“I just…” she couldn’t breathe as she looked at him, then her eyes lowered to his lips. Involuntarily. Her lungs were burning but time stood still. All she could see, all she could feel, was Rhys and the way he was looking right back at her.
A popping sound caught her attention and broke the spell. Looking around, Arianna wasn’t sure what was going on. “Is something wrong?” she asked, wondering why the vehicle was speeding up.
Rhys lifted her off his lap and back to the seat next to him. “Put your seatbelt on!” he told her forcefully, as he peered through the rear window. Even as she watched, another popping sound echoed through the SUV. That wasn’t…it couldn’t be…!
“Get your head down!” he ordered, but didn’t wait for her to follow this order. His hand wrapped around her neck and he pulled her down so that her head was resting against his hard, muscular thigh. The popping noises…those were bullets!
“Is someone shooting at us?” she gasped, her fingers curling around his leg.
“Yes,” he replied grimly. “Keep down.” A moment later, he pulled two guns out from under the seat. Arianna gasped at the sight of him holding the vicious looking machine gun in one hand and a pistol in the other. He snapped orders to his men, both of whom also had weapons in their hands.
“This isn’t happening,” she whispered to herself, lowering herself so that she was flat against the seat and trying hard to stay out of the way of the guards and Rhys as they fired their weapons through slightly opened windows. Unfortunately, they couldn’t see who was shooting at them. They only knew which direction the bullets were coming from.
The road turned bumpy but Rhys wouldn’t let her lift her head to see where they were going. When the car stopped, Rhys literally hauled her out. “Come with me,” he ordered as he set her down on the ground.
Arianna wasn’t sure what was going on, all she knew was that they’d been driving fast, the guards shooting as they maneuvered along the highway and now they weren’t. This was a more wooded area and she realized that they’d driven to the mountains, where there was more cover from the vegetation and massive rocks. One of the guards was calling on a phone, but then he cursed and threw down his phone.
There was a smattering of conversation, which was too fast for her to understand. “This way,” Rhys ordered and pulled her along an uphill pathway. She raced alongside him, ignoring the burning pain in her side as her lungs struggled to get enough air. She wouldn’t slow down, because then Rhys would slow down to help her, and that would put him in more danger. Not stopping, she told herself firmly.
“In here,” Rhys called out and they were suddenly plunged into darkness, the wide mouth of a cave blocked slightly by a large boulder that they each climbed over, then crouched behind, trying to determine who was shooting at them.
Arianna stepped further into the cave, trying to stay out of their way and not hinder their efforts. But inside, she was trembling harder than she ever had in her life! She knelt down against a wall, pretending not to cower but, in reality, she was cowering, cringing, fearful for both her life and the lives of the men who were shooting at what seemed like nothing.
Then… quiet! The shooting stopped. The silence that followed was eerie and none of the guards relaxed their careful vigil. But after several moments, the man who seemed to be in charge, turned around and issued orders to the men.
“I’m coming with you,” Rhys stated firmly, then pulled back the slide on his pistol to make sure a bullet was chambered, ready to fire. He pointed to two of the men. “Stay here and guard Arianna. Don’t let anyone past you!”
The guard leader opened his mouth as if he might argue with the order but, after a pointed look from Rhys, the grim man kept quiet, although she knew from his compressed lips that he didn’t like the situation. The glare in her direction told her that the guard blamed her for this situation.
And he wasn’t completely wrong. If she hadn’t come here to Triar, then none of this would have happened. She’d put Rhys in danger and he was heading out of the cave without any protection and only the back up of three guards because he’d ordered two of them to stay behind to watch out for her.
“Rhys, please don’t…” she began, but he only moved to her side, lifted her up with one arm around her waist and kissed her. It was just a brief kiss, a barely-there kiss. But she felt it all the way down to her toes! The heat, the intensity, the churning that she’d tried to ignore months before…it was still there in that fraction-of-a-second kiss.
“Stay here,” he told her after setting her back down on her feet. She was still getting used to the steel-toed boots and he kept his muscular arm wrapped around her waist until she was steady on her feet. But Arianna looked up into his eyes, wondering if she would ever be steady again. This man was putting his life in danger to protect her. It was a humbling realization.
“Please be safe,” she whispered up to him. He paused only long enough to wink at her. “I’ll be back. You can count on that. And once we’re alone tonight, we’re going to explore that kiss in a bit more detail.”
A moment later, he was gone, disappearing behind a boulder and some of the vegetation that had hidden the entrance to the cave.
Oh my! Arianna’s fingers lifted, delicately touching her lips as her mind whirled with the excitement Rhys had left in his wake. When she lifted her eyes, she realized that both guards were glaring at her, obviously furious with her for tempting their ruler, and worse, for putting him in danger with her search for a man they considered unimportant.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, then turned, unable to maintain eye contact with them. She looked around at the cave, desperately trying to find a place to sit down and keep out of the way so that they could do their job and, hopefully, continue to look out for their leader.
But as the minutes ticked by and Rhys didn’t return, her worry increased. Sitting down wasn’t an option any longer. Arianna kept glancing at her watch, wondering when Rhys was going to come back. She didn’t like being here alone with her imagination, which was creating horrifying scenes in her head. Scenes where the people shooting at them caught up with Rhys, captured him, and did horrible things in order to gain secret knowledge of the government.
Who were these people that were brazen enough to attack the ruler of the country?! That was what scared her the most. Whoever was out there shooting at them must be incredibly desperate if they were scared enough to shoot at them. This was just crazy! Shooting at the Sheik of Triar? Why? What kind of maniac could be that nuts?
The answer came to her quickly, her stomach tightening with dread. Who was that crazy? The people who had her father.
“Do you think…” she began, but suddenly, bullets were once again flying. One of the men was guarding the entrance to the cave was hit and fell forward onto the top boulder. She looked at him for perhaps half a second before she sprang into action. The man was draped over the rock, a target asking for someone to aim and fire.
While the other guard returned fire, Arianna hurried over to the wounded man. It took a huge amount of effort, but she finally was able to heft the man off the boulder until both of his arms were draped over her shoulders. She then knelt down to her knees, ignoring the shooting pains as the pebbles dug into her skin through the canvas of her cargo pants. Inch by inch, she dragged the unconscious man deeper into the cave. When she couldn’t go any further because it was too narrow, she carefully tilted her body to the side, and shifted until the man slid off of her back.
Looking at the man, she realized that he’d been shot in the arm and was losing a great deal of blood. In the few minutes it had taken her to drag him this far, the blood had already soaked his shirt and was dripping onto the ground by his side.
“Stop the bleeding,” she told herself, looking around for something to use as a tourniquet. “This!” she snapped to herself as she spotted his belt, knowing that it was the best tool to stop the blood. Quickly, she tugged it free, and wrapped it around his arm, tightening the
leather until the bleeding slowed down. Taking his canteen, she wet the bottom of her shirt, tearing off a piece until she could wipe his brow. “You’re going to be okay. Got it?” she assured the man, even though his eyes were still closed. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard a groan. Even if it was still her imagination, she was going with it, assuming that the man had heard her and was trying to recover.
With that, she reached for his side arm, pulling it out of the holster, then grabbed the machine gun that he’d had strapped around his neck. Looking at the levers, she had no clue what all of them did, but she’d watched enough action movies to know that the trigger was the main thing. With her finger resting safely away from the trigger, she made her way back out to the entrance. The second guard did a double take when Arianna appeared by his side. “Get back there!” he snapped at her, but then more bullets came flying towards them and he turned his focus on trying to hold off whoever was out there. Arianna knew that he wanted to yell at her but he needed to concentrate.
She took advantage of his distraction and poked her head above the boulder. Adrenaline was shooting through her body, but she tried to steady her hands and figure out where the other guard was shooting. When she saw something off to the right, she focused all of her attention there. Once again, she saw movement, but it was shifting.
“That’s not a bird,” she murmured out loud but it was more just talking to herself. She lifted the automatic rifle to her shoulder, slotted her finger on the trigger, and….
The shot knocked her backwards, the recoil stronger than she’d thought possible. But undeterred, she stood up, made sure that the other guard was okay, then aimed again. This time she was prepared for the recoil and compensated, shifting forward ever so slightly as she pulled the trigger. She snapped off two bullets then stopped, looking around. Still more movement so she let lose, pulling the trigger harder. A slew of bullets fired this time and she blinked when the movement she’d spotted a moment earlier dropped to the ground. A guy in brown clothes fell onto the rocks, staring up at the sky. She realized that she’d just shot a man and prayed that he wasn’t dead.
But the bullets were still coming so she looked around, determined to keep the wounded guard safe. As she scanned the area in front of the cave, she saw another suspicious movement and narrowed her eyes. Brown uniform. Rhys and his guards were wearing black, like she was. So she fired. Another man down.
And then silence!
Arianna wasn’t sure if the silence was worse than the shooting. At least when people were shooting at her, she knew where they were. This was…it was horrible!
Then more shots were fired, this time from off to the left. A person in black appeared through the vegetation and both she and the guard ceased fire. Thankfully, they hadn’t acted too crazy because this was another of the bodyguards, but not the one that had been with them originally. This was a new man and he was heavily armed. Off in the distance, she heard a sweet sound! It was the thumping of a helicopter as it flew in from the south, coming up on the cave. This was good news, she thought.
Sure enough, as soon as she heard the whipping sound of the blades, men in black uniforms literally dropped from the sky. They were dropping from ropes attached to the helicopter as they fired on the men in brown uniforms.
Arianna didn’t waste any more time. She dropped the weapon and hurried back to the man who had been wounded. Taking his hand, she felt the warmth in his fingers, and breathed a sigh of relief. “Your other men are here. Everything is going to be okay. Can you squeeze my hand if you can hear me?” she asked.
There was a small squeeze, enough so she knew that he was still with her. She looked down and realized that his wound was still oozing blood, so using the knife that was in his ankle holder, she tore off another strip of shirt. Wadding it up, she stuffed the fabric up underneath the belt loop, trying to apply more pressure. “Okay, that should help stop the bleeding, but you’re going to have to do your part, okay?” she told the man.
Someone came in through another opening, one she hadn’t seen before. He just appeared out of nowhere, coming in from the left. This wasn’t a man in a black uniform, and he looked mean and ugly. The first guard spun around, apparently hearing her cry of fear and alerted to a new threat. But he was guarding the front of the cave, helping the men who had been flown in via helicopter. He was too far away, and the walls were too narrow in this part of the cave for him to fight effectively. Arianna was smaller, shorter and she was angry enough to do some damage. Standing up, she swung around with her elbow out, just like she’d seen in the movies, knocking the guy off to the side. Unfortunately, he wasn’t down, not yet. So, instead of moving away like she probably should have, she followed up that first knock with another, this time with her knee directly to his groin. The man stood still for a long moment, stunned horror coming into his eyes before he dropped his weapon and stumbled, both of his hands covering his groin as he slid to the floor of the cave. She would have sworn that the man went cross-eyed only moments before he tumbled to the ground.
After that, she grabbed the intruder’s pistol, kicked his automatic rifle off to the other guard, then hunkered down in front of the wounded guard, protecting him with her body. The first guard stared at her as if she’d grown a second head, but Arianna wasn’t taking that lack of focus. “Go get them! There are more out there!”
The guard hesitated for a fraction of a second, but when Arianna turned the pistol to the side, checking to make sure the safety was off, he realized that she was going to be okay. Hurrying out, he stood to the front of the entrance to the cave. Moments later, several other guards took over sentry duty, all of them standing ready for just about anything that might come their way.
From a distance, she heard her name being called and knew that it was Rhys. “Hurry! Go protect him,” she called to the guards. None of them budged and she wanted to scream at them, but then he was there, standing in the entrance, and she hurried over to him, throwing herself into his arms. “You’re okay!” she whispered, feeling a surge of relief stronger than anything she’d ever felt in her life.
And in that moment, she burst into tears.
Rhys almost laughed as Arianna buried her face in his neck, her tears soaking his tee shirt but he smothered the amusement. Nor did any of the guards show their own laughter as they hustled the brown uniformed assailants through the pathway and down to the helicopter, each of them with their hands tied behind them with those plastic ties.
She pulled back and smacked his arm, still sobbing as she tried to form words. “You left! You stupid jerk, you put yourself in danger! Don’t you ever do that again, do you hear me? Nothing is worth it if it puts your life in danger! So, don’t be a stupid jerk and run out into danger ever again!”
Rhys just held her, enjoying her attention and relieved that she wasn’t hurt. When he and his men had heard the rounds of bullets that were coming from the cave, he’d been in a panic to get back to her. Now she was here, she was whole, and she was in his arms.
And yet, she was crying!
“Are you okay?” he asked, putting her down and pulling away so that he could see her, survey her figure, and check to make certain she wasn’t hurt. “Honey, where’s the rest of your shirt?” he asked, realizing that more than half of her shirt was missing.
“Oh!” She looked down, realized that she was a mess, and pulled on his hand. “Your guard! He’s hurt! You have to help him!”
She turned around, but the guard was already being lifted out on a stretcher that his fellow guards were carrying. One of the men glanced over at her and nodded, almost as if he accepted her and was nodding his appreciation.
“He’s going to be okay,” she told Rhys, taking his hand and pressing it to her chest.
Rhys looked at his guard, then down at his hand as it rested against the soft fullness of her breasts. It took a great deal of concentration to keep himself from turning his hand around so that he could feel her, explore the weight of each of those bea
utiful mounds in his hands. But this was not the time, he reminded himself. Soon! He would definitely know her breasts, and all of her body, intimately.
“Honey, we have to get out of here.” Even as he spoke, one of his guards was waving him towards the helicopter. “Come with me,” he urged, tugging her hand and pulling her towards the helicopter. The pilot waited only long enough for Rhys and Arianna to climb onboard before he lifted off again. Even then, several guards jumped onto the landing strips, hanging off the edge with one hand holding onto the interior straps while they held their weapons ready with their other.
Arianna leaned her head against his shoulder, her mind finally accepting that he was safe. His guards weren’t going to take any chances this time around. Everyone wanted Rhys back to the safety of the palace.
The helicopter flew quickly over the city and she heard sirens in the distance, but didn’t know what was going on. All she needed to know was that Rhys had his arm around her and he was safe. Solid, safe, and with no bullet holes.
When they landed, everyone hurried from the rooftop helipad into the palace, Rhys holding her hand the whole way.
Once inside the air-conditioned comfort of the palace, she looked around. Everyone seemed to be galvanized, but she didn’t understand what was going on. It was crazy, but apparently, all of his aides wanted to see that he was unharmed.
Pulling her hand out of his, she stopped him before he started to walk down the hallway. As he lost his grip on her hand, Rhys looked in her direction, his eyes hard and determined. “Rhys, I’m sorry, I know you have a million things to do, not the least of which is to reassure everyone that you’re unharmed, but I need to speak with you for a moment, if possible.”
He looked at her curiously, but took her hand and led her into a private room, closing off the chaos that had surrounded both of them moments before.
At that moment, she wasn’t sure exactly how to start, what to say. But in the end, it didn’t matter. Rhys was walking towards her, backing her into the back of a chair and she gasped when he lifted her up. “Don’t you ever step into danger again, Arianna,” he told her moments before he sat down with her on his lap. Just like before, he didn’t give her a chance to speak before his mouth covered hers. But unlike the other time, this kiss wasn’t short. And it wasn’t gentle. It was passionate and heated and took over her synapses as she held onto him.
One Night With the Sheik (Friends Forever Book 4) Page 11
