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Thomas has it all: nobility, money, the girl, and a position waiting for him at the family business. But when he thinks about the life ahead of him, he can't breathe. So he takes a gap year backpacking.
Nadia...
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Thomas was handing over a wad of notes when Nadia stormed down the stairs, wavy hair crackling in a haze about her face. The hair on the nape of his neck rose. From the corner of his eye, he noticed their host back away and scuttle into the safety of the small office adjoining the counter.
Nadia's footsteps ended on a stomp. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
He gulped, twisting the receipt in his hands. "Er ... paying the bill."
"Why didn't you wait for me?" She crossed her arms and adjusted her hips. "I can pay for myself."
Thomas flushed and raked his hand through his hair. "I know you can ... It's just — it isn't much and ... er —"
"We are not in the fucking nineteen-fifties, Thomas. How do you think I feel? Heck, how do you think I look? Sleeping in the same bed as you and then ... and then this!" Her hand gesticulated at the cash register. Their host's head, which had been slowly emerging from the cover of the room, retreated like a tortoise into its shell.
Thomas hoped she looked like his girlfriend, but he couldn't say that. Not if he wanted to come home from this trip a whole man. He rubbed his hand across a stubbled cheek, searching for words.
"Where I am from it is the gentlemanly thing to do."
"Well, where I'm from it makes me look like I'm eas —"
Thomas cleared his throat. "My goodness, will you look at the time! I need coffee, and I'm ravenous. Can you buy me breakfast?"
Nadia blinked.
Thomas shifted on his feet. "Ah, did I say something wrong?" Like hell you did, Waterhouse. He'd never asked any woman to pay for anything.
She shook her head. "No ... umm, no. It's just I've never been —"
"Asked?"
"Not outright — no."
Thomas fumbled in his pocket for a cigarette. He needed one. "Well, as it happens, I've never asked ... but when in Peru, why not live dangerously?"
Storm-grey eyes rolled skywards in a gesture he was coming to recognise as assent, and his lips twitched. With a flourish of hands, he waved for her to precede him out the door. "After you."
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