He placed a hand that was incredibly gentle on her shoulder, but his eyes—they looked dead. Her heart stuttered.
‘I will phone you as soon as I have the results,’ she said, making herself hold his eyes.
‘I want to fly you back to Paris,’ he said quietly in return.
She started. ‘N-no. I can fly by myself.’
Let me be normal! she wanted to yell, until it splintered the air, but who was she railing against? Alejandro? Herself?
‘You need someone to travel with you. Let me organise that, at least. I want you to feel safe.’
Lulu felt it like a punch to her chest.
After everything that had happened over the last few weeks he still saw her as crippled. Just like everyone else. She knew then that she was doing the right thing—no matter how much she was hurting.
‘I am capable of boarding a flight alone,’ she said, in a voice that felt wrung out with yelling, although neither of them had raised their voices.
He was being so appallingly reasonable—and quiet.
‘Lulu—’
She knew the words that would stop him in his tracks but it would hurt like razor blades bloodying her mouth to utter them.
‘Don’t you understand, Alejandro? I don’t want you.’
She turned around and walked. Very fast. Very deliberately. She knew after those words that Alejandro would not follow.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
IT HAD BEEN six weeks. Summer had turned to autumn and leaves rolled along the Paris street as Alejandro parked his hire car and looked up at the unexceptional six-storey building wedged between a laundromat and a thriving North African restaurant.
He checked the address. This was it.
Pocketing the car keys, he went inside and took the stairs up four flights.
He was ringing her bell when he realised this couldn’t be the flat her parents had paid for.
Lulu was living within her own means.
He recognised that this wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d thought.
If she’d put her plans into action she might be less inclined to give him a hearing. Plus, he was still angry with her. It burned more the closer he got to this moment, seeing her again, when he knew she damn well didn’t want to see him.
Well, he wasn’t giving her a choice. He knew Lulu. She’d only run and hide. The memory of her hunched over and trembling behind that nineteenth-century desk flashed unexpectedly to mind, but he shoved it aside. Thinking of Lulu small and fragile and vulnerable only got him so far. She wanted him to see her as strong. He’d treat her that way.
The sound of a dog barking preceded the door opening. She had at least four chains on it, which satisfied his desire for her to be safe but also had him wondering about the neighbourhood.
The door swung open and his pulse sped up.
It was Lulu. In soft blue leggings, a stripy pullover, and she was holding a fluffy black dog in her arms.
Her hair was longer. Her eyes looked bigger—as if she’d lost weight.
Or maybe it was because she was staring at him.
She was so beautiful.
All his anger fell away.