Page 115 of Rough Around the Hedges

“I do have a dirty little secret.” He tilted my chin up, and my gaze met his sleepy blue one in the darkness. “Because I know you’d hate it if anyone saw us like this.”

I pouted. “Yes, but I wasn’t expectingmeto be the dirty little secret. If I blackmail you with me, I’m just blackmailing myself, aren’t I?”

“And you’re far too smart for that.” He rubbed his thumb across my lower lip then leant his head down to kiss me softly. “To answer your question, yes, but it’s not nearly as romantic as it sounds.”

“What does that mean?”

“It wasn’t an engagement as such,” he said, laying his head back and hugging me into him. “It was my dad’s best friend’s daughter. She’s a couple of years younger than me, and we grew up together, so our parents always joked that we’d get married one day. We just kind of accepted it when we were kids—as kids do and all that. When I was leaving for university, she asked if she could visit me, and I said yes. We went on a few dates, but she actually ended up falling for one of my friends.” Hechuckled. “They broke up a year or so later, but it was never on the cards for us.”

My heart squeezed a little at his words. “Do you wish it had been?”

“No. I just see her as a little sister more than anything. That was pretty much how we grew up. We only ever really went out on a couple of dates to humour our parents. Both of us knew from the start that it would never work.” He rolled onto his side and readjusted me in his arms, nuzzling into my hair. “How could I ever regret the rocky, chaotic path that brought me into your weird little world?”

“Hey, I resent you calling my world weird.”

“You use your chicken as your therapist.”

“He’s the only man in my life who doesn’t answer back.”

Oliver tilted his head down, brushing his nose against mine. “If I promise to stop answering back, will you use me instead?”

Was this man jealous of a chicken?

“No,” I said firmly. “How can I complain about you to you?”

“How else will I know what to fix about myself if you don’t complain to me? That’s the only way to make you like me.”

I poked his side, making him flinch. “You know exactly how to make me like you, but you insist on me hating you, so…”

“I see.” He flipped me over, pinning me beneath him. My skin tingled as he slid his hands up my arms, coming to interlace our fingers before he held my hands above my head. “And how exactly do I make you like me?”

His lips were barely hovering above mine, and warmth spread through my body.

“You stop selling my favourite place, idiot.”

“Mm.” He lowered his lips to mine, and the heat of his kiss made me shiver. “Why don’t you convince me, princess?”

I knew it was a trap. I knew, deep down, that he would never change his mind.

But for this moment, in this little bubble of lies and pretend I’d wrapped around us, I wanted to fake it. I wanted to believe I could change his mind. That I could convince him.

That I wouldn’t be dragging the dagger deeper into my own heart.

So, I gave in to the insatiable man who simultaneously angered me yet made me feel like the most precious person in this world.

And took the path that I knew would shatter my heart beyond repair.

25

ROSE

The Weirdest Market Ever

“You’re an idiot,” Isa said, staring at me. “Why don’t you just accept that you’re head over heels in love with Oliver and swallow your pride?”

I grabbed another cushion from behind me and tucked it between my knees until I had a full-body pillow going on with her sofa cushions. “Absolutely not.”

“Your pride will be the death of you, Rose.”

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