Page 27 of City of Love
I nod, gesturing back to the hallway she’s just emerged from. “Go ahead. You don’t have to ask permission.”
“Right,” she says, looking as though the idea will take some getting used to. “Okay.” She hesitates, then goes on, “Are you leaving? Or will you be here?”
“I’ll be here,” I say lightly, a small smile flitting across my lips, because I know what she’s trying to ask. “I won’t leave you alone in a foreign city.”
“You don’t have to stay,” she says quickly, but she looks relieved. “I mean, if you have things to do—”
“Lydia,” I say, cutting her off. “Go shower. I’ll make us breakfast when you’re done, all right?”
“I—all right,” she says, playing with the hem of her flannel button-down shirt.
“You can use anything that’s in there if you don’t have your own,” I add.
“Oh, I brought like a billion travel-sized body washes,” she says with a shrug. “I do need to buy shampoo, though.”
I nod. “Use mine, and we can pick some up today,” I say, dismissing the errant thought that when she comes back out here she’s going to smell like me. It’s clearly been a while since I’ve spent time with a woman.
“That would be good,” she says with a sigh of relief.
I nod again. “We can do that.” I pause, thinking. I need to head over to my flat—my safe there is where I keep the group’s monetary assets—and then get the Rolex. I don’t want Lydia going anywhere near that business. So maybe…
“All right,” I say, decided. “You get showered, I’ll do the same, and then I’ll make us something to eat. I’ve got to do something over at my flat, but I’ll swing by here once I’m done and then we can go get whatever you need. Toiletries, we’ll get you a metro card—all of that.”
Lydia just looks surprised for a second, and then she gives a sarcastic snort of laughter. “‘I’ll be here,’” she says, throwing my own words back at me, her voice pitched deep in unflattering imitation. “‘I won’t leave you alone in a foreign city.’ Isn’t that what youjustsaid?” She props one hand on her hip and cocks an eyebrow.
“I’m not leaving you,” I say. “I just have some brief business to attend to—”
“Can I come?” she says, cutting me off.
“No,” I say.
She shrugs pointedly, as though to say,Sounds an awful lot like leaving to me.
“Besides, didn’t you say it was okay if I had things I needed to do?” I go on, raising one brow at her.
“Sure,” she says reasonably, coming further into the room and settling herself in the velvet chair by the fireplace. “But then you insisted that you didn’t.”
“I didn’t technically say that,” I counter. Though…I can admit it was implied.Mince.
She shrugs. “Whatever you say, boss. Just hurry back, please?” she adds, looking hopeful.
“Wow. Put you in a foreign country and you get needy,” I say, smirking so she knows I’m teasing.
She smiles in response. “You knew this would happen. I told you I would cling to you like a life raft, which you said was fine—”
“It’soneerrand—”
“And, by the way,” she speaks over me, “when you’re making plans that involve two people, you can’t justtellthe other person what to do. You’re discussing, not giving orders. ‘You get showered,’” she mimics. “‘I have something to do, then I’ll come back for you and we’ll go.’ That’s not how you make plans with someone,” she says. “That’s just bossing me around.”
I pause, my response momentarily lost, because she’s right. I’m just used to giving orders and having them obeyed without question. My eyes flit over her face, from the stubborn set of her jaw to the mixture of amusement and exasperation in her eyes.
Then I sigh, running one hand through my hair. “All right, you can come,” I say, relenting, because I feel bad about basically going back on my word. “But,” I add, “you don’t ask questions. And if I do ‘boss you around,’ you trust me and do what I ask. Fair?”
She thinks for a second. “Fair,” she says finally, smiling. “If not a little sketchy.”
“I’m serious, Lydia. Take it or leave it,” I warn.
She holds up her hands. “Calm down, Mr. Grump. I’ll take it.” She pauses, her smile turning mischievous. “It was my delightful personality that changed your mind, wasn’t it?”
