“Don’t bet on it,” Ben Raschid snapped, slamming the door and striding around to the driver’s seat. A moment later they were roaring out of the parking lot while Hector gazed after them with a troubled expression on his face.
“Your David appears to be very complacent,” Ben Raschid said harshly. “I was under the impression that he wouldn’t take kindly to your seeing other men. Or does this Angelina offer him her own brand of comfort when you decide to amuse yourself? I understand ménages à trois are becoming increasingly popular these days.”
Sabrina had forgotten Donahue’s misinterpretation of the relationship between David and herself, but evidently he’d given a full report to Ben Raschid. “That’s really none of your business,” she said sarcastically. “But I’m afraid I’ve not reached quite your level of sophistication. I find a one-on-one relationship much more desirable.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Ben Raschid said, “because that’s what I have in mind for you. So you can just resign yourself to giving this Bradford his walking papers. I’ve never wanted a woman this way before, and you’re not getting away from me.” He smiled with lazy sensuality. “I promise that once I get you into my bed, you won’t want to.”
“The great lover,” Sabrina scoffed, to hide the breathlessness that flooded her at the thought of Ben Raschid touching her.
“Exactly,” he said coolly. “You won’t be disappointed. I think you’ll find I have enough experience to make you forget your roommate.”
The biting acid of his last remark revealed a bitterness that pleased Sabrina. He evidently didn’t like the idea of another man receiving favors that were denied him, and she felt a perverse thrill at disconcerting the arrogant Alex Ben Raschid. Her intention of telling him the truth of her relationship was discarded. Once he was convinced that she wouldn’t have an affair with him, her deception wouldn’t matter. Besides, she had an uneasy feeling she might need all the barricades she could erect between them.
“David loves me,” she said truthfully.
“Love is a word for children,” Alex said. “I’ll teach you more interesting emotions, Sabrina.”
“Like lust?”
Ben Raschid smiled intimately, his eyes lingering on her lips. “I had that in mind for lesson one,” he admitted.
“I prefer the old-fashioned concepts, like love, affection, and loyalty. I wouldn’t be a very good pupil,” she said tartly.
“An interesting paradox,” Alex said, his lips curving mockingly. “Old-fashioned ideals and a swinging lifestyle. Don’t you have trouble reconciling the two?”
“Not at all,” she answered coolly. “And now that you understand that our views are incompatible, don’t you think you’d better drive me back to pick up my car?”
“Without trying to change your mind?” He shook his head. “I don’t give up that easily. You’re going to have dinner with me. I intend to show you what a harmless, uncomplicated man I really am.”
Sabrina eyed him skeptically. He was about as harmless as a live electric wire and as uncomplicated as a master computer. She noticed that they’d now turned onto the Gulf Freeway and were headed rapidly east toward the Gulf of Mexico. “May I ask where you’re taking me?” she asked suspiciously. “You do realize that you’ve practically kidnapped me? Don’t you ever ask instead of take, Mr. Ben Raschid?”
“Alex,” he corrected impatiently. “And you’ll find I can ask as politely as the next man.” He gave her a sly, sideways glance and suddenly a mischievous grin lit the darkness of his face. “If I’m sure the answer will be yes.”
Sabrina shook her head, a reluctant smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Where are we going?” she persisted.
“Galveston,” he answered. “I thought that since neither of us is dressed for dinner, we’d have a picnic on the beach.”
“I wouldn’t have thought that would be your scene,” she said flippantly. “It seems a bit primitive for a sophisticated man of the world.”
The glance that he gave her was as intimate as a kiss. His eyes ran over her face and then her body as if he wanted to memorize them. “You persist in underestimating me, Sabrina,” he said softly. “I’m very adaptable. You’ll find that I can be very primitive.”
Sudden color flooded her face and her breath caught in her throat. What on earth was the matter with her? One smoky glance from those dark, guarded eyes and she was trembling like a schoolgirl. Her glance slid quickly away from his. “How did you know where to find me?” she asked, moistening her lips nervously.
“I had Clancy call Noveltygrams and track you down,” he answered. He frowned fiercely. “You really do perform that glorified hootchy-kootchy two and three times a day. I couldn’t believe it when I walked into that restaurant and saw you dancing for those drooling old goats.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel until the knuckles showed white. “It made me sick to my stomach. I had to get out of there or I’d have yanked you out of the place by that gorgeous red hair.”
“You could have tried,” Sabrina said tartly, her eyes flashing. “My dance is not a hootchy-kootchy, and I’d have thought that anyone from a mideastern country such as Sedikhan would appreciate that fact.”
“All right, it’s a beautiful dance.” He glared at her moodily. “And you’re so damn beautiful doing it that it makes me ache just watching you. That doesn’t mean it’s not as provocative as hell. You can’t deny that every man in the room was only thinking of one thing while you were moving those hips like some blasted fertility goddess.”
“Not everyone has his mind in the bedroom constantly the way you do,” Sabrina defended. “It was a joke, for heaven’s sake. Those men were just having a good time.”
“Well, from now on they can have it without panting after you as if you were a bitch in heat,” he said tersely. “I’m not about to let you keep on putting me through this hell.”
Her mouth fell open in stunned surprise. The sheer unadulterated nerve of the man! “You have absolutely nothing to say about either my professional or private life,” she said icily. “I’ll thank you to remember that fact.”
The look he threw her was compounded equally of anger and exasperation. Then he drew a deep breath. “Look, I have no intention of quarreling with you. That’s not what I had in mind when I was lying awake all night thinking about you. You caught me off guard in the library last night and I knew damn well that I was saying and doing all the wrong things. You needn’t be afraid I’m going to throw you down and rape you. I don’t operate that way.”
He wouldn’t need to, not with his virile solar power that could melt all resistance like hot wax. “Then you’ll turn the car around and take me back?” she asked.
He scowled. “I didn’t say that. Why can’t you just relax and try to enjoy yourself. Who knows—by the time the evening is over you might discover I’m not such a bastard after all.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“None,” he replied. “So we might as well declare a truce.” He raised a mocking brow. “Okay?”
“Okay.” She sighed, resigned. As he’d said she had little choice, and in a few hours she would be safely back in her apartment. It was a limited commitment at best.
“Good,” Alex said. He turned left at Stewart Beach and proceeded away from the crowded bathing area until they came to a deserted stretch of sand a few miles down the road. Then he switched off the engine and turned to face Sabrina. His eyes traveled over her again with the same smoldering intimacy that had been there before. “Now what were you saying back at the restaurant about the way you handled me?”
Sabrina backed against the car door, her green eyes startled as she realized how very isolated they were on this barren stretch of beach. Alex’s eyes suddenly gleamed with mischief as he opened his door and got out. He stretched lazily, the movement pulling his dark shirt taut over his lithe muscles.
“Get out, Sabrina,” he ordered dryly. “The only appetite I’m about to satisfy at the moment is for the fo
od in the hamper in the trunk.”
She got out of the car hurriedly, feeling foolish about having risen to the bait so easily. She helped him spread a beach blanket and tablecloth, and then set out the veritable feast the basket contained: fried chicken, potato salad, bread, fresh strawberries, and a bottle of red wine.
“Primitive?” She raised an eyebrow quizzically.
He grinned. “I like to live well. Who said picnics have to be hot dogs and marshmallows?”
“Who, indeed,” Sabrina said wryly, biting into a crisp piece of chicken.
The silence between them was strangely compatible as they sat cross-legged on the blanket, eating the delicious food with only an occasional remark. Perhaps it was the serenity evoked by the soft sea breeze that induced the lazy euphoria, or the sound of the surf, or the sun setting in a blaze of color. Alex filled their wineglasses and they sat quietly watching the last traces of scarlet fade from the sky, their reflection turning the clouds the delicate pink of cotton candy.
Sabrina leaned back on one elbow with a sigh of contentment. “Will you answer a rather personal question?” she asked hesitantly, thinking dreamily how the fading light hollowed his cheekbones and highlighted that sensual mouth, rather like an El Greco painting. “There’s something I’ve been curious about for the past six months. It’s driving me crazy.”
His lips twisted mockingly. “We wouldn’t want that. There’s only one way I want to drive you insane and it’s not with curiosity. Ask away.”
“The message that Honey told me to give you after my dance. What was the promise that she said she’d kept?”
“You,” he said simply, and then began to chuckle at her blank look of surprise. “It’s a long story and much too involved to go into at the moment. To put it as briefly as possible, I’ve always had a passion for redheads and a few years ago Honey made me a pledge. I’d just had an encounter with a very unprincipled redhead, and Honey promised someday she’d find me a redhead I could trust.”
“And that’s supposed to be me?” Sabrina asked dazedly.
Alex nodded. “You must have made a very deep impression on Honey. Clancy said you became good friends that week they were here in Houston.”
Sabrina’s lips curved in a reminiscent smile. “We had an instant rapport, and by the time they had to leave we were almost as close as sisters. I’m glad she thought I was worthy of trust.”
“Honey is exceptionally naïve. She trusts everyone until they prove her wrong.”
“Then you must never have disappointed her,” Sabrina said quietly. “She’s very fond of you, you know.”
His brows lifted in surprise. “You discussed me?”
“Not really. I can only remember one thing she actually said about you in that entire week.”
“And that was?”
“Honey said, ‘If I were blind and Alex took my hand, I’d trust him to lead me through hell.’ ”
For a moment there was blank surprise on that closed, usually cynical-looking face. Then to Sabrina’s amazement a surge of color flooded his bronze cheeks and his dark eyes were suddenly naked and vulnerable. He hurriedly glanced away and his voice was curiously husky when he spoke. “As I said, Honey’s incredibly naïve, but she’s right in this instance. I’d do a hell of a lot for her. And there aren’t many people in this world worthy of affection.”
“What a very cynical thing to say! And how completely untrue. The world is full of people who deserve all the affection we can give them. Surely you must have found that. What about your parents? Aren’t you close to them?”
“Not exactly.” The words were oddly stilted. “I haven’t seen very much of them since I was a small child.”
Sabrina’s eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t understand.” Surely even if Alex came from a broken home, he would be close to one of his parents. “Are they divorced?”
“No, they’re still together.” He laughed shortly. “Of course, that might be due to my grandfather’s distaste for divorce. They wouldn’t have wanted to give up what they’d gained by selling me to him.”
“Selling you?”
“My parents find Sedikhan a trifle barbaric compared to the more civilized pleasures of the Riviera.” Alex’s tone was mocking, but his expression was bitter. “When I was eight, they signed over complete custody of me to my grandfather in return for a villa in Cannes and a very generous lifetime income.”
“And they told you what they’d done?” Sabrina asked, appalled.
He shook his head. “My grandfather showed me the contract,” he said. His eyes flicked from the rolling surf to her horrified face and for an instant there was something hurt and lost in the depths of them. Then it was gone, masked by a fierce defensiveness. “I’m glad he did it. It was better that I realized at once I couldn’t rely on them just because they were my parents. I would have found out later anyway. The parasites of the world always reveal themselves eventually. Sometimes you just have to wait a little longer for the clever ones to show their true colors.”
“My God, you were only eight years old,” Sabrina said faintly, feeling a little sick to her stomach. “Surely he might have waited until you were older.” Could anyone blame Alex for his lack of trust in his fellow man with the kind of upbringing those few poignant sentences had revealed?
“Why should he have?” Alex asked simply. “My grandfather’s a great one for calling a spade a spade. He didn’t do it to hurt me. I think he genuinely cares for me in his own way. He just wanted to protect me from any possibility of my parents using me later.”
“And did they try to use you later?” she asked gently, hoping against hope he’d answer in the negative.
“Of course,” he said with a curiously bittersweet smile. “I told you, parasites always react according to their natures. I was fortunate that my grandfather had prepared me for it.”
“Yes, very fortunate,” Sabrina said huskily, her throat tight with tears as she thought of that vulnerable little boy taught so early about pain and disillusion.
“I didn’t need them anyway,” he said defiantly. “I had my cousin, Lance, and my grandfather. I didn’t need anyone else.”
“No, I can see that,” Sabrina said lightly, glancing hurriedly away so that he wouldn’t see the sudden mist of tears in her eyes. “You wouldn’t need anyone but them.”
Alex shook his head impatiently. “My God, why am I telling you all this? I don’t think I’ve even given my charming parents a thought in the last five years and you have me spilling out my entire past history. It all happened a long time ago. None of it matters now.”
But it did matter. Sabrina had caught a glimpse of another Alex Ben Raschid entirely in the past few minutes, an Alex capable of loyalty and affection and as vulnerable to hurt as any other man. She’d been unbearably moved by that brief insight, and found herself wanting to reach out and hold him close as she did David after one of his nightmares.
“Just because your parents hurt you doesn’t mean that no one else can be trusted, Alex,” she said gently.
“They didn’t hurt me,” he denied fiercely, and already the mockery was beginning to mask that instant of vulnerability. “And of course you can be trusted, Sabrina. Honey would never have sent you if you couldn’t, would she?”
“No, she wouldn’t,” Sabrina agreed quietly. Why did the sudden raising of that barrier of mockery cause this aching pain in her breast?
Alex’s expression darkened moodily. “She apparently didn’t delve too deeply into your personal life. I don’t know how the hell she expected me to trust you when you’re already playing house with another man.” His resentful eyes traveled over her scantily clad form in the midnight blue harem outfit. “Not to mention the kick you seem to get out of giving every man in Houston his quota of cheap thrills.”
It seemed the truce had definitely come to an end. Sabrina carefully put her wineglass down on the sand and said quietly, “I don’t have to take that from you. I think it’s time you drove me home
.”
Alex muttered a very explicit curse. “Why do I always say the wrong things to you?” he asked in exasperation. “At this point I should be wooing you gently. Why does everything have to be different with you?”
“We’re obviously incompatible. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Not only are our lifestyles as far apart as the poles but we have different attitudes and commitments.”
“Commitment.” He repeated the word as if it left a nasty taste in his mouth. “You consider that you have some type of commitment to this David of yours?”
Her eyes met his directly. “Yes,” she said candidly. “There’s no question of my commitment to David.” A look of wonder in sapphire eyes, a tender finger stroking velvet petals. David.
“Commitments can be broken,” he said tightly, his dark eyes smoldering. “It seems I’ll just have to convince you how desirable it would be to make that break. Honey can be fooled like any other woman. I probably can’t trust you any more than I can anyone else.” His expression darkened broodingly. “But who the hell cares?”
Then suddenly he was pushing her down on the blanket, leaning over her, a hand on each side of her face but not touching, his body heat tantalizing her. She felt as though his dark eyes were hypnotizing her, holding her in a web of golden languor. Then his lips were covering hers—not roughly, but with infinitely gentle butterfly kisses that teased until her mouth instinctively shaped itself to take more. She could feel the shudder that shook him as she arched against the warmth of his body, slipping her arms slowly over his shoulders and around his neck to bury her fingers in his hair.
Then his tongue was teasing her lips provocatively, tracing the pouting line erotically. “Open your mouth,” he said hoarsely. “Let me love you, Sabrina.”
She shook her head dazedly, her senses swimming from his experienced lovemaking, but he took the gesture of bewilderment for negation. “Don’t say no, Sabrina.” He framed her cheeks with his hands. “You won’t be sorry. It will be good for you.” Then his lips were hard on hers, not coaxing, but taking now, parting her lips almost savagely to deepen the kiss excitingly. He groaned deep in his throat and suddenly the body he had withheld from her was joined to hers in a breathless embrace.
Trustworthy Redhead Page 4
