While she’d pretended to him, and to herself, that she didn’t want sex, he’d kept his distance as best he could. But hearing her acknowledge that she wanted him had been pivotal. It had been the moment he’d realised that if he wanted to conquer this apparent longing he’d inconveniently developed for the woman, he was going to have to take every opportunity to slake this effervescing thirst for each other.
He’d told her to call it a break away, and he hadn’t been entirely joking. Getting Alex away from work, from the UK, from the press, would no doubt help her to relax. M
ake her see that denying the attraction that thundered between them was only feeding it all the more. Once they’d slaked their physical desire they could get on with the task in hand without such unwanted complications.
He carefully ignored the voice that echoed in his head that he was being naïve, and pulled his concentration back to his patient before it could wander too far. Another thing that had never, not once, happened to him in his professional life with any other woman before.
‘At this stage my plan would be to carry out a mastoidectomy, which is where I would remove part of the mastoid bone behind your ear in order that your inflamed facial nerve might have enough room to expand, thereby relieving some of the pressure that is no doubt causing some of the symptoms of your facial paralysis.’
‘That’s wonderful,’ the woman choked out. ‘I can’t believe it.’
‘I’m sure you already know this,’ he encouraged, ‘but the facial nerve, also known as the cranial nerve VII, serves many vital functions, not just the motor function that allows you to smile and frown. Although we always prefer the smiling.’
His gentle joking elicited a smile, as he’d hoped it would, keeping them positive and engaged so that he could get across as much important information as he could.
‘The anticipation would be that, as well as some facial control, you should experience some degree of return of gland function in your eyes, nose and mouth, making it easier to close your eye and even to blink, so there would be less need for the eyedrops all the time; and improvements to both your senses of smell and taste.’
‘And if the drooping is reduced then she’ll be less prone to accidentally biting her inner cheek, right, Doc?’ the patient’s partner asked, and Louis couldn’t help noticing the way the couple squeezed hands in a silent, supportive conversation of their own.
Though there was no logical explanation, it made him think of Alex all over again.
‘It should,’ he agreed. ‘So fewer ulcerations and infections. But, as I said, it won’t wholly reverse the paralysis. And I do need to warn you that it might take up to a year for optimal results, and there will still be a significant degree of asymmetry.’
‘That’s okay,’ she managed, her barely contained emotion making her sound slightly more indistinct than usual. ‘It’s better than what I have now.’
‘And how is work?’ Louis asked as carefully as he could. ‘Are your colleagues understanding about your condition?’
‘Actually, I’m a teaching assistant specialising in children with severe learning difficulties. Some of them just asked outright, a few of them were a little unsettled in the beginning, and some of them struggle anyway with emotions and empathy. However, I’m lucky that for the most part, as long as I act the same towards them, give them the same love and care, it doesn’t really matter to them how I look.’
‘That’s good.’ He forced an understanding smile onto his face.
Even as he walked the couple to the door, his mouth still talking to them, his mind was on Alex.
Why was it that everything seemed to pull him straight back around to her? The way that, unlike his patient, it hadn’t mattered what she’d done, she was never going to win her father’s love. Never going to make him forgive her for not being a match for her brother. For not being the saviour sibling. Something that had never been within her control.
And yet, despite all that, she still fought so damned fiercely for Rainbow House.
How many other kids were like Alex?
Like him?
It struck him that there had to be more he could do to help. Not just Rainbow House, but places like it. For Alex. For his mother. For himself.
He might be pretending to the world that he was changing, he might even convince them all. But that was all about perceptions. Up until now he hadn’t really believed he would change. Not deep down.
Maybe he could.
Alex seemed to believe it.
Closing the door behind the couple, Louis picked up his ringing phone, knowing exactly who it was going to be, and part of him wished he could just ignore it and will his father away.
And yet he should be celebrating. Rejoicing in the fact that if Jean-Baptiste was calling him, it was because he was beginning to panic. Because his father was being forced to recognise that support for Louis was beginning to gain momentum.
It should fill him with jubilation. Instead, it was shadowed by Louis’s delight in knowing that in a matter of hours Alex would be back in his life. Tonight, he was determined, she would be back in his arms.
His father was little more than an unwelcome interruption.
‘Oui?’ Louis demanded curtly, clicking it onto speakerphone and sliding the phone across his desk as he busied his hands with sorting a few files.