Page 127 of All I Want for Christmas

He shrugged again.

‘You get so jealous,’ she smiled, remembering how he’d ghosted her after meeting Aksel too.

‘Not usually.’

She watched him. ‘So then, if we didn’t really need to work closely together, wecouldhave just dated?’

‘No. Because I don’t date...Didn’t date.’ He looked aheadat the road. ‘I realized you were different; that’s why I was trying to keep a distance.’

‘That didn’t work out so well for you, huh?’ she murmured, taking his hand and sliding it up her thigh a little. She saw how he swallowed before he glanced over at her, with a look she had grown accustomed to over the past day and night. ‘You’re a confusing man,’ she whispered.

He shook his head. ‘I’ve always been straightforward. No false promises. No leading anyone on.’

‘Never letting anyone close.’

‘We all wear armour, Darcy. Even you.’ His grip tightened on her thigh.

She stared at him, hating how badly he made her want him. It wasn’t good. She shouldn’t be falling so hard, so soon...

‘Don’t,’ he murmured, the small half-smile playing on his lips as she continued to stare.

‘Don’t what?’

‘Ask me what we are.’ He glanced at her again. ‘You’re the exception.’

‘And you’re telling me we’re supposed to sit in meetings now, pretending to be the enemy, when we’ve just done all theseunspeakable thingsto one another?’ She took his hand and slid it even further up her inner thigh, seeing the smile curve on his lips. He looked at her hungrily. ‘Do you think they’ll be able to tell?’

He shook his head. ‘No.’

‘How can you be so sure?’

‘Because we’re both professionals. And because you’re almost done on this project, and then our private life won’t matter one way or another to anyone else.’

Our. She smiled at the word. It felt precious, coming from him.

He glanced at her hopefully. ‘...You are almost done, aren’t you?’

She wrinkled her nose, giving a little sigh. ‘Well, not nearly as done as I’d like to be.’

‘What does that mean?’ he frowned, looking puzzled. ‘You’ve confirmed it’s Lilja in the painting. You’ve got unrestricted access to our archives, you’ve seen private family photos, we’ve made love in the very rooms she walked through...’ He winked, destroying her. ‘What more do you need? Just write up her bio and deliver it. Everything will be a lot simpler once we can sign this thing off. Then we won’t have to pretend anything.’

‘I know.’ She bit her lip as she shifted her weight and looked out of the window, feeling suddenly pressured. Questions kept coming to her mind that felt wrong to ask.

‘Darcy?...What is it?’

‘Nothing.’

‘It’s obviously something.’

She dropped her head back, running her hands over her face as she tried to clear her thoughts. ‘I just feel like I’m missing something important. It’s staring me in the face but I can’t see it. I feel like I’m not seeing the wood for the trees.’

He sighed. ‘Look, Lilja was my great-grandmother. I never knew her, obviously, but without wanting to do her down, it’s not as if she lived a life of international mystery. She was a privileged woman of a certain class. How much is there really to say about her?’

Never knew her...Darcy flinched, staring into the darkness suddenly. ‘...That’s it.’

‘What is?’

She didn’t reply immediately, allowing her thoughts to run,untrammelled. ‘It makes no sense why she would have done it,’ she murmured.

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