somewhere obvious and unattended. At this rate, I might as well write the damn book.
“How would you feel about co-authoring a scandalously erotic Jane Austen romance?” I asked Alex.
He’d been buried in his own phone, looking up now and then to share with delighted horror the barbaric treatments for syphilis back in Jane’s day.
“I’ll leave all that stuff to you,” he said. “Though if you want some erotic inspiration, I’d be happy to oblige.”
The lilt in his voice and the glint in his eye took me straight back to when he’d been on top of me last night, and for an instant, it was difficult to breathe. I wanted a repeat, and I wanted itnow.
I realised I was staring at him. I didn’t know what was showing on my face, but his eyes were growing dark as he looked back at me, his gaze flicking between my eyes and my mouth. It wasn’t an option to have sex at the Fortescues’. Leaving aside the whole etiquette issue and the complication of Charlie wanting me back, I didn’t want this to be furtive and hushed.
“Flying tonight?” I suggested.PleaseGod, may he say yes. May he want this as much as I did.
“So long as you bring some towels this time,” he agreed. “I’ll supply the lube.”
There was an amused snort from the woman at the table next to us, who I thought had been reading her phone. God only knew what she wasenvisaging.
ALEX
Delicious anticipation had been filling me ever since Nate proposed another flying trip. Last night had been good, feeling his skin against mine, but I wanted so much more than that with him.
Nate suggested it would be polite to join the others for pre-dinner drinks in the drawing room before we left. It was a good idea—Margaret would be less likely to have my wings for missing supper if she saw me voluntarily socialising with Fortescues.
Unfortunately, Ella was there. She seized Nate, firing questions at him about Robert Elliston’s career. It wouldn’t have been a problem had James Fortescue not been within earshot. I had the impression he was listening to Ella and Nate, even as he worked his way around the room, speaking to everyone. The way these bankers knew how to schmooze left me feeling slightly sick.
“Honestly, Ella, I’ve been concentrating more on the best-seller potential than historical accuracy,” Nate said. “Sex sells.”
“But Jane Austen and sex? That’s just wrong.”
“Are you denying Jane her full identity?”
I stopped listening to them because James Fortescue was standing in front of me. “Alex,” he said warmly. “We haven’t had much of a chance to speak. How are you finding Bath?”
