He almost flew into the café, to see the smile of Joel.
‘Layla’s fine,’ Joel said as he walked Mikael over. ‘Well, she’s crying. She came and asked if we had any coffees on sub. I don’t think she really gets the concept, but she’s so gorgeous who could say no to her?’
Not Joel—and certainly not Mikael.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she nursed her coffee and Mikael knew he was glimpsing the real Layla—the one who hid deep beneath the shining surface, the Layla he had been so privileged to get to know even just a little.
‘Why are you crying in your coffee?’ he said, and saw her jump a little.
And then she looked up and did not even try to wipe her tears.
‘I’m very confused, Mikael,’ she admitted. ‘It was supposed to be fun. I did everything I ever wanted and I don’t understand why I feel so sad.’
Mikael moved into the seat opposite and took her hands without thought.
He looked at the little circular scar on her wrist and knew that even if it hurt them both he would try one more time—because not only did he not want her to go back, his guts folded over at the thought of her with another man, going through the trauma of having babies she simply wasn’t ready for and might never be ready for.
He did not want her scared—and if she had to be then he did not want her scared in the world without him.
‘Layla, I meant what I said this morning—will you marry me?’ he asked again. ‘I will sort it all out. I will speak with your brother, your father…’
‘No.’ She looked at him. ‘It can never happen.’
‘Layla—’
‘Please, Mikael, you are making this worse for me. I just wanted to sit with my coffee and my thoughts before I face my brother. I am more scared than I thought I would be, and I am so cross with them for telling my father.’
Her tears ran silent now and he did not want her to leave. It was the last thing on earth he wanted, and yet he needed to do as she asked and somehow make this better for her, not worse.
Mikael knew he needed to make this about her now, rather than them.
‘Is there anything I can do that will help?’
‘There is.’ She gulped. ‘Will you speak with Zahid? Can you tell him that nothing happened between us…? Can you tell him that I stayed with your married friends and that you were not with me when you texted in the evenings and nights, that your friends let you know how I was…?’
‘Will that make it easier on you?’
‘Much,’ Layla said. ‘If my father thinks I was alone with a man…’ She shook her head. ‘He cannot know. But please only agree if you are sure you can act as though you have no feelings for me—as though I am the trouble you first thought I was.’
He moved into the seat beside her and she felt his arms around her for the last time, then his mouth on hers. It was a very tender kiss, for Mikael had not shaved, but it was so loaded with passion it would burn her lips every time she remembered it.
‘I don’t know how to let you go,’ he admitted.
‘If you care for me you will. I love my family. They will be cross, yes, but you are not sending me to savages, Mikael—you are returning me to my family and to people who love me.’
He thought of her kitten-soft feet and how pampered and looked-after she had been, and of her father, who was devastated that she was missing and in agony that he might have lost her.
Mikael was in agony too.
‘Please, Mikael—please don’t make this worse for me than it already is.’
He couldn’t say no to her, and so he said yes to the most impossible task of his life.
‘We’ll do it at my chambers.’