Duke looks at Evie. The way he does it, she gets a flutter between her legs. This is the most relaxed and silly she’s seen him, as though with the directing, and after seeing his mom, even, internal dots are being connected for him and he knows it’s okay to be himself. And Evie likes that self. After he told her he missed her today, she’s kept thinking about it. When she was getting ready for tonight, she did her bikini line in the shower and moisturised her whole body, slowly and deliberately, and found herself daydreaming about his hands over her body until Magda banged on the door and said, ‘Evie! I need to shower too! What the hell are you doing in there?’ She couldn’t well admit that she was thinking that she’d like to go to bed with Duke. She hasn’t even told Magda they’ve kissed. It feels too sacred to do that. Too delicate.

Evie shrugs. ‘Fine,’ she says. ‘We can go get some air, can’t we, Duke?’

Duke grins. ‘Sure,’ he says, like he’s doing everyone a favour, but Evie knows that tone of voice. She throbs again. Her body is making it known that she’s hungry for him.

Outside, he loops an arm across her shoulders and pulls her in close. It thrills her. They see the pap at the same time, nod at him, and then resume the make-believe story that they think they’re having a private moment.

‘Alone at last,’ Duke says, and Evie laughs.

‘Should we ask him to join us?’ she says.

Duke shakes his head. ‘I gave up group sex after an Eyes Wide Shut party at the White House.’

She laughs again. ‘Which administration?’ she teases.

‘I couldn’t possibly say,’ Duke says with a straight face. ‘I signed an NDA and it’s more than my life is worth.’

Evie pulls away to look at him. ‘I honestly can’t tell if you’re joking anymore,’ she says, and Duke pulls a face. What kind of life has this man lived?

‘My mum liked you,’ he says, as they head down the steps and around the corner to a quiet little cobbled path with the fuzzy lights of yet another market at the far end.

‘Not something I hear a lot,’ Evie admits. ‘I’m normally not the kind of girl you introduce to your parents.’

Now it’s Duke’s turn to peer at her with an uncertain expression. ‘I don’t believe you,’ he says. ‘You’re always alluding to being some sort of hands-off, unlovable ice maiden, but I know the truth, Evie Bird. You’re none of those things. You’re the opposite of those things, in fact.’