Season of Desire: Complete Edition (44 page)

He smiles. ‘I try to make it a general rule not to kill people. They’re stuck out there for a while but I don’t think it will be too long. One of them will have a phone. That’s why we’ve got to get out of here as soon as possible.’

I sigh with happiness at being so close to him. I feel as though nothing can go wrong with the world when I’m with Miles. His lips touch mine again just as the elevator comes to a stop and the doors open. He takes my hand in his.

‘Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Somewhere private.’

A prickle of delight runs over me. ‘Really?’

We walk swiftly out of Jacob’s building and on to the brightly lit boulevard. In a side street beside the building, a taxi is waiting, its engine running. Miles strides over and opens the passenger door so I can climb in. As Miles gets in beside me, he says,
‘Le Meurice, s’il vous plaît
.’

‘That’s funny. I nearly went there today,’ I say, relishing the deliciousness of Miles being near. His presence is making my head whirl and my skin tingle.

‘Yes, I’ve heard. I made Beth tell me exactly what the two of you had got up to today so I could work out what had happened.’ He puts his arm round me as the taxi heads off, and we press close to one another. ‘Jacob found you at the Bristol, didn’t he? Beth heard something then, and then again when you managed to shout to her that you were with him.’

‘Clever Beth,’ I say gratefully. ‘And you used that to find me?’

‘It wasn’t that hard. Jacob is no master criminal. Taking you to his own apartment made it easier, and I’ve got contacts, don’t forget. I put the word out and I got some answers very quickly. Jacob’s been making a name for himself, but not in the way he would like.’

‘Poor Jacob,’ I say softly, rubbing my cheek across Miles’s shirt.

He laughs and I can hear the sound rumbling through his chest. It’s beautiful and his warmth and the fresh, clean masculine smell of his skin are utterly delicious. I feel as though I can’t get enough of him. ‘Poor Jacob,’ he says. ‘He’s been a complete prick to you, but you still feel sorry for him? Freya, you’re gorgeous.’ He kisses me again, softly and tenderly.

My heart swells with love and happiness. ‘Because I can tell that he’s totally useless at whatever it is he’s trying to do. The idea that I might give him cash, or live with him, or
marry
him even!’ I stare up at Miles, wide-eyed. ‘It’s ludicrous. Surely he can see that?’

Miles looks suddenly grave. ‘He’s out of his depth. And he’s not in a fit state to distinguish between fact and fantasy. I just hope that whatever thugs he’s got mixed up with can see how pathetic he is and feel sorry for him. Poor kid. Another example of what too much money can do.’

‘I hope they don’t hurt him!’ I say, suddenly appalled that all this might actually result in real harm. It seemed like a game, or a play-acted scene when we were up in that apartment. Miles is making me realise that it was horribly real. This is how people get killed.

He hugs me. ‘I hope so too, sweetheart. But you’re my priority now.’

The journey to the Meurice goes quickly. We’re engrossed in one another, kissing and touching, revelling in our reunion and the beauty of being together.

The driver has to cough loudly when he pulls up in front of the hotel, and the doorman opens the door of our taxi to help me out as Miles pays and we enter the building. I’ve put my sunglasses on and keep my head down but no one seems at all interested in us. I guess all the photographers are still waiting at the Bristol, hoping that I’ll turn up there. If they knew that the heiress and the bodyguard are checking in right now at a hotel only a short distance away, they’d be cursing and leaping on those mopeds to get here as soon as possible.

Let them freeze outside the Bristol.

My elation is suddenly shattered by the memory of how the press knew where I was. It was Jane-Elizabeth who started this whole thing and who leaked the details of Jacob’s peccadilloes to the press – it’s the only possible explanation. She’s the only one who had any access to the information. Jacob was right about one thing – it was my side who sold him down the river. What I can’t understand is why Jane-Elizabeth has turned against me like this: why has she decided to ruin my relationship with my father, put me in danger even, by revealing my whereabouts to the media, and to Jacob?

It doesn’t make sense.

I haven’t got the first idea what I’m going to do about it, or how I’m going to confront her. I also don’t want to think about it now, not when I’ve got this sweet reunion to enjoy in one of the most luxurious hotels in Paris.

‘Come on, sweetheart,’ Miles says, taking me by the arm. We follow a bellboy who leads us to an elevator which we take up to the second floor. A few moments later, he’s opening the door to a beautiful suite, classically elegant and decorated in muted silks and velvets, with a view over the Tuileries gardens. A bottle of champagne sits chilling in an ice bucket and on the floor, to my astonishment, is my luggage, which I haven’t seen since the morning. There’s another black bag there too.

Miles tips the bellboy, then turns to see the expression on my face. He laughs as he closes the door. ‘Surprise!’ he says.

‘You’re right it’s a surprise,’ I say, going over to make sure that it is my bag I’m looking at. ‘How did this happen?’

‘It was all arranged.’ Miles shrugs a little.

‘So you were pretty sure that you were going to find me?’ I say, laughing.

‘Winter, I wasn’t coming back without you,’ he says, wrapping me in his arms again. ‘I found out that Thierry was your security. I tracked him down at the Hôtel de Vendôme – where you apparently sent him and where he was practically chewing the carpets. He was somewhat relieved when I told him everything was all under control.’

A thought strikes me. ‘I have to let Flora know where I am! She must be worried sick.’

‘Beth’s in touch with her. She knows you’re okay and you’re with me. But no one knows exactly where we are.’

‘That’s a relief,’ I say with a sigh. ‘I’ve begun to understand that the happiest times of my life are when it’s just you and me, without the world knowing about it.’ Tears suddenly fill my eyes and my lip wobbles.

‘Hey, hey – are you all right? What’s wrong?’ Miles looks down at me anxiously.

‘I . . . I found out who’s been betraying me. How the press have known where to find me.’

‘I know. Beth told me. I’m sorry, sweetheart.’

I sniff and try to hold in a sob. ‘I haven’t been able to think about it with everything else that’s going on. But I can’t believe that Jane-Elizabeth would do this to me!’

‘Are you sure it’s her?’ Miles asks. ‘It seems out of character to me as well. From what I’ve seen of Jane-Elizabeth, she’s completely devoted. Unquestionably loyal.’

‘I know.’ I sob again, feeling the punch of betrayal all over again. ‘I don’t know who I can trust in the world if I can’t trust her.’

Miles hugs me tighter, rocking me a little as though to calm me with the gentle movement. ‘We’ll work it all out. It’ll be okay.’

I sniff, comforted a little. Whatever else has happened, I’m with Miles and that’s the most important thing. ‘Miles . . .?’ I look at him, my eyes still damp.

‘Yes?’ He looks down tenderly.

‘Is there any chance we can get some dinner? I haven’t eaten all day and I’m absolutely ravenous.’

He smiles down. ‘That was my very next suggestion. We’re going to eat right here.’

I take a bath in the Italian marble bathroom while the hotel staff set the dining table in our sitting room and Miles orders dinner.

When I emerge from the bedroom, dressed in a simple navy-blue silk dress, there are candles flickering on the table by the French windows that give on to the Tuileries gardens, and two glasses of fizzing champagne waiting. Miles is standing looking out over the view, changed into dark trousers and a crisp shirt. He looks gorgeous against the window, broad and strong, his muscles just apparent beneath the cotton of his shirt. When he turns, I almost gasp at the sight of his handsome face and those moulded lips. He smiles at me and my whole body responds with a shimmer of delight and excitement.

‘You look beautiful,’ he says.

‘Thank you.’ I shake my head. ‘When I left for Paris this morning, this is what I dreamed might happen tonight. But I had no idea what we’d have to go through to get here.’

Miles picks up the glasses of champagne and walks over, handing one to me. ‘I didn’t even know you were coming to Paris this morning. But I did know that I had to sort my head out. I needed to work out how I felt about you and what kind of future we might have.’

‘What did you decide?’ I ask softly, almost nervously, as we touch the rims of our glasses together. I hope that what happened today means that Miles has decided that he wants to be with me, but I can’t take anything for granted. My heart starts to race with the fear that he might be about to let me down somehow and tell me, sweetly and gently, that it isn’t to be.

Miles hesitates, looking down at the table, and then lifts his gaze to meet mine. His blue eyes are intense, a deep navy blue.

‘Everything was decided the moment Beth told me you were in trouble. I felt . . . like the bottom of my world had been ripped out. The idea I might lose you was so terrible that – well – it crystallised what I thought might be the case.’

‘What’s the case?’ I ask, gazing at him, my insides fizzing with anticipation.

‘Freya, I knew I loved you.’

‘You knew that?’

‘I . . .
know
that.’

‘You love me.’ I sigh happily. I feel as though some missing piece of my life has just slotted into place and made everything complete.

He presses his face to my hair and murmurs, ‘I love you.’

I close my eyes and feel his fingertips stroke along the skin of my arm. Every hair stands up with excitement and I release a long breath. His closeness is driving me wild. I want him right now, I don’t think I can wait any longer.

There’s a knock at the door.

‘Ah,’ says Miles, pulling away from me with a mischievous look in his eyes. ‘I think that must be dinner.’

We eat a delicious feast, served to us on huge platters under silver cloches that are pulled off to reveal magnificent dishes. I’m starving and every mouthful is ambrosial, the pleasure heightened by the fact that I’m sitting opposite Miles. Every now and then I remember those soft murmured words and my insides roll over with pleasure and I sigh happily.

Meanwhile we talk, about Jacob and about how our relationship unfolded and then ended. Miles tells me about his plans for the future, now that he’s not working for my father any more. He owns an estate in the wilds of Scotland – ‘not like the kind of estates your friends own,’ he says with a laugh – and he’s dreamed of spending a few years there, running a very specialist survival school, passing on what he learned in the SAS.’

‘A little time out of the rat race,’ he says with a smile. ‘No constant round of travel. I need to get away from mansions and penthouses and fancy hotels. A man can have a little too much of all that. It can leave him jaded, you know?’

I nod, thinking that wherever Miles is will be heaven, as far as I’m concerned.

‘And what are you going to do, Freya?’ he asks.

A stab of fear pierces me. ‘What do you mean?’ I’d just assumed we were going to be together now. ‘Are you going to leave me?’

He smiles at me. ‘This isn’t going to be simple, sweetheart. That’s why I left you at your father’s – so that you could think clearly for a while about what you really want. You know what it will mean if we decide to be together. Your father won’t like it. You could find yourself cut off, like Jacob.’

‘I don’t mind about that,’ I say vehemently. ‘I’ve thought about my old life – and I was totally miserable. Everything feels right with you and I can’t give that up to go back to that other existence. It might be luxurious but it’s empty and meaningless and unhappy. I mean it, Miles, don’t make me go back!’ I gaze at him earnestly, desperate for him to understand how much I mean this. ‘Take me with you, wherever you’re going.’

He stares at me, thoughtful. Then he takes a sip of his wine and says, ‘If you’re serious, and you’ve thought about what it might mean . . . then it might be an idea for you to disappear for a while. This fuss with Jacob isn’t good. It needs to blow over and you can’t be involved in it. I don’t like what happened today one bit.’

‘You mean . . . come away with you?’ I catch my breath in excitement. Then my pleasure is doused. ‘But they’ll find me. I’ll have to tell my father I’m safe, Jane-Elizabeth will know and then . . . then the world will know about five minutes after that. How can I get round it?’

‘Leave it with me, I’ll think of something. There’s always an answer.’

I feel comforted again, and my happiness returns. I lean towards him, pushing away the remnants of my pudding. ‘I would expect nothing less from a teacher. You’re supposed to have all the answers, aren’t you?’

He smiles at me, his eyes filling with desire mixed with tenderness, and its potency makes my pulse race with excitement. ‘I may not have all the answers, Freya, but I have the one to the question you’re asking right now.’