Closing her eyes, she fisted her hands at her side, reminding herself that she was over this guy! So completely over him!
Although, as she looked around at the intimidating marble and stone receiving room, Arianna acknowledged that her courage was failing fast.
“Fifty-four!” a voice bellowed.
Arianna jerked, glancing down at the piece of paper she’d left on the marble bench several minutes ago. Fifty-four was her number! It was her turn?
Oh my! She wasn’t ready. Not even close.
Nervously, she glanced up at the throne, relieved when he appeared to be speaking with an aide. Quickly, she shook her head and waved to the man sitting on the stone bench next to her, his hand holding the next number. “Go ahead,” she told him and grabbed his number, handing him the piece of paper with number fifty-four on it. Arianna needed just a few more moments to regroup before she faced him.
The stranger looked at the piece of paper, then back up at her as if she were crazy, but it took him only moments before he jumped up and hurried to the dais.
Arianna jumped up herself, but moved in the opposite direction. She had to get a grip! This was too important. Glancing at her cell phone, she saw the messages from her friends, Hayden and Natalie and…while she was looking, another text message popped up, this one from Kate…no, she was actually Katia! Good grief, that was a story she’d like to hear more about.
The three women weren’t here in Triar, but were safely back in Virginia, a world away from this place and her desperate search for her missing father.
If it weren’t for those three women, she wasn’t sure how she could have dealt with the past six months and her humiliation at the hands of this man. Oh, if only she could go back in time and stop herself before that last kiss! She’d made such a fool of herself! Natalie, Hayden and Kate…uh…Katia, hadn’t judged her in any way.
But then her father’s phone calls had stopped! No texts. No phone calls. No e-mails. After three days, Arianna had known that something was very wrong.
Arianna and her father were close, very close! They texted at least once a day, her father checking in with her or sending her a joke. Often, he’d e-mail her about his day and ask her about what she was working on. Because of the time differences, Arianna knew that she could wake up each morning to either a text or an e-mail from her father and she was careful to do the same.
Then nothing. For over a week, there hadn’t been any communications at all! In a panic, she’d flown here to Triar and tried to find him but…no one would tell her anything! Every time she asked about her father’s whereabouts, or his actions last week or where he might be…the world clammed up. One of the security guards at the oil rigs site where her father spent a great deal of time actually told her to leave the building!
She pressed the power button on her cell phone, shutting it down. She couldn’t answer her friends’ inquiries about her well-being because…well, Arianna was pretty sure that her actions over the next few minutes would put her in the “not well” category. Facing the man who had given her the greatest humiliation of her life was not going to make this into a skippy-do-dah day.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and reminded herself of why she was here.
She just hoped that…well, looking up at the man, his dark hair and those dark, forbidding eyes…she hoped that she’d find…Arianna wasn’t sure what she would find. An absence of humiliation?
Sighing, she sat down on the hard, stone bench, staring at her fingers. She wanted her father back and she couldn’t do it on her own. No one would talk to her and…and she was scared. Frightened for her father’s welfare.
She had to do this. She had to talk to Rhys and get him to back her investigation. Maybe he could call someone, someone in his government who would take her seriously and get others to answer questions. Not even the police would help her, telling her that she was worrying for no reason, that her father was probably just on vacation.
Arianna knew that wasn’t the situation. Her father wouldn’t just up and go on vacation. Something bad had happened to him and she had to find him!
Standing up, she paced back and forth several more times as she mentally banished images from the last time they’d been together; the way she’d reacted to his kiss had been completely out of character. She’d never moaned like that before, she’d never…cried out when a man touched her. And he’d laughed! Damn him! He’d laughed at her reaction!
Taking yet another deep breath, she closed her eyes, pressing her lips together. That was all in the past! She was more in control now. She wouldn’t fall for his seduction tips this time around. Nope, she understood that she was simply an amusing distraction for him.
Arianna looked up and suddenly realized that there was only silence in the large room when, before, there had been a low, constant hum of nervous conversation. Looking around, she found herself alone in the huge, elaborately decorated room. The silence almost echoed against the marble walls and Arianna swallowed, painfully aware of her isolation. Where had everyone gone? Everyone had disappeared!
She didn’t want to be alone with this particular man! The last time they’d been alone…well, she didn’t want to go there! She couldn’t handle him laughing at her again. Not like that!
Panic seized her and she hurried back to the receiving room. Where was…?
There he was, looking tall and gorgeous and amazing! He stood in the center of the empty watching her. Alone. The whole area had been cleared out.
“Welcome back,” his deep, sexy voice said.
Arianna looked behind her, around to her right and left, desperately searching for someone, anyone, to buffer this man’s impact on her senses. Just his look was making her warm and…gooey feeling.
“Something is troubling you, zahrat saghira,” he said softly.
Arianna’s shoulders stiffened, horrified to be addressed in that manner. And by this man? Oh no! “I’m not little and I’m not a flower,” she replied tersely, her hands fisting by her sides as anger over his arrogance hit her.
Yes, she knew her anger was just a defense mechanism, but whatever worked, she told herself.
The man walked closer, his robes flowing around her and she gasped when he was less than a foot away. Maybe he was right – maybe she was little, but only in a relative sense. Compared to this behemoth, she was small. Tiny! His height and breadth made her feel small and, somehow, frail and feminine when she usually thought of herself as strong and confident.
Blinking up at him, she shrugged one shoulder slightly, dismissing his silent assertion. “Got it. I’m small compared to you,” she admitted.
The man laughed and Arianna felt a shiver of awareness at that sound. It was deep and masculine, and yet, still gentle somehow. His hand reached out, running a finger down her cheek. “You are still beautiful, like a flower. I think zahrat saghira suits you perfectly.”
She gasped at the irritating heat hitting her with his touch, shocked by the sudden and insane desire to turn her cheek into his touch, to feel the warmth of his hand. When she realized where her mind had gone, she pulled back, then straightened her shoulders. He was close! So close she could…the trembling hit her once again, more intense this time.
But she couldn’t waste this opportunity. She was alone with the man. Not nearly as vulnerable as before because this time, she wasn’t here on a social agenda. Arianna had a mission and she needed his help.
The silence bothered her though. The lack of noise, lack of others, increased her nervousness. “Where is everyone else?” she asked, glancing around even as she tried to figure out how to ask him for help.
“Open court is over,” he explained gently.
She heard the concern in his voice and rebelled against it. The softness in that deep voice was not enticing, she silently asserted. It was…she refused to define it at this particular moment. All she knew was that this man had laughed at her…and, unfortunately, he was her only resource for finding her father.
> And then his words hit her, their meaning shocking her right to her core. “Over?”
“You are the last one, little flower,” he told her, moving forward. “Would you like to talk? Obviously, there was something you wanted to say to me or you wouldn’t have shown up so early in the morning.” He took her hand and led her over to the cushioned chairs. No hard marble benches for this man, she thought with resentment as she tried to fight the trembling that enveloped her whole body now.
She realized that this was the perfect opportunity to ask him for assistance but, for some reason, she hesitated.
Standing up, she moved herself into a better position. Unfortunately, he stood as well, once again towering over her. Arianna stared up at him, terrified, but determined. And determined to not make a fool of herself again in this man’s presence.
“Please…!”
“Please what, Arianna?”
Oh, she was fed up with this…this toying! “What do you want?”
“You. But you already know that. Which is why you have avoided me for the past several months.”
“No!” she said, her back teeth clenching so hard, she might crack a tooth.
“And you want me.”
That statement, spoken so simply, caused her to step backward, as if she could escape the intensity of the desire she saw in his eyes. It had been there before but…
The Sheik’s Redemption
(Oooh! We love the sheik stories! And this one has a bit of a mystery to it!)
Arianna’s Story
Book 4 in Friends Forever Series
March 16, 2018
(Click HERE for Details)
The Russian's Proposal (Friends Forever Book 3) Page 15
