Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Zara
T his is one of the best days I’ve had in a long time.
Ever, really. I float in blue-green water, cliffs rising around me, and the fact that I’m in Africa hits me again with all its magnificent strangeness.
I wasn’t lying when I told Myles I’d fallen in love with Morocco; there’s something utterly magical here, a sense of wonder.
I relax back into the water’s cool embrace, and feel the last vestiges of heartbreak leave me, Dean seeming like a distant memory. Especially when compared to Myles.
Everything feels so easy with him. I have to keep reminding myself he’s my boss, to draw the line in my mind.
We’re friends, at most, and that’s all we can ever be.
He’s with Katya, not with me. But it doesn’t stop my heart skipping a beat as he takes my hand again, towing me back to the rock where our stuff is.
He pulls himself out of the water, the muscles in his back and shoulders standing out, his rash guard like a second skin. I try not to stare.
He reaches out to help me out of the water. I scramble up onto our rock, feeling the strange heaviness of being back on land. The stone is warm and slightly sandy, nice after being in cool water. I sit on my towel, pushing my wet hair back.
Myles is watching me again, and part of me wants to arch my back slightly, to deepen the heat I see in his gaze.
I mentally slap that part of myself. What on earth am I thinking?
I reach into my bag and pull out my cover-up, slipping on the layer of diaphanous red cotton between me and whatever is going on here.
“You hungry?”
Myles sits next to me, pulling his backpack over to him. He digs inside it, pulling out a couple of tubs. One is filled with chopped honeydew melon, the other with some of the soft pastries from our rooms.
“You’ve thought of everything,” I say, taking a slice of melon. “Thank you.”
He looks as though he’s going to say something, but instead he picks up a pastry and takes a bite.
We both eat for a few minutes in silence, but it’s comfortable. The rock is so warm, the sun so bright, that my bathing suit dries quickly, even through my cover-up. Myles glances at me a couple of times, and I at him.
“Do you have family in London?”
The question takes me by surprise. “Um, no. I… that is, my mum died, a couple of years ago. I don’t have any siblings. And my dad hasn’t been around for a long time.”
Myles nods, his grey eyes soft. “I’m sorry about your mum.”
“Thanks.” I feel shy, all of a sudden. I glance at him. “What about you?”
He shrugs. “I’m an only child. Like you.” He pauses. “I lost Mum when I was a teenager. She loved the ocean. She inspired me to start the company, you know.” He stares into space, a faint smile on his lips.
“I’m sorry.” I get it. The pain isn’t something that just goes away. “What about your father?” I’m cautious. I know he speaks to his father once a week, at a scheduled time. It doesn’t seem like a close relationship.
He snorts. “He had a stroke a couple of years ago. He’s in a care home, you know how it is.”
“Gosh, that’s awful.”
“I suppose.”
I raise an eyebrow.
Myles grimaces. “Things are… difficult between us. I don’t think he ever got over losing Mum. Married a couple more times, but nothing that seemed to stick. When he and his third wife tried to sue me for part of the business, saying I owed him, that was kind of when it all fell apart.”
“He did that?”
“He did.” Another steel glance at me. “Even after I paid him back every penny he’d loaned me to start the business, with interest. Bought him a house, bankrolled his lifestyle. It still wasn’t enough.” There’s bitterness in his voice.
My heart aches for teenage Myles without his mum, his dad trying to replace her. I put my hand on his arm, unable to hold back. “I’m sorry,” I say again.
“I guess that makes us both orphans, in a way.”
I blink, staring at the opalescent water. “I have good friends,” I say. “And…”
“And what?”
“I have a dream.” Oh God. What is wrong with me?
“You do?”
“I always wanted to live by the sea. And travel. I’ve been saving up for it. I suppose this trip… this is kind of me getting to try that out.” My cheeks heat up. But his grey gaze is so soft, so kind.
“I like the sound of that,” he says. “I love the ocean, too. I don’t own a place near it, though.” He looks down. “I suppose I thought I’d wait till I had a family of my own for that.”
I don’t know what to say. Something in me feels as though it’s reaching for him, an intense yearning. I try to pull it back, but I can’t.
He glances at me again. “Do you ever wonder what it would be like, to have a big family? Brothers and sisters and all that?”
“I do.”
We stare at each other for a moment.
I can’t fight what’s happening here, not anymore.
But I’m scared, I realise. Scared of how Myles makes me feel.
Because I know it can’t go anywhere. Eloise suggested I have a holiday fling, to get over Dean.
But I’ve been over him for a while, I realise.
Probably since the day I walked into MB Holdings and met Myles.
He sits back, looking across the glimmering pools. “So, are you glad you came with me?”
I blink. “To Morocco? Or here?”
“Both. I’m glad you could rearrange your plans.” He picks up the empty tubs and packs them in his bag once more. I watch his strong hands, the way the muscles in his arms move.
It’s strange how things have changed so quickly.
A couple of weeks ago I was convinced my boyfriend was about to propose.
Now it seems like that happened to someone else, a faint shadow of the intensity I’m feeling right now, sitting with Myles.
I think about what Eloise said, how she would be destroyed if Anwar had messed her around the way Dean did me.
I wasn’t sure what she meant, at the time.
But now I think I’m beginning to understand.
I hug my knees, not knowing what to do with myself.
“What happened to you, Zara?” Myles’s voice is so gentle, softer than I’ve ever heard it. “I know something did, just before we came here. Are you all right?”
I bite my lip. I want to tell him, I realise. Feel as though he might understand, more than anyone. I don’t want to think about why.
“I had a boyfriend. Or, at least, I thought I did.” I trace circles with my finger on the warm rock, not looking at Myles. “But it turned out he was seeing someone else as well. Sorry… I shouldn’t really be telling you this.”
“I asked.” Still so gentle.
“We were supposed to meet up, on Wednesday. I thought he was going to… I thought things were getting serious. But they weren’t.
He asked if I wanted to be in an open relationship.
He was already in one, but I didn’t know.
” A giggle escapes, I can’t help it, at how ridiculous it is. I clap my hand over my mouth.
“He sounds like an idiot.”
“Pretty much sums him up, to be honest. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I try to sound flippant, but my voice catches.
Myles doesn’t say anything for a moment.
A muscle flexes in his lean jaw. Then he looks at me, more intense than I’ve ever seen him.
“I’m not telling you what you should or shouldn’t do, because it’s none of my business.
But I hope you know your worth. Any man would be lucky to have you. And only you.”
Before I can respond he stands and dives into the water, clean and beautiful. I watch him for a moment, then pull off my cover-up and jump in.
Myles
My arms cleave the water as I swim, trying to put some distance between me and Zara. I had to jump in the water, had to get away from her before I did something I knew I’d regret. Before I moved too quickly.
I don’t know her boyfriend, but he was a fool. How anyone could treat her like that is beyond me. I needed to get away before I pulled her to me and showed her how I felt, what I would give her, if she only said the word. I have to be sensible, to stick to the plan.
But, when I turn to see her swimming towards me, I can’t help myself.
I duck beneath the surface of the water, emerging close to her. She squeals with laughter, her head going back.
My arm goes around her waist, and I pull her with me, towards where a waterfall plunges into the pool, a curtain of glassy green. Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t push me away.
Quite the opposite. She fits her body more closely with mine, one slender arm coming around my neck.
She relaxes against me as we glide through the water and, even though there are other people here, it feels as though it’s just us.
The water deepens, shading to an intense greenish blue, the waterfall thundering a few feet away from us.
“This place is wonderful,” she says. Her lips are so close to mine, our bodies held together as we float, suspended in beauty.
“It’s wonderful to be able to share it with you.”
The sun is sinking lower, sparking a thousand golden points of light from the water.
It’s as though we’re in a sea of stars. They reflect in her eyes, glimmering in her brown gaze.
Up close, her eyes are the colour of melted chocolate, her long lashes clumped together with water.
Beautiful, like everything else about her.
She gazes at me, a faint smile curving those kissable lips.
I would give my entire fortune to know what she’s thinking right now.
“I’ll remember this moment for ever.” Her voice is breathy. Her other arm comes around my neck, her breasts pressing against me.
“So will I,” I say. It’s not a lie.
Her lips part. I can feel her breath on mine. I lean closer, tightening my arms around her.
Then water splashes over us, accompanied by the sound of laughter.
Two young boys have jumped from the cliff at the same time, landing near us and splashing us.
Zara can’t stop laughing, letting go of me to wipe her face, then swimming back towards the shallower water.
I swim after her, conscious of the throb in my groin, the absolute fierce need I have to peel her bathing suit from her, to kiss the soft flesh at the top of her thighs, to bury myself in her.
I would give everything I have for a chance to do so.
I want this woman, more than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything.
She pulls herself onto the rock and perches there like a mermaid. I stay in the water a bit longer, trying to calm my raging hard-on.
She smiles at me, and my heart opens. I can literally feel it, in my chest.
“We should go soon, if we want to get back for dinner.” Such prosaic words as I float beneath her, looking up as though she is a goddess and I’m her worshipper, caught in her watery shrine.
“I guess. I suppose it’s getting late.” She sounds wistful, glancing up at the still brilliant sky.
I pull myself out of the water to sit next to her, feeling a little more in control of my urges.
“I’m glad you came here with me.”
“I’m glad you asked me to come.”
We stare at each other for a moment longer, then I stand, offering her my hand. She lets me pull her to her feet, and I resist the urge to take her in my arms. Something has shifted between us, something profound, and I don’t know where it’s going. I just know I don’t want it to end.
We dry off, get changed beneath our towels then gather our things and head back along the trail to the car.
Zara is quiet, but it’s an easy kind of silence.
She stays close to me and we exchange glances every so often.
She’s wearing her red dress again, and I swear I can feel her with every cell of my body.
As we drive back towards the hotel, the sun setting across the ocean, I want this to go on for ever. We pull into the car park behind the hotel, and I can see her getting ready to go, gathering herself up again.
Screw that.
“Come with me for a walk on the beach? It’s too nice a night to head in yet.”
Her eyes widen slightly. I can see her weighing up my question, and I think she knows it could be more than just a walk. I sit back, wanting to give her space, no pressure to choose, nothing to see here. I’m holding my breath again, though.
She smiles at me, exquisite in the fading light. “All right.”