‘Have you explored the rooftop yet?’ Siggi asked once they were in Iris’s room and had taken off most of their layers.
‘No.’ Until he’d said, she’d forgotten the rooftop spa that had been mentioned when she checked in.
‘There’s a sauna and hot tub.’
‘That sounds tempting after an evening out in the cold. Should I ask if we can go up there?’
Siggi shook his head. ‘I know the code for the door and Anders won’t mind.’
Iris’s heart beat a little faster at the thought of doing something that might be against the rules. She wasn’t sure why, but she thought Siggi had probably been a bit of a bad boy in his younger days. Maybe because he didn’t seem to have grown up and taken on the usual responsibilities that his friends had, andinstead seemed to live the life of an eternal twenty-year-old. It gave him that air of rebellion that Iris found deeply attractive, because she was nothing like that herself.
‘Okay, let’s do it,’ she said, feeling excited. She began digging around for her swimsuit in the holdall that she hadn’t unpacked. ‘Oh, you don’t have any swimming trunks.’
Siggi took a step towards her and put a hand on hers. The one that was now holding her swimming costume.
‘You won’t need this,’ he said.
Relief swept over her because it was the worst example of a swimming costume to wear if you wanted to look sexy in front of your boyfriend. But that was quickly overtaken by embarrassment once she realised he meant they should go naked.
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if there are other people up there?’
‘There won’t be,’ he said with an easy shrug.
‘You don’t know that.’
‘I do. Anders doesn’t let guests up there at this time of year after ten in the evening.’
‘Oh.’
‘So we will leave this behind.’ He took the costume from her and tucked it back into the bag, then took her hand and led her out of the room and upstairs. On the landing, there were two doors. He keyed a code into the pin pad by the one in front of them. It opened and they stepped out onto the roof.
Siggi opened a small cupboard and flicked a switch inside. The strings of fairy lights that criss-crossed the rooftop burst into light.
‘It’s so pretty,’ she said.
‘Not as pretty as you.’
Somehow, Iris felt it easy to suppress the urge to laugh. It was there for a second, but then she accepted the compliment,however cheesy, because the way Siggi was looking at her made her think he might actually mean it.
They kissed for a minute until Iris shivered.
‘Come on, let’s go next door and get undressed. The idea is to warm up, not freeze to death,’ said Siggi.
‘Thank you.’ Iris threw her arms around his neck. ‘This is the perfect way to end the perfect day.’
He took her hand and led her inside to a warm and pristine changing room with baskets of fluffy white towels and robes hanging on hooks waiting for them.
‘Iris, I don’t know what is happening, but every minute of today has been a surprise to me. I didn’t know I could feel like this about anyone, and all I want is to be with you. You make me feel like a different person.’
‘Is that a good thing?’
He sat on the wooden bench that ran around the room and pulled her to him, his arms looped around her waist. ‘I feel like myself for the first time in a long time.’
14
IT WAS WONDERFUL to wake up together and for neither of them to have anywhere to be. Iris stretched and then snuggled into Siggi’s side, her head lying on his shoulder.
‘So you’re not working until tonight?’ she asked.
