Chapter 13
“SKYE, IT’S FLEUR.”
“Fleur?” Despite the fact Matthieu’s cousin had only ever been kind to her, Skye felt an immediate tangling of nerves. After all, this was Margot’s daughter. Wasn’t it possible she felt some of the same emotions towards Skye?
“Oui. I’m in Paris. Can you meet?”
Skye’s eyes flew wide. “Today?”
Matthieu, across the room, flicked a glance to her, a frown on his handsome face.
“Yes. I’ll send a car.”
“Oh.” Disappointment was a thunderclap inside her chest. After leaving the apartment for dinner last night, they’d come home and everything had felt so right for Skye, she wasn’t sure she could bear to leave again. But an ally for her next visit to Matthieu’s family home would be a bonus, so how could she say ‘no’?
“I can do that,” she agreed with a decisive nod. “But don’t worry about a car. I’ll take a cab.”
Fleur’s laugh was musical. “Darling, I’ve seen the necklace you’re wearing. No taxi driver could be trusted not to mug you. My driver will be downstairs in ten minutes. Kisses.”
Skye disconnected the call, moving to Matthieu on autopilot.
“Fleur, as in my cousin?”
Skye nodded distractedly. “She wants to meet with me.”
He stood, wrapping his arms around her waist. “And you’re worried, lest she hurl the same insults at you that her mother did. Yes?”
“No, I know she’s not like Margot,” Skye murmured, and at his quizzical look, she waved a hand in the air. “I overheard them talking at the house. Your cousin defended me, which I thought was very sweet, given she barely knows me. Obviously it has more to do with you, and her desire for you to be happy, but it made me like her anyway.”
“So you’re happy to go?”
“Of course.” She stood up on tiptoes and kissed his lips. “Though I’ll miss you, just a little.”
“Just a little?”
“Okay, a bit more than that.” Her heart slammed into her ribs. She felt as though with each word she spoke she was stepping further and further onto a limb, and yet she wanted to say more, to understand more. Instead, she pulled away from him, a slight frown on her lips.
It was only as she stepped onto the footpath that she realized she had no idea how Fleur had seen her new necklace, and before she could ask, the door to a limousine opened and Fleur exited gracefully, a big smile on her red-painted lips.
“Skye, how lovely to see you again.” The other woman embraced Skye and kissed both her cheeks, then squeezed her hands. “We’re going to have such fun.”
Skye eyed her curiously. “Are we?”
Fleur laughed. “You sound like you think I’m going to drag you to the dentist.”
“No, no,” Skye shook her head. “I’m just surprised.”
“You know, Matthieu is like a brother to me,” Fleur confided, as they stepped back into the limousine, sitting side by side. “Which means you will be my sister-in-law, once you are married.”
Guilt slammed into Skye, and a sense of desperation to. In that moment, oh how she wished this was real! She wanted this life, Matthieu, to be her truth, rather than a means to an end.
And the property in Australia? Wasn’t that her dream?
It felt so intangible now, so far away and…false.
She ground her teeth, pushing aside the doubts. She couldn’t let a sizzling romance shift her from the goal she’d held all her adult life. This was an act, and she had to perpetuate it. Skye forced a bright smile to her face.
“He speaks very highly of you, too.”