Lucy laughed. “Yes, I’d noticed that.”
“Do you remember her from when we were kids? She was about the same age as you but she wasn’t around very much. Only occasionally in the summer holidays.”
“She came to the cottage a couple of times but she never spoke to me. I thought it was because she was snobbish but Mum said she was a bit… different.”
“Vicky didn’t speak for years when she was a child. Selective mutism. Things weren’t easy for her. Staying with the Hardings in the holidays must have been… difficult with her being her dad’s love child.”
There was a pause before Lucy spoke again.
“Felix, is Vicky autistic?”
“I mean, I think so,” I admitted. “But it’s not something the Hardings ever discuss and she’s never brought it up. To be honest I’m not sure it’s ever been handled the right way. She was bullied very badly at school. That’s one of the reasons Ollie’s so protective of her I think.”
“So why is there friction about her working with you?”
“Ollie’s an arrogant sod. He thinks Vics would be betteroff working for the Buckingham Estate, but she had other plans. And okay, there were some teething problems to start with. Vicky is very…truthful and… direct. It can put people’s backs up. But since she hired Lottie to be her personal assistant that hasn’t been a problem anymore. Lottie is sort of like her own personal empath – helps Vics read the room, stops her going off on one or insulting people. It works well. Only problem is that Ollie hates Lottie.”
“What? How could anyone hate Lottie?”
I chuckled. “That’s a long story. Not sure we’ve got time for me to spill all the tea on that one.”
“So you think Ollie’s using York to spite you? Because you stole his sister and you’re employing his enemy?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Jesus, Luce. You’ve still got a flare for the drama. Much as I hate to admit it, I think Vicky’s probably right – York manages the relevant investments for the Hyde Park project and he does have legitimate concerns. He was just a bit of prick about them.”
I parallel parked outside the restaurant and when I was in the space, with my arm around the back of Lucy’s seat to look out the back window, she reached up to kiss me.
“That is so sexy,” she breathed against my mouth, and I started laughing.
“What? Parking is sexy?”
“Yes!” she said, her hands going into my hair to pull me down for another kiss. “It’s all that manly sling-the-arm-over-the-passenger-seat-to-look-out-the-back-spin-the-wheel-one-handed sexiness.”
I growled into her mouth and wished I’d agreed to just come into her house instead of going out. Lucy was so open, so honest about her feelings for me and the strength of her attraction. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before, and I found myself wanting to take her and hide her from the rest ofthe world, from people that I knew would crush all that trusting honesty.
“You’re easy to please,” I said before kissing her again, one of my hands cupping the back of her neck under her scarf and the other going around her side to pull her to me. I could barely feel Lucy under the bulk of her coat. “How many layers do you have on exactly?” I asked as I pulled back. We couldn’t stay necking like teenagers in the car all evening.
“Eleventy billion,” she said with a smile as I pushed open my car door.
“Stay,” I told her as I levered out of the car and then slammed the door before going round to her side to pull her door open for her.
“Yikes, thisisa proper date,” she said as I helped her out of the car. I tucked her into my side once we were on the pavement and led her over to the restaurant. “It’d better not be fancy. You promised I could wear my Uggs.”
As we moved to the pub in front of us I felt her body relax against mine. The King’s Head certainly could not be described as fancy.
She smiled at me as we sat down at the table I’d reserved next to the fire, and then the unwrapping began. First the coat, then the sleeveless puffa underneath, the scarf, the hat, the gloves until she was left in a denim skirt with thick tights which were the same blue as her very fluffy, high-necked jumper.
“Aren’t your legs cold?”
She shook her head and smiled. “Fleece-lined,” she said, lifting her jumper and peeling down the top of her tights to show me the fluffy lining within. It shouldn’t have been sexy. I’d always considered myself much more of a tiny underwear and stockings kind of man, but Lucy’s thermals were weirdly a massive turn-on. I took a seat at the table before I embarrassed myself in public. Despite all the layers, when I looked at Lucy’shands on the table I could see a couple of her fingers were white. So, I moved from opposite her to sit by her side and took both her hands in mine to warm them.
“I need to get you heated gloves,” I muttered as I tried to get as much warmth into her fingers as possible. Lucy was looking down at our joined hands. When she looked back up at me, she had that dreamy, blissful expression on her face again, like she couldn’t really believe she was here with me, likeshewas the lucky one. I felt an arrow of guilt at that. There was the niggling worry that her long-term crush on me was clouding her judgement. That I was taking advantage of her. But I pushed it aside, not willing to let anything stand between us.
Chapter 19
Your Grace
Felix
