Linh craned her neck to look up at the church, then she got distracted as a donkey brayed nearby. “Horse! Horse!” She pointed eagerly.
Noel chuckled as Ana explained. “Honey, that’s a donkey. I don’t think you’ve ever seen one before. They look kind of like a horse, but they’re a lot meaner. Or at least, the children’s books make it seem that way.”
“Trust me, they are.” Noel had a strange smile on his face. He didn’t look her way much as they walked, and his lack of attention on her was somehow frustrating. She wanted him to notice her. She hadn’t worn the bra with an underwire for nothing.
“Did your palace have donkeys when you were growing up?”
“Oh yes. Everything. Donkeys, horses, cows, pigs. We even hosted a giraffe at one time.”
“What did you have, a zoo in there?” She’d meant it as a joke, but then again, he was royalty. He nodded. Didn’t surprise her.
“It didn’t last long. My mother wasn’t—isn’t—one for dirty animals.”
She gnawed at the inside of her cheek as she contemplated how to ask more about that situation. Nobody talked about Mrs. Yared. All she knew was that she was supposed to fill the queen’s shoes in the kitchen, but nobody said why the shoes were empty to begin with.
“So she hasn’t…passed?”
“No. Oh, Lord no.” Noel squinted into the horizon. “She’s just…missing Christmas this year.”
She was about to ask more, but Linh wriggled fiercely in her arms, pointing at something. Ana let her slide to her feet but kept a firm grip on her hand.
“Stay close to mommy,” she said. “What do you see, baby?”
Linh pointed urgently. “Woon! Woon! I want woon!”
Ana saw a main plaza ahead, flanked by tall, skinny palms. Park benches overlooked a central fountain. And off to the side…a man selling balloons.
“Ah ha! Balloons.” Ana smiled over at Noel. “I’m fluent in Child, did you know? Trilingual.”
Noel laughed in a way that betrayed just how amused he was, like it had come straight from his soul. A dimple flashed in his cheek. Part of her swooned…but it was kept in check by the steel fist of her rationale.
No men. And that means no attraction, either. He might be hot, but there is no need to be noticing dimples and thinking about what he looks like under those clothes.
Because that was the other part of this outing. Every step he took, his ass was highlighted under that silky black fabric like two round apples. She wanted to pinch it. Just once. Just to see if it was as hard as she imagined.
As far as she was concerned, there was nothing hotter than a fit man’s ass. And Noel was the definition of fit. His body was long lines and sinewy muscle. The flex of his calves during their run the morning before had practically sent her off the path.
If she was supposed to stay man-free, then why had this man, who was oh so her type, been the first to cross her path?
“Here’s the market.” Noel gestured to their left, where tightly crammed stalls clustered under a black and red striped tent. It sprawled endlessly, paths winding through the hullabaloo while vendors squawked and proffered their goods. “I’ll show you the spice area. There will be more than enough to choose from.”
He led the way at first, then he stepped aside to let her and Linh pass. He kept a hand pressed to the small of her back while market-goers swelled around them. Moisture surged in her panties, and her nipples went hard. Her cheeks stayed flushed while he guided her from behind, and she was equal parts embarrassed and fascinated that this near-stranger’s touch could affect her so much.
It’s only because it shouldn’t affect you, she counseled herself.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he said, his breath hot at her ear. Shivers raced up her spine. “It’s easy to do that here.”
“Of course,” she said, but her voice was weak and got lost in the commotion. Finally, he removed his hand and led the way again once the crowd thinned out. He looked over his shoulder. Mischief played on his face. She followed him on wooden legs until suddenly they were staring at rows and rows of burlap bags full of spices.
“Enjoy,” he whispered into her ear. She inhaled sharply, jerking her gaze down to the ground. Damn this man. Was he just playing with her now? She sniffed hard, squeezing Linh’s hand tightly to keep her from wandering while she inspected the options.
Spanish paprika. Oregano. Turmeric. Fenugreek. Berbere. Chilis. Her senses were assaulted with delectable scents and wisps of future dishes. In her mind’s eye, she could see recipes forming and recalibrating. Ideas burbled in the back of her mind as she gathered the raw data of the spices.
“This is too good,” she murmured, reeling Linh closer as she struggled to chase after something. Ana hoisted the girl onto her hip. “I want to live here.”
A strange smile passed across Noel’s lips. “That could be arranged.”
* * *
Noel didn’t know what it was about her, but Ana made him want to push the envelope constantly. From their first moments in the kitchen to now openly flirting with her at the market—he didn’t care who saw him or what they said.
Ana moved with grace and direction, testing each spice before moving to the next. He could practically see the gears turning in her head. He stood off to the side, sneaking furtive glances as she moved between bags, pausing to show Linh something or answer a question.
Watching Ana interact with her daughter was somehow sweet. Noel never thought himself a father type and never really imagined having children. But he’d encountered Ana first and foremost as a steely, professional woman. Seeing the soft, maternal side of her felt like being granted special access to a secret part inside her.
And he liked that area more than he wanted to admit.
While Ana and Linh perused the goods, Noel struck up conversation with the vendor to ask about the prices. But of course the vendor recognized him immediately, asking about King Yared, even inquiring about the state of his mother’s health. Not much press had been released about the Queen’s convalescence abroad, and that had been done intentionally. Nobody was sure how to speak about it quite yet.
By the time Noel was able to ask about prices and reassure the vendor that he didn’t want a price break simply for being a prince, he noticed that Linh and Ana were nowhere to be seen.
“Hold on,” Noel said, his throat going dry. He scanned the immediate area once, and then again, and then another time to be sure. No sign of Ana.
He swore to himself and started down the main pathway of the market. People swelled and churned around him, the noise of conversation in French and Arabic around him shrinking to a dull murmur as he laser-focused on his task. Find Ana; find Linh.
It was too easy to lose people in this market, but what made it worse was the fact that if they got separated, he had no way to find her. He didn’t have her phone number; he didn’t even know if she had a phone in Maatkare. Anxiety pulsed inside him.
A tinkling laugh cut through the din. He followed the laugh to its source. Ana.
There she was, in a fabric shop about seven stalls down. Her head thrown back in laughter as she chatted with the stall keeper. Breasts swelling under the tight purple T-shirt she’d worn, legs obscured by a flowing patterned skirt.
And that smile. She looked so carefree, so unguarded. Linh peered up at her, her eyes wide as she beheld her mother. Linh looked nothing like Ana—what was their story? Noel had so many curiosities prickling inside him, but it seemed wrong to indulge.
He knew he should stay away from Ana. The mother. The employee. The future complicated situation.
He approached slowly, happy to observe Ana while she wasn’t aware he was watching. When she finally spotted him, an unreadable expression clouded her face.
“I was about to send the police out to look for you,” he cracked, but the throb in his heart betrayed just how anxious he’d been.
“I didn’t mean to dart off. Linh ran, and it was straight to this little girl!” Ana
gestured toward a corner of the stall, where Linh and another toddler were inspecting some dolls. “And then I met Paz. Half Maatkaran, half Spanish, yet we’re speaking in English.”
Noel offered his hand and shook Paz’s hand with a smile. “We could always add Spanish to the list of languages available. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Paz. I’m Noel Yared.”
“The prince! I finally have met part of the royal family.” Paz curtsied. “The pleasure is all mine.”
Noel watched patiently as the two women wrapped up their conversation. Ana passed her phone number to Paz, and when Ana and Noel departed, he pressed his hand to the small of her back once more.
She stiffened in the same way she had earlier. He liked eliciting this reaction from her. It was small, but it was something.
“I need your number too,” he said in a low voice close to her ear. He saw the goose pimples erupt on her neck.
“Why?”
“I just spent five minutes searching for you. Thinking you two had disappeared in the wind.” He caught a whiff of her shampoo. Did she even realize how intoxicating she was? “That can’t happen again.”
Her eyes narrowed, those plump lips flattening. “I can’t tell if you just want my number or if you’ve been emotionally scarred.”
He couldn’t fight the laugh. “A little bit of both. Now hand it over.”
6
By the end of the first week, Ana had something of a routine going. Early morning runs with Noel were surprisingly the cornerstone of her day. The man didn’t miss a day, and he was always ready right at five thirty on the dot. Truthfully, she would have rather run a bit later in the morning. But she didn’t want to pass up her chance to spend these structured mornings with Noel.
Something about his solid, unwavering presence at her side in the vulnerable, misty morning hours sent her reeling. It felt like having a high school crush all over again.
And the man clearly knew his power over her. More and more, he would take small steps to let his masculinity be known. The touches at the small of her back at the market. The whispers in her ear. He’d taken to dropping in on her in the kitchen as well. The logical part of her knew it was because of his role at the palace. He’d promised his father he would look after the new direction of the kitchen, which made everything else about him so much more mystifying.
It seemed like he was interested in her. But at the same time, she shouldn’t care if he was interested in her.
She just needed to show up to work and spend time with her daughter. That’s all she needed.
Even if her body told a very different story.
On the eighth day of early morning runs with Noel, she found him outside her bedroom door per usual. The dark glint in his eyes made her low belly tighten. Goosebumps skated across her forearms.
“Morning,” she said, shutting the door softly behind her. “Where to today?”
Each day, Noel had proposed a different, more challenging route and each day she acted like it was no big deal. Both of them had a competitive streak, and maybe that was the spark that had ignited the first second they’d met each other. Their own need to be the fiercest, the best, the winner.
“This one is a bit far.” Noel crossed his arms over that broad chest of his, the one she was dying to run her fingertips over, to spell out invisible letters of all her favorite ingredients. “You might want to make sure the nanny will be around in case Linh wakes up.”
“Okay.” Ana held his gaze as she fished her phone out of the small front pocket of her running shorts. “I’m down for far.”
Ana tapped out a quick message to the nanny, who normally woke up around six anyway. Then she pocketed her phone. “Let’s do it.”
Noel led her out of the palace the usual way, through the lawns and gardens, and more recently, past the perimeter wall where guards stood armed and at the ready. Today’s jog began headed southward. Their feet crunched on the gravel of the main palace access road. Instead of following the access road as they normally did, though, Noel veered to the left, opting for an obscured path that entered some brush on the side of the road.
“Cross country, I see,” Ana remarked as she struggled to keep pace with him. He knew the path far better than she did, and she struggled to keep up with his deft footwork. “Piece of cake.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
The brush slowly turned into a bushy slope, which turned into trees on an incline. Before she even realized, she was in the middle of a sloping forest. Her jog had turned into a crawl.
“Wasn’t expecting this,” she gasped out after a while. She wouldn’t admit defeat. Not yet.
“Almost there,” Noel said, his face sweaty and flushed as he turned back to look at her. The path had grown muddy in some areas with loose rocks. Entirely different terrain than what she knew Maatkare to be.
They ran for a long time, Ana struggling not to wheeze or show any sign of fatigue. She needed to be on his level. No matter what.
And then they reached the summit. Suddenly, the Red Sea was before them, sparkling and vast. A breeze whipped past her, immediately drying her sweaty face. She drew a deep breath and held it, treasuring this unexpected reward after such a challenging climb.
“Wow,” was all she could say.
Noel nodded, resting his hands on his hips. He looked between her and the view, and finally his gaze just rested on her.
“You like it.” It was more statement than question. She nodded her head.
“Of course. How could I not?” She took a deep breath, catching the salt on the breeze. If only she could add that to a dish. “I thought Maatkare was just desert.”
“Definitely not.” Noel wiped at his forehead, feet crunching as he approached a rocky outcrop. He reached for her hand, both offering support and asking if she wanted to follow him. She looked at his hand for a moment, the smooth, tawny palm. Her hand found his before she could even think twice.
“You can see the four major areas of Maatkare from here,” he said, his voice almost reverent, as he led her down some rocks onto the overlook
“Over here, the jungle.” Off to the south, the sea jutted up against craggy cliffs which blended into greenery. “And over there, the main harbor. Our source of economic independence.” In front of them, a harbor full of big ships, in various stages of unloading in the choppy ocean waters.
“To the west, the mountains.” He gestured toward the peaks of a mountain range, barely visible in the cresting dawn. “And of course, we have the desert.” Noel turned to her then, suddenly, and a moment of shock passed between them, as if he hadn’t planned on her being so close to him. Every nerve ending lit up inside her body.
She inhaled sharply, but Noel steadied her by the sides of her arms. His grip on her was tight. Somehow…possessive.
She tilted her head back, finding his gaze more than ready for hers.
“Thank you for showing me this,” she breathed, growing dizzy from his nearness. It was too much, yet exactly what she needed. Exactly what she’d been desperate for since the moment she laid eyes on him.
And somehow, if he took the initiative, it absolved her of responsibility. She could pretend that she was still playing it safe, keeping her distance, doing things right. Every inch of her body buzzed with awareness as heat rolled off him.
“Do you like it?” His hand found the line of her jaw, his rough thumb skating over her earlobe.
“Um,” she began, swallowing a knot in her throat, “Do you mean the coastline or the fact that you’re inches away from me?”
A gut-wrenching smile spread across his face, and he grew even nearer. His lips were inches from hers. “Both.”
“I like the second one more,” she whispered, and then he bridged the final millimeters of space between them and pressed those big lips against hers.
Every cell in her body seemed to relax then, as though the physical connection had allowed something inside her to finally unwind. She hadn’t felt like that with Reggie; she hadn�
��t felt like that with anyone. She melted into the kiss, a low moan escaping her.
Noel cupped the back of her head with his hands, deepening the kiss. The man felt heavenly. He was silken lips and sweat-tinged cologne. A scent combination that she could bathe in forever and still want more of.
When the kiss broke, she grabbed a handful of his running shirt. “Holy shit.”
He laughed weakly, pressing his forehead to hers. “I’ve been wanting to do that since I found you in the kitchen.”
Noel broke away from her then, facing out toward the expansive churn of the sea. Both his kiss and his comment hung over her, begging for more of each.
But then he checked his watch. “Time to start the trip downhill.”
* * *
Hours later, when Ana was back in the kitchen, she still felt like she was walking on air. Noel’s kiss had profoundly disrupted her orbit, made even worse by the fact that he hadn’t addressed it. At all. Like it hadn’t even happened.
Though she supposed it made sense. A kiss born of adrenaline and beautiful views. It wasn’t supposed to mean anything. It was just a horny man looking for a set of lips. She frowned to herself as she whisked flax meal in water in a small bowl—an egg substitute for the dinner recipes that night. Though that didn’t seem quite right either. He was more than a man driven by his base impulses. He was refined. Smart. Sophisticated. Too intelligent to just kiss her and then never mention it again.
As if on cue, Noel came through the kitchen doors. His steely gaze found her immediately. Her stomach pitched to her feet, and she fought the urge to smile.
“Evening, everyone.” Noel nodded his head to the cooks at their various work stations before he came over to Ana. He paused at her work station before speaking, watching as she whisked.
“Tonight is a big night,” he said in a low voice.
She glanced up at him. “Isn’t every night?”
Christmas with the Yared Sheikhs: The Complete Series Page 4
