Chapter Six #2
‘So hard to decide,’ she murmured. ‘But I think the tarte des pommes.’
‘For me,’ he mused, ‘I can’t resist a slice of the Gateau St Honoré.’
He relayed their choices and ordered coffee too.
His French was fluent, she had come to realise during the course of the day, but it was distinctly accented.
As was his English, in a way that, she had to acknowledge, added to the frisson that she kept experiencing in his company.
It had not abated during the day. Just the opposite in fact.
What’s happening to me? Why am I being like this? Reacting like this?
The question was foolish. She knew perfectly well why.
Had known since that moment she had first seen him as he’d got out of his monster car.
Still in his tuxedo, raffish with his rough jaw, tie loose, gazing around him in the early morning light, surveying his latest possession. Come to take it from her.
Because whatever his malign purpose, his impact on her had been, and was still now, like nothing she had ever experienced in her life.
Powerful, pulse-quickening, making her aware of his masculinity in a way that was both disturbing and something else entirely, for exactly the same reason.
Ben, her long-ago fellow music student, had been blond and hazel-eyed, dreamy and sensitive.
Nothing like the lean, lethal Lycos Dimistrios.
With his sable hair, his night-dark eyes, the lithe, muscled body she had seen ploughing effortlessly through the azure pool water and wading out in a shower of diamonds.
Drawing her rivetted gaze and making her catch her breath.
Her gaze returned to him again, now, as they sat themselves down at a little marble-topped table under a shading awning on the wide pavement, awaiting their coffee and cakes.
The patisserie was an upmarket one, directly edging the gardens that bordered the town’s old ramparts, affording a vista out over the valley below, which was drenched in late afternoon sunshine.
She let her gaze rest on him, indulging in the opportunity, as he surveyed the view.
His eyes returned to her. In the shade of the awning, he’d removed his dark glasses and his eyes met hers full on, knowing she’d been looking at him. She felt herself colour and saw his mouth quirk.
‘A female who blushes. Can it be?’ he murmured. There was a teasing note in his voice. Something more than teasing.
She swallowed. ‘It’s…it’s just the heat,’ she said.
‘Indeed, even in the shade,’ he murmured again. His eyes held hers still, washing over her. Heat rose in her cheeks again.
To her relief, the server was coming out, setting down what they had ordered. Arielle stirred her café au lait, willing her colour to subside. Lycos started on his gateau and she likewise with her tarte.
‘So, have you enjoyed today?’ Lycos glanced at her.
She looked across at him. ‘I thought today was for your benefit,’ she said.
‘For us both,’ he said. ‘And I have indeed enjoyed it. I’ve never been a tourist before, seeing a place just for the pleasure of it.’ His tone was musing again.
She looked confused. ‘But you’ve come from the C?te d’Azur. People only go there for pleasure!’
‘I wasn’t there for pleasure. At least, not for the pleasure of the place.
I spend time there, but I don’t sightsee.
So today has been a novelty. A very pleasant one.
’ He took another forkful of his gateau.
‘This is very good,’ he said. ‘How about if I buy a whole one for us? For dessert tonight. Since we haven’t picked any strawberries, or raspberries either. ’
‘If you like,’ Arielle said. ‘It’s your call. I’m just the tour guide.’
His eyes held hers, an expression in them that threatened to make her flush again.
‘You’re more than that, Arielle.’
His voice was soft and his accent seemed more pronounced. Husky.
She looked away, breathless suddenly. She heard him give a low laugh—a laugh that made her all the more breathless, that threatened to flush the colour back into her cheeks and the heat into her veins.
Then he called the server over as she finished serving another customer nearby.
Arielle heard him request an entire Gateau St Honoré to take away with them.
It gave her time to gather her composure again.
As much of it as she could. In her head she heard his words.
‘You’re more than that, Arielle.’
The frisson that she had felt throughout the day came again and she knew why.
Her eyes returned to him, feeling again that sense of breathless bemusement and that flush of betraying heat. Whatever it was about him, this man who had come out of nowhere to take her home from her, she was drawn to him for reasons she could not deny.
Nor do I want to.
The truth held in her head. Impossible to dismiss.
Whatever was happening, whatever was going to happen, that truth held. She did not know why this man, who spelt only disaster to her, could affect her as he did. Only that he did.
Thoughts flickered through her mind. Difficult ones. Ones she must face.
Perhaps it’s helping me, this reaction to him. Perhaps it’s allowing me, enabling me, to start what I know I must do. What he himself has told me I have to do. To accept that the life I have known till now is ending. Perhaps he can help me accept that.
Perhaps, the thought came now and with it a kind of sweet, poignant sadness, he can be my swan song…
Let her say goodbye to her home with something other than bitterness and anguish.
Something sweeter than that.
Lycos glanced at his watch. It was a favourite possession, bought in the first flush of his wealth.
One of the many signifiers of that wealth that he had purchased since he had transformed himself into what he was.
Right now, though, it was telling him something that had nothing to do with his wealth.
‘We should probably make a move,’ he said. ‘The hens will be getting hungry for their supper. Speaking of which…’ he looked across at Arielle, ‘…what do you say to a picnic-style supper for ourselves? Save on cooking. Do you know a good delicatessen hereabouts?’
She did, it seemed, and they made their way there, his purchases lavish.
Then, leaving Arielle to go into a nearby boulangerie, he spotted a shop opposite that interested him.
He emerged before Arielle did and waited for her on the pavement.
They headed to where he’d parked his car, then drove along the narrow streets to leave the town.
As he returned to the open road, changed gear and sped up, he relaxed back.
He was glad to be heading back to the mas.
He glanced across at Arielle beside him.
Her hands were folded in her lap and she was looking out of the windscreen.
She looked effortlessly lovely.
He drove on, musing as to what his feeling was. It was strange to him. Then he identified it.
It was contentment.
A novel feeling. Strange to him indeed. A welcome one. A pleasant one.
And one that came with another. His glance went to Arielle again.
Anticipation.
He felt the feeling merge and mingle, uniting in him. Different from anything he’d known before.
But it felt good.
Better than anything he’d known before.
‘Shut your eyes a moment. Et voilà!’
Arielle did as she was bid, then opened her eyes again. They widened even more as she saw what Lycos was holding out.
‘Oh, how beautiful!’ she exclaimed.
‘Isn’t it?’ he agreed smiling. ‘I saw it in the little shop across from the boulangerie and couldn’t resist it. Here, let me try it on you.’
He stepped forward, the beautiful gossamer shawl, in myriad hues of blue and threaded with silver, was swirled around her shoulders. He stepped away again.
‘Perfect,’ he announced with satisfaction. ‘I knew it would be. It matches your eyes. Do you like it?’
‘Who could not?’ Arielle replied. ‘But I can’t possibly keep it.’ She started to undrape it, but he stopped her.
‘Of course you can,’ he said. ‘It’s a present.’
She looked at him. ‘Why?’
‘I am your guest,’ he said. ‘A guest should always give their hostess a present.’
Her lips pressed together. ‘I’m not your hostess and you are not my guest. If anything, I am yours.’
‘Don’t be argumentative. And don’t take off the shawl. The evening is a little chilly. Besides, I like to see you in it.’
His eyes rested on her and Arielle found she could not meet them. Found, too, that her pulse had quickened. There was no reason, none, for Lycos to give her anything at all. Let alone what was clearly a pricey gift, for she knew that little shop he’d got it from and it only stocked expensive items.
‘Now…’ he was continuing, drawing back her chair at the table as the dusk gathered, ‘…we shall toast our highly enjoyable outing today and plan what to do tomorrow.’
‘Surely it’s time for you to resume your journey to Paris?
’ Arielle said, taking her place, as he did likewise opposite her.
The soft folds of the beautiful shawl nestled against her shoulders and upper arms. She knew it flattered her.
For reasons she wasn’t about to examine she’d made more of an effort this evening.
She still wore the sun dress she’d worn during the day, but had added a simple necklace of blue beads and scooped her hair into an up style.
Nothing formal, but graceful for all that.
Her lips had felt a little dry, so she’d glossed them with a slightly tinted gel and spritzed a light floral scent over her throat.
She hadn’t let herself think about the reasons, she’d just done it.
Her eyes went to him now, hearing her own question to him. Feeling, suddenly, a little dart of fear go through her.
I should want him to clear off to Paris and leave me here on my own for just a little bit longer.
But I don’t.
Her expression changed. No, she did not want Lycos Dimistrios to go. To leave her.