‘Good idea,’ I agreed, plucking two cupcakes out the box and handing them to Patrick. ‘Say happy birthday Sumi!’

Patrick held the cakes up to his face, mountains of frosting obscuring his features.

‘You get in the picture as well,’ John instructed. ‘I’ll take it.’

I handed over my phone with an appreciative smile before taking one of the cupcakes from Patrick. Before I could do anything, he swiped a dollop of frosting onto my nose right as I was blinded by my phone’s flash.

‘If the party’s over, maybe we should just go back to mine,’ Patrick said in a low, promising voice, licking the remaining frosting from his finger. I cleaned my nose off with a napkin as he slid his hand into mine. ‘You look amazing by the way.’

‘We should stay and help tidy up,’ I offered, even though I really just wanted to get out of there. The atmosphere was thicker than the frosting on the cupcakes. ‘John, what can we do to help?’

‘Not at all, you go,’ he said, staring at the screen of my phone before he handed it over, a too-big smile on his face that didn’t quite make it all the way up to his eyes. ‘I’ll get this taken care of.’

‘Only if you’re sure,’ I said, immediately edging towards the stairs. I couldn’t quite say why but having him and Patrick in the same place without the buffer of other people just felt wrong. ‘Thanks for hosting.’

He raised two fingers to his temple in a semi-salute, one side of his mouth turned upwards in a crooked smile.

‘No worries,’ he replied. ‘Oh, and Ros?’

‘Yes?’ I called back from halfway down the stairs.

‘Just so you know, I always figure out the puzzle eventually.’

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

‘I can’t believe you brought cupcakes for everyone,’ I said, clutching Patrick’s hand tightly as we climbed the last few steps in the tube station nearest his house. My friends might have called it an early night but the rest of London seemed in agreement that it was a perfect evening for late-night adventures, the street was still so busy. ‘That was so sweet of you.’

‘Why do you sound so surprised?’ He swung my hand back and forth, a wolfish smile on his absurdly beautiful face. ‘I’m very sweet.’

‘You are a lot of things,’ I smiled at a group of girls, blatantly checking him out as they walked by. ‘But I wouldn’t call you sweet.’

‘I can absolutely be sweet,’ Patrick replied, stopping in the middle of the pavement and wrapping his hands around my face. He lowered his face to mine and placed the softest kiss on my lips. Down the street, I heard the group of girls sigh in chorus. ‘See?’

‘That was a good effort,’ I murmured, pushing up onto my tiptoes to secure another kiss.