Not that she would notice.
She was putting on her shoes in bed and admiring her long legs—but what he didn’t know was that it was for his sake.
She’d sensed that he no longer wanted to talk.
He had never met anyone like her. Mikael was far more used to women pleading for conversation, for emotion, for him to just open up a touch more.
Layla had had all three without even asking.
And the only thing opening up now was her knees as Layla offered a rather appealing distraction from his very dark thoughts.
‘Can you kiss me down there?’
It would, Mikael decided, be his absolute pleasure.
MIKAEL WOKE TO the sound of Layla ordering her usual thinly sliced and peeled apple with mint tea and water.
‘And coffee,’ Mikael said. ‘And cake.’
‘Cake?’ Layla frowned.
‘Cake,’ he said.
‘Could we have some chocolate cake and coffee too?’ Layla said to the chef. ‘And I would like my slice of cake just a little bit warm, with lots of cream to pour over it.’ She ended the call and gave Mikael a wide smile. ‘I love this phone; it’s just fantastic.’
‘I thought you’d always be ringing down your orders in your palace?’
‘No.’ Layla shook her head. ‘I just tell Jamila what I want and she gets it for me.’
‘So Jamila’s your maid?’
‘My handmaiden,’ Layla said. ‘She has been with me since the day I was born.’
‘Like a mum?’
‘No!’ She laughed at the very thought. ‘You don’t love servants…’ Her face was suddenly serious. ‘I do feel a bit sick, though, at the moment when I think of her. She will be so worried. Oh, poor Jamila!’
‘Sounds a lot like love to me,’ Mikael said.
‘So,’ Layla asked, ‘now that the trial is over, do you get that time off you talked about?’
He gave a wry smile. His work had barely begun. There would be sentencing, appeals… He closed his eyes at the thought of it all for a moment.
‘I have a very busy day today. I have to meet with my client, his family.’ God, Mikael knew where he’d rather be.
‘That’s fine. I am going to take a ferry and I am also going to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb.’
Mikael lay there and told himself that Layla was twenty-four. She wasn’t incapable. In fact she was possibly the cleverest person he had ever met…
And yet…
That gnawing of unease he had felt the first night when he had called the hotel to see what was happening was back.
It wasn’t Layla so much who concerned him but others. She had been so protected it simply didn’t enter her head that people might not be nice to her.
He closed his eyes as there was a knock at the door and tried to tell himself that he was overreacting, that of course she’d be fine out there without him.
Breakfast was delivered, along with something that Mikael was a bit embarrassed about now but had seemed a nice idea last night—there was a phone in the bathroom, after all…
‘Flowers!’ Layla was ecstatic ‘And a card!’ She opened it. ‘What does it say?’
Mikael groaned. He’d forgotten in the moment when he’d ordered them that she couldn’t read English, and now he’d have to read it out loud to her—but he waited till all the staff had gone.
‘“Layla, Thank you for an amazing end to a difficult day and an even more amazing night. Mikael.”’
‘No kisses?’ Layla asked.
‘Three.’
‘Wow! Thank you! I will keep this for ever—maybe I hide it in my shoe or something, but I will find a safe place for it.’
‘Layla, I don’t want to get you in trouble…’ Mikael halted. They were approaching the halfway mark of her week and four more nights were starting not to seem enough.
‘Look, about today—’
‘Mikael,’ she interrupted, ‘I want to have a day to myself. Please don’t ask me to stay in the hotel.’
‘Okay.’ He pushed out a smile. ‘You’ll need some cash.’
‘Yes, please.’
‘Ask the hotel to organise a driver to take you wherever you want to go.’
‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Take my number with you.’
She did.
She bought some white jeans and a top and some sandals from the boutique in the foyer, along with a handbag, and she was ready for her day of adventure.
Layla was worried that she might run into Trinity or Zahid, but at the same time she was determined that even if she did she would very simply refuse to return until her week was up.
She did not use the phone to organise a driver. Instead she decided to try taking a taxi again.
It was far easier the second time around, and she put on her seatbelt and understood that at the end she had to pay him.
Everything on her list Layla did.
She stood on the top of the bridge, being battered by the wind, and life felt so exhilarating that it was as if she were on the top of the world. Then she took a ferry to Manly and ordered a burger with ‘the lot’ and a can of lemonade, and she met some Dutch backpackers who were very serious but very lovely. They told her that she had to do the night-time harbour cruise while she was there.
‘I don’t know where to go,’ she said.
‘We’ll show you.’
The cruise started long after sunset and went on for three magical hours. It was wonderful to see the Sydney skyline from the water at night. She could see the Opera House and the bridge all lit up. There was wine and a meal, though the prawns were not as nice as the ones she had had with Mikael, but she heard all the history—about Captain Cook and the convicts—and it was simply magical to sit with her new friends and listen, and feel the warm air on her skin.
She took a taxi back to the hotel, elated from a wonderful day out, tired and ready to have a bath and sleep. But as she opened her hotel door she jumped in surprise to see Mikael—and it was a Mikael that she had never seen before.
His face was grey and he did not return her smile when she walked in.
‘Layla…’ He was struggling to keep his voice even. ‘Where have you been?’
‘Doing the things on my list.’ Layla smiled. ‘I had a fantastic day.’’
‘It’s after midnight.’
‘I did a cruise…’
‘And you didn’t think to call me?’
‘Call you?’ She frowned. ‘You said to only call you in emergencies.’
Mikael had had a day like no other. The moment he had got to work he had changed his mind and called the room, only to find that she had already left.
He had got through his work as best he