“Ah, but youdothink she’s hot?”
“Shutup!” But Kivi was laughing. It had always been the way. As her older sister, Eva had always known how to tie her up in knots.
“Fine, fine,” Eva acquiesced, laughing too. “Let’s get this room clean before Mrs Moysey comes back and finds something else to moan about. I’m sure you’d rather Miss Saltmarshe was moaning – not in the grumbling sense, but in the-”
“Evangeline!”
“What? I’m just trying to help!”
They were vacuuming the room next door to Saskia’s half an hour later when the woman herself finally appeared. Her lipstick was bright, tacky as if freshly applied, and her hair fell over one eye.I never noticed it was quite that fiery red before,Kivi thought. Saskia stood in the doorway and glared at them. Eva switched the vacuum off.
“Ah, she is ris’n,” Kivi said tartly before she could stop herself, to fill the awkward silence that ensued. She tried to smile, trying to make as if she was joking, but found herself cowering under Saskia’s steely daggers.This is a customer, you idiot. Why are you treating her like an ordinary person?
“Do you have to make so much noise so early?” Saskia said. “Some of us have been trying to get some rest.”
“It’s a quarter to eleven,” Eva pointed out, leaning on the long handle of the vacuum cleaner. “We’re sorry if you were still asleep, but we have to clean sometime. We both have a lot to do to keep the guest house up to standard.”
Saskia blinked at them, and then looked over at the clock on the wall. “I didn’t realise how late it was,” she frowned. “I see. Well… okay. You carry on.” She disappeared, and on instinct, Kivi followed her to the staircase.
“Saskia?” she called. The woman spun on her heel, and the force of her renewed glare nearly smacked Kivi in the face.
“Can I help?” she said, in an even tone that didn’t match the vitriol in her eyes.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry about last night,” Kivi said honestly. “I never intended to put you on the spot or make you feel uncomfortable.”
Saskia pursed her lips, but Kivi could tell she had disarmed her. There wasn’t much of a retort to give such a frank apology, after all. Another thing that Eva had taught her over the years. Kivi could almost see the cogs in her brain turning, and her eyes begin to soften.That is really quite cute.
Stop it, Kiera.
“I shouldn’t have lashed out,” Saskia said eventually.
“I’m glad you realise that,” Kivi said. Saskia blinked again. Kivi guessed that in her world, an admission of wrongdoing was as good as an apology, but Kivi wanted to hear her say the words. She waited.
Slowly but surely, Saskia went red. It wasn’t easy to miss, with her fair colouring, and the more Kivi waited, the more she glowed like a traffic light. The other woman’s gaze had dropped to the floor, but now she slowly dragged it back up Kivi’s body,before stopping once again at her lips. Then Saskia licked her own.
Fuck. Is she… going to… kiss me?
Kivi stepped forward. It wasn’t a voluntary movement – her body was humming with tension now, her heart pounding, her face tingling even though Saskia hadn’t touched her yet. All she would have to do was lean forward, stand on her tip-toes, and…
Saskia’s heart was pounding too. Kivi could almost feel it moving the energy around her. Then she wobbled. Swayed. Then made a little agonised noise that was part groan, part choke, and stepped back.
“Whoa there,” Kivi said, and put her hand on Saskia’s arm to steady her so that she wouldn’t fall down the stairs. “Are you all right?”
“Nngh,” Saskia said, wrenching her arm free. Kivi raised her hands in a gesture of surrender, but Saskia wasn’t even looking at her. “Yes. Sorry. I’m okay. Just dizzy. I’ll just – I’ll go and sit down. I…” She finally met Kivi’s eyes for one quick, fleeting glance, then – “I’m sorry,” she whispered, disappearing down the stairs as if the police were on her tail.
Chapter Nineteen
Saskia
Two social fuck-ups with the same person in the space of eighteen or so hours. Go Saskia.
For one brief, heady moment in that hallway, she’d thought that Kivi was going to kiss her.
And the weirdest part?
She would have been okay with it.
Normally she liked to keep her lovers at arm’s length. That wasn’t to say she had never had a relationship – in fact, she’d had several. Jonny – or ‘Jonny-come-lately’, as she’d called him when she broke up with him for his constant tardiness. Max – or ‘Axe’ as she’d called him the first and last time he’d tried to hit her. Aaron, for whom she had completely failed to find a cutting nickname, becausehe’dbeen the one to break up withher,calling her frigid.
