Page 66 of You, As You Are

“That’s your idea of romantic?” Iain frowned at her response, so she backtracked. “It sounds good. Not too much for early days.”

“Good. Because I don’t want to be associated with this stupid holiday.”

That conversational opening was too irresistible to leave alone. “Bad experience?”

“Something like that.” Iain tossed the last of the wafer cone into his mouth and chewed.

His nugget of information was like fairy dust to Maisie. She didn’t have to look far to know where she’d gotten that piece of her personality from.

She toyed some more with his coat, slanting her body against the wall. “You know, you keep on saying these cryptic things without ever really explaining them.”

Iain’s side-eye was enough of a warning. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Maybe not with me, which is fair, we hardly know each other. But do you talk to anyone at all?”

He sighed through his nose. “Enough people know what happened. Trust me, I’ve done my share of talking.”

Brushing the toe of her boot across the ground, Maisie let her hand fall back to her side. “I get that. Valentine’s Day can be tough, and that’s fine. Sometimes the world tells you it’s bad to want romantic love, but I still believe in it.”

“Then maybe you haven’t been burned like I have.”

She looked at him then. “Who burned you?”

Iain let the silence sit, and in the end he didn’t answer her, following Ted with his eyes as the dog sniffed around the grass.

Maisie began to make him an offer, if not just to save them both from feeling pathetic and lonely tomorrow – okay, maybe justher. “Look, if you don’t have any plans, then you’re welcome to just come to my flat and do whatever you’d like. I’ll be working, but we need to put on some kind of show for this plan.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“You’re the one who said to give this a month,” she reminded him.

“I’ll think about it less if you keep on asking.”

Well that wasn’t pleasant.

“Sorry,” Maisie uttered, affronted by that little spat.

Iain glanced at her then turned completely. “No … I’m sorry.” His fingers found her upper arm and squeezed. He barely had to exert any pressure at all and Maisie felt it. “I haven’t had to do this for a while, that doesn’t give me the right to be short with you.”

“Apology accepted.” Maisie glanced again to the rest of their group and whispered, “They’re looking at us.”

“So?”

“So you look … dangerously close to kissing me right now.” Not that she wanted him to – she wasn’tasking– but the look on his face, how he was a little fired up, leaning above her …

Maybe shedidwant to know what his lips would be like, just once. It could be research for their plan.

Iain didn’t even blink. “Would you like me to kiss you?”

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Warmth worked up Maisie’s neck as she squirmed against the wall in an attempt to stand taller. “Not if it’s not necessary.” Because they couldn’t, could they? Anythingrealbetween them was off limits.

“How will I know if it is necessary?” Iain’s eyes looked increasingly hooded.

“I don’t know. Use the brain that I suppose you have in here.” She tapped the side of his head above his ear, which was a mistake, because now she knew how the short crop of his salt-and-pepper sides felt beneath her fingers.

Iain’s body went unnaturally still until her fingers fell away.

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