He regretted telling her already. ‘Yes.’
‘You don’t remember them?’
‘I’ve always said I don’t,’ he admitted. ‘But now, I’m not sure if it’s all the photos I’ve seen, sometimes... I really don’t like talking about it, Roula.’
‘I don’t enjoy talking about my murderous brother,’ she said, ‘yet here we are.’
Then she asked what his PA should not. ‘You didn’t take the flowers that I picked for your grandmother...’
‘I’ll send you to the guest room,’ he joked. Sort of.
‘Send me, then,’ Roula said. ‘Why can’t you speak about her home to her?’
‘I want to get this last bit right—for her to be peaceful. I’ve caused enough upset in her life...’
‘I think her life gave her a lot of upsets other than just you.’
‘Yes, but I was not an easy child. I wandered off...didn’t speak till I was four...’
Roula frowned as she recalled some of what Yaya had said.‘Why? Why? Why?’
She wasn’t sure he was right.
‘Galen, there weren’t exactly a lot of specialists available then—even until recently there wasn’t a clinic. We were all fumbling along...’
‘I was angry. She wanted me to love my parents, to kiss their photos, to cry, and I said they were strangers to me.’ He gave her a grim smile at the admission.
‘Well, I did everything I was told and now my family is not speaking to me.’ She looked at him. ‘Galen, she just wants to talk of home.’
‘And I cannot stand it. Because she shouts and then she cries...’
‘I know it’s hard, but if you just listen to her it might help you both.’
‘Thanks, Dr Roula. I’ll let the specialist team know your recommendations.’
‘Good!’
‘I was being sarcastic.’
‘I know you were, but I wasn’t!’ She took a breath. ‘Galen—’
‘My turn for questions now,’ he interrupted.
‘I told you—I don’t want to talk about it,’ Roula flared.
‘See?’
But he moved his hand to much nicer distractions, up to her shoulder, and then a little question that had beguiled him when they’d kissed came to his mind again. ‘There are a lot of straps...’
‘Yes.’
‘Two bras?’ he questioned as he felt under her arm and then undid the top two buttons of her pyjamas.
Roula felt her throat constrict. It was with a delicious anticipatory pleasure and also a dash of embarrassment at her rather appalling underwear.
But he undid only the two buttons, and perhaps didn’t even see the shabby grey. It was like a brief check, an observation, as if he might pop his head in and check all was okay...
Galen looked at the squash of her cleavage and then back to her dark brown eyes. She completely fascinated him.