Page 47 of Billion-Dollar Baby Shock

When the shoes were on he took her hand and pulled her up to standing.Still not sure what was happening, Tara let him lead her towards the massive iconic art museum.Under the moonlight it all felt a little surreal.She held the dress up a little in one hand to protect it from the ground.

As they drew closer, she could see an open door and a woman in a dark suit waiting for them.She greeted Dionwith huge deference and welcomed them in as if this were all entirely normal.

As they followed her into the building, which was completely empty and hushed when only hours ago it had been thronged with tourists, Tara squeezed his hand and whispered, ‘What are we doing here?’She couldn’t wrap her head around what was happening.

Dion merely put a finger to his mouth and they kept walking.They passed by the statue of theVenus de Miloand Tara nearly tripped.Dion steadied her.

Eventually, their guide stopped at an entrance to one of the rooms and stood back.She put out a hand and said, ‘Please, enjoy.’

They walked in and Tara realised that they were in the room of theMona Lisa.It was all the way at the other end and Dion walked her towards it.Tara wasn’t sure how her feet were even moving.

They stopped at the barrier a couple of feet back from the painting.No crowds.No jostling.No craning to see past tall people.Just them, and arguably the most famous painting of a woman, in the world.With her enigmatic smile.Looking at Tara as if to say,Back again?

Her vision started blurring and she furiously blinked to keep it at bay.When she felt she could speak she looked at Dion, who was staring at the painting.‘How…?When…?’

He looked down at her.She noticed that he’d undone his bow tie and it hung loose around his neck.Top button undone.

He said, ‘When you were in the bathroom earlier, I made a call.’

Tara shook her head.‘This must be costing a fortune.’

Dion’s mouth twitched.‘It’s crude to talk about money.’

She wanted to say,Please tell me you haven’t done this for anyone else,but she didn’t have the nerve.And maybe it was better not to know.

Then he said, ‘In case you’re wondering, I happen to know someone who was involved with renovations here recently.They put in the call for me.I don’t have the Louvre on speed dial for such occasions.’

Relief swamped Tara.She feigned unconcern.‘It hadn’t even occurred to me.’

She heard a soft, ‘Liar,’ beside her and restrained herself from elbowing Dion in the ribs.Instead she focused on this moment and this painting and soaked it in.

When she finally let out a deep breath and tore her eyes off the painting, she looked to see Dion standing in front of another painting.She went over and nudged into him with her shoulder.He glanced down at her.That emotion bubbled again.She forced it down.

‘Thank you so much… I can’t tell you how special this is.To be here, like this.’

‘You’re welcome.’

Tara was trying really, really hard not to read anything into this extraordinary gesture.As they made their way back out of the huge room, she said, ‘You mentioned that you’d seen the painting years ago.’

‘Yes, I took it upon myself to educate myself and I went around Europe to all of the major tourist sites and museums and galleries.So that I’d be ready to be accepted into a section of society that had never been meant for me.’

Tara was deeply touched at the thought of a studious Dion making up for the lack of his education like that.Striving to earn his place among his peers.Learning about all the cultural reference points.She stopped him by puttinga hand on his arm and said a little huskily, ‘You have as much of a right as any of those people we were with earlier to be in their space.’

* * *

Dion looked at Tara and her kind eyes and words were making something completely alien fill his chest.It was expanding and breaking down years-old hardness.Protection.Leaving him exposed.Vulnerable.

In a bid to negate it, defuse it, he stepped up to Tara and put a hand around the back of her neck and tugged her to him, slanting his mouth across hers.She was smaller in the flat shoes and it made him feel protective.She’d looked like some kind of a New Age sprite in that dress, standing on tiptoe leaning on the rail to see the picture better.Tendrils of hair coming loose from the chignon, falling down to her shoulders and around her face.

He’d made the decision to come here on a whim because she’d looked so disappointed and he’d wanted to make her happy.It hadn’t been an extravagant billionaire’s gesture to woo a woman.It had been much more prosaic.And dangerous.Because he’d seen her eyes, suspiciously bright.The way her throat had worked.

He pulled back from kissing her and she took a moment to open her eyes.Swirling blue and green.Oceans of emotion.Dion said, ‘This is all that matters, Tara, and it will burn out.’

Her eyes became guarded.She tensed.Dion hated how he automatically wanted to kiss her again to undo that change.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said.‘I know exactly what’s happening here.’

She was pulling away, walking ahead, through the vastempty halls of the Louvre, her back as straight as a dancer’s, her bearing as regal as a queen, and Dion felt as if he’d just ruined something very special, and yet he’d had to do it.