Chapter 108

Around seven that same morning, Layla emerged from the shower, wrapped a fleecy towel around her nakedness, and wondered ruefully where her cases were. Their frantic charge to the bedroom the night before had left no time for such niceties as unpacking.

Her face burned and she glanced in one of the many mirrors, angry and ashamed of herself because she was still acting out of character and letting her life go off the rails. One mistake did not need to lead to another, so why had she slept with Lucas again last night?

Her waking up in bed alone in the silent apartment with her brain awash with unfamiliar thoughts of self-loathing had unnerved her. She had decided miserably that Lucas was bad for her.

She crept out to the hall where her luggage still awaited her, and she was about to lift a case when she heard a sound from another room and stiffened uncertainly.

‘Layla...is that you?’

It was too late to retreat with any dignity, but the discovery that Lucas was still in the apartment an