The Rudeness of the Frenchman

I'm not talking about Frenchmen in general, just about my particular Frenchman. And his problem with rudeness. Because sadly, in the first chapter he is not at his best and is quite rude to the heroine. Now some people who have met him had no problems with his rudeness and yet others found it difficult. So what's a girl to do?

He is rude for a reason, naturally. The heroine meets him when he is in considerable pain. For an alpha male who is the leader of a huge corporation, a man for whom control over any situation is vital to him, having some stranger see him when he is in helpless and in pain is kind of his worst nightmare. Especially when she tries to help him. So yeah, he's rude. He doesn't want her help. He just wants to be left alone. Unfortunately though, this makes him unsympathetic to some people. I've tried to make him less rude but he won't have a bar of it. He hates the situation he's in and makes no bones about it.

So what to do? I do have his POV a bit later in the chapter so you get a glimspe about why he's so rude and I think I can make it clearer but maybe it's too late by then. Certainly by chapter 2, he's feeling very guilty at his lapse in manners but again, perhaps it's too little too late?

But you know, I don't think I can pull back his behaviour. I like him being helpless. He needs to be too because part of his journey is learning he can trust the heroine - and how better to do that have her rescue him when he needs help? It's just that he really doesn't like it, especially because he's not in control of the situation.

Sigh. What do you reckon? Shall I take a whip to him and make him a bit nicer? That's if I can. You ever tell an alpha male what he should or shouldn't do?