Read Online The Messy Maiden by Shona Husk - Free Book Online

splosh with a lemon meringue. No edits. She hoped she didn’t cock it up.
    There was nothing left to do except let Ian know that she was now free for dinner.
    Not tonight though. She didn’t want to appear that keen, or desperate.

    I an was sure there was a tremor in his hand as he’d typed that message. It was too coincidental. Saskia and the Messy Maiden had to be the same person. He closed his eyes and remembered her smiling as she’d eaten dessert at lunch—lemon meringue pie.
    That couldn’t be a coincidence.
    If it was there were too many of them.
    It was more than curiosity now. He needed to know more about Saskia. He glanced at his phone, but there was no corresponding message from her. He’d left the ball in her court again because she didn’t seem to want to make the commitment to another date. If the two women in his life were the same person that made sense. After all he knew when the Messy Maiden worked, that was why he’d asked for a Friday night—deliberately double booking himself.
    He smiled at the memory of her upturned lips. The way she’d tasted.
    She’d been happy to kiss him.
    Twice.
    Despite the heat in her gaze and the tilt of her lips she was holding back. She was interested but hesitant. The smile vanished. How would she feel about dating a man who was a subscriber?
    With both of them keeping secrets someone was going to have to tell the truth first. He wasn’t sure he could ever do that again. He winced at the memory of the shouting and the glint as the engagement ring had it had hit the floor and bounced with a hollow chime.
    His phone buzzed. Saskia had agreed to dinner on Friday.
    He sighed. It didn’t feel like a victory.
    If he couldn’t admit the truth how could he expect her to? He slumped in the chair.
    He should have let things be, but from the moment he’d heard her voice reality and fantasy had collided. Hopefully the fallout wouldn’t be toxic.

Chapter Eight
    T he restaurant was lovely . They’d had a couple of drinks after work and then walked around until it was time for their booking. So far it was a nice relaxed kind of date with no weird ‘shall I pick you up’ moments because they were using work as the neutral zone. Plus she liked being around him. He was easy to talk to and they hadn’t run out of conversation yet.
    That didn’t stop her from wanting to check her watch or from wondering how many guys had tried to call her only to be disappointed. She was usually busier after ten, often working until one or two am. When dinner ended she would go home and work…but as Ian smiled at her and talked about his family and the normality of his life she wasn’t sure that she wanted to go home alone.
    Perhaps she could feign illness. Did fantasy women get sick? Then again she’d always presented herself as the girl next door so maybe it would be okay. She certainly didn’t want them thinking she was seeing anyone. That would be bad for business. She was their date, always there and waiting for their messages.
    “What about you? Siblings?” His question jerked her out of her dilemma.
    “Just me. My parents divorced when I was five. Mum started dating again—well I became aware she was dating when I was sixteen. When I moved out she married him and they moved down to Tasmania where they run a little tourism business.”
    “So you stayed here alone?”
    She gave a one shouldered shrug. “I didn’t want to go to Tassie, my friends are here. My job was here.” If he thought that was weird, he definitely wouldn’t be able to handle the rest.
    “You haven’t temped the whole time…what happened?”
    “The company I was working for got bought and I got dropped in the merge. It was a rude shock and a wake up.” She’d been spending all of her money on clothes and shoes and going out. What followed had been a massive re-evaluation of her life and where she was heading. It might be time to do another check because what she was doing was no longer working for