Secret Agent Sheik
Page 18
“There is no such thing as love.” She backed up and sat on the couch with her hands clutched in her lap.
“Not true, Jass. I know because I’m in love with you.”
He heard her soft whimper and it threw him back to a time when she’d closed her eyes and climaxed around him. A vivid image of the two of them soaring was not what he needed to stay strong right now.
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” she finally managed in a tight voice. “It was just the job. We had to be lovers and…uh…things got carried away. You’ll get over it.”
Tarik thought he’d better sit before he fell over. She was a tough one to crack. She’d been hurt too much in her life. He plopped down beside her and took her in his arms.
She began to protest, but he folded her into his chest. “Shussh, my love. I’m not going to get over loving you anytime soon. I figure it might take a thousand years or so. Is that enough time to convince you?”
“Don’t talk crazy.” Her words were almost interrupted by a sob, but she held on. “It was a job. We were partners.”
“Oh? So you’ve slept with your partners on other jobs?”
“Of course not.” She reared back with tears in her eyes.
“Then I meant something to you.” He held her tight and let his gaze tell her how he felt. “We belong together, Jass. People who love each other should be together.”
“Oh, you should see your face,” she said in a rough voice. “At the love clearly shining in your eyes. No one has ever looked at me that way before.”
Finally able to breathe again, he relaxed his shoulders as she pressed kisses over his eyelids and along his forehead, signaling the war was over. Soon, though, he couldn’t stand sitting still and relaxation flew out the open window. He plundered her mouth slowly. Deeply.
“This is a first for me,” she told him through breathless tears. “No one has ever loved me the way you do.”
“Stick with me, sweetheart. Our life is going to be filled with lots of love and lots of firsts.”
“I love you, too, Tarik.” She smiled up at him and sniffed back more tears.
“Good thing. It’s always good to love the man you’re going to marry.”
She laughed as he kissed her again. This time without the urgency. But with the intensity of a man making a lifetime promise. A lifetime he suddenly knew would definitely be worth all the trouble.
Epilogue
“Come walk on the beach with me.”
Jasmine O’Reilly Kadir looked up from the table to find her husband of one week standing over her with his hand outstretched. Moonlight shined on his face as the soft sounds of the tempting Mediterranean washing ashore sent romantic music to her ears. That same mischievous look was back in Tarik’s eyes. She’d always known that look would cause her big trouble.
“Not fair, Tarik.” Shakir’s wife, Nikki, who was sitting next to her at the table, gave her brother-in-law a pout. “You didn’t give us a chance to meet your bride before you two married. And not even giving us enough time to come to your wedding was just plain wrong. We’re only now getting to know her. Sit down and have a drink with us.”
Shakir stood up from the table. “Time for that later, Nik. Let the lovebirds have their honeymoon in peace. For now, come walk on the beach with me.”
Nikki looked flustered, but she rose beside her husband. “Will the kids be okay for…?”
“The kids are fine. Come on.” The two of them wandered off down the beach.
Still seated at the table, Rylie laughed and sipped her drink. “Well, I want to hear what y’all have planned for your future, Tarik. Are you staying here with us and working for the Kadirs? Or will you be going back to the U.S. and working for the Task Force?”
Jass answered first as she reached up and took her husband’s hand. “Both. The Task Force needs Tarik’s expertise to put them back on the right track. And I’ve told Darin I would be happy to help train covert agents for the Kadirs since it looks like the Taj Zabbar aren’t about to give up their vendetta against the family anytime soon.”
“Yes, and we’re grateful, sister.” Darin walked up to the table from out of the darkness and stood behind his wife. “Especially cousin Karim. He wants to be your first pupil.”
Darin glanced down at Rylie and put his hand on her shoulder. “Come walk on the beach with me, wife. There’s a beautiful moon.”
He didn’t have to ask Rylie twice.
Tarik gently pulled Jass to her feet as Darin and Rylie went off in the other direction. A wicked thrill rushed through her. She could scarcely believe how lucky she was. That this wonderful man loved her was still a shock. But a good shock.
“I’m not that crazy about the sand,” she said as she laid her hands against his chest and looked up into his eyes.
“Thank God.” Tarik slid his arm around her shoulders and turned them around to head in the direction of their apartment. “Let’s go home.”
Sighing, Jass let her husband’s love wash over her like the music of the sea. They had all the time in the world to walk on beaches and talk about their pasts. The rest of their lives. She would never tire of being with him.
As Tarik said, “I may stop loving you some day—oh, in about a thousand years or so.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8950-9
SECRET AGENT SHEIK
Copyright © 2011 by Linda Lucas Sankpill
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