by Miranda Lee
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I did notice that.’
How calm she sounded.Too calm. Bandar’s gut crunched down hard, his concerns suddenly changing direction. Surely he hadn’t just fallen for the oldest trick in the book? Was this what she’d planned all along? To seduce him and trap him with a child?
She would not be the first woman to try this tactic, not by a long shot. He had been almost caught once before, and his close call had made him very careful. This incident was the first slip-up he had made in fifteen years.
Bandar searched her unmade-up face, trying to see the truth behind her seemingly ingenuous persona.
Usually, Bandar could spot a fortune-hunter a mile off. He found it hard to believe Samantha was of that ilk, but no one knew better than he that some women would stop at nothing to get their greedy hands on his family’s fortune.
‘Why did you not stop me?’ he ground out.
Samantha was startled by the anger in his voice. Then annoyed.
‘Youcould have stopped,’ she pointed out. ‘No one forced you to do what you just did.’
His abrupt dropping of her arms and his equally abrupt withdrawal from her body brought a startled cry to her lips.
His eyes narrowed on her till they were cold slits of black ice. ‘You are not inexperienced at all, are you? You have deceived me.’
‘I have never deceived you,’ she declared, but then pulled a face when she thought of her one small deception.
‘I can see the guilt in your face.’
His accusatory tone made her mad. ‘Just one wretched little white lie,’ she threw at him. ‘One which should please you.’
‘Tell me.’
‘Iam on the Pill. I just didn’t want to say.’
Funny. He didn’t look pleased.
‘I do not believe you,’ he said coldly.
‘What?’ she said, her back straightening as her shoulders pressed against the wall unit.
‘You heard me.’
‘Yes. I certainly did. It just took a moment or two for the insult to sink in. Now that it has, I have one thing to say to you, Sheikh Bandar bin Bastard. Go to hell. Go straight to hell. And do not under any circumstances ever speak to me again!’
Samantha pushed him out of the way as she lurched away from the wall. ‘Unfortunately I have to use your bathroom before I can leave,’ she said angrily as she scooped up her clothes. ‘Aside from the fact I desperately need to pee, I intend making sure I wash as much of you from me as I can,’ she declared. She held her clothes in front of her, her knuckles white with fury. ‘Not because there’s any possibility of my having your child, you unspeakable excuse for a man, but because I could not bear to walk around with a single reminder that I once gave myself so totally to a man who had no respect for me whatsoever. But then, you don’t respect any woman, do you, Bandar?’ she finished up, whirling on her heels and stomping off to the bathroom.
CHAPTER NINE
BANDARsat in thoughtful silence on the sofa, sipping a mug of tea and waiting for Samantha to emerge. She’d been in there for several minutes, during which the shower had been running for some considerable time. He didn’t doubt the bathroom door was locked, so he hadn’t bothered trying it. There was no point in talking to her whilst she was in such a fury.
Instead, he’d dressed, made some tea, spooned in several spoonfuls of sugar and sat down to drink it.
Her tirade had disturbed him. Had made him question himself in a way that no one had ever made him question himself—especially over his treatment and opinion of women.
His cynicism about the opposite sex, Bandar realised as he sipped, was so deep that it was bordering on paranoid. He understood why that was so. He had just cause for his attitude. But did that make it right?
Not every female in this world was a cold-blooded fortune-hunter, he conceded. Meeting him, however, and finding out he had billions at his disposal invariably brought out the greed in a person. He had seen the women he’d dated change once they realised just how wealthy he was. Suddenly they were willing to do anything for him. That private party he’d been invited to had been thrown by a woman who’d thought he could be seduced by such goings-on. She’d mistakenly imagined he might part with a lot of money to enjoy depravity on a regular basis.
Bandar had stormed out and never spoken to her again.
The three lady-friends he’d told Samantha about were nothing like that. They were, however, exceptions to the rule—all extremely wealthy in their own right, independent and successful women, who had goals other than trapping a rich man into marriage.
His relationships with them were casual and strictly sexual. Samantha seemed to think that was disgusting. But he had never promised or pretended to any of them that she was the only female in his life. They did not seem to mind that they were not exclusive. And they certainly were not in love with him. He provided them with company and sex, and vice versa. If he did not survive his operation next month they would not grieve for too long, if at all.
No one, Bandar had finally accepted, would truly grieve for him. He had no close family, no wife, no children.
Perhaps Ali would grieve a little. But not for too long, either. His life was full and busy, with his wife and children, and this beautiful place. In time, Ali would hardly remember that a man called Bandar had ever existed.
No, that was not true. Ali’s son carried his name. He would never be truly forgotten.
This thought actually gave Bandar a jab of pleasure, and made him see why men set such store by having a child to live on after them.
Afterthem…
Bandar’s hands tightened around the mug of tea as another realisation struck.
He did not want to die. Not any more.
Not that he had ever reallywanted to die. But there had been a part of him which had not been devastated when the English doctor had delivered his dire news, a part of him which had saidyes , finally an escape from the loneliness of his life, deliverance from the wretched feelings which swamped him every morning on wakening.
Feelings, Bandar conceded with some surprise, which had been strangely absent since his arrival here in Australia.
Was it because of his sexual obsession with this girl? Or the whole change of scene?
‘Well, just look at him!’
Bandar’s head jerked up at Samantha’s strident voice. She was standing there in the doorway which led from the sitting room to the bedroom, her hands on her hips, glowering at him once more. She was fully dressed, her damp hair scraped back from her scrubbed face into a tight ponytail, her blue eyes still sparking at him.
‘Oh, please don’t get up,’ she went on scathingly when he put down his cup. ‘Drink your tea. I’m sure I can find my own way back. A good long walk is always excellent for the constitution. And for making decisions—though I’ve already made the most important one. When you next contact Ali, please tell him that I have quit. I will waive any severance pay for the right to be out of here in the morning.’
Bandar’s first reaction was close to panic—a most unusual state of affairs. He never panicked.
Let her go, his brain told him. She is becoming a complication you can do without.
His body, however, felt differently. It still wanted her.
Gradually, his brain began to argue his body’s point of view.
If you let her go, how will you get through these next three weeks? She will keep your mind from thinking of death. She will keep you very much in the land of the living.
He had already made plans to take her to Sydney with him for the weekend. Plans which, he finally accepted, he had no intention of changing.
She watched him rise slowly to his feet, saw the wheels already turning in his head. He was going to try and persuade her to stay. She could feel it.
Her hands dropped to her sides and curled into tight fists.
‘There is no need for you to do this, Samantha,’ he said, in that silky smooth voice of his.
‘I can’t stay working here,’ she told
him. ‘Not after this. I was going to quit, anyway, at the end of June. I’m just bringing my exit forward.’
‘You do not like working here?’
‘No. I preferred working in Sydney. But I am not going to tell you why. I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me talking. You think you can change my mind.’
‘I hope that I can,’ he said softly. ‘I hope you will accept my apology. I was wrong not to believe you.’
His saying sorry startled her. For it sounded genuine. He evenlooked sorry.
‘My only excuse is that I have long been the target of unscrupulous women. I have developed a suspicious nature. But I have had time to think whilst you were in the bathroom, and I do not believe you had any secret agenda where I am concerned.’
Why, oh, why, did she have to look guilty?
He saw it. She knew he saw it. For he stiffened, his broad shoulders squaring, his black eyes narrowing.
‘Are you now admitting to a secret agenda?’ he demanded. ‘Is that why you’re leaving? Because your goal has already been achieved?’
She shook her head violently, annoyed with herself for letting her emotions show in her face. ‘No. My goal hasnot been achieved. Look, I didn’t really have a secret agenda where you’re concerned. Not the kind you’re thinking of, anyway.’
‘Then what kinddid you have?’
Samantha groaned. ‘Oh, don’t make me embarrass myself.’
‘You must tell me,’ he insisted.
‘Look, I wanted you to teach me everything about sex—all right?’ she threw at him, her confession sending his eyebrows ceilingwards.
‘Not at first,’ she raced on. ‘At first I just secretly fancied you. You’re very fanciable. Surely you must realise that? But I had no idea you fancied me back. I mean…men don’t fancy me on the whole. Last night was…well, it was a shock. And a real eye-opener, I can tell you. I’d never had an orgasm before and…Oh, please, don’t look at me like that. It’s true. I did warn you I was inexperienced. I don’t lie, Bandar. Well, not about most things. And you can’t blame me for not telling you I was on the Pill. Youdo have a reputation as a playboy, and you openly admitted to having three girlfriends back home. How was I to know what I might have been risking by sleeping with you?’
‘Nothing, I can assure you,’ he ground out. ‘I had a very thorough medical check just before leaving England and it was all clear. Except for a small problem with headaches.’
‘Well, that’s a relief. And I promise you there won’t be any consequences to what happened here today in any way, shape or form.’
‘Why are you on the Pill?’
‘What?’
‘It is a simple question. If you have not been having a regular sex life, why go on the Pill?’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘I am all ears.’
‘You still don’t believe me, do you?’
Not entirely, Bandar was forced to admit to himself. But that was probably just his cynicism talking.
He was certainly intrigued by her story. Not only intrigued, but excited. She could not have confessed to a better secret agenda. It fitted very well with his plans, and his desires.
At the same time, he could not help feeling a little sceptical. Last night had been her first orgasm? And she was, what? Twenty-six, Cleo had told him. That seemed highly unlikely.
But perhaps it was true.
‘I do believe you,’ he said, thinking of his own secret agenda. ‘I just want to know the reason.’
‘Well, that’s too bad, because I’m not going to explain myself any further. I’m going now, Bandar. Goodbye.’
‘I don’t want you to go,’ he said, striding round the coffee table to place himself between her and the door.
‘What you want no longer matters to me. Now, get out of my way.’
‘No.’
‘I’ll scream.’
He smiled. ‘No one will hear you.’
She crossed her arms and glared at him. ‘You don’t frighten me.’
‘Yes. I do.’ He came towards her, his hands reaching out to curl over her shoulders. But he did not draw her close. He kept her at an arm’s distance, his eyes searching hers. ‘Is this what you always do when a man shows interest in you, Samantha? Find some reason to fight with him and then run away? I have apologised. Ido believe that you are on the Pill. And you do not have to tell me why if you do not want to.’
‘I don’t want to,’ she muttered, but her arms uncrossed and dropped down by her sides.
Clearly her defences were on the wane. Bandar knew it would not be long before she would surrender to him once more. The prospect brought a sense of triumph and a dark pleasure, sending hot blood rushing round his veins. This was what he wanted. What he needed. Craving her constantly made him feel alive.
All he had to do was take control of that craving and everything would be all right.
‘But you do still want me to teach you everything I know about sex, do you not?’ he asked in a soft, seductive voice.
Her body stiffened, but her eyes showed she was tempted.
‘Come now, forget your pride and be honest.’
‘I suppose so,’ she admitted grudgingly. ‘But I don’t like all this sneaking around. It makes me tense.’
‘I agree. It is not conducive to total relaxation. Which is why I have already ordered Ali’s helicopter. It will arrive tomorrow afternoon to take us to Sydney for the weekend. Ali has put his suite at the Regency Hotel at my disposal. I can teach you a lot in a weekend, Samantha. By Sunday you will not be the same girl. You certainly will not want to fight with me.’
Samantha groaned. The devil himself could not have tempted her more powerfully. To be alone with him for a whole weekend in some fancy hotel suite. Talk about fantasies coming true!
‘But what am I going to tell everyone? I…I don’t want them to know that you and I are…are…you know.’
‘We will invent some excuse. You can say you need to go to Sydney to see your family doctor. Hint at some woman’s problem that is too private to discuss. You did say you came from Sydney, did you not? Your father and your four brothers live there.’
Samantha frowned. She could not remember telling him that. But maybe she had. ‘Yes, they all live in Sydney,’ she admitted.
‘That is the perfect solution, then. No one will know you are spending the weekend with me. They will think I am just being kind in giving you a lift. Everyone will assume you are going to stay with your family.’
Samantha could not believe that he had already ordered the helicopter. He’d just presumed—again—that she would go along with whatever he wanted.
‘Like I said before,’ she said, with exasperation in her voice but adrenaline rocketing through her body, ‘you’re a wicked man.’
‘Not wicked. Determined.’
‘Do you always get what you want in life?’
‘No,’ he said, and smiled a wry smile. ‘There are some things you cannot buy.’
‘Are you talking about love?’
‘Not at all. I can buy love, Samantha.’
‘No, you can’t. You can buy sex, but not love.’
‘You may be right. But I do not want love, and I never have to buy sex. I get it for free.’
‘I’m sure you do.’
He laughed, then drew her to him and kissed her, long and hard. By the time his head lifted Samantha had forgotten that she’d resolved less than a few minutes before not to have anything further to do with him. She could fighthim , but she could not fight the desires he evoked in her—the needs, the all-consuming cravings.
‘What time is it?’ she asked, her voice husky.
‘Just after one.’
‘When will—?’
‘Cleo and her husband will not be back till three at the earliest.’
‘Then we can—’
‘Do you really want to learneverything about sex, Samantha? Not just various positions and physical techniques, but the more sophisticat
ed aspects?’
‘I guess so,’ she said, not sure what he was referring to.
‘Remember how I told you on the way up here that you should learn patience? We are about to go away together for the whole weekend, when we will indulge ourselves to the maximum. If we abstain from any further lovemaking today, your pleasure will be all the greater, your orgasms much more intense. The brain is the sexiest organ in the body. Just thinking about sex is sometimes the best foreplay. Do you think about sex much, Samantha?’
