Sexy Sheikh Bundle (Harlequin Presents)

by Sharon Kendrick

  ‘Oh, he never shared that piece of information with you, then?’

  ‘On the contrary. He had nothing to share. Like I said, you’ve got the wrong Paolo.’

  ‘Paolo Eduardo Mancini? Married an English student, Helene Elizabeth Grainger, in Paris on March twenty-fifth twelve years ago. Funny that he’d never share that news with you, his lover, his fiancée.’

  Okay, so what that he had Paolo’s name right? She bit down on her bottom lip and forced herself further along the hallway. No way was she going to show him he was rattling her. It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t.

  Although it could explain why Paolo had been so cagey…

  No!

  She trusted Paolo. She had no reason at all to doubt him. Whereas she had no reason to trust Khaled. No reason at all.

  ‘You’ll have to do better than that, I’m afraid,’ she tossed over her shoulder with a wave of her free hand as she kept walking.

  ‘Then maybe you’d appreciate seeing the wedding video? Or perhaps the photographs. I have an extensive collection.’

  Video? Photographs? This time her steps faltered as the air evaporated in her lungs.

  ‘Why should I believe you?’ She didn’t turn and her voice was barely more than a croak. Surely it couldn’t be true? And if it was, why hadn’t Paolo told her?

  All this time!

  All this time they’d been dating and seeing each other and not once, even just once, had he intimated that he was already married, that he already had a wife. Why the hell wouldn’t he have admitted to something like that? Dammit—he should have told her!

  ‘In the end it’s not about what you believe. It’s about the truth. Your fiancé has already been married for twelve years.’

  She squeezed her eyes shut as her head dipped to her chest. ‘Then I want to call him,’ she said before sucking air deep into her lungs and looking back at him over her shoulder. ‘Now!’

  Five minutes later she was holding on to the receiver in Khaled’s office, clutching the phone with white-knuckled fingers, waiting while the phone rang in an apartment somewhere in New York. She couldn’t sit, nervous energy wouldn’t let her limbs relax.

  She had to stand, shifting impatiently from one foot to the other as she waited for the call to be picked up halfway around the globe, all the while trying to ignore the arrogant Jebbai ruler who sprawled unconscionably in the well-worn leather armchair opposite. He obviously had no trouble relaxing and that only added to her fears. The one hope that he’d back down on his crazy claims at her insistence on phoning Paolo drizzled away. He must be so certain that what he was saying was true.

  She turned her back on his smug demeanour and glanced at her watch. What time was it in New York now? Some time in the night—he had to be there—she had to discover the truth now—or she didn’t know what she’d do.

  Eventually the phone was picked up and Paolo answered. ‘Yes?’ came his voice, thick with sleep and husky as if he’d tumbled straight out of bed to answer the phone. Something squeezed in her heart as she clamped her eyes shut, trying to staunch the flow of tears still so closely threatening. She knew that voice, had once rejoiced in it as he’d held her in his arms, had whispered to her how beautiful she was and that she was the most important person in the world to him.

  But now it wasn’t love she felt, love to warm and sustain her and hold her true. Now it was icy panic clamping her inside, compressing her last frantic hopes.

  ‘Who is it?’ More alert now, she could tell.

  ‘Paolo,’ she whispered, her voice set to break.

  ‘Sapphy, bella. Is that you? What’s wrong? Has something happened?’

  The once oft-used term of endearment sliced a cold path through her with ruthless efficiency. If what Khaled said was true, she’d never been his darling, his sweetheart. Someone had held that place long before her.

  ‘Sapphy? Are you still in Jebbai? What’s Khaled done?’ There was fear in his voice too, laced heavily with alarm. Was this just the normal concern of a person woken in the middle of the night to what could be devastating news, or did his reaction signal a deeper dread?

  She swallowed back on a sob. ‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she lied, feeling her whole world splitting apart as easily as fabric snipped at the edge and ripped in two. ‘Just tell me one thing…’ She hesitated, knowing that this moment was about to change her life, change all her perceptions about living and love, and teach her about betrayal. This moment would be the start of her new life, in whatever form that took.

  ‘Is it true—are you married? Do you have a wife?’

  Silence met her questions, a damning silence that fractured whatever threads of hope remained intact. They were gone, shattered, smashed in his soundless affirmation of the truth.

  ‘It’s true, then,’ she said on a sniff. ‘You should have told me.’

  ‘Sapphy, listen to me. I couldn’t tell you—’

  Even though his silence had already screamed the truth, his words cemented the facts with a cold, hard reality that shook her.

  ‘I have nothing more to say to you,’ she uttered with finality, her voice as chilled as her heart. ‘Goodbye, Paolo.’

  ‘Sapphy, listen to me—’

  She dropped the receiver back onto the cradle. ‘Goodbye, Paolo,’ she whispered, shivering now, her arms hugged closely to her chest as the shock of deep sudden loss took hold.

  Strong arms surrounded her and pulled her close. For a moment she wanted to struggle—what was this? The victorious barbarian staking his claim? But she sensed none of that with his warmth. Instead she felt compassion, even some kind of understanding, and she sagged gratefully into him, welcoming the solace and comfort he offered.

  His strong heartbeat thumped loud in his chest, its rhythm steady and firm and as rock-solid as the man holding her.

  ‘It’s okay,’ he whispered against her hair. His lips brushed her scalp in the barest of kisses and the warmth from the contact radiated down through her as her breathing steadied, her heart rate calming to match his.

  And it hit her then.

  Her life hadn’t changed when she’d discovered the truth about Paolo. It had changed the moment Khaled had stepped inside the Milan salon. He’d been the catalyst, the trigger that had turned her life upside down.

  When Khaled had kissed her that first time in the workroom, he’d forced her to face up to her ambivalence in her feelings for Paolo. She could never have betrayed someone she loved deeply by falling into the arms of another man. Now it had been Khaled again who’d proved her relationship had been a sham from the beginning.

  Whatever his motives were for doing it she had no idea, but she certainly didn’t have to thank him for it.

  It was time to regain control of her life.

  She peeled herself away from his chest, aware of his reluctance to let her go and dipping her head so she could wipe away the traces of tears before he could see them.

  ‘I’m sorry you had to find out that way.’

  ‘Are you?’ she snapped. His gentle words did nothing to ease her pain and everything to cement her resolve. ‘It seemed to me you were only too happy to throw that knowledge in my face.’

  ‘It was time you knew the truth.’

  ‘Why? What does it have to do with you anyway? Did you think I would be so devastated by the news that I would happily fall in with your crazy plans to marry you? I’ve just rid myself of one lying man. Why the hell would I launch myself straight into the arms of another?’

  His jaw looked as if he was grinding his teeth together. Then he whispered, low and menacingly, ‘Never put me in the same category as Paolo.’

  ‘Why the hell not? Why are you doing this? Paolo said you two had been involved in some feud years ago. I told him he was being crazy, that no one probably even cared any more. But you do, don’t you? You care so much it’s like a poison in your system. Tell me, what did he do? Why do you hate him so much?’

  Anger set the planes of his face hard and cold.
‘You’re upset,’ he said, his voice revealing a barely controlled fury.

  So he was mad, good for him. It was nothing to how she was feeling.

  ‘Damned right, I’m upset,’ she said. ‘And I’ll stay upset until I get out of this place. You don’t have to become the barbarian. For the most part you appear to be a civilised man. You have no need to act like some petty despot. And if you have any respect for me at all, if you think anything of me, you have to respect my wishes. Let me go. I have to go.’

  He looked down at her, the depths of his dark eyes swirling, his brow knotted, and her hopes lifted. Was he relenting in his mad desire to make her his wife? Had he realised he’d inflicted enough damage on her already?

  ‘I can’t let you go.’

  Fury blasted through her. ‘Then I’ll go in spite of you. I’ll find some other way of getting to the airport and I’ll go anyway. Because I won’t stay here.’

  She stormed her way to her suitcase propped up near the door and grabbed purposefully at the handle.

  ‘You’re not going anywhere.’

  ‘I’m not staying here. I’m definitely not marrying you.’

  ‘So you keep saying, but that changes nothing. You cannot leave Jebbai now.’

  ‘You can’t keep me here. I want to go home.’

  ‘But not today,’ he said. ‘Not for at least twenty-four hours.’

  ‘I have to get away,’ she said, half-demanding, half-pleading.

  ‘You have no choice, as it turns out,’ he snapped, his voice cold and imperious again. ‘The airport is closed.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘YOU’RE lying.’ Her voice seemed surprisingly level under the circumstances. ‘This is just some pathetic attempt to keep me here. But it won’t work. I’m leaving.’

  ‘Unfortunately it’s true. Insurgents from neighbouring Jamalbad have been stirring up trouble along the border. This is the second such infraction in a few weeks—the first happened while we were en route from Milan. It seems someone thought that my absence then was an opportune time to stir up trouble.’

  She thought back to the plane flight, his sudden disappearance, the urgent discussions going on around the communications equipment.

  ‘I remember,’ she said. ‘Yet in spite of that danger, you still brought me here.’

  ‘I would never have brought you here if I’d thought it was serious. My guards believed they’d dealt with the problem. It now appears they missed the ringleaders. They’ve still been out there, stirring up trouble. We’ve closed the airport as a precautionary measure.’

  ‘For an entire day?’

  He shrugged. ‘It is best to be prudent—perhaps it will be closed for less.’

  She looked ruefully down at the suitcase and let go of the handle. It was like letting go of a lifeline. He’d told her she would be safe here. Now she couldn’t get away even when she wanted to.

  And how she wanted to.

  She wanted to be as far away from this desert ruler as possible. Her previous life had never seemed calm—the fashion industry was madness as well as maddening, but compared to the way her feelings and emotions were being tossed about now it was a cakewalk.

  She didn’t want to stay near Khaled. If his scheming methods to get her here weren’t frightening enough, his quiet declaration that he didn’t have to force her to marry him and that she would come to him of her own accord scared her even more.

  He was kidding himself! Not that she wanted to hang around to prove his theory wrong. But neither did she want to stay and be subjected to the pull of his fiery magnetism.

  She couldn’t trust herself to resist it.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but I promise you will be safe. That’s why I came to see you today. I wanted you to hear it from me, to assure you that we are dealing with the problem and that Jebbai will soon be returned to its former peaceful existence.’

  ‘And what of my former peaceful existence?’ she said. ‘When will I be returned to that?’

  She looked so fragile right then, her blue eyes foggy with vulnerability and defeat, and he felt her anguish deep inside, in a place he’d long thought shrivelled and empty.

  She did that to him. Touched him in ways no one ever had. Why else would he have risked his whole plan by revealing the truth so soon? Her constant goads, her insistent demands, they had been bad enough—nobody had ever defied him the way she did. But it was the way she seemed so desperate to return to her deceitful lover that had forced him over the edge of reason.

  So he’d spilled his intention to take her as his bride much earlier than he’d planned and in doing so he’d threatened the entire scheme.

  But maybe this way was better. Maybe now he would secure a far more effective payback.

  Already he’d exacted a measure of revenge upon his former foe. He’d smelt the fear coming down the phone line as clearly as one felt the blast-furnace heat of a Jebbai midsummer day. Half a world away Paolo would know that this was his doing, he would know that he had brought this on with his own precipitous actions so long ago. He would wear the guilt like a heavy burden he could never shrug off. He would bear the pain forever.

  As for Sapphire? Her anguish at her so-called fiancé’s betrayal was palpable. He’d felt her despair like a knife thrust under his ribs; it touched him deep inside and instinctively, bizarrely, he wanted to make it better.

  He had thought it would be easy—to take the woman of the man he hated as easily as stealing one of his possessions. Yet this woman was no cold chattel, no in animate property. She was warm, and human and so responsive.

  And he wanted her.

  Oh, how he wanted her.

  He wanted to feel more of her responsiveness, more of her body curling into his, more of her body melding with his until she was part of him, until they were part of each other.

  And he wanted her now.

  Even now, when she looked so lost and lonely, the urge to possess her, to ease her pain by obliterating any trace of Paolo in her mind and stamping his own claim on her, was almost primal.

  He moved closer to her then, her hands clasped nervously in front of her like a young schoolgirl unsure of her next step in the world or where it would take her. If he had any say in the matter, that next step would take her straight to him, but this time it was up to her.

  This time she would decide.

  He wouldn’t take her. She would give herself to him.

  And then his victory over Paolo would be complete.

  He lifted her chin with his hand and watched her large blue eyes reluctantly rise to meet his, the dampness in them rendering her long lashes heavy and dark.

  ‘I will take you to the airport,’ he said. ‘When it reopens and when it is safe, I will take you there myself.’

  He watched her nervous swallow, followed the movement in her throat, and fought the urge to drop his mouth and cover the pearly skin there with his lips.

  ‘You’ll let me go?’ Her breath was choppy and hesitant; her bottom lip plumped and reddened with the tracks from her teeth.

  ‘If that’s what you want.’

  Her eyes grew wide with hope and expectation and he accepted the challenge. He would make it his duty to change those expectations before it was time for her to leave.

  ‘If that’s what you really want.’

  ‘Of course it’s what I really want.’

  ‘Then that’s what will happen,’ he asserted. ‘We have a deal.’

  ‘How…’ she started unsuccessfully. She licked her lips as if searching for the courage. ‘How do I know I can trust you?’

  ‘I assure you my word is my honour—’ he smiled when he noticed her sceptical expression ‘—although I understand you may not entirely agree. But perhaps you are right. Perhaps in deference to your concerns we should seal our bargain. We could shake hands—’ his free hand surrounded her own, squeezing it reassuringly on feeling her electric reaction ‘—or we could seal our agreement with something much, much more satisfying…�
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  He saw the panic flare in her eyes, felt her instant reaction for flight as she pulled back. ‘Just a kiss,’ he promised. ‘No more than that.’

  He tugged her gently closer with one hand, tilting her towards him while he directed her chin with the other, until his mouth slanted over hers. He felt the shudder move through her as his lips meshed with hers, as if her internal resolve was being rocked and tested. He felt her sigh into the kiss, as if knowing she had no choice.

  And she hadn’t.

  She might as well get used to it.

  His tongue traced the line of her lips, tasting, examining, cajoling, and at the precise moment, at the tiniest hint he felt she was responding, he pulled away, letting go of his hold on her in the same instant.

  Her eyelids batted open, her cheeks were flushed and her lips red and plumped.

  It was enough for now.

  He could have continued, God, but it had taken every shred of control to pull himself away when all he wanted to do was bury himself deep inside her. And he would. He would erase from her mind all thought of Paolo, every last memory of his lovemaking, every last aching pain of his deceit. He would have her. But not yet. Not just yet.

  He would not take her.

  He would make her come to him.

  ‘So, do we have a deal?’

  She reeled, knowing that once again he’d taken her to that place where she forgot herself, forgot who he was and even forget that she wanted to get away from there. How did he do that? And why did she feel so cheated that he’d stopped?

  ‘Sure.’ Her voice came too soft and sultry for her liking, so she tried again, searching for more resolve. ‘Definitely,’ she said, adding a nod of her head for emphasis. ‘You’ll take me to the airport when it reopens.’

  He looked down at her, half smiling. ‘If that’s what you really want.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I want.’

  I think.

  She dropped her eyes so there was no chance he’d catch even a glimmer of her inner turmoil, and moved to collect her case, doing her best to distract herself from wherever her thoughts were about to take her. She’d return to her room. Think about practicalities. Focus on doing her packing a little more thoroughly.