by Karin Baine
‘Sure. I’ll freshen up and meet you down in the restaurant in, say, an hour?’
They synchronised watches, then retreated to their separate rooms. Henri already knew the time he would spend with Lola would be the highlight of this entire weekend.
* * *
Henri’s breath stuck in his throat as Lola walked into the restaurant. She’d swapped her casual travelling clothes for a floral baby doll dress that stopped just above her knees to show off her slim legs. Her hair was swept up into a messy bun, leaving her neck bare and begging for attention. Hers was a level of natural beauty that could never be achieved with an army of experts, and she had no idea how smitten half the room were with her as she wound through the tables.
Henri nearly spilled the jug of water over the table in his hurry to get to his feet and call her over. ‘There’s a seat here for you, Lola.’
‘Hi, guys.’
She took the empty seat beside Henri and covered her knees with a napkin. Gabrielle cast a brief glance up from her games console, smiled, and resumed play. Bastien stopped playing the drums on the table with his spoon for long enough to say hello.
‘You look beautiful.’ With three little words Henri managed to turn Lola’s cheeks the same pale pink as her dress.
‘Thank you.’
She ducked away from the compliment when she should have held her head high. No matter how hard he tried, Henri couldn’t marry the two sides of her personality—that fearless siren he’d seen gyrating in Angelique’s class, and the shy, insecure wallflower who hated any form of attention. Those low lifes must have really done a number on her if she couldn’t see what he saw before him.
There was a great deal of whispering and elbowing going on from the opposite side of the table, and then Bastien threw his cutlery on the table and slumped into his chair. ‘Uncle Henri, I don’t feel very well.’
‘Since when?’ Not ten minutes ago Bastien had been using Henri’s bed as a trampoline.
‘Since now.’ Bastien sighed, doing his best floppy ragdoll impression.
Henri left his seat and dropped to his knees in front of his nephew. He put a hand on his forehead. He wasn’t running a temperature. ‘You’re not hot. Are you sore anywhere?’
Bastien shook his head.
‘Maybe he’s homesick.’ Gabrielle added her diagnosis and cuddled her brother tight.
Bastien nodded his head—much too eagerly for someone supposedly ill. Gabrielle glared at him until he resumed his sad clown face. It was all highly suspicious.
‘Is that right? And how do you propose we cure him, Dr Gabs?’
Henri didn’t know what they were up to, but he was sure it had nothing to do with missing home. According to Angelique they’d been so excited to find out about their surprise getaway they’d barely slept last night.
‘We could go back to the room and watch cartoons?’
He should have known they’d get bored sitting in a fancy restaurant when they were used to dinner on their laps with the TV on in the background. Henri tossed his napkin on the table. They didn’t have to get the bill, since they hadn’t had a chance even to order before the conspiring duo had concocted their own agenda for tonight.
‘Cartoons it is, then. I’m sorry about dinner, Lola.’
‘That’s okay—the children are more important.’
Her resigned shrug and Lola’s acceptance of his priorities should have warmed Henri, not left him cold. There was nothing he wanted more than to be with her, and he wished there was some way to convey that to her. So far this plan had backfired spectacularly. Rather than bringing he and Lola closer together, having the children here was pushing them further apart.
‘No!’
Gabrielle’s outburst made them all jump.
‘I mean...that’s not necessary. You two should stay and enjoy your dinner. I can take Bastien up to the room if you give me the key.’
‘What about your dinner?’ Sick or not, he didn’t imagine that Bastien, away from the watchful eyes of his mother, would miss the chance to fill up on desserts without a good reason.
‘We can order Room Service if Bastien starts to feel better.’
Gabrielle had it all worked out, and Henri wasn’t sure what was behind it except for a chance to ditch the adults.
It was tempting to give in and finally have some quality time with Lola, but doubts still lingered. He glared at them, waiting for one of them to break and tell him what they were up to, but they simply batted their eyelashes and straightened their crooked halos.
Despite his reservations about leaving them to run riot through the hotel, he remembered Lola’s words about giving Gabrielle more freedom. She was old enough to babysit her brother in a safe environment for an hour without getting into too much trouble.
He handed the key over with a word of warning. ‘One dinner and one dessert only and I’ll be up to check on you shortly.’
‘Yes, Uncle Henri,’ they chorused, and scampered out of the restaurant with the smiles of well-practised conmen.
Lola waited until they were out of sight before erupting into sweet laughter. ‘They have you wrapped around their little fingers!’
‘Ever get the feeling you’ve been had?’
Henri moved across to take the seat Gabrielle had vacated, so they were sitting face on, instead of side by side, with him trying to sneak a peek at her when he thought she wasn’t looking.
‘Definitely—but they’re good kids. I don’t think we need to worry about them ending up on the wrong side of the law just yet.’
‘Perhaps not, but there’s every possibility they’ll have drowned in ice cream by the time I go up.’ Unsupervised Room Service was probably an accident waiting to happen, but he was doing his best to adopt this new laid-back approach to substitute parenting Lola had advocated.
With the table now a child-free zone, Henri ordered some wine to accompany their preferences from the menu. It was beginning to feel more like a date—exactly what he’d hoped for—and yet a little Dutch courage wouldn’t go amiss. There was every chance Lola could reject his idea of a fling, in which case he’d screwed everything up.
They waited in silence as the wine was poured, and Henri could see Lola’s hands tremble as she lifted the glass to her lips. There would be no need for nerves if she saw him as only a friend.
He sawed into his steak with renewed gusto, fortifying himself for the moment when he’d have to disclose his real motive for bringing her here.
* * *
Lola forced down every mouthful of dinner, even though her appetite had vanished along with the children. Without the accompaniment of minors she was simply a single woman being wined and dined by a handsome man. Something which her permanent state of spinsterhood didn’t allow to happen very often. And it was being made especially difficult for her not to get carried away in the moment when neither one of them had any intention of going home at the end of the night.
She washed the growing anticipation down with a sip of wine, unwilling to get her hopes up that something could happen between them when Henri was here for work reasons, not her pleasure.
‘Thanks for bringing me along this weekend. It’s nice to get away for a few days.’
Although she’d had to bend the truth of her whereabouts to keep certain busybodies from interfering in proceedings. As long as her flatmate and her brothers didn’t confer, she could come away from this without causing a scandal. There was no point in causing uproar over a potentially ruined reputation when any inappropriate behaviour was probably entirely in her head.
‘It was for totally selfish reasons, I assure you. I didn’t even ask if you had other plans.’
‘Nope. I’m all yours.’
She took another gulp of wine after her clumsy attempt at flirting. There was no way she could b
ring herself to say what it was she wanted to come from their time together in case she’d got it completely wrong. She was trusting in Henri to read the signals and make the move. If he wanted to.
‘What about the man you were with the other day? Are you sure he wasn’t expecting your company tonight?’
Henri seemed to be toying with the food on his plate with the same enthusiasm Lola had for her own meal. When he gazed up at her, all that familiar bravado hidden beneath a furrowed brow, there was a genuine expression of worry that she’d rather be somewhere else.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Lola blinked back at him mid-chew and swallowed the ball of anxiety in her throat. It was no doubt a difficult concept for Henri to grasp that she preferred some distance from her family. ‘Jake? No, I told him I was busy. I’ll catch up with him another time. And don’t worry—he’s been warned to stay away from the hospital in future.’
Henri placed his cutlery neatly in the centre of his plate with slow, deliberate movements. ‘Whatever his name is, I hope he treats you right.’
‘He’s a pain in the backside, but he means well. It’s just as well the other two are so busy with work at the minute or I’d have all three of them breathing down my neck.’
‘All three of whom?’ He was leaning across the table, eyebrows knitted together and staring at her as though she’d just landed on the planet.
‘My brothers. Who did you think I meant?’
‘I thought you’d traded me in for a triple threat.’
It took Lola a minute to comprehend the accusation of being a serial cheat. Once she’d stopped laughing she would put him right. Clearly her seduction technique needed work if he thought she was interested in anyone other than him. The thought of one romantic liaison brought her out in a cold sweat—any more than that would turn her into a complete basket case. She didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended that he thought her capable of taking on three lovers.
I thought you’d traded me in...
Henri’s words echoed in her head to remind her that he’d included himself in the list of her conquests and set her pulse fluttering once more. ‘Are you saying you were jealous?’
‘Oui. I don’t want to think of you kissing anyone else the way you kissed me.’
Henri finally uttered the words guaranteed to make any woman swoon. But Lola’s first instinct was to question his motives.
‘Why not?’
This had to be about more than his ego being bruised or she’d inevitably end up getting hurt. It was important that he wanted her and not just a victory over some imagined foe. A one-sided love affair would never end well.
‘I know we haven’t talked about what happened between us, and that’s entirely my fault. It was only seeing the possibility that I could lose you to someone else that made me face up to how much you mean to me.’
He reached across the table and took her hand, his touch reassuring her that this was frighteningly real and no longer a fantasy. However, she was realistic enough to understand that this couldn’t be more than a fling. In a few weeks she’d be moving on to another department and Henri wouldn’t give her another thought. If he wanted to be with her until then, it would be on her terms. At least that way she might be able to maintain some control over her emotions.
‘I don’t want anything serious, Henri. There’s too much other stuff cluttering up my life to worry about being perfect girlfriend material. Got it?’
‘I think I’ve got it. You want us to be lovers?’
The French accent was made to say that word. Lovers. It purred from his tongue, a deliciously exciting take on her blueprint for their future. The scandalous idea of using Henri only for sex was definitely a step forward in the adventures of New Lola. That way she’d get to have all the fun without any of the drama. If she was brave enough to agree to further involvement with a red-hot Frenchman with her limited experience. After all, Frenchmen were renowned for more than their egos and their cuisine.
‘Yes.’ She blurted it out before her insecurities caught up with her and convinced her that she wouldn’t be enough for Henri—even as a lover. ‘When my placement at the hospital is over, so are we. Both of us can move on with a clear conscience and our curiosity satisfied.’
That day in his office had given Lola a tantalising peek at what lay underneath his clothes. Now her body was on high alert at the promise of more. Goosebumps formed on the exposed skin of her arms and her nipples puckered against the thin fabric of her dress as arousal flooded through her, washing away any lingering doubts that she wanted this.
‘D’accord. That’s settled, then.’ Henri tossed back the rest of his wine with the nonchalance of a Lothario who made indecent proposals every day of the week—when she could have done with a paper bag to breathe into.
Lola regretted not telling Jules about this weekend. She desperately needed her ‘shut up and do it’ brand of advice. Even though they were best friends, she hadn’t shared with her any of the details about her involvement with the Benoits. Jules would undoubtedly have rejoiced at the idea of her roommate embarking on a torrid affair, but Lola wouldn’t have been able to go to work every day imagining people sniggering behind her back. She’d had enough of that to last several lifetimes. But, paranoia aside, Lola was so far out of her comfort zone she needed one of Jules’s motivational speeches to get her to the next level.
‘The desserts look heavenly. Are you having one?’
Lola snatched the menu from the table even though her stomach was doing a double somersault. Another course would delay the moment when she would have to act on her side of this new verbal contract.
‘No, I thought we could go back to the room. Unless you want one, of course?’ Henri was antsy already, checking his watch and looking for the waiter.
Lola’s once floaty chiffon dress was now clinging to the light perspiration on her skin. Her head was spinning as she fell into the fast-moving current of passion. She reached out and grabbed for her one lifeline before she was swept away with no chance of rescue. My terms.
‘I don’t want dessert, but I’m not sure I’m ready to simply jump into bed, either. I don’t normally do this sort of thing. Could you give me a moment to get used to the idea first?’
Henri leaned across the table, forcing her to do the same so she could hear him. They were as close as they could be without touching, his breath caressing her lips in an almost kiss.
‘I’m not an animal, chérie. As much as I want to be with you, I’m not going to drag you to bed before dinner even has a chance to settle. I just wanted to go and check on les enfants.’
He withdrew again, leaving Lola wanting to face-plant into the table. Who was the sex fiend now? All the while she’d been thinking Henri was desperate to ravage her and he only had the welfare of his sister’s children on his mind. She’d have thought less of him in the long run if he’d abandoned their care in favour of his own selfish needs. Obviously the heat of the moment had warped her own sense of priority, since she’d completely forgotten she was there with anyone other than Henri.
‘Of course we should make sure they’re okay.’
Then she could go and hide under the duvet in her own room and spend the night revisiting her epic mistake in her head.
Once Henri had paid their bill they headed back to their rooms. The atmosphere during their journey in the elevator to the fourth floor was so charged Lola kept imagining he would make a move on her. Hoping. She couldn’t remember the last time this level of anticipation hadn’t had negative connotations. Medical school and work had all had her on tenterhooks in their own way, each forming that same weight of dread in her stomach as she waited for the sucker punch. This time, though, she was like a kid on Christmas Eve, impatient to get to the goodies.
Whilst she wasn’t quite ready to consummate their ne
w romance, there was no reason she couldn’t have a little sample to tide her over. Her lips tingled with the memories of his, and she was tempted to take the initiative herself. If only it didn’t seem so inappropriate now they were returning to their two mini-sized responsibilities on the other side of those metal doors.
The ding as they reached their floor signalled the end of their night, although Lola followed Henri to make sure the children were safe and sound.
Henri opened the door with the caution of a well-seasoned parent afraid to waken potentially sleeping little ones. He tiptoed inside and peered around the corner.
‘Are they all right?’ Lola whispered. Judging by Henri’s muted reaction to the scene, they hadn’t held any illegal raves in the hour they’d been left alone.
He backed out through the door again with his finger on his lips. ‘They’re asleep. Fully clothed and surrounded by dirty dishes, but asleep nonetheless.’
For a minute Lola could see his potential as a father. His loyalty to his sister was without question but there was more than a sense of him doing his duty where the children were concerned. From everything Lola had seen he was firm with them, and set boundaries where they were needed, but he was also very loving. He would make a great husband and father some day.
‘I should get some sleep myself. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.’
There was no formal itinerary planned, but she imagined a full twenty-four hours with Bastien would be an endurance test. She’d be sure to make full use of all the hotel amenities to fill the time for Bastien and Gabrielle in between Henri’s appointments.
‘Let me see you to your door—make sure you get home safely.’ He closed the door and walked the two steps to her room.
‘Well, goodnight. I’ll see you in the morning.’
She went to unlock the door, but Henri settled his hand on top of hers to stop her.
‘What? No goodnight kiss?’
His words warmed the back of her neck and turned her insides to liquid. One last smooch could be exactly what she needed to settle those bunched-up nerves and help her to sleep.