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A sharp pain shot through Aiden’s big toe when Juniper shifted back. The heavy soles of her Doc Marten’s weren’t for the faint of heart, either, and he gritted his teeth, catching her elbow in an effort to stop her squashing the rest of his foot. ‘Ow.’

He heard her breath catch, and then her foot lurched away, thank god. Still, from the way she whirled to free her elbow, tearing it from his grasp like his skin was made of stinging nettles, he suspected he wasn’t about to get an apology.

‘Beginning to think Marten wasnota doctor,’ he said, rolling the feeling back into his toe. ‘Those things are lethal.’

‘You shouldn’t leave your feet under them, then.’ She blinked innocently, and then turned her back on him, her long, choppy waves whipping him in the face before she sauntered to one of the desks with the rest of their scattering classmates.

Luc whistled under their breath, ‘You’re in trouble,’ and then left him hovering alone at the edge of the classroom.

Yeah, it seemed he was. He just didn’t quite know why.

4

Of course Aiden chose the desk in front of her. Juniper took out her fraying patience on her apron tie, yanking the knot until it cut into her stomach. Even hisvoiceannoyed her, all dry and husky as he drawled out little quips he probably thought were hilarious.

Well, they weren’t. They were obnoxious, just like everything else about him.

‘So, you two clearly know each other,’ Tilly commented from the desk adjacent to her. Unlike Juniper’s second-hand grey apron, already stained with paint from its previous owner, Tilly donned a gorgeous canvas covering that resembled Monet’s water lilies, shades of swirling light and dark blues broken up by vivid sap greens.

Most of the others had clearly invested in something fun, too, the university’s spares hung at the back of the workshop untouched. In a sea of colour, Juniper was a drab rock.

In front of her, Aiden dipped his head into the loops of a pristine indigo apron embroidered with a crown logo on the front pocket.Likely bought by Daddy or one of his artist friends, she presumed sourly.

His grey T-shirt rode up against his tie and her eyes snagged on a strip of tanned flesh. Something tingly and unwanted flared through her, especially when his shoulders bunched to make the knot. As charming as his broad, muscular shoulders were, she preferred the hair-dusted, fleshy curve of his waist, proof that he hadn’t been perfectly chiselled out of stone after all, but rather—

Nope. Nope, she preferred none of it, because it was Aiden, and besides, she was far too busy answering her new friend’s question to pay attention to those things.

If she could remember what the question had been.

‘Sorry, what did you say?’ she said, breaking away from her ogling-slash-glowering. Mostly glowering.

Tilly’s smirk was dry, suspicious, which did nothing to slow Juniper’s pulse. ‘I said you two clearly know each other.’

‘Unfortunately. From high school. And sixth form.’ The glowering recommenced.

‘What a coincidence you both ended up here!’ Tilly was already unearthing her heap of clay from the plastic wrap, though Christopher hadn’t instructed them to yet. He sat at the desk positioned at the front of the classroom, looking bored as a gangly dark-haired boy who also lived in Chaplin House grilled him about which famous potters he’d met, spurred on by an overly expressive friend on the desk adjacent. Even so, the lass was more diverse than she’d expected: the lads were outnumbered, and a few mature students were dotted around, too. It made Juniper feel better about her delayed entry into undergraduate studies.

‘Coincidence. Curse. Same difference.’ Juniper shrugged, trying to loosen the knot around the waist as she perched on her stool.Maybe she’d been a little too aggressive with her apron tie, and now she was struggling to breathe.

‘I can hear you,’ Aiden muttered without turning around.

‘Well, that’s a shame. I certainly wasn’t trying to make my dislike for you abundantly clear.’ She directed the sarcastic retort at his fumbling fingers, which still hadn’t tied a knot properly.

See, not so good at everything after all. Ha!

Tilly snorted. Juniper enjoyed watching him struggle for a few more moments, until Christopher finally decided to teach them something.

‘Right, I’m bored now, gang, so we’re going to do what we actually came here to do. Pottery.’ He began tearing the wrap from his clay and then threw it down on his desk with a thud. ‘Here we have some stoneware clay: the easiest to work with, since you are clearly inexperienced beginners and, despite what you may think, I’m not trying to break your spirits just yet. That will happen later, when we start using porcelain. Can anybody enlighten me on where we start with this?’

Aiden’s hand shot straight up, because of course it did.

Much to Juniper’s enjoyment, Christopher folded his arms impatiently. ‘Not in high school anymore, Alex. No need for the raised hand business.’

Aiden’s arm lowered slowly, and the tips of his ears turned red. Finally, her luck was turning.

He still answered the question right, leading to a display of wedging from Christopher. His palms dug into the clay in a way that made it look easy, though Juniper knew it wasn’t. ‘Why are we doing this?’

‘To get out the bubbles!’ Juniper was quick to shout out her own knowledge, gained from the few classes she’d taken over the last year and also perhapsThe Great Pottery Throw Down, which she was binge-watching for research purposes. Since she hadn’t been able to affordmanyclasses in throwing rooms, she’d learned a lot from TV shows and online tutorials, and most of her experience was in hand-built sculptures and accessories.