by Annie West
Wordlessly she complied, settling out of arm’s reach.
‘I remember some things,’ he said. ‘More than before.’
‘Really? That’s fantastic. What do you recall?’ If he noticed her too-bright tone he said nothing. She’d spent days wondering who he was and how he’d got here. How much worse for him not to know?
Again that shrug. Annalisa slid her gaze from the play of muscle and tanned skin, forcing her breathing to slow.
‘Just vague images. A party. Lots of people, but no faces. Places I can’t identify.’ He paused. ‘And a sandstorm, big enough to block the light.’
She nodded. ‘That was just before I came out here.’
‘I remember the vastness of the desert.’ His eyes snared hers. ‘Which leads me to wonder how we get out of here and if you’ve got enough food to keep us both in the meantime.’
‘There’s plenty.’ Out of habit she’d catered for two. ‘As for transport, there’s a camel route through the oasis.’
‘And a camel train is coming back soon?’
Annalisa’s bright smile faded. ‘Not straight away. In a few days.’
She’d prayed they’d return early and take Tahir to hospital.
Now her desperation was edged with other emotions.
‘A few more days?’ he repeated. ‘Maybe more?’ His voice was disturbingly deep, his scrutiny so intense it was like a touch, and Annalisa sucked in a quick breath.
‘You and me, alone in the desert.’
She met his unreadable eyes. Her stomach dipped. She lifted her chin, battling emotions she didn’t understand.
Last night’s intimacy had changed everything.
For the first time their enforced solitude felt…dangerous.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANNALISA needn’t have worried. Even now he was up and about Tahir didn’t encroach on her personal space. If anything he seemed to prefer distance. The idea stabbed her with ridiculous regret.
Occasionally she caught a look, a blaze of azure fire from under half-lowered lids, that stole her breath and set her pulse racing. But she knew it was imagination, her own guilty craving.
The only danger came from her wayward thoughts. They drew blushes to her cheeks and brought a twist of awareness deep inside her.
Meanwhile she was forced to keep an eye on him. Annalisa thought he was out of danger, but he still slept a lot and occasionally his temperature spiked worryingly. Nor could he recall more than disjointed images.
She almost wished she’d followed her father’s urgings and studied medicine. Then she’d know what to do. But, though she’d been proud to act as her dad’s assistant, medicine wasn’t her dream.
‘How long have you been an astronomer?’
Annalisa’s gaze jerked up from the meal she was preparing over the fire. Tahir sat in his usual place by the palm tree, reading in the fading light—one of the astronomy books she’d brought.
The question was innocuous. But it struck her that this was the first time he’d asked anything personal. His questions were always about the desert and Qusay. She’d enjoyed their discussions and his quick intelligence. She wasn’t used to talking about herself.
‘I’m not an astronomer. But my father was an amateur one. I grew up looking at the stars.’
Tahir tilted his head consideringly. ‘It’s your father who usually comes into the desert with you?’
She busied herself lifting the pan from the fire. ‘That’s right.’ Those treks had been special, precious time out from her father’s busy practice.
‘But he couldn’t come this time?’
She forced herself to concentrate on dishing up the couscous flavoured with nuts, spices and dried fruits.
‘My father is dead.’ It sounded bald, almost aggressive. But Annalisa found it hard to speak of him. He’d been the centre of her life, her mainstay and friend.
‘I’m sorry for your loss, Annalisa.’ The simple words flowed like soothing balm over raw-edged nerves, at odds with the shivery excitement evoked by the rare sound of her name on Tahir’s lips.
‘Thank you.’ She paused, feeling she should say more. ‘It’s been six months but still it’s hard.’
‘And you have no one else?’
Her shoulders stiffened. His words reminded her too much of her family’s urgings for her to marry. They meant well, but it grew increasingly difficult to avoid their offers to arrange a marriage to a respectable man who’d take care of her.
She’d grown up with all the freedoms her father had taken for granted with his foreign background. Even her dear, traditional grandfather had understood an arranged marriage wouldn’t work for her. She’d be stifled, living the more restricted life of a traditional Qusani wife.
But her grandfather was gone, like her dad. Her lips tightened as grief hollowed her chest.
She didn’t need taking care of. Instead she had plans to see the world she’d only heard about. The places her father and his friends had spoken of. To build her own life.
‘My mother died when I was young. But I’m not alone.’ She smiled ruefully as she ladled their food. ‘I have aunts and uncles, cousins and their children.’ She was a cuckoo in her mother’s family, never quite fitting in.
‘Thank you.’ Tahir took a plate from her hands and sat with easy grace beside her. ‘So how did a doctor called Hansen come to be in Qusay? It’s not a local name.’
‘It’s Danish.’ Annalisa sat on the matting, overly conscious of the big man so near. ‘My father was half-Danish, half-English. He came here years ago to look at the stars. He loved the place and decided to stay.’
She didn’t add the old family story about him taking one look at Annalisa’s mother and falling in love on the spot. How she’d loved him at first sight too and they’d waited years for family approval before marrying.
‘So you’re carrying on a family tradition with your stargazing?’ She caught his bright stare and felt absurdly as if she were falling. It unnerved her.
‘Sort of. My father believed he’d found a comet. He and various friends around the world hoped to prove its existence.’ She dragged in an uneven breath, remembering the promise she’d given to her father. ‘I’m hoping to see it. The Asiya Comet.’
‘Nice name.’
She nodded, swallowing hard. Her mother’s name. She barely remembered her mother. It was her father’s grief she recalled, and his love, steady after all those years. He’d fought debilitating illness to live long enough to prove the comet existed and name it. His body had failed before he’d got to see it himself.
Annalisa blinked to clear her vision. ‘I promised I’d be here to see it.’ One last pilgrimage before she left.
Scientists around the globe were looking out for the comet this week. She’d be here in Qusay, her mother’s home, to watch it for her father.
‘Tonight?’ At her startled look he gestured to the meal she’d prepared. ‘We’re eating earlier than usual.’
Annalisa nodded abruptly, reminded again of how much this man of few words noticed.
Had he also noticed the way her gaze followed him? Hastily she looked away, unnerved by the bewildering feelings that plagued her.
‘All being well, yes.’ She breathed deep.
‘Then what will you do?’ His voice was soft, like silk brushing her skin. ‘Once you’ve seen your comet?’
Annalisa pushed aside her nervousness at what came next. It was what she wanted, what she’d always planned.
‘Then I leave Qusay.’ Even saying the words it didn’t seem real. After years of wanting to see the wider world, suddenly the time was here. ‘I’m going to travel, for a few months at least. Meet the scientists my father and I have corresponded with for so long. Play tourist.’ She smiled as she imagined herself in Copenhagen, Rome, Paris. ‘Then I’m going to university.’
‘Medicine or astronomy?’
‘Neither. This time I’m following my own star. I’m going to be a teacher.’
Tahir paced,
so restless tonight he couldn’t settle. His skin was too tight, his senses on edge, his head throbbing. He told himself it was impatience with his slow recovery, with his scattered memory.
But he knew the cause lay elsewhere. With Annalisa.
He’d kept to himself as much as he could. But thrown together as they were in one campsite, one tent, distance didn’t account for much. Especially when he only had to close his eyes to see the sweet curve of her lips, the delicious bounty of her breasts and hips.
The scent of her skin, sweet as honey, wafted on the very air. The sound of her voice, soft and throaty, made him aware of her femininity and his own masculine need for her.
Yet it wasn’t her exquisite body alone that made his blood hum. There was some indefinable quality that tugged at him. Her calm, capable demeanour, so at odds with that seductress’s mouth. Her gentle touch. Her quick mind. And the intensity of her pleasure: when she’d laughed at the antics of the unkempt goat that still hung around the campsite, or tonight when she’d spoken of travelling. Her whole heart shone in her smile and Tahir basked in its radiance. More than anything he wanted her to turn that smile on him.
He picked up his pace, plunging into the darkness at the far end of the oasis where the shrubs grew thick.
Too late he realised his mistake, as his eyes widened and his libido roared into unfettered overdrive.
The sound of splashing reached his ears just as he saw moonlight silver a sinuous form in the stream. A form that was all lush curves and elegant lines. A figure that would make a man get down on bended knee and plead for the privilege of simply stroking that satiny skin.
Only the belief that he was sleeping off another bout of fatigue would have tempted Annalisa into total nudity.
Tahir sent up silent thanks for his wakefulness.
His gaze slipped hungrily along her body, traced the evocative darkness at the juncture of her thighs, dwelt on the supple twist of her spine.
She lifted her hands to smooth water off her hair and the movement raised her breasts invitingly high.
The impact of the sight was like a series of juddering implosions through his body. Arousal was instantaneous. Heat speared him as every muscle hardened. His breathing was an uneven rasp, his hands clenching desperately at his sides.
So focused was he on reining in the need to reach for her that it took a moment for his brain to kick into gear.
To realise he’d seen her like this before.
She’d stood gloriously naked in the afternoon light, like a nymph, perfect, sweet and utterly seductive in this very stream.
He put a hand to his head as the stars wheeled above him. The scattered images in his mind took on a sharp new clarity.
Staggering over that sand dune to the oasis, a warm weight in his arms.
Lying in the sun, his mouth as dry as the great Qusani desert.
His pleasure at the dangerous game of low flying over the sandhills.
Ragged shreds, but enough to give him a sense of identity.
‘You see it?’ Annalisa’s voice rose in excitement. Soon the comet would disappear, but for now its tail was clear. ‘My father was right.’ Pride rose, curving her lips.
‘I see it.’
Tahir sounded subdued as he bent over the telescope. He’d been that way since he’d emerged from the tent a short time ago. Annalisa hadn’t liked to wake him, knowing how important it was that he rested. But finally he’d emerged and picked his way through the unlit campsite to where she’d stood by the telescope. The way he’d moved, with a sure, cat-like grace, had distracted her from the comet.
But she was glad he’d come. Glad there was someone with whom to share the moment. Glad it was Tahir.
He lifted his head and she felt his scrutiny.
‘Congratulations. You must be very proud.’ He paused and shoved a hand back through his hair. The moonlight showed it rumpled and far too appealing.
Annalisa pulled her jacket tighter, telling herself it was the chill desert night that made her skin prickle, not the insane desire to copy his movements and furrow her own hand through his thick hair.
She forced herself to turn back to the starry sky. ‘It’s marvellous, isn’t it? Now it will be officially recorded, just as he wanted.’
Side by side they watched the comet track towards the horizon. To the naked eye it was just visible.
When it was gone they stood a moment longer, alone in the vast silence. Then Annalisa began to dismantle the telescope.
Emotions flooded her, too many to name. But as she worked on her father’s precious equipment she realised that rising above them all was a sense of loss. Her fingers faltered at the task she’d done countless times. Her breath hitched.
Since her father’s death she’d focused on this night. On fulfilling his dying wish.
Now it was done. Time to move on. Yet suddenly her plans for the future seemed insignificant in the face of the emptiness engulfing her.
She felt…bereft. Her father truly was gone. Her past life, so busy and organised and full, was over.
The future yawned before her like a dark void. A shudder ripped through her.
‘Here,’ said a warm voice in her ear. ‘I’ll finish, if you trust me.’
Annalisa watched his deft movements. How easily he stowed the telescope and hoisted the case, leading the way to the tent.
‘Just like that and it’s all over.’ Her voice sounded stretched and brittle.
‘Until the next time Asiya passes by.’
‘Of course.’ She entered the tent and fumbled inside for the lantern.
It was ridiculous to feel this way. Her grief seemed as fresh as on the day her father had died. She pursed her lips, striving to conquer the raw pain of loss.
She had everything to look forward to. Travel. A career. New friends. New experiences.
Yet at this moment she felt so alone.
Finally the lamp glowed reassuringly. She turned away, only to find Tahir unexpectedly close, his warmth enveloping her.
Their eyes met and held.
‘Ah, Annalisa, don’t weep.’ His hoarse whisper scraped across her skin.
‘I’m not—’ Her words stopped as he reached out and brushed her cheek. Hard, callused fingers against wet flesh.
Amazement froze her.
She didn’t cry. She had no time for tears.
Though her father was gone the locals still came to her for advice. It was she who’d reassured them. Who’d lobbied for a doctor to replace her father. Who’d taken the new medic to meet the community and help build acceptance for him. Who’d ensured her father’s comet got official recognition.
Now it was all done and she was no longer needed.
She felt…adrift.
Horrified at her weakness, she stared up into eyes as clear and pure as those alpine streams she’d dreamed of seeing for herself. Tahir’s brows furrowed as if in concentration while his long fingers smoothed her cheek.
She swayed forward to the rhythm of his touch then, startled, drew back.
Dark lashes veiled his eyes. His face was expressionless, still, waiting. He cupped her jaw and the pulse beneath her chin throbbed against his touch.
‘You should be proud,’ he murmured. ‘And happy.’
‘I am.’ She fought back a self-pitying sniff. She was stronger than this. Her sudden weakness was inexplicable.
‘You miss him.’ He paused, letting the silence lengthen. ‘It’s difficult being alone, but you’re strong. You’ll survive.’ The words were whisper-soft, barely audible. Yet the timbre of his voice, like a desert zephyr at daybreak, heralded something new.
More than just pity. Understanding. A precious sense that she wasn’t alone. That he knew all she felt.
Abruptly Tahir dropped his hand and stepped back.
The distance between them made her shiver anew. Instinctively she moved forward, only to halt as his eyes blazed with sudden heat.
Ever since falling asleep in his arms Annalisa had known
this man was dangerous in ways she barely comprehended. But she’d shoved that knowledge aside, trying to be grateful when he kept his distance.
Now, reading the glittering hunger in his eyes, she knew a reckless desire to walk straight into danger.
Not giving herself time to think, letting instinct drive her, she stepped close, lifting her hand to the hard line of his jaw.
Sensation shot through her as her sensitive palm scraped his shadowed chin. His days-old growth of beard tickled and teased. Darts of fire scorched through her, making her belly cramp and her legs quake.
His mouth firmed to a severe line and he drew a slow breath. Did he too notice the suddenly heavy scent of musk and heat on the night air? His hand clamped hers.
‘You’re not thinking straight.’ His words were harsh and she read tension in his shoulders.
‘Please, Tahir.’ She didn’t know what she pleaded for, yet she knew she couldn’t bear him to turn away.
‘What is it you want, Annalisa?’ His deep voice sounded strained and his pulse hammered beneath her touch. That reminder of his vulnerability gave her the courage to meet his gaze head-on.
Mutely she shook her head, unsure how to answer, yet sure she needed something from him. Just the warmth of his living skin against hers was balm to a heart that hadn’t been allowed time for grief.
The sense of connection felt so real, so profound, she couldn’t turn away.
Annalisa raised her other palm and pressed it against the lapel of his dark jacket, absorbing the rhythmic thud of his heart against her hand. So strong. So alive.
‘Annalisa.’ His deep voice turned gruff with warning—or displeasure. ‘Don’t.’
Yet he didn’t move away. He held her gaze with glittering eyes half-veiled by long lashes that somehow emphasised his utterly masculine features.
‘Please…’ It was a whisper of sound as she raised herself on tiptoe so her breath feathered his neck, his chin. His warmth enfolded her, drew her.
This near, his mouth was an implacable line, his jaw a study in tension, but the compulsion to touch him, as a woman touched a man, was too strong.
