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“Lorcan? He’s great, although he doesn’t live up to his name. The kid sounds like a fucking foghorn during the night.” Oran turned to Jamie and must have seen him look puzzled when he clarified, “Lorcan means silent or fierce, although I guess the fierce one fits since he’s brave enough to think he can disturb my sleep every night.”
Jamie and I chuckled, and I tugged Jamie away. “Right, it was fabulous seeing you here — weird but fabulous. But my toes feel like they’ve lost all feeling and my belly is rumbling. I’ll see you in Dublin next month and I promise we’ll catch up properly.” Waving goodbye, we headed for the lift and back to the street.
“He sounds like quite the character,” Jamie said as we hailed a cab and he settled me inside. Climbing in after me, he slung his hand around my shoulder, pushing his scarf away and sliding down his hood with his other.
“He’s a good man, and funny. He loves his wife to pieces — except for last year when she was too pregnant to fly and he couldn’t get over to Ireland in March.”
Jamie laughed as he pulled off his gloves and cupped my face. “I thought he’d recognized me at first,” he admitted.
“Ah, well now, you’re not the only one that has fans in foreign places.”
Leaning forward he pressed a kiss to my lips when he pulled away his eyes flitted between mine. “I’m ready to have us go public, I felt a little invisible up there just now.”
“You did?” I chuckled.
“Yeah, when some guy’s saying he’d have given you his heart like that? He might never have done that had I claimed you already. I need everyone to know you’re mine now.”
Chapter 6
On arrival back at the hotel, Jamie stepped out of the cab, gestured for me to take his hand, and I shuffled over and stepped out behind him. I noted he hadn’t pulled up the hood as he led me through the front lobby.
People stopped and stared at us, but Jamie acted like no one was there. Several flashes went off and phones recorded our movements until we reached the bank of lifts. Once inside, he sighed, turned, and pulled me into his side.
“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“What wasn’t?” I asked.
“Us going public,” he said, moving in front of me and sliding his hands around my waist. I stared up at him.
“Well, it was hardly that. I mean we walked about a hundred feet to get here.”
“And by tomorrow evening everyone will know who you are,” he said flatly, moving a hand to brush wisps of hair from my forehead.
“I’m sure it’ll take more than what we just did for that to happen.”
“Most of the other women they saw me with, were only in the news because I’d gotten caught out. I don’t court publicity, it courts me. They know I’d never put myself out there and give them the gift we just did if I wasn’t serious about you. Their only task now is to find out who you are.”
Taking his cell phone out of his pocket, he saw Paddy had tried to call him four times. After telling me this, he tried to call him back. When that failed, he listened to a message on his voicemail.
“Shit, I’m really sorry Daisy, but despite my best efforts to spend as much time with you as I can, I have to shoot over to the venue for a bit. There’s a problem I need to take care of, but I’ll be back in time for dinner. You can come, although I’m not sure who’ll be around, and I may need to leave you sitting on your own over there for quite a while.”
“I’ll stay here. Go, do what you need to do. I’m a big girl and this is your job, I understand.”
“Maybe it’s a good thing, giving you space may give you time to take off your fangirl head off and own what we are for the press. We have reservations for the restaurant here in the city later at 8:30 p.m.”
A bout of nerves coursed through my body with the thought of being in the spotlight, but I kept my smile on my face and shrugged. “I guess if you’re ready to show I’m yours to the public, then I must be ready too.”
After Jamie left, I called down to the concierge and asked if they had a beautician on hand. Ten minutes later I sat in a spa with my face encased in a hot clay mask and my feet in a pedicure pool. I’d already had my hair, nails and waxing done before I’d made it to Paris, but I’d figured pampering myself a little more could only increase my confidence at being seen out with Jamie.
Feeling fresh, I glanced in the mirror and felt pleased at how my skin glowed. I thanked the beautician and tipped her, then headed back to our suite. I heard rustling coming from the bedroom when I entered the suite and checked the time — it was only 7:10 p.m. Too early for Jamie to have gotten to the venue and made it back to our room.
Discounting his presence, I naturally assumed it must hotel services doing an evening turn down or something. However, as I moved further into the bedroom, I became conscious that there wasn’t a trolley outside that would have usually accompanied them.
When I glanced at the bed, fear instantly gripped me when I saw the slightest movement coming from under the duvet. On closer inspection I saw a human outline lying underneath it.
“Jamie, is that you?” I chuckled. “I can see your outline under the duvet.”
Instantly the heavy duvet got flung back, revealing a small raven-haired girl, with bright red lipstick, a tanned complexion, and a metal stud piercing in her nose.
