“The pod is made of transparent titanium melted down from eyeglasses,” I inform Ed. “If plunged underwater, each pod will automatically convert to a fully operational submarine.”
“I would expect no less.” He nods, gazing out of the glass.
“Each pod could survive underwater for thirteen hours…” I trail off. I can tell he isn’t really listening. “Ed?”
He turns around to face me, his back against the glass wall of the pod. Behind him, the panoramic view of London is shifting slowly, infinitesimally upward. While we’ve been up, the sunshine has disappeared, and solid gray clouds are gathering overhead.
“You want to know something, Lara?” He glances around to check no one is listening, but everyone else in the pod has piled to the other side, watching a police boat on the Thames.
“Maybe,” I say warily. “Not if it’s a really important secret and I’m not supposed to give it away.”
Ed’s face flickers with a smile. “You asked me why I agreed to go on that first date with you.”
“Oh. That. Well, it doesn’t matter,” I say hurriedly. “Don’t feel you have to tell me-”
“No. I want to tell you. It was… freaky.” He pauses. “I felt as though something inside my head was telling me to say yes. The more I resisted, the louder it shouted. Does that make any sense?”
“No,” I say hastily. “None. I’ve no idea. Maybe it was… God.”
“Maybe.” He gives a short laugh. “I could be the new Moses.” He hesitates. “Point is, I’ve never felt such a strong impulse, or voice, or whatever it was. Kinda blew me away.” He takes a step forward, his voice lower. “And whatever instinct it was-whatever deep place it came from-it was right. Spending time with you is the best thing I could have done. I feel like I’ve woken up from a dream, or limbo… and I want to thank you.”
“There’s no need!” I say at once. “It was my pleasure. Anytime.”
“I hope so.” His tone is oblique, and I feel a bit flustered under his gaze.
“So… um… you want to hear more from the guidebook?” I riffle through the pages.
“Sure.”
“The pod is… um.” I can’t concentrate on what I’m saying.
My heart has started beating more quickly. Everything seems heightened. I’m aware of every movement I’m making.
“The wheel travels… it goes around…” I’m making no sense. I close the book and meet Ed’s gaze head-on, trying to match his deadpan expression, trying to appear as if nothing’s concerning me at all.
Except quite a lot of things are concerning me. The heat rushing to my face. The hairs prickling at the back of my neck. The way Ed’s eyes are boring into mine, like they want to get straight to the point. They’re giving me twinges.
Truth is, he’s giving me twinges all over the place.
I don’t know how I ever thought he wasn’t good-looking. I think I must have been a bit blind.
“Is something going on?” says Ed softly.
“I… I don’t know.” I can barely speak. “Is something going on?”
He puts a hand up to my chin and cups it for a moment, as though surveying the terrain. Then he leans forward and pulls my face gently up to his with both hands and kisses me. His mouth is warm and sweet and his stubble is grazing my skin but he doesn’t seem to care and… oh God. Yes, please . All my twinges have turned into singing, dancing urges. As he wraps his arms around me and pulls me tighter to him, two thoughts are jostling in my brain.
He’s so different from Josh.
He’s so good .
I’m not having many other thoughts right now. At least you couldn’t really call them thoughts so much as ravening desires.
At last Ed pulls away, his hands still cradling the back of my neck.
“You know… that wasn’t the plan for today,” he says. “Just in case you were wondering.”
“Wasn’t my plan either,” I say breathlessly. “Not at all.”
He kisses me again, and I close my eyes, exploring his mouth with mine, inhaling the scent of him, wondering how much longer this London Eye ride has to go. As though reading my mind, Ed releases me.
“Maybe we should look at the view one more time,” he says with a small laugh. “Before we land.”
“I suppose we should.” I give him a reluctant smile. “We’ve paid for it, after all.”
Arm in arm, we turn to face the transparent wall of the pod. And I scream in fright.
Hovering outside the pod, looking in with searing, laserlike eyes, is Sadie.
She saw us. She saw us kissing.
Shit. Oh… shit. My heart is thumping like a rabbit’s. As I quiver in terror, she advances through the transparent wall, her nostrils flared, her eyes flashing, making me back away on stumbling legs as if I really have seen a terrifying ghost.
“Lara?” Ed is staring at me in shock. “Lara, what’s wrong?”
“How could you?” Sadie’s shriek of betrayal makes me clap my hands to my ears. “How could you?”
“I… I didn’t… it wasn’t…” I gulp, but the words won’t come out properly. I want to tell her I didn’t plan all this, that it’s not as bad as she might think-
“I saw you!”
She gives a huge, racking sob, wheels around, and disappears.
“Sadie!” I rush forward and clutch at the transparent wall of the pod, peering out, trying to glimpse her in the clouds or in the rushing water of the Thames or among the nearing crowds of people on the ground.