‘There are millions here also,’ James said. ‘There are just too many lights in the city to be able to see them.’
‘You’re a very nice teacher,’ Leila said, because he never made her feel stupid. ‘You are very patient in the way you explain things to me.’
He turned and looked at her. ‘Do you miss home?’
Leila did not look back at him; instead she stared up at the sky and wondered how he would react if she told him that this was home now, that he was her home. That the affection and the care he had shown to her these past weeks, even during the most trying of times, was more than she had known in her life.
She didn’t answer him; it was James who broke the long silence
‘I miss home,’ James said, and he watched as she turned to him. ‘I’ve got an apartment about a ten-minute walk from here. I honestly thought we’d do better in the hotel—you know, dinner in the restaurant...’
‘We don’t go down for dinner much though.’
‘No,’ James said. ‘And I’m starting to really enjoy having breakfast in bed.’ Their gazes held. ‘With you.’
‘I am too,’ Leila admitted.
He leant up on his elbow and his hand was on her cheek. ‘Come and live with me, Leila, in my home.’
‘You want to live with me?’
‘I could think of nothing nicer,’ James said, and his mouth came down on hers.
Soft and slow, he kissed her, and it was Leila whose tongue slipped in first.
She was deeply in love with him, Leila knew. She wanted the endearments, wanted more of the kiss he gave. His hand was resting on the ground by her head, hers was at the back of his head. She knew every part of where their minds and bodies were when he pulled his lips away with just enough breath to say the words she had longed to hear—‘I’m in love with you.’
And she was in love with him too. In this space that was theirs, that had been found by them.
‘I loved you from that first night,’ Leila admitted.
‘I know that now,’ James said, and so he knew just how badly he had hurt her. ‘There were no clothes, no make-up, no phone number. I thought you were a journalist, or someone that Isabelle had set me up with to trick me...’
His hand was stroking her breast, and when he told her what had happened, she simply better understood that morning now. She wasn’t scared to tell him that he was right, that Zayn’s new girlfriend at the time had been the spy who had exposed their names to the media, just not now, not yet.
It wasn’t needed.
They were in love and he was taking her home.
CHAPTER TWELVE
HE WALKED HER past the doorman and through the elegant foyer and Leila looked up at the huge chandelier and then to a row of brass-gated elevators. There was a gleaming walnut table in the centre, as big as any at the palace, and the flowers that sat atop it rivalled the palace flowers too.
There were beautiful shops and bars and restaurants and there was a very well-dressed elderly couple walking in front of them, clearly back from a night out and arguing loudly.