That was why once was not enough. Neither was the second or third time.
But now it was already nine in the morning and we needed to shower and have breakfast to make sure we were ready for the briefing at ten.
But before that, I needed to know what Laila was thinking.
I knew that she had said before that she was not interested in dating me, but after last night I was sure she would change her mind.
I turned to face her.
God, she was beautiful.
Laila must have sensed me staring at her, because she stretched, then slowly opened her eyes.
‘Morning,’ she croaked.
‘Salut,’ I smiled. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Sore!’ she laughed.
‘Are you in pain? I can run you a bath or?—’
‘No, I’m fine.’ She rubbed my hand reassuringly. ‘It’s agoodtype of soreness. You weren’t joking when you said you were huge!’
‘You took me well,’ I smiled. ‘And I am sure with more practice it will be easier.’
‘Gabriel… it was amazing, but…’Here we go.‘We can’t do it again.’
‘Pourquoi?’
‘It’s… it was just a one-time thing.’
‘One-time?’
‘Okay, athree-time thing,’ she smiled. ‘We should quit whilst we’re ahead. Before anyone else gets hurt. What happened last night…’
‘And this morning,’ I added.
‘And this morning,’ she repeated. ‘Was just… sex. To get everything out of our systems. But nothing else has changed. You’re still Juliette’s son. Hopefully, she’s still my best friend. You still live in Paris and I live in London. We’re still at completely different life stages. Today’s a new day. We’ve already done more than we should’ve…’
‘Do you regret it?’
‘No… but I have to be honest – I can’t see this becoming something long-term. There’s no way your mum will be cool with you being in my bed next door to her home and you’re young. You’ve still got lots of partying to do and you’ll want a family and?—’
‘Non,’ I said firmly. ‘I have no interest in that. I know what I want. And that is you.’
‘That’s just the orgasms talking.’ She shook her head. ‘We spent one night together. You can’t possibly know that you want to be with me. We need to be sensible about this. You’ve got your business to focus on and I need to reevaluate my life. Now Ricky’s travelling, I can think about what I’d really like to do. Work out what my life will look like now that I don’t need to dedicate so much time to him.’
She talked about Ricky like he was a boy rather than a grown man.
‘Fine,’ I said, deciding it was best not to push her.
I understood that for Laila, this seemed like too much too soon.
It was natural to believe that one night with someone was not enough to know if you were ready to commit to something long-term.
Ordinarily, I would agree. Especially because before I came here, I believed that I had no interest in a relationship. I had told myself I was just here for research.
But that was before I saw Laila.
