Page 117 of All I Want for Christmas

‘What?’ he asked after a moment with a suspicious look.

‘Nothing.’

‘...You’re smiling when there’s nothing to smile about.’

She shrugged. ‘I just didn’t take you for a soup-dunker.’

‘Soup-dunker?’

‘Is it considered polite over here to dunk your bread in your soup?’

His eyes flashed up to hers. ‘There’s a time and a place for etiquette. This isn’t it.’

‘Ah.’ She tore off a piece of her bread and dunked it too, remembering he had dined with royalty. ‘But you wouldn’t do this sitting beside the Queen?’

He paused, his hand almost at his mouth. ‘There are many things I might do with you that I wouldn’t in front of her.’

The comment took her by surprise but he carried on eating without a wink or a smile, no moody stare, seemingly wholly unaware of any innuendo.

‘You know, while we’re on the subject of that night—’

He shook his head, once. ‘Don’t.’

She looked at him. ‘Don’t what?’

‘Don’t thank me. I already told you, it was a freebie. Veronique arranged it.’

She watched him eat, so determined not to be thanked. ‘And if I don’t believe you?’

‘Then you don’t believe me.’

She was silent for a moment. ‘Well...then will you please thankherfor me? I’m incredibly grateful. What she did was so kind and wholly unexpected. I don’t really know why she would go to such trouble when, to be honest, she’s never given any indication that she even likes me—’

He paused eating again, stopping her with a mutinous stare. He knew exactly what she was doing.

‘I’d text her myself but I don’t think she’d read anything from me.’

‘Enough.’

She bit back a smile. ‘I also didn’t realizeshewas your girlfriend. I thought it was Angelina. Or was it Natalia?’

‘Yeah? And how long have you been with your boyfriend?’ he hit back, tearing apart his bread roll. ‘Becausehe wasn’t the guy waiting for you on the steps the other week.’

He remembered Erik? She fell quiet. Aksel was the last person she wanted to discuss.

‘Hm? Cat got your tongue?’ he asked, looking up at her, satisfied to have scored a point.

‘He’s not my boyfriend. Never was.’

Max’s eyebrow arched as he heard her abrupt tone. ‘What happened? Weren’t you with him last night?Kayaking.’ He made no attempt to disguise his scorn.

‘It doesn’t matter.’ She looked back at her soup.

He frowned then, seeing that she wasn’t joking any more. ‘...Something obviously happened.’

‘Nothing.’

‘Tell me.’

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