Free Forever Layla: A Time Travel Romance by Melissa Turner Lee Page A

pulled him back to me. “Could you hold me while I sleep?”
    “Yeah, sure.” He tucked the blanket around me and curled up next to me, but on top of the blanket. He lay on his side, facing me, and draped an arm over my abdomen. I rubbed his forearm, feeling the ripples in the muscle as I felt them tense. He felt strong and male, and it made me feel safe for the first time in a very long time…maybe ever, and I drifted off to sleep with lovely dreams.
     
    David
    I COULDN’T SLEE P, NOT AFTER that kiss and not with being so close to Layla. It had been hard enough to sleep in the same room with her, but this was torture. I brushed her hair away from the back of her neck and leaned in to kiss the spot, but changed my mind as I heard her breathing become even again. Apparently, she wasn’t having the same trouble I was having.
    If she could read my thoughts, she would not think me the gentleman she believed me to be. Maybe I was more like Michael than I wanted to believe. I listened to her breathe and watched the clock for most of the night until sometime into the morning , sleep finally overtook me.
     

Chapter 7
    I SHOT UP AND GLANCED around. I was alone in Layla’s bed. I stood and made my way to the bathroom, but she wasn’t there. Only a little sunlight made it through the heavy curtains. I ran my fingers through my hair, over and over, before grabbing my glasses from the night stand, trying to think of where she’d gone. I slipped on my shoes and grabbed the room key and walked out the door.
    It was early afternoon , and the breakfast table had already been taken up.
    I tapped on the door to the guys’ room. I got no reply , so I beat harder. “Michael, Joey, Travis, open up!” Joey opened it, his eyes half shut and smelling of alcohol. “What?” he whispered.
    “Have you seen Layla?”
    Joey rubbed his eyes and slurred, “Yep, she’s in here with the four of us. Got tired of nothing happening in your room. It was a blast. Wanna see the pictures?”
    I shoved him with both hands. “I’m serious.”
    “Dude, we just got in around six this morning. I haven’t seen anything but the inside of my eyelids, and I want to see more of ’em. Go look on the beach. Maybe she went for a walk.”
    “Good idea. Thanks.”
    He shut the door, and I turned for the beach behind me. I was stepping onto the sand next to the other end of the white stucco motel when a door opened above me. I glanced up to find Layla coming out the door with a bundle of towels in her arms. She lugged them to the laundry cart and dumped them into it. She was in a blue housekeeping uniform with her hair pulled back in a bun.
    “Hey, what are you doing up there…dressed like a maid?” I use d my hand to block out the sun so I could see better to make sure it was really her.
    Layla rubbed her forehead with the front of her hand and smiled at me. “I’m working. What does it look like I’m doing?”
    “Since when do you work here?”
    “Since this morning. Come up here and talk to me while I work. I just got the job. I don’t want to lose it just as fast.” She grabbed a stack of towels and walked back into the room she had just come out from.
    I jogged to the stairs and took them two at a time until I made it to the landing. I got to the room just as she was putting the towels down on the bed and propping the door open with a chair.
    She smiled at me as she picked the towels back up and headed toward the bathroom. “I don’t want the boss to think we are up here doing something else while I’m on the clock. This way if he walks by, he sees I’m doing my job as you talk to me.”
    “So why are you working here?” I follow her to the bathroom where she start ed hanging towels on the racks.
    “I was thinking that if I’m stuck here for good, I need to find a way to make a living for myself. I can’t keep Michael out of his room forever. So I went to the office this morning and asked the manager if I could work for a room this