She paused at his door and took a deep breath. Nearly there. Twenty more seconds and this would be over . . . She could leave.

She opened it and looked in. He was lying on his back, one arm bent behind his head, one leg folded beneath the sheet. His boxers were on the floor and she could tell from the hard set of his muscles and the rhythm of his breathing that he was awake.

Bell felt herself freeze as Hanna stirred beside him and gave a small moan. Her blonde hair was draped across his chest, her lithe body pale in the moonlight, scarcely covered by the sheet. Emil looked down at her, then back at Bell, desire spent, despair in his eyes.

His voice was flat when he spoke. ‘It’s okay. I’m awake.’

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘Well, some of us are living the life!’ Tove laughed, dropping a heavy bag on the sunbed and jolting her awake with a loving prod to the backside.

‘Ugh.’ Bell pushed her sunglasses up and squinted up at her. ‘I was sleeping!’

‘Billionaire lifestyle getting too much for you, is it?’ Tove threw out a towel and pulled off her sundress in one fluid movement. She was wearing a purple bandeau bikini that immediately made Bell’s yellow string one look basic.

‘How did you . . .? Oh, Kris.’

‘Oh, babe, please. I already worked it out. How many rich dudes coming out of seven-year comas do you think there are in Sweden?’

‘Oh.’ She rested her cheek on her hands and sighed wearily, watching as Tove flopped down beside her with a sigh, her lean body gleaming in the already fierce sun. ‘Where are the boys?’

‘Coming in a bit. They wanted to do a hike first before we kick off in style. You know what they’re like. Puritans. Can’t enjoy themselves without a bit of punishment first.’ She spied Bell’s Coke on the table beside her. ‘Oooh, I hope there’s rum in that thing,’ she winked, taking a long sip through the straw. ‘Fuck, there actually is!’ she spluttered a moment later, coughing and kicking her long legs about. ‘Why didn’t you warn me?’

‘I would have if you’d given me a chance.’

Tove stared at her. ‘You don’t drink rum and Coke at lunchtime. You’re a lightweight.’

Bell pushed her sunglasses back down, hoping to hide the bags under her eyes. ‘It is summer, is it not?’

‘Hmm.’ Tove regarded her suspiciously as she continued to drink.

Bell gave a sigh and hoisted herself back up to a sitting position, taking it before her wayward friend finished it off. ‘I was enjoying that, thanks. Get your own.’

‘How many of those have you had?’

‘None.’ Bell hoped she wouldn’t clock the two glasses on the ground beneath her sunbed. ‘And anyway, it’s party time, or hadn’t you noticed?’ She indicated the bunting that had been strung up all around the pool and bar area, every chair and table taken. Kids were playing in the pool at the moment, but that would change as the day wore on and the adults came out to play in force. The prestigious Royal Yacht Club’s Round Gotland four-day race was in full swing and the lead boats were expected to sail past the island this evening on their way back to Skeppsholmen, just outside the city. ‘It was lucky I got here so early, or we’d never have got these beds.’