“Okay,” I said. “I’m on it. I promise.”
The trouble is that beingon ithad never really been my natural state. More often than not, I was unaware of whatitactually was.
Chapter 7
Good girl
Lucy
I sat bolt-upright on the sofa when the banging started, then blinked across at the hallway and my front door beyond it.
“What on earth?” I muttered as I tried to disentangle myself from my duvet cocoon. This place was a bit on the draughty side, to be honest. Period properties were fine if you didn’t mind a cold wind blowing through your living room. I flinched as another series of loud bangs sounded again, and then finally managed to untangle myself.
“Bollocks,” I cursed as I skidded on the polished hallway on the way to the door, falling on my arse again. I couldn’t even blame the heels this time. When I finally made it to the door, I paused and then went up on tiptoes to peer through the peephole. Upon seeing Felix’s handsome but frustrated face on the other side, I stumbled back and fell on my arse for the third time that day. Once down, I decided it was safer to stay there. Maybe if he thought I was out, he might go away. There was no way I was letting him see me dressed like this. Not only was I in the most deeply unsexy and embarrassing pyjamas known toman, but I had a massive fluffy dressing gown over the top, which Emily had reliably informed me made me look like her Aunt Becs (not a flattering comparison, believe me). On my feet were my enormous fluffy pink and purple slippers, my hands were in fingerless gloves, and I had a bobble hat on my head.
“Lucy, I can hear you in there,” Felix said. “Open the door.”
I winced. He was clearly running out of patience. Great, if he didn’t think I was a useless weirdo before, he was definitely going to think it now. With no other choice, I clambered to my feet and resigned myself to my fate. When I got through the many locks and finally pulled open the door, my breath left me in a whoosh. There he was in all his glorious intensity. His stubble was end-of-the-day thick, his tie was loose and his hair was more ruffled than normal. My mouth went completely dry when his dark eyes locked with mine, and then I felt heat rise in my cheeks as he did a full body scan from the bobble on my hat to the fluff on my slippers. His lips twitched once, and that dimple made a very brief appearance before he blanked his expression.
Then he just walked right in, closed the door behind himself and bizarrely started inspecting the locks.
“Er, what are you?—”
“Good girl,” he interrupted in a low voice, and my head started to spin. I challenge any heterosexual woman to be unaffected by Felix Moretti calling them a good girl.
“W–what?” I whispered, hoping he’d say it again.
“Good girl for not opening the door right away. Good girl for checking the peephole and good girl for having so many locks on your front door.”
That was four good girls in under a minute. I was going to pass out. Then Felix’s head tilted to the side as he scanned me again.
“Is your heating on the blink?”
“What?” I whispered again, as clearly this was the only word I was capable of saying from now on.
“Your heating,” he said slowly. “It feels warm in here, but you seem to be dressed for some sort of weird polar expedition.”
I pulled my hat off and threw it onto the side table in a sudden movement. It landed on one of my many house plants. Felix watched its progress, and then his gorgeous eyes came back to me. I cleared my throat, hoping I was now able to form words.
“It’s draughty,” I said, just above a whisper, and honestly, I was proud of myself for getting that much information out. Felix Moretti in my flat was not something my brain was able to cope with. Technically, I should have been prepared. The amount of times I’d fantasised about having him here was insane. But Imaginary Felix was nothing compared to the real thing – well, apart from the fact that Imaginary Felix would have ripped my clothes off by now and started doing bad, bad things to me. Then again, Imaginary Lucy would not be looking like Emily’s Aunt Becs. Imaginary Lucy was in a silky sleep-shorts set with lace trim and her imaginary cleavage on show so…
“Lucy,” Felix snapped, and I blinked. Whoops, zoned out again. “Did you hear anything I just said?”
I pulled my lips in between my teeth and widened my eyes. He shook his head in exasperation and stalked past me into the living room. I made a sound no human should make – sort of a cross between an “eep” and a “squee” as I hustled after him. My living room was an absolute state. He stopped by my sofa, looking down at the duvet nest and the many, many books that were littered around it. When he looked back at me his dimple had returned.
“Still read five books at a time then?” heasked. I gave another deeply embarrassing “eep” in reply as my vocal cords had now entirely given up the ghost. He picked upThe Hobbitfrom the top of the nest. “Still keep a Tolkien going while you read the others?”
I shrugged one shoulder in response. It was something I’d done since I was small. I’d read all the Tolkien books early, but then I could never really let them go. So I just re-read them whilst I read other books, sort of like literary palate cleansers. It did mean lugging a lot of weight around in my school bag and made me even more of a target for bullies, but it was just the way I wanted to do things. Felix felt the well-worn cover ofThe Hobbitfor a moment and then carefully placed it back on the duvet. A warm feeling spread out from my chest at the amount of care he took over that book. He knew how much it meant to me. He remembered that much at least.
“Right,” he said, all business now as his dimple disappeared and he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m here to take you to the emergency department. No arguments.”
I blinked up at him, anger piercing through the daydream I was starting to have about Felix on top of my duvet nest.
“No,” I said, my voice much stronger than before.
“Lucy, I spoke to your mum and?—”
“You spoke to my mother?” If anything was going to throw cold water over my Felix sex daydreams, it was chat about my mum.
