Page 27 of Pride and Privilege

“A week. And honestly, I’ll be amazed if you last that long.”

“Twoweeks. Because I’m away from tomorrow—it’s Easter weekend. I’ll be away all weekend and half of next week. So I’ll barely be able to start living your life at all until at least Wednesday.”

“Lucky you,” she said dryly, though she smiled a bit, too.

“Let’s just do it on a rolling basis. Until either of us can’t take it anymore. Or we feel we’ve learnt our lesson.”

“I get the feeling you’re talking more about yourself here than me.”

“Maybe,” he conceded with a smile. “Say yes, though, Poppy?”

Argh, he was doing the puppy-dog eyes again.

“OK. Fine. But you’ll be sorry.”

“Excellent.” He grinned and stepped over, hand out. “Shake on it.”

She grasped his large hand, his palm warm and dry against hers.

“You know,” she said, “this really isn’t who I thought you were.”

He gave her a rueful look. “Exactly.”

THIRTEEN

He must have completelylost his mind. But Poppy was practically skipping on the short walk to his flat, gleefully listing all the creature discomforts he could expect to find at her place. So if he had lost his mind, he couldn’t really regret it.

He’d done twenty minutes’ work before they left the office, checking some stuff, wrapping things up, while Poppy emailed him with her usual weekly budget—he was going to try and live on the same money she did. She came back into his office and tidied away the empty food containers, ignoring his protest not to.

Now they stood in the lift up to his flat, and the silence wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but it was certainly…present.

He was remembering the last time they made this journey. Of course he was. He suspected she was doing the same. And all those teasing flashbacks he was getting—Poppy pressed against the lift wall, his hands on her hips, her waist, his mouth at her throat—together with the tension in the air between them, was making one thing clear. He needed to get a handle on hisattraction to Poppy Fields. Because he absolutely could not have any kind of sexual relationship with her.

He knew that already. Had known it since she made it clear what she thought of him. Knew it all that long, wretched weekend afterwards. He knew it when Aubrey put him in his place, reminded him of his position. And he definitely knew it when he became herde factoboss.

But now he also knew the reality of her life. And he realised the depth of the gulf between them, how precarious her life was and how much power he held. Every card was in his hand—wealth, authority, seniority. Aubrey’s warning was ringing in his ears, taking on new clarity. She was vulnerable—just as vulnerable as she had been when she was drunk in the bar that first night—and it would be just as unethical for him to make any kind of move. Because would she ever truly feel free to sayno? When he was her boss, and now her landlord, and when he intended to feed her and clothe her and house her and look after her? Because that’s what this really was—all those mixed impulses when he had made this decision boiled down to this: Her reality had broken his heart, and he couldn’t let her go back to it.

So given all that… Given everything that had already passed between them… How could he ever be sure that she wouldn’t sayyesout of obligation, guilt, gratitude, fear?

“Having second thoughts?” she interrupted his reverie.

“What?”

“You look very…frowny. Sort of glum. I was wondering if you were regretting this little social experiment. We can just call it off. You don’t need to die on your sword out of some sense of aristocratic honour or whatever.”

He laughed slightly, then pressed his hand to his heart as they stepped out of the lift. “But it’s the code of the Blacktons,” he said, faux-earnest. “Non reverti nunc. That’s Latin forNo backsies.”

“He speaks Latin. Of course he does. But I bet you do have a Latin motto and all.”

He unlocked the door to his flat and they stepped inside. “According to my brother, it’s ‘I didn’t need it, but I wanted it.’”

“And is that accurate?”

“It is when my mother’s shopping.”

Poppy laughed, and then they were once more standing in the place where he had almost kissed her. Before she laughed in his face and said he made her feel like a prostitute.

Ah, fond memories.

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