And yes, Cerys was thrilled. So thrilled, in fact, she’d told him he could ease up now. Let something else overtake them in the news cycle, until their romance was forgotten and nobody really noticed they hadn’t been seen together in months.
Except he’d done the opposite. He’d invited himself to lunch with her brother. Because he’d seen her in that plain, boring swimsuit and known he’d wanted to see more. Not just that; he’d had fun. Real fun, on a fake hot-tub date.
What was it about her that drew him in? Part of it had to be the passion she showed when she talked about history, or anything she was knowledgeable about. But it was more than that. The way she let him see under that prickly exterior sometimes. Or how much fun it was to ease her out of that comfort zone she loved so much. Or even just the simple way she made a decision about how she felt about things based on what she thought, not on what anyone else said.
Whatever it was, Theo was too far into this, and he knew it. He just didn’t seem to have any inclination to get out again.
And then there was the text message he’d received from his mother that morning.
Looking forward to seeing you for dinner on Sunday. We understand—from social media, I might add—that there’s a new woman in your life. Your father says you should bring her along to see the old pile. Let her know what she’s getting into.
He wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to persuade Celeste to have Sunday lunch with his parents—or how he’d explain it to them if she didn’t come. Or which was the worst of the two outcomes, to be honest.
But he was going to have to worry about it later. The restaurant door swung open and Celeste strode in, flanked by a tall, handsome guy in a dark coat, and a woman Theo hadn’t seen before. She had her dark hair clipped back from her face, and wore a sweater dress under her coat. She was pretty, in a curvy, petite way—but his gaze was quickly drawn back to Celeste, slipping out of her white coat to reveal her customary black clothing underneath.
God, she was beautiful.
Her companions paused just inside the door, looking faintly astonished. Apparently, they hadn’t been following Celeste’s social media mentions lately, then.
Celeste said something to them both that he couldn’t make out, then smiled—her painted red lips wide, although Theo could tell even from the distance between them that it wasn’t one of her real smiles—and headed towards him.
This was it.
Theo stumbled to his feet as they approached, trying to return Celeste’s smile. As she reached him, he did what he always did on dates: he embraced her, then pressed a kiss against her mouth.
Oh. Ohhh.
It was only meant to be a quick brush of the lips, maybe only at the corner of her mouth, even. But somehow it was suddenly more. Nothing deep—no tongue, as Cerys always warned him about kisses in public. But still.
Their first kiss.
And suddenly Theo was very sure that there needed to be another. And another. And...
Celeste pulled away after a moment, colour high on her cheeks. Good. At least he wasn’t the only one affected by that kiss.
She pulled herself together more quickly than he could though.
‘Sweetheart, you remember my brother, Damon? And my best friend, Rachel?’ Celeste said, looking meaningfully towards their lunch guests.
Rachel. Celeste’s best friend, Rachel. So he was doing lunch with the brother and the best friend.
He really hoped they were both in a good mood.
Switching into TV-host mode, Theo turned on his smile and reached out to welcome Rachel with a hug—without kiss—and shake Damon’s hand. Neither of them looked as if they were about to bite his head off, but they did both look a little baffled by the whole situation.
Theo knew how they felt.
Pulling out Celeste’s chair for her, he ensured she was comfortably seated before taking his own place at the table. Across the way, Damon was doing the same for Rachel.
Theo frowned. Had Celeste mentioned that her brother was dating her best friend? He was pretty sure she hadn’t. That was weird, right?
But he couldn’t worry about that now. He’d already clocked the paparazzi stalker at a table in the corner, thinking he was being surreptitious as he snapped away, taking photos of the four of them destined to be on the front page of every gossip site tomorrow.
The important thing was to make this seem like a perfectly normal lunch. That was all. So he smiled, and he laughed, and he made small talk. He let Damon pick the wine—who, in turn, got Rachel to choose—and shared mouthfuls of his main course with Celeste from his own fork. The latter prompted an odd look from his lunch date, and frankly astonished ones from their companions. But it looked like a real date, and that was all that mattered.
The only concerning part, really, was the feeling in his stomach that it was a real date. Because that was how it felt.
And a big part of him wished that it were.
Huh. That was definitely new. And worrying.
Finally, as they polished off the puddings, Theo glanced casually over at that table in the corner, not for the first time since they’d started eating, and realised that the photographer had left at last.
Leaning around Celeste to peer out of the window, Theo watched the guy wandering off down the London street, waiting until he was around the corner before he collapsed back into his seat with relief.
‘He’s gone?’ Celeste asked, shifting her chair away from Theo’s to a more normal distance. Ridiculously, he missed her immediately.
Theo nodded. ‘Finally.’
Across the table, Rachel frowned. ‘Who’s gone?’
‘Our reporter-stalker,’ Theo said tiredly. ‘Come on, let’s grab after-dinner drinks in the back bar, where it’s more private. Then we can explain.’
* * *
The back bar was cosy, warm and empty. Theo spoke briefly to the head waiter on their way in, and he nodded, then shut the door behind them, returning moments later to enter, after knocking, with a tray of coffees and liquors. Then he departed again, leaving them in peace.
Finally.
Celeste sank into a chair a strategic distance away from Theo, and tried to think.
She needed to get things straight in her head again because that lunch had felt uncomfortably like a real date. Not just lunch; hugging Theo hello—kissing him even—had felt normal. Natural. Even eating his food from his fork had been fine, despite the fact it was something she’d never even done with her last boyfriend, and they’d been together for almost a year.
She knew it was all fake, of course—intellectually. Knowing things intellectually had never been a problem for her.
It was the emotional side that stymied her, every time. And after a week and a half of pretending to date Theo Montgomery...her emotions were starting to scream at her.
Maybe it wasn’t her emotions. Maybe it was just her libido. That at least would make sense. He was an attractive guy. She was a sexual being. Didn’t everything in history always come down to sex, one way or another?
Glancing up, she found her little brother glaring at her, and promptly decided to stop thinking about sex.
‘What the hell is going on here?’ Damon demanded.
Wish I knew, brother.
Rachel sat down beside her, and Celeste heard the unspoken message her best friend was sending.
I might have come here with him, but I’m on your side. Always.
That was something. She’d been...worried, to say the least, talking to Damon about Rachel as they’d shopped for Christmas presents for their parents that morning. And seeing them together at the Cressingham Arcade where they were both currently working hadn’t made her concern lessen any.
She’d tried to talk to Rachel about Theo that week, but her friend had ducked her calls—probably, Celeste suspected, because she was in bed wit
h Damon. In a way, she’d almost been glad when Rachel hadn’t answered because, really, what was she going to say?
At least she’d shamed Damon into inviting Rachel to their parents’ Christmas Eve party. That was the least he could do.
And he was still waiting for an answer to his question.
‘Do you want to explain, or shall I?’ Theo asked Celeste, his upper-class tone lazy. That had irritated her a few days ago—the laziness, more than anything. It should irritate her now.
‘I’ll do it,’ Celeste replied, sharply, pushing the thought aside. ‘You’ll get it wrong.’
‘Probably,’ Theo agreed easily. He was just so laid-back. That was annoying, wasn’t it? She was sure it used to be annoying. ‘I’ll pour the coffees, then.’
She tried to focus on the matter at hand: explaining her relationship with Theo. Maybe it would even start to make sense to her, too.
‘So. Damon, I know you watched the car crash that was our festive TV quiz. Rachel, I assume you did too?’
Rachel nodded.
‘It didn’t go down particularly well with the Internet fans. Or my agent,’ Theo said.
Celeste shot him a look to say, Who is telling this story, you or me? Theo shut up and let her continue. One point in his favour. Still so many against.
Except it was getting harder to remember those points against, when everything felt so natural when she was with him. So easy, in a way personal interactions rarely were for her.
‘So Theo called me and asked me to help him rehabilitate his reputation,’ she said.
‘And yours,’ Theo interjected.
Celeste rolled her eyes. ‘My reputation is based on my research, my publications, my education and my brain, not my ability to be pleasant on television. Unlike yours.’
‘Your reputation with TV companies, however, is based entirely on that,’ Theo pointed out, apparently unruffled by the accusation that he was just a pretty face.
Celeste ignored him. Mostly because he was right.
‘So what happened next?’ Rachel asked, obviously well aware of how Damon was glowering at them both.
‘We agreed to a few public appearances together, as friends,’ Celeste said, trying her hardest to make it sound as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
‘It got a little bit out of hand from there,’ Theo admitted. ‘There were these stories online...’
‘People thought we were faking it,’ Celeste explained.
‘Which you were.’ Damon was still glowering as he spoke.
‘So we had to prove that we really were okay with each other,’ Celeste went on, ignoring her brother. ‘By pretending we were in love.’
‘So you’re mortal enemies pretending to sleep together for the cameras,’ Damon said drily. ‘The miracle of modern love, huh?’
‘Like you can talk,’ Celeste scoffed, then turned to Theo. ‘This one spent all morning telling me how he and Rachel are just colleagues who sleep together. Apparently, they’re having a “festive fling”.’
She regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. Of course, that was exactly what Damon had said, but, watching Rachel’s face as her smile stiffened and the light in her eyes seemed to dim, she knew it was a mistake.
‘Sorry, Rachel, that came out wrong,’ she said, wincing.
‘No, it’s true.’ Rachel reached for her liquor. Never a good sign. ‘He’s my festive fling. Right, Damon?’
‘Right,’ Damon said, although he sounded just as dubious as he had that morning when he’d said it.
Oh, Damon. Oh, Rachel.
She couldn’t get her best friend out of this one, or her brother, either. They’d have to figure it out themselves. She couldn’t even figure out what the hell she was doing, pretending to be in love with Theo Montgomery until it almost felt real.
But Celeste had a feeling there were going to be a lot of broken hearts, come the new year.
* * *
Theo didn’t know what was going on with Damon and Rachel but, to be honest, he wasn’t totally sure he wanted to know, either. Things were confusing enough to deal with just pretending to date Celeste.
‘What do you want to do now?’ he asked her as they strolled out of the restaurant together. Damon and Rachel had left, their stalker cameraman had got all he needed, and, really, it was the perfect time for them both to get back to their regularly scheduled lives.
Except he didn’t want to. He wanted to spend more time with Celeste. And Theo was almost certain that was going to become a problem, sooner or later.
‘Isn’t there somewhere we need to be seen together?’ Celeste asked.
Every other night, he’d managed to find some sort of event or place he’d been invited to, and convinced her to make an appearance with him for the publicity. Today, for the first time, he had nowhere he was supposed to be, and no ideas.
Celeste rested her head against his shoulder for a second, as if the rigmarole of the lunch had exhausted her. She had her arm looped through his, close against his side, and Theo had an overwhelming need to keep her there.
It was that thought that sparked the idea.
‘Ice skating.’ It was perfect; he could hold onto her, in public, with perfect justification.
Celeste, however, looked sceptical. ‘We’re going back to Winter Wonderland?’
Theo shook his head. ‘There’s a rink at the Tower of London—well, in the dry moat anyway. Come on. It’ll be fun!’
‘I do like the Tower,’ Celeste said tentatively, and he knew he’d got her. History always was the way to her heart.
Not that he was trying to get there. That was absolutely not what this was about.
He just...needed to hold her close. Was that so bad?
There was a queue at the box office when they arrived. He probably could have used his smile and his face to get to the front of it, but he didn’t. Whatever Celeste thought, this wasn’t actually another publicity date. This was about spending time with her, like a normal couple.
Even if they categorically weren’t.
Did she even like spending time with him? He had no way of telling. She was the one person in his life he couldn’t read. Everyone else was easy—even Damon and Rachel had been obvious in their own way. He wondered if Celeste realised how much trouble there was going to be there, very soon...
But he wasn’t thinking about them. He was thinking about Celeste—which seemed to be one of the few non-work things he did think about these days.
He’d never imagined, after their first meeting, that he’d enjoy her company so much. And, in fairness, she was still blunt and impatient, and had given him a real earful the one time he’d called and interrupted her train of thought just when she was getting a handle on the chapter she was writing.
But she was also fascinating, full of facts and observations he’d never have imagined if he hadn’t met her. There was a passion there he so rarely saw in anybody—one he suspected she only showed when she was talking about history, or perhaps about the things that mattered to her most. He loved listening to her talk—when she wasn’t snapping at him. And he loved to watch her think.
Like now, standing in the queue at the Tower of London ice rink, as she stared up at the majestic castle. Her dark hair was swept back from her face as usual, giving him the perfect view of her porcelain skin and the thoughtful look in her eyes.
He couldn’t resist. ‘What are you thinking about?’
‘Do you know, there’s been a fortress here since just after the Norman conquest?’
‘I did, actually.’ She looked at him in surprise, and he shrugged. ‘School trip.’ It was a lie. He’d come here on his own, as an adult, and read the guidebook cover to cover. Why didn’t he just tell her that?
He knew the answer to that too, deep down. Because he was afraid. Afraid that this highly edu
cated woman would laugh at his pretensions to knowledge. What did he know, really? He’d flunked out of university and made his career in a field that just required him to smile and look pretty.
Theo shook the thought away. ‘It was a prison too, right? Weren’t the Kray twins held here?’
‘They were, actually. The last execution here was during the war though—a German spy.’ Her smile turned mischievous, and Theo felt his heart skip a beat at the sight. Oh, he was in trouble.
‘They say the place is haunted, you know,’ she said, and Theo laughed with surprise.
‘You believe in ghosts?’ he asked incredulously. She was so logical, so academic—so determined to see the evidence and the proof that she’d required dozens of social media screenshots from him to even believe that people were interested in their relationship.
Celeste shrugged. ‘Not really. But the stories are always interesting—and the people who claim to have seen them sound terrified. One of them is said to be a grizzly bear, from when the Tower was a zoo.’
‘Well, if we see a bear out on the ice, I promise we’ll skate in the opposite direction,’ Theo said. ‘Come on, we’re up.’
Celeste bit down on her lip, obviously nervous, as Theo stepped out onto the ice a short while later. He held out a hand to her and she took it, gingerly.
‘You’ve not done this before,’ he remembered.
Celeste shook her head. ‘Never.’
‘Because you didn’t want to, or...’ He trailed off. If she genuinely hated the idea of ice skating she’d have said, right? He didn’t want to be that jerk who dragged her into doing something she didn’t want to, just because he thought it would be romantic. Especially since any romance between them was all for show anyway.
‘It just...never really came up as an option.’ She shrugged. ‘My parents weren’t big on non-academic activities. And by the time I left home and went to university, well, I was usually busy studying anyway.’
There was something in her voice, a loneliness Theo hadn’t heard from her before, and it made his heart ache. She’d been locked away in her ivory tower, learning every dry fact and opinion she could. But when had she actually experienced the world she was learning the history of? He got the impression, not nearly as much as she should have.
A Midnight Kiss to Seal the Deal Page 8