Behind the Curtain - Page 24

“The next day? At one o’clock again?”

“Yes. I’ll try.”

Asher decided they should leave the air mattresses there. No one else seemed to know about the lake, anyway. She helped him store them behind some large boulders at the edge of the beach after they’d finished dressing.

“Do you have a phone?” he asked afterward.

She nodded and retrieved it from her backpack. They exchanged digits and repacked their phones. Afterward, they stood facing each other, the silence causing a heavy pressure to press down on her chest.

“Your parents wouldn’t want you to see me. Would they?” he stated rather than asked.

She gave him an apologetic glance and shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she confirmed softly.

“Don’t apologize. I think it sucks, but I get it. Have you, though? Dated other white guys? Before, I mean?”

“Yeah. In high school a few times, and once for a little bit in college,” she admitted. “But it never lasted for very long. I guess the guys didn’t like sneaking around all the time. Or that I couldn’t be with them at the drop of a hat.”

“Are you arranged to marry someone?”

“No,” she assured him. “Arranged marriages aren’t that common for Moroccans. Zarif—my cousin—found his own fiancée, and my auntie and uncle really like her. But even so . . .”

“She’s Moroccan?”

Laila nodded.

“You love your parents . . . your entire family a lot. Don’t you?”

She opened her mouth, searching for the right words to explain.

“They’re my whole world,” she said tremulously after a moment.

A silence descended.

“Would it help if I came over and introduced myself to them? If I was honest about—”

“No,” she interrupted, shaking her head rapidly. “Trust me, that wouldn’t be helpful at all. Especially if we ever want to see each other at all while we’re here.”

His expression hardened. Maybe he was considering all the complications that came with her for the first time too, and was finding the whole thing unappealing. At the very least, he probably thought she was way too much effort for a summer fling.

“Well, I guess I should be going,” she said, her heart suddenly feeling like a stone in her chest.

“I’ll see you here. The day after tomorrow?”

Relief coursed through her. “Yes. Hopefully. I’ll text if something comes up.”

When he didn’t say anything else, she turned to leave.

“Laila,” he called when she got several yards away. She turned back. He hadn’t moved.

“Anytime you’re free, and you think you might be able to meet, text or call. Just assume I’ll want to see you. No matter what time it is. No matter for how long.”

She saw it then for the first time: that hard glint of determination in his light eyes, the stubborn set to his jaw, the diamond-hard focus. It suddenly struck her that Asher Gaites-Granville wasn’t like anyone she’d ever met in her life. He was like a force of nature: powerful and undeniable.

What she’d said before about her family being her whole world was true. But Asher had entered the picture. And somehow, she knew her world was about to change.

Chapter Seven

By prearrangement, she met Zara and Tahi at Crescent Bay South beach after she left Asher. That way, they could all arrive at the cottages at the same time, and Laila’s secret would remain safe. She was so preoccupied by her meeting with Asher, she was unsurprised to see Asher’s friends Eric, Rudy and Jim on the beach with Zara and Tahi. While Tahi, Rudy and Jim sat on beach towels, talking and listening to music, Zara and Eric lay several yards away, Zara flat on her back and Eric leaning over her, his bronzed muscles gleaming in the hot summer sun.

Tags: Beth Kery Erotic
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