NATE
I awoke slowly, Alex warm against my side in a room that was now dark, with the moon visible through the window. I must have been asleep for ages. When I reached for my phone to check the time, my movement woke Alex.
“Ugh,” he said, flopping onto his back. “I hate sleeping in the daytime, and I think I drooled on your shoulder again.”
How could such a prosaic, not to mention rather unwelcome statement make me breathless with the love I felt for him? I turned the lamp on and rolled to my side so I could look at him.I’d never known anyone like Alex, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.
Clingy,my brain warned when I would have touched him. I told my brain to sod off because it appeared Alex didn’t actually mind me being clingy. I ran my finger down his nose and over his lips. He bit it gently, his eyes laughing at me.
“Is that okay?” Apparently, my brain hadn’t listened to me. I still wasn’t sure—had that been too much?
His brows drew together. “Is what okay?”
“Me touching you like that. When we’re not—” Any minute now would be a great time to shut up.
He propped himself on an elbow and studied me closely. “I love you touching me,” he told me, and I could breathe again. “Why do you think I wouldn’t?”
Because touching him when sex wasn’t involved was clingy, of course. But how could I tell him that without confessing how needy I was? Oh, God. Could the world please end right now?
He was watching me, his eyes soft but unwavering. He wanted an answer, and he was prepared to wait for however long it took me to provide one.
“I didn’t want to make demands,” I said at last, studying his chin. It was a very nice chin. The best thing about it was that it wasn’t his eyes.
He stroked my hair back from my face, and left his hand there, warm against my skin. “Nate, telling me and showing me how you feel about me could never be a demand. I love it. I want you to do it all the time, even when we’re just walking down the street.”
I finally met his eyes. They were still soft on mine, and with a dawning sense of disbelief, I realised that he meant it. I could show him, tell him, what I felt for him, and it wouldn’t drive him away.
“I love you,” I told him, and his face lit with happiness.
As he kissed me, slow and loving, I gave him everything I had, everything I was.
We eventually drew apart because his stomach started rumbling and wouldn’t stop. My laughter was born of joy as much as amusement.
“I’m pretty sure I must have worms,” he told me. “Has the hotel got a restaurant, or will we need to go out to eat?” He paused. “D’you think weshouldgo out? Bath is full of Fortescues. There’s nothing they could do to us in public, but it would be just our luck to wind up at a table next to some of them.”
There was nothing they could do in public, but I dreaded seeing any of them after how I’d betrayed them. For the first time, it occurred to me what Charlie would be walking back into. He’d have got his act together just in time to find his life had fallen apart.
“Perhaps we should leave for Cornwall tonight,” I suggested. “As long as Margaret agrees I can visit.”
Alex could still see right into me. “Much as I’m longing to drive us down in your car, I think you should stay here tonight and recover fully. And Nate, you’d never have come here if they hadn’t been hacking your banks. You havenothingto feel guilty about.”
I knew that. But somehow it was easier to believe when Alex said it.
Rolling onto my back, I stretched. “I’m going to have a shower and wake up properly, then we can get something to eat.”
Just as I’d stood up and found that the world was a lot steadier than it had been, Alex’s phone vibrated.
“Margaret,” he said. “She wants to meet us.”
Chapter Thirty-two
NATE
Half an hour later, we were waiting for Margaret in the deserted hotel lounge. I took the opportunity to return my phone to factory settings. According to online articles, that should disable the spyware, but I was going to buy a new phone. I’d never be able to trust this one again.
“Aunt Margaret, you areawesome,”Alex declared as she appeared in the doorway, pulling a battered suitcase behind her. He turned to me. “Looks as if I’m not going to need to squeeze into your underwear now. At least,” he added, bouncing his eyebrows suggestively, “not inthatway.”
I froze at Alex’s words, not knowing how to react to what he’d just said in front of the head of his family.
