‘How about we walk home? I could do with a stroll after all that food.’
Adriana and I have just left the restaurant. She insisted on paying even though it made me feel like a kept man. I offered to go halves, but she wouldn’t have it. Said she’d be upset if I didn’t agree so I reluctantly gave in, but made her promise she’d allow me to return the favour another time.
All the while we were eating, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Dr Adams was poisoned. Couldn’t help wondering if the killer was the same person who emailed me. Who possibly killed Ethan. I wouldn’t necessarily have made the connection had it not been for Adriana’s revelation that Dr Adams’s murderer emailed her, cancelling their appointment. It indicated to me that they knew Adriana and was aware of the appointment. But why murder Dr Adams? That I don’t follow. Unless he discovered something about Adriana or her past, and the killer feared him exposing it? In the same way he feared Ethan would do the same.
Or am I looking at this the wrong way? Perhaps Dr Adams discovered the killer’s identity and was on the brink of exposing them? Perhaps it’s someone from Adriana’s past, someone she’s scared of, who she’s spent her life running from, as Stella had intimated. No matter what Adriana says about Stella, what she said is swiftly making more and more sense. Hopefully, Rick can fill in some gaps.
After Adriana told me her shocking news, we moved on to lighter topics. Music, restaurants, theatre, books. I’d wanted to somehow broach the subject of her upbringing, but I could see how stressed she was and decided against it. If anything, she might have grown suspicious. I’m nervous, though. Nervous about too many bad things having happened in such a short space of time. Right now, my head is telling me I should run for the hills, get as far away as possible from Adriana. After all, I’ve only just met her, and I don’t owe her anything. But my heart is saying otherwise. Just because when I look at her, she seems so fragile, so afraid and alone, and I can’t bring it upon myself to abandon her.
‘Sure,’ Adriana says to my suggestion of a walk. ‘I love Malmaison but it was rather stuffy in there. I could do with some fresh air.’
‘Great, hope you know the way, though, because my sense of direction is pretty shit.’
She laughs. ‘Don’t worry, I know this area like the back of my hand.’
We start walking. ‘So, plans for tomorrow?’ I ask.
‘Well, I’ve got a couple of meetings lined up for next week I need to prep for.’
‘For your charities?’
‘Yes.’
‘Remind me which ones you help out with?’
‘There’s Sisters Together, also the Elizabeth Clemency Foundation and Female Aid. And I do a bit of campaigning for Safe House UK.’
All for abused women and children. Coincidence or not?
‘I guess you’ve only heard of the last one. The others aren’t so well known.’
‘Actually, I know them all,’ I say. ‘Mum donated to three of them.’
‘She did? That’s wonderful. Your mother sounds like a really good person.’
‘She was,’ I say. ‘The thought of children and women being abused made her sick to her stomach.’ I look directly at Adriana. ‘It does me too.’
She holds my gaze and there’s a gratefulness in her eyes that touches my heart, making me wonder if she too was abused as a child. Is that what she’s so afraid to talk about? It would make sense. If so, did Ethan find out who abused her? I glance down to my right, and realise there’s barely an inch separating our hands as we walk alongside each other. I badly want to reach out and grab hers, yearning for the touch of this beautiful, kind woman who, as much as I don’t want to admit it, has drawn me under her spell. But I don’t need to, because just like that I feel her fingers slip into mine, and the feeling is so electric it scares me. Right from the first moment I saw her I felt it. And as I look up to meet her gaze once more, I know she feels it too. That connection. Both physical and spiritual. And it’s at this point that I don’t hesitate. I stop dead in my tracks, and pull her towards me, her lips within touching distance of mine. I know I shouldn’t be doing this, that it’s an insane idea for so many reasons, but I just can’t help myself.
We lean in simultaneously and kiss, softly at first, and then more passionately, my body and soul having never wanted a person as much as I want her at that moment.