A chance meeting

Chapter 6

Alec put his finger under her chin and saw tears on her cheeks again. "Rose, let me help you? I want to be there for you and Camille, you've both become very important to me, you know that? She does not have to grow up without a father but for now, I will just be around when you want me to."

Rose managed a nod and buried her face in his shoulder but he made her look at him, not knowing what it was doing to her. She was sad about loosing James but being comforted by his double was a bit disturbing. He leaned to kiss her and this time, she didn't resist as he tried to pull her closer. She put her arms around his neck and he put a hand under the shoulder of her dress, moving her bra strap out of the way as the kiss deepened and Rose found herself getting lost in the moment.

He moved his hand to under the bra fastener but kept it there as he touched her breast through the dress then down the neckline, touching bare skin at the top, placing a kiss there when their lips parted.

"Rose, tell me one thing though," he asked as she leaned back on his shoulder again and he put his arm around her. "Why do you have no photos of him around the place? There are just one or two of you and Camille. Did you take them down so I would not feel I was intruding?"

"No Alec, I have photos upstairs, in albums and some back at my mother's house. They make me sad so I only look at them from time to time but I know I can get them out when I want. I'm gonna show them to Camille when she gets a bit older, like my mum used to show me photos of my real dad. I was lucky, she found someone else and we're a family again."

"Yes, you were and Camille can have that too Rose. I know it will take time but since she is already used to me being around, that will help and she's too young to understand but I don't get one thing."

"What's that?" Rose asked, going for another button on his shirt.

"Hey, you are getting to like that, maybe I should not have bothered with the t-shirts eh?" he smiled. "Well most youngsters are a bit off when they meet someone, I saw Camille when you were with Beth Latimer, she was acting all shy around her but with me, she let me pick her up and carry her around."

"She just took a liking to you Alec, she's just a baby, they can be off with some people but not with others. She goes to Chloe, when she wakes up."

"Yes but it still puzzles me, that and the lack of photos, like you don't want to remind her of her father. Is there something you are not telling me? What was the real reason James kept himself out of the press Rose?"

Rose sat up and looked at him. "I told you, I was in the papers all the time, I wanted to keep him out of them."

"Rose, it has to be more than that, more than James working with you. Why were you protecting him? Did he think someone would recognize him? Rose, did he look like someone famous or something and he didn't want to it cause any problems?"

Rose knew he'd have worked it out sooner or later, now she would lose the man she had grown to trust. She sat up properly, trying to put her shoes back on.

"Yes, he looked like someone, he didn't want the press to get them confused. Does it really matter?" she asked, trying to hold her tears back.

She knew at any moment he would get up and leave, just as they had about to become more intimate but who was she kidding, he was a detective.

"No, that depends who he looked like Rose. Tell me he didn't look like that Scottish actor I used to get teased about? That explains how Camille came to me so easily though. Is that who he looked like Rose?" he asked, fastening his shirt buttons.