Crossword Genius

Instant suspicion follows loveless pair (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

twinkling

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'instant' is the definition.
(I know that instant can be written as twinkling)

'suspicion follows loveless pair' is the wordplay.
'suspicion' becomes 'inkling' (I've seen this before).
'follows' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'loveless pair' becomes 'tw' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'inkling' after 'tw' is 'TWINKLING'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for twinkling that I've seen before include "Instant" , "Jiffy" , "Sparkling like a star" , "Sparkling - moment" , "Shining intermittently" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app