‘Stop!’ She slapped my arm playfully. ‘Now you sound ridiculous! Come on, I saw a cool-looking ice cream place back near Sacré-Cœur which had a long queue so it must be good. Let me buy you an ice cream before your brain overheats from all the compliments I’ve just given you.’
That was actually a good idea.
Laila had just said that she liked my shirt, that my accent was sexy and I was pretty sure that she wanted to say that she liked my arms too.
Three compliments from the woman who said that she was not interested in me romantically.
She mentioned that we would be getting ice cream to cool me down, but now I began to wonder whether it was Laila’s resolve and willpower that were finally beginning to thaw…
18
LAILA
‘This issogood!’ I groaned with pleasure as I licked the ice cream.
‘It is,’ Gabriel said as his tongue slowly traced over his scoop of pistachio. My filthy mind instantly went to the gutter as I wondered what else he was able to lick so skilfully.
Jesus.
I knew it’d been a lifetime since I’d felt a man’s tongue roaming over my body, but it wasn’t right to be thinking about Gabriel in that way. If I was going to fantasise about a man, I needed to choose someone else.
Anyone but him would be appropriate.
‘The vanilla is not a little… boring?’ he asked.
‘Vanilla’s a classic,’ I said. ‘I thought about trying another flavour, but I was worried that I wouldn’t like it.’
‘In life you have to take risks. Sometimes you have the most fun when you are trying something different.’ He held my gaze and I wondered if he was still talking about the ice cream.
‘My life must be sadder than I thought if my definition of living life on the edge is choosing to eat nut-flavoured ice cream instead of vanilla.’ I laughed.
‘I think that you might enjoy eating nuts more than you think.’ A cheeky smile flashed across his face.
‘Oh,really?’ I said.
‘Oui. Perhaps you would like to have a taste now?’ He held his ice cream cone towards me.
‘What?’ I gasped, clutching my chest with mock shock. ‘You’re asking me to lick your nuts in publicandin broad daylight?’
I couldn’t believe I was flirting with him so shamelessly, especially when I was supposed to be keeping things above board.
I blamed that visit to the I Love You Wall.
First, Gabriel said all that nice stuff about how he wished I could see myself the way he saw me and paid me all those compliments.
Then he encouraged me to love myself more, which wasn’t gonna happen any time soon, but it was sweet of him to try.
And then he said that he loved my laugh.
If I was being honest, up until recently I’d forgotten how it felt to laugh. It didn’t happen much, apart from if I was watching something funny on TV. But I’d probably laughed more in the past few days than I had in the last few years.
Which was probably also why I made the mistake of calling his accent ‘sexy’. It didn’t have to mean anything though. I was pretty sure that millions of people around the world agreed that the French accent was sexy, right?
So yeah, I challenged any red-blooded woman not to get compliments from a hot younger man who had a gorgeous accent, looked like a god, had a kind heart, was a good listener and conversationalistandmade her laugh without accidentally flirting with him by going along with this whole ‘nuts’ banter.
‘I am sure no one will notice you doing it. And even if they do, like I said, sometimes taking risks can be fun.’ He raised his eyebrow.
‘Well, if you’re sure?’ I said. It did look tempting.
