Page 31 of All We Want for Christmas
‘Shh. I wish you wouldn’t look at me like that,’ Lara said.
‘Like what?’
‘Like … a wolf scenting – a fluffy bunny!’
He laughed loud. ‘No one would ever describe you as fluffy, Lara. Now, fierce like a mother bear is a different matter …’
‘Flynn, stop it!’
‘Hello! Are you two OK?’
A sliver of face appeared through the crack between the floor and the bottom of the lift. It was Carlos. She could hear Fiona behind him, asking him to be as quick as he possibly could.
‘Fine. We’re fine,’ she called down, before glaring at Flynn. ‘Just a bit bored.’
Carlos scoffed. ‘I bet you are.’
‘Bored?’ Flynn mouthed with a mock-hurt expression.
‘Hold on,’ Carlos muttered.
There were more voices and the lift inched down until there was a space large enough for them to crawl out. Lara slid back the metal grating and refused to look at him.
Carlos crouched by the opening, grinning. He was clearly loving every moment of the drama. ‘There you go. You should be able to get out now. We won’t move the lift again so you can get out.’
‘Thank you,’ Lara said, as she got up again to find Flynn leaning against the lift wall, looking fed up.
‘We’d better go,’ she said.
‘Pity,’ he murmured, peeling himself off the wall and leaning close to her ear. ‘Your hair has come down,’ he whispered, before holding out his arm. ‘After you.’
Still feeling his breath against her earlobe and the glow in her body, Lara dropped to her hands and knees again. Her dishevelled appearance was the least of her worries. She was desperate to escape from another few minutes in close proximity to a man who made fireworks explode in her stomach when he looked at her – and threatened to blow all her resolve and careful plans sky high.
She crawled out and Flynn followed, finding the space a tighter squeeze. He stood up, brushing dust off his jeans.
Carlos and Fiona were waiting, Carlos with a knowing smirk on his face. Did he suspect that anything unprofessional had gone on between her and Flynn?
Fiona was all aflutter. ‘Have you been all right in that horrible thing? I’m so sorry it took so long to get you out. I told Henry that antiquated contraption was a liability!’
‘We’ve been absolutely fine,’ Flynn said before Lara could answer. ‘Lara’s made me aware that some things at the castle can’t be rushed.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
‘So, exactly what was it like being stuck in the lift with Flynn?’ Jazz asked Lara a few days later while they queued for tickets at the cinema in Keswick.
Jazz’s birthday was coming up and she was going spend it with her husband and two young children, but this was a ‘grown-up’ outing on one of the few evenings when she and Lara had a night off – and Jazz’s police-officer husband, Luke, was on a day shift, so he could look after the kids.
‘To be honest, it was pretty boring,’ Lara said. ‘We were in there for over half an hour.’
She’d said that same thing to at least a dozen of her colleagues since the incident. Every time she said it, she was sure that her nose grew an inch and the word ‘Liar’ flashed across her forehead in neon lights.
Being the butt of jokes had been the least of her worries, but, fortunately, Fiona hadn’t decided to show the historian the chalice and she had left after examining the relic, hinting that she might return in the New Year to film a proper piece about Ravendale’s treasures. Lara would have to have everything sorted by then – if she was still in her job.
Jazz shuddered. ‘I’d have freaked out. I’m so claustrophobic. I’d rather climb those tower stairs ten times a day than get in that lift.’
‘Then let’s not talk about it. I’ve heard so many lift jokes, it’s driving me mad. Everyone for miles around seems to know we were stuck.’
‘Well, you know what the Ravendale rumour mill is like. At least Flynn’s had the engineers in to fix the thing, so I suppose that’s a positive. I’m still not ever getting in it, though.’
