The Sheikh's Bidding

by Kristi Gold

  Andrea took Chance by the hand and headed off toward the group of parents gathered at the flagpole. Sam stood in place watching mother and child walk away, hand in hand, without concern that they had left him behind. He despised feeling the outsider, welcome only because of his car—a symbol of his wealth—not as a part of this family.

  Perhaps it would be best if Chance never knew the truth. Perhaps he should walk away and never look back, knowing it would be favorable for everyone concerned, especially his son. Yet it would prove to be a most difficult choice.

  Then suddenly Chance tugged his hand from Andrea’s grasp and came running back to Sam. He toed the dirt beneath his feet then stared at Sam with eyes much like his own. “Can I ask you somethin’?”

  Sam ruffled the boy’s dark head. “Certainly.”

  “It’s kind of a favor.”

  Kneeling on Chance’s level, Sam’s expression softened as did something deep inside him. “Do not be afraid to ask anything of me.”

  “Can you pretend to be my dad today?”

  Andi hadn’t minded that Chance requested Sam be his “pretend” father, even though it wasn’t at all pretend. She hadn’t minded that Sam seemed to garner all the attention during the day-long activities. After all, he was a prince. She hadn’t minded that he had been chosen to anchor the tug-of-war rope for Chance’s team since he was well built for the challenge. Nor had she really cared that Chance took great pains in introducing Sam to everyone while she seemed almost inconsequential. Besides, when Chance scraped his knee during the softball game, he had sought out his mother to kiss away the hurt.

  Yet she couldn’t help but feel a little jealous when Chance told Sam that he’d had the best time ever, even more fun than when Andi had entered him and his pony in the local Fourth of July parade. How could she compete with that?

  She couldn’t, and she shouldn’t want to. In fact, she should be thrilled that father and son had hit it off. But she couldn’t be totally happy, knowing that in a matter of days Sam would be gone from their lives, maybe even for good, before Chance really got to know him as his father.

  While Rashid took one last circle around the parking lot in the limo accompanied by Sam, Chance and a half dozen other boys, Andi stood alone and waited patiently. She would give them these special moments together without complaint, knowing they might be some of the last.

  The car came to a stop nearby and a group of chatty boys piled out, then headed off at a run toward the dining hall for the evening meal. Chance hung back to talk with Sam while Andi leaned into the limo to load her bag and blanket into the car. After she was done, she found Sam crouched on Chance’s level near the trunk, explaining the finer points of Thoroughbred racing. Funny, Chance had never seemed to care all that much about Andi’s explanations of the sport.

  She approached quietly and rested her hand on Chance’s hair still damp from their afternoon swim. “It’s time for you to go on back, honey. Dinner’s ready and we need to get home to check on the horses.”

  Chance looked up, disappointment in his eyes. “Okay. But can Sam pick me up in the limo next weekend?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie. You’ll have to ask—”

  “I will make it a point to be here,” Sam interjected.

  Andi pulled Chance into an embrace, thankful that he allowed it. “You be good.”

  “I will, Mom.”

  “Eat right and check your levels.”

  “Yeah, Mom.”

  “Be sure to get plenty of rest and—”

  “Can I go now, Mother? I’m hungry.”

  Mother? Since when had she stopped being Mama?

  After popping a kiss on his cheek, Andi released Chance knowing that she would eventually have to learn to let him go, something that was all too familiar where the men in her life were concerned.

  Chance turned to Sam and gave him a high-five. “Later, Mr. Sheikh.”

  Sam grinned. “Later.”

  With a last wave, Chance set off toward the cabin, taking a tiny piece of Andi’s heart with him.

  Sam gestured toward the open door. “Shall we?”

  Andi took another glance toward the cabin only to discover that her son had disappeared. “I guess so,” she said, then slid inside the limo.

  For the first few minutes they rode in silence, yet Sam couldn’t seem to stop smiling. Andi reluctantly admitted she appreciated his joy and understood it. Spending time with your child was the greatest experience on earth.

  “So did you have fun, Sheikh Yaman?” she asked in a teasing tone.

  His grin deepened. “Yes, I did most certainly.”

  “I’m glad.” Andi paused for a moment, frustrated that he was going to make her drag a conversation out of him. “I noticed you really seemed to enjoy the swim.”

  “Very much.”

  “The women sure seemed to enjoy watching you swim.”

  He frowned. “I do not understand.”

  “Are you saying you didn’t notice they were all staring at you when you rose from the water like some Arabian god?”

  Sam laughed. “Andrea, your imagination is second only to your love of good horseflesh.”

  “I’m not imagining things. I thought I might have to do CPR on them when you executed that perfect dive. Of course, those swim trunks did tend to enhance your finer features.”

  “They are plain, Andrea. Simple black. Adequate cover.”

  “Nancy sure seemed to like them, and everything in them.”

  He raised one dark brow. “Nancy?”

  “Yeah. Little Bubba’s mother. The divorced one who wore four-inch heels with her metallic gold thong and kept gushing over you all day.”

  “I do not remember her.”

  “Oh, I’m so sure.”

  His gaze slid over Andi, and she suddenly found herself covered in gooseflesh. “I would not have noticed this Nancy with you present. The suit you wore drew attention, as well, and not from me alone. The blue brought out the color of your eyes and the fit enhanced your figure. Very nice indeed.”

  Andi wanted to laugh. Her suit was a relatively modest two-piece, and for most of the day she’d worn her oversize cover-up. “I just bet you say that to all the girls in your harem.”

  “I have no harem.”

  Andi tossed up her hands in mock exasperation. “Well, darn. There went my desert fantasy.”

  Sam rubbed a large hand down his thigh, bare because of the shorts he now wore, capturing Andi’s attention. “I am sorry to disappoint you.”

  In reality he hadn’t disappointed her. Yet. But the night was young, and she had only one major goal in mind—to convince Sam that spending the next two hours in the limo could be as boring, or as exciting, as they chose to make it.

  On that thought, she fanned her face. “It’s rather warm in here, don’t you think?”

  His expression went as taut as the black leather covering the seats. “I am comfortable.”

  “Well, I’m not.” She unbuttoned her blouse and let it fall open to reveal the top of her less-than-comfortable bra. “That’s a little better.”

  “I will ask Rashid to adjust the air.” Depressing the intercom button to his right, he made the request then settled back against the seat with the magazine he’d been reading earlier.

  This would not do, Andi thought. She refused to let him ignore her. Feeling brave, she reached for the button on her denim shorts then reconsidered. “Speaking of Rashid, can he see back here?”

  Sam sent her a suspicious look. “Not as long as the privacy window is intact. Why do you ask?”

  “Just wondering.”

  Muttering something in Arabic that Andi couldn’t understand, Sam went back to the magazine and Andi went back to tugging off her shorts. On afterthought, she unfastened her bra and slipped it off through the armholes then tossed it onto the floor to join her shorts. Now she wore only a white sleeveless cotton shirt and a pair of skimpy black panties. If that didn’t get his attention, Andi doubted anything would,
short of leaning out the window naked and hollering at the top of her lungs.

  When Sam failed to look at her, she decided to take matters into her own hands, or whatever else she needed to take into her hands to earn his notice. All day long she’d endured the sidelong glances aimed at Sam. And all the while she’d had to pretend they were old friends.

  She was tired of the whole charade because he was more than a friend. He was the father of her child, and at one time her lover. Just once more before he disappeared again, she wanted to experience all that he had to offer, if she could just convince him to cooperate.

  On that thought, Andi slipped to her knees and crawled to the opposite seat to move between Sam’s parted legs. When he looked up, she noted a hint of surprise in his expression.

  She grabbed the magazine and tossed it behind her, then slipped her fingertips immediately underneath the hem of his khaki shorts. “Is that magazine so darned interesting that you can’t give me a little of your time?”

  He nailed her with his dark eyes. “Is my time all you want, Andrea? If so, you do not have to resort to such measures as crawling on your knees.”

  “You don’t like me on my knees?” she asked, topped off with a suggestive grin.

  His glance fell to her open blouse that now revealed a good deal of her breasts. “I would like you to return to your seat and put your clothes back on before I…”

  His words trailed off, leading Andi to believe that he was entertaining some of the same naughty ideas.

  “Before you what?”

  “Before Rashid sees you.”

  She frowned. “I thought you said he couldn’t see back here with the window up.”

  “I do not believe he can, but I’ve never ridden in the front to test the window’s merits. It would be unwise to take that risk.”

  Andi’s wicked side surfaced, and she climbed onto the seat on her knees, straddling Sam’s thighs. “Why don’t we just hope for the best? Besides, you can always say you had something in your eye and I was trying to remove it.”

  He braced his hands on her waist but didn’t attempt to move her out of the way. “I doubt that Rashid would buy such a weak excuse.”

  “Considering this car’s owner, I’d just bet Rashid has probably seen it all.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “You and other women engaging in some hanky-panky.”

  “I use this car for business purposes and nothing more.”

  She rimmed her tongue along the shell of his ear and whispered, “Then maybe we should get down to business.”

  “Andrea, why are you so intent on pursuing this?”

  Pulling back, she locked into his dark gaze, determined to have her say—and her way. “Because I have to know if I only imagined how wonderful you made me feel, or if it’s just the fact I had no one to compare you to.” She ran the tip of her tongue across the seam of his lips. “I want to know if you’re really all that great.”

  Sam tightened his grip on her waist, and his eyes went almost black. “Are you saying that you wish to know how I compare to other men? Have there been so many, Andrea?”

  There had been only one other man, a brief affair that had been more than disappointing, but revealing that fact wouldn’t help her cause. “I’m saying it was a long time ago and that maybe my recollections are incorrect.”

  “Yet you have told me repeatedly you do not wish to resurrect the past.”

  “I’m telling you now that I need you to refresh my memory.” She moved against him, immediately noting the slight swell beneath her bottom. “Is that a camel in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”

  Sam’s grin surfaced. “You can be a very devious woman, Andrea.”

  “You don’t know the half of it, but I’d be glad to show you.”

  Indecision warred in his expression. Andi knew the moment he lost the battle when he released a strained breath. “Perhaps I should show you a few things.”

  Sliding his hands to her hips, he pressed down until she could feel every glorious part of him. He nudged her forward then back ever so slightly against his erection, creating an amazingly erotic friction and a rush of damp heat where Andi’s body contacted his.

  “I remember much about that night,” he said in a voice only a degree above a whisper, deep and grainy and sensual. “I remember the way you looked, trusting and innocent. I remember how your skin felt beneath my hands.”

  He slipped his hands beneath her panties and stroked her bare bottom. “Do you remember me touching you this way, Andrea?” He asked the question while continuing to glide her hips back and forth against him in a steady rhythm.

  She combed her hands through his dark hair then closed her eyes. “Maybe.”

  Like some love-starved woman, she savored the feel of his mouth as he feathered a kiss across the rise of her breast, grazing his tongue over her nipple just enough to tease and entice. “I remember the soft sounds of pleasure you made when I kissed you this way, how you begged me to continue.”

  Right now she was primed for some more begging if he dared to stop. “It’s beginning to come back to me, but I could use a little more detail.” In reality, she hadn’t forgotten one incredible detail.

  He began to move his hips in sync with hers, increasing the contact of their bodies that fitted so perfectly together. “I remember how brave you were, how you ignored the pain.”

  The pain had been nothing compared to the pleasure. And the pleasure was upon her now as Sam continued his erotic motion, rubbing cotton against silk, creating delicious sensation against the place that needed his attention the most. He undid two more buttons on her blouse and a cool draft of air streamed over her bare breasts.

  Andi kept her eyes closed, lulled by the sound of his sensual voice. “I remember how you trembled beneath me. How warm and wet and soft your body was surrounding mine. I remember being totally lost to you at that moment.”

  She remembered being lost, too. She was quickly losing her way once more, especially when he took her breast completely into his mouth and laved his tongue back and forth over her needy flesh. But it only lasted for a short time until he commanded, “Look at me, Andrea.”

  She opened her eyes slowly to find him staring at her intently as he began to speak again. “Do you remember how it felt to be so close?”

  He tilted his pelvis upward, causing her to gasp. “Yes, I remember,” she said with all the adamancy she could muster at such a moment.

  “Do you remember what I told you?”

  She could hardly breathe, much less think. “Tell me again, just in case I don’t.”

  “I told you that I had never been so lacking in control. That I had never had such feelings or that I had never wanted a woman so badly.”

  Coherent words escaped her, but Sam’s enticements came through loud and clear and compelling, his movements more insistent, bringing Andi to the brink, though he had yet to use his hands on her. And, oh, did she want him to do that very thing. But he continued his assault on her senses, touching her only with his words and heady movements. “I also recall that as I brought you to a release, you called my name.”

  And that’s exactly what Andi did again as a searing climax overtook her. She literally saw stars this time, too, only they weren’t those found in the night sky above them.

  Andi collapsed against Sam’s broad chest and shuddered uncontrollably while he held her close to his heart, which pounded a steady rhythm against her cheek. When the world finally came back into focus, she felt a little foolish. She also realized he had his palm over her mouth.

  “No doubt Rashid heard that,” he said, followed by a chuckle. “Do you feel inclined to shout again?”

  She managed to shake her head no, still mute even after he dropped his hand from her mouth.

  “Have I adequately jarred your memories?” he asked.

  He’d done much more than that. “Every last one.”

  “Good.” As if the interlude was an everyday occurrence
, he set her aside and claimed the opposing seat.

  Andi could only stare at him with mouth and shirt gaping until the shock subsided. “That’s it?”

  He had the nerve to look surprised. “That was not enough?”

  She refused to let him off the hook until she had exactly what she’d been seeking since that first day he’d reentered her life. “I want you to finish this, dammit.”

  “It is finished, Andrea.”

  “You mean to tell me that you’re willing to leave it at that? Even when you didn’t—”

  “That should not matter to you.”

  She sent a pointed glance at the obvious ridge beneath his shorts, proof positive that he still had issues he needed to settle. “It does matter to me. I want it all, and I’d bet all the hay in the barn that you want more, too.”

  “You want more than I can give you.”

  “I want sex, Sam. Hard, lusty limo sex. That’s not too much to ask.”

  His eyes took on a solemn cast. “I want to leave knowing that I have done nothing to hurt you.”

  This time Andi wanted to scream with frustration instead of passion. “If you’re worried about getting me pregnant, I’ve prepared for that.” She yanked her bag from the floor and opened the zippered pocket to show him the condoms she had purchased the day before.

  He still seemed totally immovable as he eyed the foil packets. “That is a wise choice, Andrea, but have you considered how you will protect your heart?”

  Anger impaled Andi soul deep, baring the wound that had festered like an inflamed blister for seven years. He still viewed her as that same girl who had hung on his every word, his every touch, too naive to know her own mind. That girl was long gone.

  She gripped her open blouse with one hand and tossed the condoms back in the bag with the other. “You just don’t get it, Sam. I don’t want anything except a quick roll. That’s it. No promises of tomorrow. No I love yous. Heck, you don’t even have to sleep in the same bed with me.”

  The lie sat like a rock in her belly, but she was too proud to admit that she did want more. She wanted everything, not just sex. She wanted to be with him the next day and the next. She wanted him to be a part of Chance’s life. But most of all she wanted his love, something she knew she would never have.