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Seth still hadn’t moved, but there was a heart-stopping sheen in his eyes. ‘Sounds like a plan, Pollz.’
She felt compelled to make it clear. ‘And even if thereweresparks, we could still keep things casual. No strings.’
‘You don’t want strings?’ he asked, lifting one dark eyebrow.
‘Youdon’t want strings, Seth.’
‘I don’t?’
‘You—you’ve made such a big thing about us just being friends.’
‘I have?’
‘Of course. Last year, when you were so generous and everything.’
‘Oh, yeah, right.’ Seth nodded as he took this in. For Polly, it was hard to tell if he was amused or sad, or if he was dealing with some other emotion altogether. ‘Well, okay,’ he said. ‘Let’s stick with no strings.’
‘So no one will get hurt.’
Very gently, he said, ‘I’d hate to hurt you, Polly.’
‘Well, no you won’t hurt me, actually, because this was my idea and if it turns out to be a big mistake, it wasmymistake. And if I’m upset by the kiss for any reason, then I’d only have myself to blame.’
It felt like an age before Seth answered.
‘You’ve got it all worked out.’
Polly shook her head. ‘I don’t have anything worked out. I just feel like we’ve had this big question hanging over us for so long and I’ve been trying to pretend it’s not there and the pressure keeps building.’
‘It’s called desire, Polly.’
She nodded.
‘And I quite like your idea, your experiment. I’m willing to be a guinea pig.’
Oh. This wasn’t quite what Polly had expected. Apart from setting his glass on a side table, Seth still hadn’t moved. Wasn’t he supposed to be reaching for her by now?
‘You going to make a move on me, Pollz?’
‘Me?’ Polly’s heart thudded hard. ‘You wantmeto kissyou?’
‘Isn’t that the plan?’
‘I—I’ve only ever done it the other way round—where the guy is the kisser and I’m the kissee.’
*
Seth held hisbreath. All night Polly had looked incredibly lovely and he’d been going mad from wanting her. But he’d always known that getting together with this woman would be either downright impossible, or totally, wackily complicated.
Seemed they were going with complicated, and he couldn’t have been happier. Or crazier with desire.
‘Okay,’ she said softly now. ‘Here goes.’ She set her glass down, with most of the whisky untouched, and kicked off her shoes. A moment later she was hiking up the hem of her dress, so she could kneel on the sofa.
Fighting an urge to sweep her into his arms, Seth somehow managed to remain still. And Polly came crawling over the cushions, moving towards him on her hands and knees, her pink stripe of hair swinging as she closed the gap. She looked so scared, Seth’s heart was nearly breaking.
As she reached him, she stopped, their faces inches apart. ‘This isn’t like an exam or anything, Seth. No marks out of ten, okay?’
‘I’ll try to remember.’ Right now, he was having trouble remembering his own name.
