Chapter 212

• Orla had been awake for some time, lying in bed and marveling at the difference between the woman she had been and the woman she was now. Her body glowed still with the aftermath of her pleasure. Their pleasure, she reminded herself. Arni would know now that he had been wrong about her, and that what she felt for him was unique, something she had never shared with anyone else. She was still high from the night before, in a blissed-out state where the world felt like a fairytale come true and she was its heroine princess.And all because of Arni.
• Arni! Where was he? What would he say to her? What would she say to him? Her heart was thumping unsteadily. Already she misses him. She already ached for him and wanted to be with him. Already the effect of the night’s sexual intimacy had changed her and their relationship, and her heart was speeding on wings into a magical world where everything and anything was possible.
• It was Arni himself who brought her back down to earth, arriving with a tray of tea and an expression that had her giddy heart’s headlong race brought to an abrupt halt.