Sexy Sheikh Bundle (Harlequin Presents)

by Sharon Kendrick

  She propped herself up on one elbow and drank him in. He lay on his stomach, his head to one side, his arms high on the pillow. The remnants of one sheet was slanted across his thighs, so that his well-defined back was exposed from his broad shoulders to his tight waist and even tighter mounds of his rump below. She sucked in a breath.

  How could he do that? How could he look so damned sexy when he was still asleep?

  Memories of the night’s activities came flooding back in a rush of heat, bringing a smile to her mouth. Hot memories. Her flesh quivered at the images playing over in her mind, at the same time rarely used muscles ached their protests, bringing to mind more of Khaled’s seductive night moves.

  Her muscles would recover. In a day or two they’d forget and be back to normal. Not so her. Last night would be a night she’d remember for a long time to come. And after last night, normal was going to seem exceedingly dull.

  What would it be like to have Khaled in her bed every night? To share passion and desire with him, night after night and then to wake up with him alongside her every morning? What would that be like?

  She’d thrown away the chance to find out.

  Realisation hit her like a cold shower. If she’d agreed to become his wife she could expect that—Khaled in her bed, every night, every morning, every way.

  She’d had the chance and she’d thrown it away when she’d thrown his crazy marriage plans back in his face.

  She sighed and eased herself back down onto her pillow, staring up at the tent’s ceiling. She’d done the right thing. It had been a crazy marriage plan—he’d been way out of line, scheming and conspiring to make her his wife in his own version of an arranged marriage—and she’d had no choice but to refuse. Any sane person would.

  Why had he ever imagined she’d go along with it? It didn’t make sense and the more she came to learn about Khaled, the less sense it made. He was a strong leader, respected and loved by his people. She’d seen this with her own eyes, he was both fair and good in dealings with them. He was no petty despot.

  And with his good looks he could have his pick of women to be his bride. So what could possibly have driven him to choose her?

  None of it made sense. So she had done the right thing. She knew it. Despite the sex. Even if she couldn’t imagine ever tiring of feeling the way he’d made her feel last night, sex just wasn’t enough. For since when did compatibility in bed constitute a sound basis for marriage anyway? It wasn’t as if they were in love with each other after all.

  Oh, she’d miss him when she returned to Milan, that was true. She’d miss catching his hooded gaze upon her when she looked up, and his brooding magnetism setting her nerve endings alight. She’d even miss the verbal sparring between them and the endless mounting tension.

  And there were times she even liked him. Though that was hardly the same thing as love.

  Hardly the same thing at all…

  On impulse she leaned over to him, his face still turned into the pillow. Holding back her hair with one hand, she dipped her head and kissed him.

  His eyelids batted open and he smiled, uttering a low growl as one arm came down and circled around her.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said.

  She smiled back. ‘I think it was my pleasure.’

  ‘It was our pleasure,’ he purred, nuzzling her ear. ‘You are so beautiful. I cannot understand why any man would be crazy enough to choose another over you.’

  She went rigid. Paolo hadn’t even entered into her thoughts and right now was hardly the time to bring him up. Not that she felt guilty. It wasn’t as if they were still involved in a relationship and she’d betrayed him by sleeping with Khaled, not given her last phone call to him that had signalled the end of their relationship.

  But still she didn’t want to think of Paolo when she was in another man’s arms. The shock of Paolo’s deception was still too raw, too painful. She didn’t want to be reminded of it now. She didn’t need to be reminded of it now.

  Tell me you enjoyed making love to me, she wished; tell me it was worth it. But don’t remind me that someone else thought I wasn’t.

  He cursed under his breath. What was he thinking? He had done what he had set out to do. He had made her want him and then he had made her his own. But his victory over Paolo was for his satisfaction—he should never have mentioned his name. Not when she was probably still mourning the loss of their relationship.

  He pushed himself up, scooping her into his arms, kissing her averted cheek. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘That was a stupid thing to say. But there is one thing I’ll never be sorry about.’

  A blink of her eyelids, the soft parting of her lips on a sigh, was her only response.

  ‘I could never be sorry that you are here, in my arms and in my bed. I will never be sorry for that, for as long as I live. I don’t think I could ever have enough of you.’

  She took a deep breath, her chest rising in a way that could not escape his attention. He couldn’t resist. He dropped his mouth over the closest nipple, rolling it languidly between his lips with his tongue, to be rewarded almost immediately with her gasp of pleasure as the nipple peaked in his mouth. Then he lifted his head fractionally, blowing softly on to the tip, fascinated to watch it pebble and firm.

  She trembled in his arms as he drew closer to the other nipple. ‘Prove it,’ she invited.

  The capital was bustling with afternoon crowds and swirling traffic by the time they neared the palace. She sat quietly in the Range Rover, the return trip having gone all too quickly for her liking, and she cursed the invention of the internal combustion engine that saw her sitting in a luxurious leather bucket seat, so far from Khaled’s reach, when a century ago she might have been sharing his saddle the entire journey.

  The journey on camels from the encampment back to the vehicles had been the best. Almost every part of her felt tender, her aches a welcome reminder of their night of passion, and she’d let herself relax into his body, had even found ways she could inveigle herself closer still, pressing her face to his chest, relishing the scent of man, rich and raw, as it fed into her senses.

  Even after a night and morning of passion she was still burning for him. She couldn’t help it. Back home in Australia his touch would come with a government health warning—it was dangerously addictive. And after a night spent revelling in his touch, and a ride together through the desert dunes on a loping camel on their way to meet the cars, the more addicted she’d become.

  It was going to be more of a wrench to leave than she could ever have imagined. Surprisingly more of a wrench, given yesterday she’d been demanding to be taken to the airport so she could leave the country immediately. She’d been so sure then, so absolutely driven to escape the first chance she had.

  Why now, then, was she in two minds about leaving? Why, barely more than twenty-four hours later, was the thought of heading for the airport so much less compelling?

  What had changed, other than they’d made love, out there in a tent amongst the desert sands?

  Unless this wasn’t just about sex? Unless…

  No way!

  There was no way. Between them there was just sex. It was just a physical thing. There could only ever be just sex.

  So why did the thought of leaving Jebbai, of leaving Khaled, seem to tear a hole right through her? Seem to gut her completely? Why did the closer she got to saying goodbye for ever make her less and less comfortable? It couldn’t only be put down to the best sex she’d ever had, surely.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ said Khaled from the driver’s seat.

  ‘What do you mean, what’s wrong?’ she asked, suddenly aware that she’d been shaking her head from side to side.

  ‘You don’t look happy. Would you have liked to stay longer in the desert?’

  Heat suffused his words and swirled the depths of his eyes and she saw the pictures he must be thinking, she could feel his touch on her skin. ‘Oh, no,’ she lied, her voice shaky as the bottom fell out of her world
with the power of her discovery. ‘It was an interesting trip, but it’s such a relief to be back.’

  Her voice choked up on the last word but still she managed to dredge up a bright smile from somewhere. His eyes hardened, taking on a granite sheen as he measured her words, and she wished he’d look back at the road before they veered off it.

  Finally he looked to the front again and she felt her smile crack and slide away. How much longer could she keep this up now that it had hit her? Now that one sight of the reflection in his dark eyes had confirmed what she’d feared was true.

  Damn it all. She’d known this would happen if she’d stayed. She’d known she was in danger of falling more and more under Khaled’s magnetic spell if she didn’t get away.

  And it had happened. The worst thing possible had happened.

  This wasn’t about sex.

  This had never been about sex.

  She’d fallen in love with Khaled.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  SHE had to get away. Now more than ever. No longer could she trust what she felt and she couldn’t even be sure she was thinking straight any more. She’d lost control of her life and she needed time away to try and get it back.

  Away from Khaled’s influence and powerful spell she could be more objective and clear-headed. A break spent with her family in Australia would give her the distance she needed to get herself back together. She had bridges to rebuild there as it was, with her mother and sisters, before she could consider moving on. Gianfranco had to allow her the leave. He just had to.

  But the first step to doing any of that was to get away from Jebbai.

  She was quiet as Khaled pulled the vehicle to a halt outside the palace, reluctant to speak until he had shaken off the servants and carried her bag back to her room himself.

  ‘There,’ he said, opening the door to her study and putting down her bag. ‘Back safe and sound. Didn’t I say so?’ He looked around the apartment. ‘Where’s Azizah? She should be here.’

  ‘Maybe she wasn’t expecting us back so soon,’ she said, wishing he would go, wishing he would stay, wishing it was all over.

  She glanced down at her watch, mentally adding a six-hour journey to the early-afternoon time and thinking it might still be possible to arrange a flight back to Milan today if the security alert was over. Compared to that it really wasn’t important where Azizah was in the scheme of things. It wasn’t as if she needed anyone to help her pack. And it wasn’t as if she could put off the question that had been plaguing her thoughts.

  ‘Is there any news of the airport reopening?’

  He stiffened, the long, fluid lines of his body pulling up tall and taut.

  ‘Is that a passing enquiry, or do you have a more specific interest?’

  She swallowed back her first response. How could he pretend not to know why she cared?

  ‘Why do you ask? Will it make your answer any different?’

  ‘I want to know. Why do you care whether the airport is open or closed?’

  ‘Because you said you’d give me a lift, remember? You promised to take me to the airport and put me on a plane for Milan, just as soon as it reopened.’

  Silence met her words, a fat, incredulous bubble of silence.

  Then it burst. ‘You’re still planning on leaving?’ Disbelief turned his words into an accusation.

  ‘Of course I am. I told you I wanted to leave. You told me you’d take me to the airport yourself. You promised.’

  He took two strides towards her. ‘But that was before…’ His words trailed off.

  ‘Before what?’ she demanded. ‘Before last night? You think that what happened last night changes anything?’

  His eyebrows lifted. ‘Doesn’t it?’

  ‘We had sex, Khaled,’ she said. ‘People do it all the time and then they walk away. End of story.’ She shrugged. ‘It changes nothing.’ She turned her head, before he could see the lie in her eyes. Before he could see how her own words tore at her heart. She couldn’t let him see what it meant to her, not when she was so vulnerable and afraid and desperate to escape.

  ‘Sex?’ The word erupted from him like a cannonball as her forearm was grabbed in his iron-like grasp, pulling her back around to face him. ‘Is that what we had? And all the time I thought we were making love.’

  ‘Call it whatever you like,’ she said more shakily than she wished. ‘You promised to take me to the airport.’ She looked up at him, her eyes pleading for him to understand. ‘And I’m holding you to it.’

  He let go of her arm, wheeling away, raking one clawed hand through his hair.

  ‘I don’t want you to go.’

  She squeezed her eyes shut, clamping back on the stinging dampness behind her lids. ‘We’ve been through this.’

  He spun around to face her. ‘No, we haven’t.’

  ‘Khaled—’

  ‘No!’ he shouted. ‘When I made that promise I thought I could let you walk out of my life if you wanted to. I really believed it. But I thought it wouldn’t come to that—I thought I would change your mind about leaving—that you would decide to stay here in Jebbai with me.’

  She laughed, the sound coming brittle and harsh. ‘You thought one night with you would change my mind? You really must fancy yourself as some sort of Arab stud.’

  His eyes flashed with danger, his jaw rigid as concrete, and she stepped back, fearing she had gone too far.

  ‘Listen to me,’ he hissed, his teeth clenched, his eyes rapier sharp. ‘No one has ever felt so right in my bed, such liquid fire in my arms. That perfect moment when we two became one—you could not help but feel that. I know you felt it too. You can’t deny it.’

  There was no oxygen left in the room, otherwise why was it so difficult to breathe? So difficult to think?

  ‘Khaled, I…’

  ‘I don’t want you to go, Sapphire. Even if last night changed nothing for you, it changed the world for me. After last night I know I could never live without you. The last thing I want to do in the world is to take you to the airport never to see you again. I can’t lose you now. I want you to stay here and become my wife.’

  ‘No,’ she protested, vehemently shaking her head as she tried to dislodge his hand on her arm. ‘That’s crazy. That’s exactly why you brought me here in the first place! Why should this time be any different?’

  His free hand cupped her cheek. She flinched, trying to pull away, but his hand remained, and against her own better judgement she found herself nestling into the warm strength of his palm. His face hovered just inches from her own, his eyes suddenly more tender than she’d ever seen.

  ‘Something happened to me last night, while I was out there in that desert tent with you. I discovered something momentous that I should have realised long, long ago.’

  She was afraid to blink, afraid to breathe, afraid the sound of her pumping heart would drown out his words.

  ‘Zafeerah…’ The way he said her name fed into her soul, he might have been worshipping her. ‘I’m not good at showing these things, but can’t you feel it? I love you.’

  Her pulse quickened, thumping in her chest as his words hit home. He loved her? How could it be possible, after all that had happened?

  ‘You don’t believe me,’ he said, ‘but you must. I think I loved you from the very first time I saw you in the salon. I wanted you back then but it has taken me all this time to see the truth of what was staring me in the face all along.

  ‘I love you. And that’s why I cannot bear the thought of your leaving. I want you to stay and be by my side forever. I am asking you to become my wife.’

  His mouth slanted over hers and she felt his lips, heated, filled with promise and expectation, moving over hers.

  She felt her resolve to leave wavering, losing balance in a world she was less and less sure of. So much was changing and all too fast. Her heart sang with his revelation yet at the same time her mind reeled.

  She couldn’t think straight before he’d made his announcement. How
could she possibly think straight now?

  He lifted his head, his hands taking hers in his. ‘Will you stay then? Will you stay, and become my wife?’

  She could tell him now that she felt the same way, that she too had fallen and fallen hard, but there was still too much to think about, too much history to get over, too many things to forgive.

  She started to shake her head. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Please,’ he implored. ‘Please think about it.’

  He was so different now. This was a man used to getting what he wanted. All he had to do was click his fingers and people came running. Yet he was asking her now, pleading with her to reconsider.

  She could see what this was costing him, could see the pain and uncertainty in his features. It was a different side of Khaled—a much more vulnerable and human side than she’d seen before.

  Maybe he was speaking the truth. Maybe he did love her. But how could she be sure? After all the half-truths and secrets, it was all too much to process.

  ‘Think about it,’ he repeated, sensing her own bewilderment. ‘I’ll leave you now. Take your time; call me on the intercom when you’ve made up your mind. The airport has reopened. I’ll have my jet put on standby. If you still want to leave, you can leave immediately. On the other hand, if you decide to stay…’

  His words trailed off and she nodded. ‘Thank you,’ she said, thinking how inadequate that sounded after such a conversation.

  He smiled and pressed his lips to her forehead. Then he turned and left, pulling the door softly closed behind him.

  It seemed like years since she’d been in the workshop, yet it was really only yesterday. Azizah had still not shown up, so there was no opportunity to distract herself with small talk and minor housekeeping issues. Instead, as she prowled amongst the worktables bearing machines all now empty and silent, her thoughts kept churning, going over and over trying to digest the impact of Khaled’s surprise declaration, trying to fit all the pieces together.