Page 56 of Midnight Wishes

‘Oh shit.’ Undisguised shock consumed her features. ‘She cheated on you?’

Alex felt his mouth twist. ‘This was about three years ago. Erik and I weren’t close at the time, but Davis… He was like a brother to me. We met at uni, and it was the sibling relationship I’d always wanted. So finding him balls deep in my girlfriend on a rainy Thursday night wasn’t the best surprise. I haven’t had anything serious since.’ Until now. If he could just convince her to take the leap with him.

‘At least Gregg had the grace to start fucking someone I’d never met.’ She said it so nonchalantly. As if someone cheating onher—with her dry wit and secretly soft heart and absolute masterpiece of a body—wasn’t shocking information.

‘Hewhat?’

‘Oh, have I never mentioned that?’ A casual bite of ravioli left a tiny smear of sauce on the corner of her mouth. Alex resolutely kept his hands to himself, somehow certain that if he broke her focus now, they would never find their way back to this conversation. ‘It was a model from one of his shoots. He kept me on standby for three months in case she came to her senses and ditched him. When she didn’t, he finally ended things.’ Sarahstraightened her shoulders. Brushed her hair back. Took a sip of wine. ‘I’m not cut up about it.’

‘He’s the one you were trying to make jealous that night?’ They’d put on a show, certainly, but if he could go back, Alex would have dialled it up to the max. Made sure the absolute idiot realised what he’d fumbled, thinking he could do better than Sarah.

‘I don’t even know if I wanted to make him jealous, exactly. I don’t think I could have, at that point. But I did look for someone who would piss him off. And you… Corporate vibe. Built like a fridge. Clearly uses styling product. The complete antithesis to him. The opposite of everything he’d expect me to find. You were perfect.’ A wistful smile brightened her face. ‘Anyway, I get why you want her to think you’ve moved on.’

Alex almost laughed, reining himself in by reaching across the table to finally wipe the sauce away, letting his thumb linger for a moment in the divot at the corner of her mouth, indulging in the tiny hitch of her breath. Tonight was less about his past with Leah and more about his potential future with Sarah. And it was in that spirit that he opened the menu again and said, ‘Want dessert?’

‘Oh.’ Sarah glanced at her phone, the faintest disappointment on her face as she took in the time. ‘Shouldn’t we be go—’

Alex levelled a stare at her, trying to impress through that one look all the things he couldn’t say yet.

I don’t give a shit about the opening or about Leah. Tonight’s about you. Thank you for opening up to me. Letting me see your pain. Letting me be part of your healing. I’ll give you anything—anything—you need, so long as you keep looking at me like I matter to you.

What he said was, ‘We can be late.’

Chapter 27

ALEX

broken | lovelytheband

Tendrils of Sarah’slong, dark hair grazed Alex’s arm, wrapped around her waist. It was one of the many aspects of her entirely overwhelming his senses. She looked like a dream—all big, smoky eyes and dark, pillowy lips. The sandalwood perfume that haunted his olfactory glands was real and present, lingering in all the places he touched her. The wine at dinner had loosened her voice into something deep and throaty, igniting his body each time she spoke. And beyond the brush of her hair, he never wanted to move his hand, caught as it was between the smooth satin of her dress and the smooth skin of her arm. Not to mention, she glided through the gallery, delighting each person he introduced her to—including a dealer based in Soho who was looking for new talent and a journalist from an independent art publication who loved an up-and-comer story—with the same blunt tone and biting wit he adored having directed at him.

‘There I thought I was special,’ he whispered in her ear, as he led her towards the bar. ‘Turns out you’re like this with everyone.’

‘Of course you’re special, Aleksander.’ Sarah sighed. ‘A special kind of annoying.’

‘Now that’s no good,’ Alex murmured, his lips brushing the skin of her neck. ‘How ever will you make everyone believe you’re madly in love with me if you talk to me like that?’

Sarah’s breath hitched as she swivelled her head and found him already in close proximity to her face. But she recovered quickly, pushing herself up until she spoke into the hollow behind his jaw. ‘You know how convincing I can be. I think I’ll manage.’

‘You know,’ Alex started, then swallowed heavily, ‘we could do this ag—’

‘Is that her?’ Sarah interrupted, nodding at someone behind him.

Alex didn’t turn. He didn’t need to see Leah. They’d met at an event like this. Had attended dozens together while they were dating. She’d be wearing cream, navy, or tan. Her hair slicked back into a high ponytail. Sharp eye makeup. Bright red lipstick. Wafting through the room like a queen entering her court. ‘Does she look simultaneously like the kind of woman who knows what a lobster fork is and like she could kill you with one?’

Peeking over his shoulder again, Sarah nodded. ‘That is a bizarrely effective description.’

More to the point, he didn’t want to see Leah. Not if it meant shifting his focus from Sarah, and the strand of hair she was letting him twirl through his fingers. The situation needed to beplayed carefully. One false move, and Sarah would realise what the night really was: a pathetic excuse to be close to her. Seeing the ex who cheated on you was never fun, exactly, but Leah was such ancient history to him that he felt little need to show her how happy he was without her.

But the opportunity to spend the evening with his arm around Sarah? Having an excuse to kiss her cheek when he brought her a drink? A whole evening to let him pretend she could be his?

Those were the real reasons for his terms of the bargain.

Leah was just a convenient cover story.

When Sarah leaned into his neck again, it was the closest his knees had ever come to buckling. ‘If you want to make her jealous,’ she said softly, touching his hand and sliding it low on her hip. ‘I think we can do better.’

He wondered how well she remembered their first meeting all those months before. If she recalled that he’d said almost exactly the same words to her then.

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