Page 83 of On Circus Lane

“No, I’m quite tired.” I narrow my eyes, and she yawns so phonily that if she had an equity card, I’d demand she turn itin immediately. “Goodness, all that walking has made mesosleepy. I might have an afternoon nap before we meet up later.”

“Hmm.” I know what she’s doing and can’t help feeling a little grateful. We only have today and then we’re going home tomorrow. I would like some alone time with Tom.

The lift stops, and she hugs Tom. “Thank you so much for Circus Lane.”

He grins. “Well, I didn’t actually build it.”

I wink. “If you had, you could have put a Starbucks in the middle rather than making us walk all that way.”

“Sacrilege. And the Starbucks was literally twenty feet away.”

Ivy’s grin is crooked and shows off her snaggle tooth, which she usually takes care to conceal. It’s how I know she’s at ease with him and being natural. “Well, you didn’t have to do all of that, Tom. You could have done something much better than shepherding Bee and me around the city.”

“Hey,” I say. “I’m not sure thereisanything better than that.”

Tom’s smile is so intimate it makes me want to both run away and climb him like a tree. “I think Bee might be right.”

Ivy gives me a pointed look that I pretend not to see and hugs me. “Be good, and if you can’t be good, then definitely don’t be careful.”

“I’m not sure that’s the right saying.”

She sighs. “It is with you.”

“Do you know where the original saying came from?”

“No, and I don’t want to. Bye.”

“Rude,” I huff as she exits the lift and the door closes.

A silence falls that isn’t uncomfortable, and Tom leans against the lift’s wall, studying me.

“Yes? Shall I take a picture for you?”

He winks and presses the button for our floor. “Only if it’s a naked one.”

My cock stirs at the heat in his eyes. “I’m sure that can be arranged,” I say in a demure voice and crook my finger. “Come here,” I whisper.

He just keeps his spot against the wall, looking perfectly comfortable. “First, tell me where the saying came from.”

I blink. “What?”

“The saying about being good or careful. It seems like rather a boring choice to offer anyone.”

“You actually want me to tell younow?” I gesture to my cock that’s currently creating a bulge in my jeans.

His eyes flare hot but there’s a hint of amusement there too.

I give up trying to understand why I find his amusement as entertaining as his sexiness, and say, “It was first said in a publication in the early twentieth century, but one of my history tutors believed it derived from a Latin proverb in the eleventh century that saidSi non caste, tamen cautewhich means ‘if not chastely, nevertheless cautiously’.” I roll my eyes. “Happy now? My erection has deflated.”

“Mine hasn’t,” he says huskily as the lift stops.

I look down at his jeans and see the hard length of his cock outlined. It makes my mouth water. “My boring story made you hard?”

The doors open, and he winks at me. “Everything about you makes me hard. Every. Single. Thing.”

I follow him out of the lift. I don’t think anyone has ever given me such a compliment before. Oh, I’ve had men rave over my arse or my sexual prowess, and my tutors have praised my intellect, but no one has ever put those things together with my personality and liked all of them.

I push that revelation aside and walk next to him, waiting as he finds the keycard in his pocket and opens the door, stepping back to wave me through. Courtesy is so innate in him, and I love it.

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