Page 25 of Maid for Advertising
“Well, it should be. Lots of twenty-two year old blokes are twats. We grow out of it, eventually. Sort of.”
“Hmm . . . I bet.”
That had set the tone for the rest of the day and now it was late afternoon. I’m a control freak and I’m happy to admit it. So I wanted to know what her blood sugar was, when she should be checking it, when she should eat. But the few times I’d tried to broach the subject of her diabetes she’d shut the conversation down and it had caused an atmosphere. Instead I decided it was about time I did something I’d wanted to do for a while now, something I should have done weeks ago but was too blind and then chicken-shit to do it.
“Urvi?” I said, squeezing her hands and bringing us to a halt in the middle of the market. “Will you have dinner with me . . . please?”
She looked up at me and smiled. “Of course I will, you weirdo. You don’t have to go all formal on me.”
I let out a breath and chuckled. “Wow that was easier than I thought.”
Her brows drew together in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Asking you out. It was easier than I thought.”
Both her eyebrows went up. “Are you saying I’m easy? I don’t like the sound of that. Maybe I should have said no.”
I leaned into her and kissed the side of her mouth, watching as a small shiver went through her and she licked her lips. “You’re anything but easy,” I said and my mouth found its way to the shell of her ear. I kissed her there then took her hand to lead her to the restaurant I’d booked before we’d even left the boat. (Okay, so Graham had booked it but, whatever).
“Well, nobody wants to be easy,” she grumbled and the hint of vulnerability in her voice had me drawing us to a halt outside the restaurant. I turned her to face me and she met my eyes but bit her lip.
“The first time I saw you I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in real life. Then the scraps of conversation I managed to get out of you at the bar showed me your humour, your kindness, your husky, smooth-velvet voice, your unique perspective on everything. For the last year and a half I’ve thought about youall the time.”
Her mouth fell open and her eyes went wide before she shook her head. “What are you talking about? If you liked me that much why didn’t you say anything?”
“That’s what I’m telling you. There was never an opportunity. You only had slivers of time for me at the bar, and all the men there were constantly hitting on you. I would have been just another one of the pathetic city boys you dispatched every night.”
“What about that night when we . . . ?”
“The night when I hung around until after closing?”
“Well, yeah. You could have said something then. We –”
“That night felt surreal. It felt almost magical. I didn’t want to ruin it. To sully its memory. And I felt like a creep, hanging around until closing to get you alone. I didn’t want to compound that by asking you out. That’s why I grabbed my chance when we were in the coffee shop. You weren’t serving me. It was daytime. It didn’t feel sleazy or like a power play. But then . . .”
“Then Stella happened.”
“Yeah.” I put my hands in my pockets and scuffed my foot on the pavement. “I found her in my bed on Monday.Naked.”
She stared at me and then looked away quickly.
“You knew?” I asked. She bit her lip again.
“Maybe?”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s what I get for having so many staff. I’m guessing you saw her leave.”
“Uh . . . yeah. She was strutting down the corridor looking smug. She asked me for a latte as she passed – said she needed the caffeine after the night she’d had.”
“Ugh, she’s terrifying.” I shuddered. “I’d stayed up half the night sweet-talking Ben (lot of good that did) and when I made it to my cabin in the early hours she was there waiting for me. Like a spider. I threw her out.”
Urvi looked straight into my eyes for a long moment. Whatever she saw there caused her to let out a relieved breath and her stiff posture relaxed.
“You thought I’d slept with her?”
She gave a little shrug. “It wasn’t any of my business if you had. And I knew she was way more your speed than me. After all I wasjust staff. I didn’t even know I was on your radar.”
“On my radar? You’re all I can see. All I’ve ever seen since we first met. And you were neverjust staff.”
