Playing Dirty(119)

We’d tried to tell ourselves that our relationship was just a playful fling that needed to come to a halt after our near miss with Michael in the library, but we both knew that wasn’t going to happen. We simply couldn’t end it, no matter how much we told ourselves we needed to. There was something between us; something that couldn’t be stopped no matter what, and it felt like we’d already known each other for an eternity.

I just wished we could really be together, in public and with the knowledge of our friends and family. Then we’d be complete.

“Are you absolutely sure no one will recognize you?” I finally asked.

“It’ll be fine. I’ve done this before.”

“Broken into women’s apartments?” I asked in a teasing tone.

“Gone incognito, I mean. That’s how we met, after all.”

“True.”

“So what do you say? Show me around the museums?”

I grinned. “Just let me shower first.”

I hopped out of bed, and a smirk crossed Andrew’s handsome features. “I think I’ll join you…”

***



An hour later, we were looking at my favorite painting in the National Gallery, and Andrew spoke loudly in an unconvincing Texan accent, trying his best to disguise who he really was as another couple approached the painting.

“Howdy, partners,” he said, nodding at them. They shot him strange looks and turned away.

I nudged him. “You know Texans don’t really say ‘howdy, partner’ every five seconds, right?”

“This Texan does,” he replied, scratching his wig, which almost made it come askew. I hastily fixed it for him. “Thanks, partner,” he added.

I grinned and rolled my eyes. “Anyway, as I was saying…see the brushstrokes there? And the way he’s perfectly captured the expression on the girl’s face? She looks serene at first glance, but when you look closer, you can see how much more there is going on in her mind. Especially in the eyes. The eyes say it all.”

Andrew grinned. “Come to think of it, I do see it now. Like there’s two different layers to what’s happening in the scene.”

I nodded, glad that he was understanding me. “Exactly.”

“You know, I always used to think art was quite boring, but you explain it so well. I actually kinda get it now.”

I smiled. “Well, this is just a really good example to show first-timers,” I said, gesturing to the painting again. “It’s actually one of the first paintings that made me fall in love with art.”

He looked down at me, squeezing my hand. “I think this painting is making me fall in love too,” he said softly, his eyes conveying a clear message. “With art, of course.”

“Of course. Art,” I said, trying to suppress the urge to grin and cheer as an unspoken sentiment passed between us.

I knew how I felt about him, and now I knew exactly how he felt about me. It didn’t need to be said; not yet. It was too early, and although I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were both feeling it, it wasn’t the best time to say it, not while we were in disguise in a crowded museum. A better time would come along—a perfect moment—and when it did, I’d be happy to admit what I’d just realized out loud…

I was really falling for him.





Chapter 14

Keira



On the morning of my next day off a week and a half later, I woke early and lay in bed, just thinking. It was a happy pursuit, and I did it with a smile on my face. Actually, I found that I did most things with a smile on my face these days, especially since the moment Andrew and I had shared at the museum. It wasn’t that life was perfect—our situation was far from ideal, seeing as no one could know about us—but perhaps the secret was to stop worrying about life not being perfect.

That just made everything easier.

I wasn’t entirely sure how things were going to progress between me and Andrew in the future, but I liked things the way they were right now, and I was happy enough for them to continue in this vein for a while. We couldn’t ‘date’ in the usual meaning of the word, so we’d invented our own form of dating, a form which I was currently enjoying far more than I’d ever enjoyed dating in the past. It wasn’t just the sex—although the sex was amazing—but also the fact that our attempts to find time and places for surreptitious sex had inadvertently led to us talking.

A lot.

There’d been the nights at my place and the day we’d sneaked off to the museum together, and yesterday, there’d even been a clandestine picnic in the hedged off gardens beyond the stables of Richmond Palace. Come to think of it; maybe we were dating like normal people. We weren’t really in a position where we could go out to dinner, go to see a movie or go dancing every night, so instead we sneaked around in disguises, had sex and talked endlessly. And although we essentially did the same thing every date, I was in no way tired of it.