Siena watched him stride away, so tall and proud, master of the domain from where once she’d had him cast out. She felt a sense of futility. It would always be between them. Insurmountable.
After Siena had got into bed she tried to stay awake for a long time, in case she heard Andreas return, but sleep claimed her. When she did wake she was groggy, and it felt as if it was still dark outside.
Andreas was saying, ‘Siena… I need you to get up… I’ve laid out some clothes for you.’
Siena sat up woozily and saw Andreas straighten.
‘I’ll wait for you outside.’
He was dressed in jeans and a light sweater. She saw a pile of clothes on the end of the bed—jeans and a similar sweater for her, and a jacket. He was walking out of the room.
Feeling dazed and confused, wondering if she was dreaming, Siena got up and quickly dressed. She looked outside for a second and saw that it was close to dawn. Where had Andreas been all night?
Pulling her hair back into a knot, she emerged and saw Andreas standing with his back to her in the salon. He turned when she walked in and even now, half-asleep, he took her breath away. His jaw was stubbled.
‘Where were you?’ she asked huskily.
‘Nowhere important. Caught up with the guests. I want to take you somewhere…’
He came and took her by the hand. There was such an intensity to his expression that Siena couldn’t decipher it, so she just said, ‘Okay.’
When they were in the lift on the way down Andreas looked ahead and didn’t say anything. Siena tried to stop her mind from leaping to all sorts of scenarios. She was waking up now, and as they walked through the hushed and quiet lobby she had a painful sense of déjà-vu. She thought of another dawn morning, five years ago. Of the turmoil in her heart and head as she’d walked out, unseeing, straight into Andreas’s chest.
They walked around the corner of the hotel, intensifying Siena’s sense of déjà-vu, and then she saw the huge gleaming motorbike. Siena blinked. Maybe she was dreaming.
Andreas was letting her hand go and taking out a helmet. When he drew her close to put it on her head Siena knew this was no dream. She couldn’t decipher the expression on Andreas’s face. It was forbidding. Then he was putting on his own helmet and lifting one leg over to straddle the bike.
He showed her where to put her foot, and with her hand on his shoulder to balance Siena swung her leg over the bike, sliding down into the seat behind Andreas, her front snug against his back.
He lifted up and pushed down and the bike roared to life, shattering the peace of the morning. Andreas reached back and pulled one of Siena’s arms around his waist, and then the other one, showing her where to hold him. Her heart was thumping and she knew she was definitely awake as the bike straightened and they took off.
Unbelievably, it was Siena’s first time on a motorbike, and she instinctively tightened her arms around Andreas’s waist. It was exhilarating—the wind whipping past them, feeling the bike dip dangerously as Andreas took the corners.
When they stopped at a red light he turned his head and said above the noise, ‘Okay?’
Siena nodded and then shouted, ‘Yes!’ when she realised he couldn’t see her. And then they were off again.
Siena felt as if they were the only two people in the world as the faintest of pink streaks lined the dawn sky. Only a handful of cars passed them by.
Siena looked at the closed-up shops and bars that only hours before would have been teeming with people. The Eiffel Tower appeared in the distance, grey and stoic in the dawning light, bare of its glittering night-time façade. Siena preferred it like that.
They wound their way through the streets and Siena noticed that they were starting to go uphill. And then she saw the huge white shape of the Sacré Coeur in the distance. Through a series of winding, increasingly narrow streets they got closer and closer, until Andreas brought the bike to a stop under some trees.
He got off and removed his helmet, still with that enigmatic look on his face.
Siena pulled her helmet off and asked, ‘Why are we here?’
Andreas took her helmet and said, ‘Not yet. Another couple of minutes.’
He put the helmets away and pocketed the keys. He held out his hand. Siena put her hand in his and let him lead her up a path and through a small wooded area until the iconic church loomed above them, stately and awe-inspiring.
They were already quite high up, and Andreas led the way onward until they reached the steps outside the main doors. Siena turned around and saw the whole of Paris laid out in front of them, jaw-dropping in its beauty. She’d seen this view before but never like this, at dawn, without hordes of tourists, and with a dusky mist making everything seem hazy and dreamlike.
There was just one other couple. The woman was wearing what had to be her boyfriend’s dinner jacket over a long dress and they were arm in arm, leaning over the balustrade that looked out over the ascent from the hill. They were too engrossed to notice Siena and Andreas.
‘Let’s sit.’
Siena looked to see Andreas indicate the steps. They sat down. He muttered something that Siena couldn’t make out and then said, ‘It’s too cold.’