She moved her lips near his and tried to brush them, inviting a kiss, but he turned his head away.
‘This is the place,’ he said to the cabbie.
The three of them tipped out of the car, and streamed up the steps to the lobby of a mid-range hotel, close to the St Pancras Eurostar terminus.
‘It is not a luxury place,’ Bruno muttered, shepherding them into the lift, which he had to summon by means of a secure key card.
‘Not exactly,’ Emma agreed, frowning at herself in the elevator mirror, under the glare of a striplight.
‘I’ve stayed in much worse,’ said Poppy reassuringly. ‘In Paris, funnily enough.’
‘Oh, really? Where did you stay?’
‘Near the Place de Clichy.’
Bruno laughed.
‘C’est logique,’ he said.
The lift arrived at his floor and they trooped along to his room, accessed once more by the key card.
‘Well, here we are,’ announced Emma, spreading her arms wide. ‘Where do you want me?’
He didn’t want her, Poppy thought, and he made it pretty obvious by the way he looked at her.
‘You can help yourself to a drink from the minibar,’ he said. ‘Perhaps take it into the bathroom.’
‘You want to get straight down to business, eh? Can’t blame you. She’s a pretty little peach, isn’t she?’
She tickled Poppy beneath the chin. Poppy squealed and sat down on the edge of the bed, watching the hostility between the other two take its course.
‘I would like some privacy,’ said Bruno, opening the minibar for Emma.
She took a bottle of mineral water and swigged from it before retiring to the ensuite.
‘Any funny business, Poppy, and you just need to shout, OK? I’m here for you. I’ll take you home afterwards.’
‘Thanks.’
Poppy watched the door shut behind her, then looked shyly up at Bruno.
‘So, do you want to?’
‘I told you, I don’t pay for sex,’ he said, his voice very low, almost a whisper. ‘Here.’
He sat down beside her and spoke into her ear.
‘I’m a policeman. I can’t pay you for sex.’
‘But,’ she whispered back, ‘do you want it?’
He looked astonished and he jerked back, reading her face intently.
‘What? Are you offering?’
‘Oh, I mean. It doesn’t matter. But I thought you might want to.’
‘Poppy, you don’t have to fuck any man who asks you, you know.’