Page 105 of Pretender

“What is it about her you love the most?” she asks.

Love.

I tap my fingers on the side of my glass, pretending to ponder it, but I already have an answer to that. And my list is long.

“Her passion,” I say. “Have you experienced her when she walks through a room and starts describing what it could become? How she could transform it?” My smile breaks free, imagining Linnea’s face as she points at things, talking and smiling. “She lights up, and she lights me up. Her face is … striking. Bloody mind-blowing. Her energy—” I stop, sensing something has changed. Again, I look up at Jamie. She grins, but her gaze is on something behind me.

“Hey, Linnea.”

LINNEA

My sneaky fucking friends hijacked my fake boyfriend, my real … something. I walked into Viktor Wynd’s—the most absurdly wonderful place but also the strangest choice for Aiden, who’s probably never even been to East London—thinking I’d need to save him from their interrogation. But here I am, standing behind his broad back, staring at his gorgeous tan neck, while he says the most uplifting words about me.

I don’t know what I missed, but what I caught made my heart swell. ‘Any moment I don’t spend with her feels like a waste of time’, and all the magical words that followed.

Jamie beams at me as if I’ve won the lottery. Maybe I have.

Aiden turns on the stool, which is dwarfed by his size. And his expression says so much. His eyebrows go up, his eyes get those little crinkles on the side as his smile widens.

“My favourite part of the day is when I’m with you,” I tell him, surprising myself at saying that out loud.

He stands up and I wrap my arms around his neck and press my lips to his in the same move. He has a gravitational field. Once I’m close enough, my mouth is pulled towards him. It’s just science, and I can finally give in to the rules that I’ve been fighting for too long.

His large hands are on my back.

Mmm, I love that. The way he spreads his fingers out as if he’s trying to touch as much of me as possible. The way I fit so perfectly against his chest.

“You taste funny,” I say against his lips.

“Your friends fed me absinthe.”

“How much?” I pull back and inspect his face.

Aiden blinks at me. “A couple of glasses. I’m okay.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they don’t take advantage of you.”

“You can,” he says, wrapping his arms around me again, smoothing his hands up my back and down my sides, grasping my hips, his gaze tracing the front of my white summer dress. Does he imagine opening the buttons from top to bottom the way I pictured him doing all the way over here?

“You look ravishing.”

“Thank you,” I say, kissing him.

“Alright, lovebirds. It’s time to visit the wonder cabinet.”

“I’d say that’s up to Linnea,” Aiden says, pressing me against him.

“She means the museum downstairs,” I say, nodding towards the top of the spiral staircase behind me.

“Oh,” Aiden says, grimacing. “Well, also that will be up to you.”

“I’ve not been in years, I’d love to. Can you fit down the stairs, though?”

Aiden glances over my shoulder. “I’ll try.”

Watching Aiden fold himself down the narrow spiral staircase is a wonder in itself. So is the face he makes when the first thing he sees is a gold mannequin with huge plastic breasts.

“What is this place?”