Lust and found, p.1
Lust and Found, page 1
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Sneak Preview! Unlucky Break
Copyright Page
Well before the plane touched down, Sienna Carter could feel her heart pounding. It wasn’t flying that was making her nervous – it was landing. She looked with distaste through the window at the grubby city below, wondering what her brother saw in the place. She was already looking forward to leaving and she hadn’t even arrived. Why couldn’t Eddie have chosen somewhere with better shopping to have his episode – like New York or Paris? Somehow Sienna doubted that Chanel had a store in Cambodia.
‘So the hotel you’ve booked is definitely nice?’ she asked her boyfriend.
Daniel smiled and squeezed her hand. ‘Of course. It’s five stars.’
Usually, there was nothing like the prospect of a five-star hotel to calm Sienna’s nerves, but this time it didn’t seem to be working.
As the plane touched down she started to get palpitations. She tried not to think about what state her brother might be in when he met her at the airport.
Eddie had left Australia for a holiday in South-East Asia at the end of his law degree. At first he stayed in touch pretty regularly, but as the months passed he stopped talking about coming home and started talking about staying to write a novel. From then on his updates were sporadic. He began emailing Sienna random quotes from books, lines from TV shows, links to bizarre movies and cryptic poems. Then there’d been nothing for a month, followed by a frenzy of emails – each more ridiculous than the last. Three weeks ago he’d sent his last one:
Hell is yourself and the only redemption is to take off your shoes and walk in another’s footsteps – and once you do, there is no going back.
Sienna was too busy to pay that much attention – she had Daniel’s thirtieth birthday party to organise. She hardly had time to blink, let alone decipher Eddie’s pretentious prattle. When she finally got around to mentioning it to her parents, her father dismissed it, as he did all the emails, as attention-seeking nonsense. He had long since given up on Eddie and had refused to have anything to do with him at all. But her mother was worried, and saw the emails as a cry for help. And because Sienna happened to be going on holiday to Singapore with Daniel, her mother begged her to check on Eddie – as if Cambodia was a neighbouring suburb.
By the time the flights were booked, the emails had stopped. Eddie had presumably gone back to his novel. He hadn’t bothered to reply when Sienna emailed and messaged him with her flight details. Typical. But she was sure he’d be there to meet her at Phnom Penh airport. Even if he was too lazy to email, he wasn’t that hopeless, was he?
Whatever the case, Sienna was determined not to stay in Cambodia a second longer than she had to. They would make sure Eddie was okay, and then they would head to glorious Marina Bay where she could shop day and night while Daniel got on with business.
‘Relax, baby,’ Daniel said, sensing Sienna’s anxiety. He stood to get their hand luggage out of the overhead locker. ‘I’ll look after you. Have I ever let you down?’
Sienna shook her head. It was true – Daniel knew how to handle things. His greater life experience was a big advantage of their ten-year age gap. And she had even more reason than usual to rely on him this time because he’d been to Asia before. He’d get her through the next few days in this ramshackle country, and then they’d head to Singapore. She could almost smell the designer wear already.
Sienna was so excited about her proper holiday beginning that she almost had a smile on her face as she left the aircraft. And then the humidity hit her. It was like someone had thrown a wet sponge in her face.
‘Ugh, how hot is it?’ she complained.
‘Welcome to the tropics,’ teased Daniel. His face was already turning pink and glistening with sweat.
Sienna hurried towards the airport building, desperate to get out of this sauna. She wasn’t the only one. All of the passengers were running, jostling her on the way past, almost knocking her over. And then Sienna realised why. The heavens opened and it started to rain – a proper downpour.
‘Come on!’ Daniel shouted, dragging her across the tarmac.
In a matter of seconds, the tarmac went from a dry bitumen surface to a swimming pool. Even though it was only a fifty-metre dash to the terminal, Sienna was drenched by the time she got inside. Her long blonde hair was dripping, her pink silk shirt was clinging to her skin and her white jeans were soaked. But it was her wedges that she was most worried about. She looked down at her once-beautiful shoes. The cork soles were swelling before her eyes – ruined. She almost cried.
She didn’t want to turn up in this country looking like a grubby backpacker. She wanted to look … important. There was nothing for it – she’d have to change at the airport.
As she stood next to Daniel at the baggage carousel, Sienna mentally went through what was in her suitcase that might be suitable. She had almost decided on a blue dress when she remembered that her only matching shoes were the wedges.
‘Do you think my ballet flats make me look too short?’ Sienna asked as the carousel went round once more, carrying a lonely backpack.
‘Well, you are short,’ Daniel said. ‘So they don’t help.’
‘I suppose you think I look fat in these jeans, too,’ she fired back.
Daniel rolled his eyes. Then he frowned, looking back at the carousel.
‘What?’ Sienna asked, and then it slowly dawned on her that the backpack had been claimed, leaving the carousel completely empty. Sienna looked around. Her fellow passengers had all gone, too. Daniel had his bag beside him, but hers was clearly not coming out.
‘Where’s my bag?’ she asked.
Daniel patted her on the bottom, as if that might improve her mood. ‘It must have missed the flight,’ he said. ‘It’ll probably be here tomorrow.’
Sienna was too angry to even respond. Daniel had stopped for a flat white en route to the airport, and they’d almost missed their flight. No wonder her suitcase had got lost.
‘Cheer up,’ Daniel said. ‘It’s the perfect excuse to go shopping.’
‘I’m not here to go shopping!’ she snapped. ‘I’m here because my stupid brother is too crap to keep in touch. And I’ve already had enough of the place!’
Sienna blinked away a tear and glared at the empty carousel, willing something to come through the opening. It didn’t work. She was facing an indefinite period in her white jeans and pink shirt, with no make-up, no toiletries, no hair straightener – not even her ballet flats.
‘Go find your brother,’ Daniel said. ‘You told him to meet you out front, didn’t you? I’ll report your luggage missing.’
He rushed off, leaving Sienna to fume in soggy solitude. She wished she’d never agreed to come to Cambodia. Eddie was old enough to look after himself. He was twenty-two, not twelve. And he was an aspiring novelist. Of course he was going to write random stuff. Although why he kept sending it to Sienna, she had no idea. She wasn’t a high-brow literary type of girl.
Anyway, it was too late for that now – she was here. Sienna fluffed up her still-damp hair, gave her shirt a shake and made her way through customs with as much confidence as she could muster. But once she was out the front of the airport, she could feel her anxiety levels rising.
‘Taxi, madam,’ someone called.
‘Hotel, you want hotel?’ someone else shouted.
‘I give you good price,’ the taxi guy called.
‘Taxi, madam … taxi, madam.’
Sienna shook her head again, and again and again. Her eyes flitted from face to face in the crowd, searching increasingly frantically for her brother. Eddie had blond hair – surely he would be easy to spot. But all she could see was a sea of dark hair, and a couple of guys with no hair at all, dressed in long orange robes.
Sienna looked behind her, hoping for Daniel to emerge through the airport doors. She didn’t even care about her suitcase anymore. She just needed someone to hold her hand. She didn’t want to be alone with all these touts hassling her. Her heart pounded harder as she turned back and searched again for her brother.
‘Hotel, madam?’ someone called.
‘Cheap hotel for you, madam.’
‘Hotel, hotel…’
Sienna shook her head. ‘I have a hotel,’ she mumbled. She looked for Daniel again, panic rising in her belly. She knew he’d mentioned the name of the hotel to her, but she couldn’t remember it. She hadn’t thought she’d need to. Sweat gathered across her top lip. She wiped it away, her eyes darting between the glass doors and the crowd. But there was no Eddie in front and no Daniel behind just a mass of strangers, all apparently wanting a piece of her.
Sienna put her hand in her bag, groping for her mobile. She had to get hold of Daniel. The crowd, the heat and the noise were making her dizzy. She pressed Daniel’s name and waited as it connected. It went straight through to voicemail. She cursed her phone and tried again, and again and again. With every failed attempt she was finding it harder to breathe.
And then she heard the most reassuring thing in the w orld. Someone was calling her name. ‘Sienna. There you are.’
Sienna looked up in relief, expecting to see her brother. Instead, standing before her was a guy she’d never seen. He had thick black hair that looked like it hadn’t seen a comb in some time. His face hadn’t been near a razor in a while either. He was wearing faded jeans and a shirt unbuttoned almost to the waist. ‘I’m Guillaume,’ he said, his heavy French accent detectable now that he was standing beside her. ‘I’m Eddie’s flatmate.’
Sienna normally had a strict policy against guys with a three-day growth – she’d observed a correlation between untidy facial hair and untidy bedrooms. But she was so relieved to see a friendly face, and someone who seemed to know who she was, that she threw herself at Guillaume, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her face into his bare chest like she was greeting a long-lost lover.
‘Guillaume,’ she said, almost in a whimper.
For several moments they stood locked together. She could hear her heart pounding against his skin, and through the back of his shirt she could feel his taut muscles. She couldn’t help thinking how firm his back was compared with Daniel’s. Guillaume clearly wasn’t as partial to Krispy Kremes as her boyfriend was.
‘It’s very nice to see you, too,’ Guillaume grinned, finally pulling away from Sienna and kissing her on each cheek.
Sienna was startled out of her back-muscle comparison. She reminded herself sternly that Guillaume wasn’t an old boyfriend; he wasn’t even a friend. She had pressed herself against a complete stranger, and a scruffy French guy stranger, at that. She tried to compose herself – straightening her top and self-consciously smoothing her hair. But she could see by the look in Guillaume’s brown eyes that she had already given him the wrong impression.
Sienna cleared her throat. ‘So, where’s Eddie?’
Guillaume shrugged. ‘He left about three weeks ago.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘He’s gone.’
‘But he knew I was coming, I told him to meet me here.’
Guillaume shook his head. ‘He’s probably got no idea.’
Sienna frowned. ‘But I emailed. I left him messages. I sent him a text – several, in fact – just a few hours ago, to remind him I was coming.’
‘Yeah,’ Guillaume said, pulling a phone out of his pocket. ‘I picked those up. Sorry I’m late.’
‘You’ve got Eddie’s phone?’
Guillaume nodded. ‘Apparently he doesn’t need it where he’s gone.’
‘And where exactly is that?’ Sienna asked.
Guillaume shrugged. ‘He didn’t say.’
‘When’s he coming back?’
‘No idea.’
‘Does anyone know where he is?’
Guillaume shook his head. ‘I don’t think so.’
Sienna stared at Guillaume for several seconds, trying to take in the news. Maybe her mum was right, and Eddie hadn’t just been looking for attention with his insane quotes. Perhaps he had actually gone off the rails.
‘What the hell am I meant to do now then?’ said Sienna crossly. It hadn’t occurred to her that she might have to find her brother before assessing his sanity.
Guillaume shrugged again, which didn’t surprise her. Guillaume couldn’t even be bothered to comb his hair. Of course he didn’t know what she was meant to do in this situation.
Sienna looked behind her again. Daniel would know what to do. But there was still no sign of him. She put her head in her hands and started to sob.
‘Maybe I could drop you at your hotel,’ Guillaume said, awkwardly patting Sienna’s shoulder as she cried. ‘You can have a shower, or chill out for a bit – I’m sure you’ll feel better then.’
Sienna looked up and sniffed back her tears. ‘I can’t. I don’t know where I’m staying. I have to wait for my boyfriend.’
Guillaume took a deep breath. ‘Have you tried calling him?’
Sienna nodded and burst into tears again. ‘He’s lost – just like everything and everyone.’
Guillaume shuffled uncomfortably. ‘Maybe you missed him coming out – he might be at the hotel already. I’m guessing the Continental.’
‘The Continental!’ Sienna smiled in relief. ‘That’s where we’re staying.’
‘Come on then,’ Guillaume said. ‘He’s probably there already.’
Sienna hesitated and looked around once more, hoping to see Daniel. But there was no sign of him. She’d been waiting for an hour for him – surely he wasn’t still at the lost luggage desk. It didn’t seem right to abandon him at the airport, but it didn’t seem sensible to hang around any longer either. Guillaume was probably right – they must have missed each other in the crowd. She would text him on her way to the hotel to let him know she’d gone.
Sienna turned and followed Guillaume in a daze, past taxis and people, and bald guys in orange robes, until they reached a row of motorbikes. Guillaume climbed onto one of them. He gestured to the space behind him. ‘Hop on.’
Sienna snapped out of her daze. ‘Are you insane?’ she sniffed. ‘I’d like to see my twenty-first birthday, thanks. I’m not going on a bike. I need a taxi.’
Guillaume laughed. ‘Don’t be such a girl,’ he said. ‘Live a little! Get on.’
‘I am a girl and I would appreciate being treated like one!’ she cried. ‘I didn’t ask to come to this stupid place and I didn’t ask you to collect me from the airport and I certainly didn’t ask to be taken to the hotel on the back of a motorbike. You don’t even have a helmet for me.’
Guillaume shrugged. ‘Suit yourself.’
He kicked the stand up and started the engine. He turned to Sienna, raising his eyebrows, offering her one last chance for a ride. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. Sienna was used to getting her way. She didn’t believe that Guillaume would leave her here on her own. If she just stood her ground, he would have to find her a taxi.
But when Guillaume revved the engine, Sienna realised that he wasn’t going to play by her rules. He was about to leave her on the side of the road. She hurled herself onto the back of the bike, catching Guillaume around the neck. He took off into the traffic, weaving a path through the oncoming bikes, trucks and cars, with Sienna clinging onto his back.
‘Slow down,’ she screamed in his ear. But it only seemed to make him go faster. ‘Faster,’ she screamed, trying the opposite approach, but that also made him go faster.
They hit a traffic snarl and Guillaume peeled off down a side street. ‘A short cut,’ he shouted over his shoulder.
She was glad to be off the main road until she realised the side streets seemed to have no road rules at all. Motorcyclists rode in random formation that couldn’t even be called chaos. Half of the drivers were in school uniform, and the ones that weren’t were carrying two, three and even four passengers. Whole families were perched on motorbikes. Babies, barely old enough to stand, were clinging to handlebars. Old people who should have been playing golf or pruning roses were transporting groceries on their bikes. One guy had enough green vegetables stacked on the back to last him the year.
Then Guillaume turned a corner and Sienna set eyes on one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. The Continental Hotel rose up before her, a picture of order, set in neat green gardens. She instantly felt her heart rate returning to normal, even though Guillaume was now riding on the wrong side of the road.
‘You can let go now,’ Guillaume said as the bike came to a stop out the front of the hotel. He turned off the bike’s motor.
Sienna looked down. She still had her thighs pressed tightly to Guillaume’s hips and her arms around his waist. Now she could think straight again, she couldn’t help noticing that Guillaume’s torso was every bit as taut as his back. Sienna’s heart started racing again.
‘Oh, yeah,’ she said, releasing her grip. ‘Right.’
Guillaume rubbed his ribs as if Sienna had injured him. ‘I thought you were going to suffocate me.’
‘Well, maybe if you weren’t such a terrible driver, I would’ve been able to relax a bit.’
Guillaume laughed. ‘I’d say you’re the worst passenger I’ve ever had. But you’re Eddie’s sister so I’ll come back after teaching my English class and give you another chance.’
Sienna shook her head. ‘You can’t go. I haven’t found Daniel yet.’ Sienna realised guiltily that she hadn’t even texted him to say she was leaving the airport.
