A Baby on Her Christmas List by Louisa George Page B

fancied him, just a little bit. Which was understandable, because a lot of women did. He was just the type that appealed—dashing doctor with a great sense of humour and nice hands. Looking lower, she admired other parts of him too.
    Okay, if he kept on staring at her and smiling like that she could definitely fancy him a lot.
    ‘Na-ah.’ Georgie shook her head as her cheeks heated again. ‘I’m not going to talk about it, I’m just pretending it didn’t happen.’
    ‘Well, I’m not. That’s not going to work. It’s going to be the big elephant in the...market, stomping around with us for ever. So we’ll acknowledge that it happened. We’ll agree it was—’
    ‘A mistake,’ she butted in, before he could say anything else. Because that’s what it had been. A huge silly mistake.
    ‘Here you go, you two. Your usual. Beautiful day...’ The juice lady passed over large plastic cups of vividly coloured juice with perfect timing. Georgie took hers and handed Liam his. Then she wandered through the stalls, perusing the locally grown fruit and vegetables, the huge bowls of oily olives and myriad savoury dips, and feigned interest in everything apart from this conversation.
    He was by her side in a moment. On any other day she wouldn’t have paid much attention but today all her body seemed interested in was getting closer to that smell, in being near him, in having his lips on her skin again. His mouth was dangerously close to her ear. ‘I was going to say it was nice. More than nice. In fact, it was a bloody revelation. I didn’t think you’d be so...unleashed. But if you want to say it was a mistake, go ahead.’
    She twisted to see him, his eyes glinting with tease. And heat. ‘It was a mistake. And I’m so-o-o embarrassed.’
    His arm snaked across her shoulder and he wrapped her in a sort of guy-style headlock hug thing. Which shouldn’t have been remotely sexy but was the biggest turn on since her lips had touched his last night. ‘It’s okay, Geo. We can move on. It is possible.’
    ‘You think?’ Wiggling from his grip, she faced him. ‘I kissed you! In fact, I almost attacked you!’ The clatter of teacups reverberated around the space, and then ended in an abrupt silence. People stared and then turned away and pretended not to stare, which made everything ten times worse. She lowered her voice and her words came out a lot like a hiss. ‘But, then, you kiss so many women you probably didn’t even think much about it.’
    Hadn’t he? Had it been really not special? Had she not turned him on while she’d been burning up? By saying they could move on, was he trying to say that he didn’t want her? Which was what she wanted, wasn’t it? An end to these weird feelings? So why did she feel as if she’d been stabbed through the gut?
    ‘To be honest, it’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last twelve hours.’ He steered her to a table and sat her down, grinning. He was enjoying this. Well, of course he was, this was Liam, the great non-committer. ‘But what I need to know, Geo, is why?’
    ‘Well...’ If she knew that, she’d be up for a Nobel prize or something. The secrets of the universe. The chemistry of attraction. The laws of inconvenience and mortification. All started and ended with the
but why?
of that kiss. ‘Haven’t you ever wondered about...you know...us? What it would be like? What we would be like?’
    He shrugged his gorgeous shoulders, but a tiny muscle moved in his jaw. ‘I seem to remember you used the descriptor
ick
the last time we talked about this. So, honestly, it wasn’t something I imagined could happen. Then, suddenly...
wham
.’
    ‘I attacked you. I did—
do
—think it’s an ick idea. But, then, for some reason last night I felt really connected to you. I’m sorry.’
    ‘Stop apologising. Never apologise for kissing like that.’ The waitress brought their order and he took a bite from his
croque monsieur
, which oozed melted cheese over the