He couldn’t let her go. Not after this. He couldn’t risk her backing away again. He liked this spiced version of Alex. Maybe a little bit too much.
When the car came, it was as much an interruption as a relief to break apart and bundle her inside.
The sudden silence was a jolt after the fracas out there.
‘Where do you live?’ Louis asked after a moment.
‘Sorry?’
‘What’s your address?’ He barely recognised the raw voice but it was hardly surprising when she was still trembling in his arms. And this time, he knew, it had nothing to do with the press.
‘Why?’
‘Because we’re heading there now. You’ll have half an hour, forty minutes at the most to pack everything you need and you’ll move in with me.’
‘I will not,’ she squeaked.
He sighed. The sort of gently impatient sigh one might have bestowed on a small child who refused to hear what was being said to them. Alex would never know what it had cost him to rein himself in as he had.
She opened her mouth to speak but he cut in smoothly.
‘You have no choice. Surely that’s obvious to you?’
‘Why should it be?’ she challenged uncertainly.
‘Because now the press have linked us, they’re going to hound you until they get more. Camp out on your doorstep, harass your friends and relatives. You need to move somewhere it isn’t as easy for them to gain access to you. Not only for your sake but also for the sake of your family.’
‘I don’t have a family.’ The words were out before she could bite them back, as she clearly wished she could. She tried to pull out of his arms but he refused to let her. ‘Just my father.’
‘And your mother?’
She flinched, pressing her lips into a thin line, but at least she wasn’t trying to pull away from him any longer. For the first time it occurred to Louis that he’d been so busy telling her things he’d never told anyone before that he hadn’t thought to have her investigated as he usually would have. He vowed to remedy it as soon as he could.
‘Either way, I’m sure you don’t want him to see your every movement in the papers when they climb trees, or break into your back garden for the photos that capture a day in your life.’
He hated the way she recoiled from him.
‘Oh, God, my father. He’ll see photos of that kiss in the papers tomorrow.’
‘And in the news tonight,’ Louis pointed out gently.
She covered her face with her hands.
‘It’s what we wanted,’ he reminded her. ‘What we needed them to believe.’
It had just happened faster than he’d intended. And he couldn’t pretend he’d been entirely in control. She had a way of making him act like a desperate kid. Either way, they’d set out their proverbial stall. Now they had to sell their wares, starting with ensuring she now moved in with him.
The car was pushing through the crowd and somehow he knew he needed to get her to agree now. Before the moment between them was broken.
‘Put it this way, I have to go to France for a month or so. There are some cases that I’ve been waiting to complete out there. You’ll be safer in my penthouse than on your own, but you won’t have to worry about me seeing you with bed-hair.’
He took the snort to be a mirthless laugh. He didn’t know why he was so suddenly desperate for her to agree. It wasn’t just about making sure she was safe, he knew that. He suspected it was something far more primal. And that was dangerous.
‘Alex?’
‘Okay.’ She dipped her head fractionally, clouds skittering across her eyes.
He could read the sense of foreboding that she desperately wanted to shake. Her feeling that she was somehow capitulating and that he had won. But it didn’t feel like a win. He didn’t know what this feeling was.