But now, as he looked at her with his expression shuttered, she could feel the protest rise within her. Protest that this golden time with him was ending.
Not yet, oh, please, not yet!
The cry came from deep inside her. A place she dared not acknowledge but felt all the same. A dread, an anguish, a loss.
For a moment Lycos did not speak.
‘I may need to go to Paris,’ he said. His voice was clipped.
Arielle felt her face pale. It had come out of nowhere, Lycos walking out of her life. Just as he had walked into it from nowhere. Emotion clutched at her, but she would not name it. Dimly, as if from far away, she realised he was speaking still.
‘I told you I was on my way there originally for a meeting with the banker who handles my finances. He’s just texted me to say that he will need to fly to Germany shortly. Another client has need of him. That he will probably be there a while, then move on to Prague and Vienna. So, if I still want to see him, next week would be a good time.’
Arielle swallowed. It was painful, but she made herself say what had to be said.
‘Then you must go,’ she said.
He frowned again, brows drawing together. It gave him a forbidding look.
‘I don’t want to, but I think I must. I’ve delayed too long already. Except that—’
He broke off. His gaze went to the window, where the sun was filling the courtyard and the hens were wandering around pecking here and there. Then his gaze returned to her.
She waited for the words. The words she knew would come, must come. She had heard them already. Knew what they wouldbe. He would be kind and tactful, but he would say them all the same.
‘It’s been good, Arielle, this time with you. Here at themas, here with you. But now it’s time for me to leave, to go back to my own life. And you, for you it is time to leave too. To start your new life. I wish you well. We’ll both have good memories of this time now. Good memories.’
And memories were all that she would have. Nothing more. Memories of her home. Of Lycos.
Nothing more than memories.
‘So, what do you say?’
She blinked. What had he just said?
‘Arielle?’ He lifted a hand, waved it as though to wake her. His expression was strange. She couldn’t make it out.
He spoke again.
‘How do you feel…’ he said to her, his eyes resting on her with that strange expression in them, ‘…about coming to Paris with me?’
Lycos kept his gaze steady on her. Her expression was blank. ‘Arielle?’ he said again.
She stared at him blankly then said, ‘You’re asking me to come to Paris?’
She said it as if he’d spoken in a foreign language.
Lycos nodded. ‘Yes. Would you like to?’
Uncertainty filled her face now. It made him feel unsure too. Surely she would want to come with him. Wouldn’t she?
Abruptly, he felt doubt shape itself in his mind. Intruding. Unwelcome. He desired Arielle, of that he had no doubt at all. He had desired her from the first moment he’d seen her. Had focussed on fulfilling that desire. And now he was focussed on continuing to fulfil it. He wasn’t in the least bored or tired of her.He wanted her now as much as he had wanted her from the first. He had no idea how long that desire would last, but while it did, he did not wish to part with her.
Surely she feels the same? She is as ardent as she was that very first night. As passionate. I see it in her eyes, her face, the ecstasy of her body.
So why this hesitation now?
Unless—
