Page 38 of The Princess and the Fraud

“I know reverse psychology when I see it, Lovisa. But it was a nice try.”

With Aaron’s grip securing the ladder place, I climbed another rung, bringing me at the perfect level to pin the linen in place above the door. Instead of getting down and moving the entire ladder over, I stretched, snagging the pin into the caulk near the trim. Now that I was up close, Paige’s uneven pleats were more noticeable.

I bit my lip. “I should fix it while I’m up here, shouldn’t I?” I murmured, more to myself.

“Might as well,” Aaron said. “It’s a difficult job, keeping the ladder from toppling, but I’ll take one for the Alderton-Du Ponte team.”

I glanced down and found his dark eyes. He wasn’t looking at me, but rather at my hand where it hung above the door trim. I half expected a snarky quip—“you shouldn’t be leaning that far”—but he only watched in silence.

And then his gaze slid the few inches over to mine, locking. His brows were low with the lack of expression, the neutrality unsettling. I should’ve asked about the music hall then, or even Fiona, but a different question blurted from me. “Why were you in the bushes?”

“What?”

“Last Saturday.” I turned around to focus on the fabric, cheeks heating. “I found you hiding in the bushes. I never asked why. Or, well, Idid, but you didn’t tell me.”

He gave a resigned sigh. “Mrs. Massey walked by. I… panicked.”

Mrs. Masseyhadwalked by last weekend—I’d nearly run into her with my tray. “So youhidin thebushes?”

“Very amusing, I know. I don’t think quickly under pressure.”

I paused yet again, a corner of my mouth tugging up. “So youdidn’tdrop something.”

Aaron was less amused. “Just my dignity.”

This time, I laughed. I stretched up onto my tiptoes to arrange the final fold of the linen, slipping the pin into the drywall. “Well, you?—”

“Is he in here?” Fiona’s voice carried from the hallway outside of the event hall, loud and screeching like a bird. “Aaron? Oh, Aaron!”

Fiona swung into the hall without hesitation or looking twice, which caused her to walk straight into the ladder. Her hands shot out, and without the bar to lock the legs into place, the ladder swiveled with the sharp impact, pitching me to the side.

Leaving one hand to clench the ladder, Aaron’s other hand shot up and braced my waist, catching me before I could even register that I’d been about to fall. All five of his fingers splayed wide along my hip bone, his thumb pressing hard into the edge of my back.

I’d been stretching when his hand landed on me, which lifted my polo. His bottom two fingers were on the band of my pants, and his index finger was on top of my shirt, but his middle finger—his middle finger was like a hot iron branding into the sliver of my exposed skin between the two.

“Oh my gosh!” Fiona cried, other high-pitched words falling from her lips, but I barely registered them. Not with Aaron’s hand still on me. My heart thudded hard in my chest—from the near fall, surely, and not from the fact that he easily caught my weight one-handed. And not because he was touching a strip of skin at my hip. That definitely wasn’t it. “What are you doing with the ladder in the middle of the doorway?”

Fiona came up beside Aaron and pulled his arm down, severing the connection that’d balanced me. I gripped the edge of the ladder, the pins stabbing into my palm. “I just finished,” I said, but the words came off breathy.

“Besides, you should watch where you’re going, Fiona,” Caroline quipped, arriving over to us with her hands clasped in front of her. She stopped at Aaron’s side, not even bothering to soften her gaze. “You could’ve hurt someone.”

“I was just so excited to see Aaron, that’s all.” Fiona hadn’t let go of Aaron’s arm, but looped hers around it now. As she did so, I locked onto the ring finger of her left hand.Empty. “Have the drinks been served yet? Shall we go get one together?”

Aaron’s expression swept up as he gave her a smile, his hand rising and covering her own. The same one that’d been on my body moments ago. “I think they just served them. Let’s fetch you something.”

“I don’t get what he sees in her,” Caroline muttered as they walked away, glancing at me from the corner of her eye as she did so.

I saw the words for what she’d meant them as: a white flag. A part of me resisted it at first, but I knew that was my childish side peeking out. Ridiculous. I didn’t want to ignore her, but this also wasn’t the time and place to get into a conversation about her brother, either. “Like calls to like, I guess.” I looked down at my palm, where the pins bit down.

“I can’t imagine it’d be that hard to steal his attention away, do you? I mean, he doesn’t seemthatattached to her as it is, right?”

Aaron and Fiona came to a rest at the punch table, where he reached for a cup to pour her a drink. I watched how easily he moved around her, and just how easily his lips lifted into a charming smile. “It’s weird,” I said.

“What is?”

“How different he is at times. Not hot and cold, not really. More like… likeable and unlikeable.”

Caroline frowned down at me. “When did you find him likeable?”

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