her tone.
‘There’s no one better than a resident to show you all the best bits of a city,’ he said with a seductive lift of his eyebrow. ‘I know all its secrets,’ he murmured, lifting his hand to trace the line of her jaw and sending little currents of sensation down her throat, which joined with the ones already humming deep inside her body.
She gave him a dazed sort of smile, barely able to concentrate as he slid the backs of his fingers down her throat, then lower to skim over the swell of her breasts.
‘Well, that would be...really...amazing...’ she murmured, her voice coming out broken and husky as she struggled to concentrate on forming the words.
Lust twisted her insides as he leant forwards and kissed her hard again. She responded instinctively to his touch, sliding her arms around his back and wriggling closer to him.
Pulling her underneath his strong, hard body, he murmured, ‘Okay, but we’ll go later. Much, much later.’
* * *
They spent the rest of the morning in bed, only getting out of it for a minute to fetch some food from his fridge for lunch, which they ate right there, sitting naked on top of the covers.
‘This reminds me of all those meals we ate sitting on my bed whilst working on our project at uni—though of course we were fully clothed for those,’ Elena said, grinning at him with one eyebrow raised. ‘I found breadcrumbs in my sheets for days after that. Who knows where we’ll find them after this.’
She laughed and he smiled back at her, wishing he could remember the time she was reminiscing about. It was getting harder and harder to pretend he knew the stories she relayed without it seeming suspicious that he didn’t bring up some of his own recollections.
He felt a little guilty about lying to her last night, but he’d been so sick of her holding back and wasting time when it had been so clear they were destined to end up like this anyway.
Anyway, she seemed much happier now, and if she was happy then so was he.
After they’d finished eating she left the room and returned a few minutes later in a pair of jeans and a loose-fitting, soft pink T-shirt with her hair scraped back into a ponytail, her lips shiny with some kind of clear lipstick that he wanted to kiss off immediately. She didn’t need make-up; she was just as beautiful without it.
‘Come on, lazybones, get your carcass out of bed. I thought you were going to show me some of your secrets,’ she said, giving him a wide grin.
He rolled out of bed with a grunt and stood up. Pulling her towards him, he kissed her until she squealed with pleasure, but she pushed him away when he began to drag her back towards the bed.
‘No, no, you said we should go out and I think you’re right; we can’t spend all day in bed.’
‘Why not?’ he murmured, thinking it would be more than okay with him. He couldn’t get enough of her—the scent of her soft skin, the feel of her strong legs wrapped around him, the little breathy moans she made in his ear as they moved together...
‘Caleb, seriously, get dressed so we can go out.’
He shot her a grimace of annoyance. ‘Okay, okay, but it won’t be as much fun as staying here,’ he ground out. ‘I have plenty more secrets I could show you right here in the bedroom.’
‘Later,’ she said with laughter in her voice.
He loved it when she smiled like that—like she couldn’t have stopped herself even if she’d wanted to.
* * *
He took her to Palo Alto, an enclosed old manufacturing complex situated a few roads back from the beach, which was like a hidden island of industrial-style buildings festooned with brightly coloured creepers and greenery that had turned it into a wonderful garden oasis. The buildings had all been converted over the years into light, open workshops for businesses focused on regeneration and rehabilitation of the city and beyond.
‘No tourists know about it, only the residents of the city,’ Caleb told her as they walked through the alleyways between the buildings, soaking up the effervescent but peaceful air of the place. ‘I love wandering around here; I find it a really inspiring place to be. You know, Araya Industries started out in one of these workshops so it’ll always be a special place for me. It’s where I realised my dreams.’
‘It’s wonderful. Thank you for trusting me—an outsider—’ she winked at him ‘—to see it. I’m honoured,’ she said, turning to kiss him next to a cascade of fuchsia flowers and russet-coloured leaves.
Then afterwards, at Elena’s request, they took a cab out to the spectacular multicoloured Park Güell, which had been designed by Gaudi. He watched her run her hand along the top of the wave-shaped benches that had been decorated with millions of pieces of brightly patterned broken tiles, enjoying her delight at the eccentricity of the design.
After sitting for a while, looking out over the picturesque views of the city and the fairy tale–style gatehouses that looked as if they could be made from gingerbread and icing, they went down the steps to see the forest of Greek Doric columns underneath, which had been designed to house an old marketplace beneath the plateau of the park.
He watched her as she wound her way through the pillars, tracing her fingers over the smooth stone and gazing up at the colourful cornices on the ceiling, and it hit him that for the first time since he’d seen her in that hospital room she looked truly relaxed.
The idea that he could be responsible for that made him feel heady with pleasure, as if he could deal with anything life threw at him right now, as long as Elena was here with him. She made him feel light and positive, buzzed and excited...and what was that other sensation...?
Happy.
His breath caught in his throat as the word pierced through him.
It was a feeling that had been missing from his life for far too long now. And Elena was the catalyst—because he knew without a doubt that she was his ideal woman—smart, sexy and so beautiful it made his chest ache to look at her.
And then, out of nowhere, something strange happened.
A memory flashed through his mind: of Elena’s face, cold and hard with indifference, just before she slammed a door in his face.
It left him winded, gasping to drag air into his lungs again, his head swimming and thick, as though too heavy for his body to hold up. A slow trickle of horror-tinged despair slid sickeningly through him and he had to lean against the nearest pillar to stop himself from sliding to the floor.
A moment later the real Elena was there next to him, her hands on his shoulders and a look of deep concern on her beautiful face.
‘Caleb! Are you okay?’
The face that looked into his now was so different from the one his mind had conjured up a moment ago he felt relief flood through him. Had it just been his subconscious warning him not to get too carried away with what was developing between them? Not to get too close in case it went wrong like all his other relationships had over the last few years?
Well, to hell with that. He wasn’t going to let her get away because he was afraid of this thing between them failing.
