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Leigh gave a shocked laugh. ‘What?’

‘I’m just saying.’

‘And do what?’

‘Notthis, Leigh,’ Alex said.

‘Are you saying I’m not cut out for PR? I’ve givenyoua run for your money,’ Leigh said snippily.

‘That you have,’ Alex agreed. ‘I’m not saying youcan’t. I’m saying youshouldn’t. It’ll change you.’

‘How?’

Alex considered her next words carefully.

What she wanted to tell Leigh was that she was honest and vulnerable and better for it. That she wasn’t dead inside and Alex wanted her to stay that way. That Leigh needed to protect herself from this nasty world.

All those thoughts and more whirled around Alex’s mind, boiling down into one simple statement, and that statement hovered at the edge of Alex’s lips without quite breaking free. Maybe it never would have.

But Leigh wasn’t letting it go.

‘How, Alex? Tell me what would be so bad about me doing this?’ she implored.

‘Because you’re toogoodfor it!’ Alex exploded.

She didn’t look at Leigh, wouldn’t meet her eye. She felt panicked, frightened. She wanted to get out of the car. Which would have been difficult because she was driving the bloody thing.

Clearly, Leigh was on the same page. ‘Stop the car,’ she said quietly.

Alex instantly pulled over into a layby. ‘I’ll call you a cab. Sorry. I made it weir—’

She didn’t make it to the end of the sentence because her lips became otherwise occupied. Leigh had dragged her by the coat collar to kiss her.

Alex’s brain went to war with itself immediately. The three parts of her mind were all fighting for control. Her superego said, ‘Stop this. It’s a bad idea. This isn’t in the plan.’ While her ego said, ‘You can’t, you’ll hurt her.’ But her id? Her id said, ‘You want this. You’ve wanted it from the moment you heard her name again.’ And her id won.

As the rain hammered down on the BMW in that dark layby, Alex bodily pulled Leigh across the seat and onto her lap, letting go and giving in to what she had done everything in her power to deny she needed. Leigh Calloway.

Twenty-Eight

Leigh had officially lost her mind. And Alex was to blame. She was suddenly there—like,there,there. The woman Leigh had suspected sat under Alex’s brash confidence had finally shown up, and it was ten years ago, all over again. Leigh saw her.

Leigh didn’t even care that they were on a public motorway, albeit stashed in a layby. Someone could drive by and see everything. Leigh’s shirt came open anyway. It might have even ripped a bit, but Leigh was way past caring.

Alex’s mouth moved from hers to her collarbone. And despite the awkwardness of the location, they were making it work. Alex was making everything work. Leigh’s skin was on fire for her.

Leigh’s back was pushed up against the steering, and she could feel its ridges pressing into her, but that was fine. Alex’s mouth pushed farther down, below the bra line, and she was caressing some very sensitive parts with an experienced and skilled tongue. Leigh didn’t want it to stop.

And then Leigh pushed her back into the car’s horn.

They both screamed, and Alex stopped what she was doing. They looked at each other for a moment and then broke into laughter.

When the merriment subsided, it was replaced by mild awkwardness. It was too much eye contact. It seemed to fill the car with doubt.

‘Should we have done this?’ Alex asked, fear in her grey eyes.

Leigh pulled her shirt back together, feeling too naked. She didn’t quite know what Alex meant. Was she really asking, ‘Should we have done this?’ Or did she mean, ‘Doyouthink we should have done this?’ Or—the most embarrassing interpretation—‘Idon’t think we should have done this.’

Mired in ambiguity, Leigh decided to keep her reply vague. ‘I… I don’t know.’