Page 63 of Infamous

Nash pulled her roughly towards him and kissed her hard, one hand finding its way inside the coat, travelling quickly from the jut of her ribs to her back. The initial rush of elation from the pipe was beginning to wane, and his touch felt less like magic and more like ordinary, slightly cold fingers – fingers that were currently sliding her dress off her shoulder, stroking every inch of skin they uncovered.

Eddie thought of Rose’s hands clutching at her back, and abruptly wished she hadn’t. It made what she was doing now feel even more wrong. If Nash was betraying Liza, then she rather thought that she was somehow betraying Rose.

Even if Rose would not care in the way that Eddie wanted her to. Even if Rose was this very minute locked in a similar embrace with Isabella Cliffe.

‘We should stop,’ she attempted.

Nash just laughed huskily into her mouth.

‘You are thinkingfartoo much. It’s good, isn’t it? Tell me. I just want to make it good for you.’

Eddie was just considering the Herculean task of actually pushing him away when light flooded the dock, illuminating them in a damning fresco: Nash kissing her jaw, one hand inside her dress, crouched over her like an animal with a kill; Eddie’s hair falling loose, Nash’s coat around her shoulders, flushed and kiss-swollen and letting him do it.

‘Fuck,’ said somebody. It sounded like Kitty.

The light was too bright for Eddie to see; she shielded her eyes as the lamp was lowered, and she saw to her horror that Liza, Kitty and Rose were standing on the shore. She couldn’t see the expressions on their faces.

She could imagine them, though.

Fuck, indeed.

Chapter Twenty-Two

‘Liza. Liza, come on. Slow down for just one moment.Liza!’

Eddie, Rose and Kitty walked in silence, listening to the excruciating monologue from up ahead, where Liza was walking briskly up to the house with Nash stumbling along in her wake.

‘Did he .?.?.?’ Rose said quietly, as Kitty kicked a bit of fallen tree out of the way so it didn’t trip them. ‘Your lip. He didn’tmakeyou do it, Ed?’

Eddie touched a hand to her mouth, feeling blood and a gentle sting, where it had split against Nash’s teeth.

‘No,’ she said miserably.

Her soaring high had dissipated completely around the time she’d had to scramble to her feet without falling in the lake, trying to surreptitiously push her dress back into place and knowing that it was futile. She had managed to avoid looking at Rose at all. At least Breeches Bella hadn’t been with them, leaning all over Rose and providing another witness to her shame. Small mercies.

‘Oh,’ said Rose now, sounding even more stricken.

They were approaching the lawn; a couple of partygoers were kissing very enthusiastically against the wall of the house, completely unaware of the funereal procession approaching them. Liza stormed ahead into the house with Nash still at her heels.

Eddie felt a fresh stab of embarrassment. Since the moment they had been illuminated, he hadn’t even spared her a glance.

Kitty gave her a bracing clap on the shoulder and then went on inside, too. It was just Rose and Eddie and the enthusiastic couple, who were kissing loud enough to punctuate the awkward silence with upsetting little sighs and slurps.

‘Why did you do it?’ Rose said eventually.

Eddie pulled back her shoulders, trying to preserve a modicum of dignity.

‘Please don’t say that like I kicked a little puppy, Rose.Hekissedme, I really didn’tmeanfor it to happen – and look, it’s not as if we don’t all know that he and Liza are deeply unhappy. You wouldn’t understand—’

‘No,’ said Rose. ‘I am glad to say that I wouldn’t. Itold youto be careful.’

Eddie glanced up sharply at her. Her jaw was set, but there were silvery tear tracks on both of her cheeks. Eddie wanted to brush them away. She also wanted to scream. Either would have been an improvement on just standing there, feeling like an utter fool.

‘Youare engaged,’ she said, stubborn and stupid to the last. ‘And you kissed me.’

‘For the love ofGod!’ Rose exclaimed. In her periphery, Eddie saw the couple spring apart, glance over at them in alarm, and then disappear around the corner of the house. ‘That’s different, and .?.?. and youknowit.’

‘I don’t know anything!’ Eddie shouted back. ‘Because you don’ttellme anything! I have to try to discover it all on my own. Anything I know I find out because I accidentally walk into libraries, or .?.?. or .?.?.’