of emotion washed through her with such ferocity she was afraid it might bring her to her knees. She didn’t feel hopeless, though, not as hopeless as she had a moment ago.
Because when Alik had turned to go she’d seen emotion in his eyes. She’d seen fear. He didn’t want to let Leena down, and whether he knew it or not, he was on the road to loving her. And with that, more would follow. She had to hope so.
Right now, she just ached for him. For the man who was lost in a situation that made no sense to him. Alik was alpha, controlling and extremely capable. He had money and power, charisma to spare when he chose to apply it. But Alik didn’t understand love, and in this situation, that made him infinitely more helpless and less equipped than she was.
When it came to emotion, she held the power, while he stood, defenses down, with nothing.
She kissed the top of her daughter’s head and closed her eyes, repeating a promise in her mind, over and over again.
I will help your father learn to love you. Because you deserve nothing less.
She’d been on one of Alik’s private planes before, but that didn’t mean she was immune to the glamor of traveling in that kind of style. Not after a lifetime of flying economy. And after suffering, happily, with the inundation of luxury, brought on by having a bed available for a flight, she was completely floored by her first glimpse of Paris.
She’d been to India, with a stopover in Frankfurt, on a visit to see her in-laws once, but beyond that, she was hardly a world traveler. Seeing so many sights in person that she’d seen immortalized in movies was a truly surreal experience.
And after being treated to her first vision of the Eiffel Tower, she was shocked even further by the location of Alik’s town house. It was sleek and spare inside, the perfect foil for the view it afforded. Out one side was an alley, with a cobbled street and small, crowded shops. The patisserie, the boulange-rie and various cafés with pastries guaranteed to go straight to her hips. And on the other side was the tower itself, the base of the iron structure filling the view from the kitchen windows. And from the bedrooms, you could see the rest, glittering in the darkness, iconic and surreal.
No, not even the luxury of Alik’s private plane could have prepared her for it. As if a palace in Attar hadn’t been sufficient to prove what sort of man Alik was, to demonstrate the sort of power he had, the opulent home in the heart of Paris drove the point home.
“Your room is here,” Alik said, “Leena’s is down the hall. The master is on the top floor.”
“Only the master?”
“And my office, but yes.”
Alik was a man of total self-indulgence. That, also, should have been clear by now. For some reason, she was understanding it slowly, in increments. Perhaps because it was so very different from the way she did things. From who she was.
She should be disgusted by his attitude. Instead, she found she was fascinated by it. Not many people were so honest about how selfish they were. Alik owned it, enjoyed it. He’d made a life that was purely for himself and he seemed happy in it.
As happy as Alik could ever be.
That thought made her sad. Reminded her that sometimes having whatever you wanted didn’t add up to a satisfying life.
“So what are our plans while we’re here?”
Alik put a hand in his pocket and leaned against the door frame of the bedroom. “Tomorrow night my potential client is providing us with tickets to the opera, before I meet with him the following day.”
“Opera? I’ve never been.” And she shouldn’t want to go. Not with Alik. It was shockingly like a date. Because you couldn’t bring a one-year-old to the opera.
“Then it shall be a culturally enriching experience for you,” he said, his eyes not focused on her, but on a point somewhere past her head.
“What about Leena?”
“I have secured an au pair for the duration of our stay.”
“Have you?” she asked, anger—welcome, blessed anger—spiking in her. “And what are her references? Shouldn’t I have been consulted?”
“Adira took care of it, and I trust her as much as I trust anyone.” She noticed he didn’t say he trusted her completely. Simply as much as he trusted anyone. Because Alik didn’t trust. Another piece of him to