by Sophia Lynn
Would he think that she had protected his library well enough?
With a pang, she thought of the groundskeeper that she had kicked out the day before. Anna had surprised herself by thinking of him often throughout the rest of the previous night. She had tried to stay angry at him, but more often than she wanted to think about, that anger melted away to a primal warmth and a need inside her that she had never had awakened before.
Anna shook her head, deciding that she had done the best that she could do. If he sent her away, she would have nothing to be ashamed of, though she would be saddened to leave the books. She decided to make this day no different than any other.
She started to get to work, and then she paused. The UAE, even in the more rural provinces, was fairly westernized, and there was no problem with her wearing western clothes, especially as a foreigner. However, because she so often pulled out and carried dusty old books, she dressed for it. Today, she wore an oversized dust-colored sweater that was fraying at the cuffs and collar, and a pair of ill-fitting jeans with a hole in one knee. It was a small hole, but if she had the option to do otherwise, she could hardly meet her employer like this.
She ducked into her apartment, opening her closet speculatively. She had not brought many clothes, but she pulled out a pale lavender sweater dress that her friends had always said was very becoming. It looked a little plain, so she added a pair of small sparkling earrings and some tall boots with a bit of heel that gave her a bit more height.
It was good timing on her part, because she had barely emerged and started working when the butler opened the door.
"The sheikh wishes to speak with you about your employ," he said, his voice formal and almost British.
"Right now?" she asked, and he nodded.
Well, at least what I told the groundskeeper yesterday is going to be true today, she thought, falling into step with the butler. Hopefully he's everything that I've made him out to be.
She figured he was. The solicitor had told her how eager the sheikh had been to fill the spot of palace librarian, how he had taken a strong interest in improving literacy throughout the country. Surely a man like that understood that reorganizing a library the size of the one at the palace was no overnight endeavor.
The butler knocked briskly on a beautifully carved door before entering.
"Your Highness, Miss Anna Mills, the librarian."
He stepped back to allow her to enter, and he stepped out discreetly after she had come forward.
She realized that she must be in the sheikh's private study, a large and airy room that looked like a cross between an important executive's office and her own old-fashioned library. There was an enormous desk with a laptop on it at the far end, and a large gorgeous leaded window behind it. The bright light took her a moment to adjust to, and when she did, she could make out the image of the sheikh standing next to his desk, one hip hitched up on it casually while he thumbed through a book.
Anna started forward, murmuring a polite greeting, but then her vision sharpened and she stopped midstride.
"You!" she cried.
There was no mistaking the man whom she had had to remove from the library the day before. The same tall and muscular frame, the same slight wicked smile on his lips, the same shocking blue eyes in his dark face…it was absolutely the same man. This time, however, he was dressed in clothes that fit him so well that they had to be designer, and there was no speck of dirt or grease on him.
For a moment, she thought that someone was playing a terrible joke on her, but then she saw the ruby ring on his finger, set in heavy gold.
He looked up at her as if she hadn't actually kicked him out of his own library the day before.
"Ah, Miss Mills," he said with a slight smile. "So glad that you could join me."
She didn't know what to do. It felt as if her heart was beating a million beats per second. Could he have failed to recognize her? He wasn't saying anything about what had happened the day before. Not yet, at least.
She must have said something, because now he was gesturing her towards the visitor's chair. Instead of taking his place behind the desk, however, Sheikh Rakim Al Zahar stood where he was, looming slightly over her.
Slowly, as Anna realized that he wasn't going to fire her on the spot, she relaxed. He had good questions about her plans for the library now that she was settling in, and about what might need to be added in the time to come.
In fact, she was so relaxed that she barely turned a hair when he handed her the book he had been looking at when she walked in.
"I know that you are proficient in Arabic, but I would like a demonstration of your translation abilities," he said smoothly. "Can you read from the Arabic and translate into English as you do so?"
"Yes, Your Highness," she said, grateful for the six years she had spent studying the language. "My speaking skills are not quite fluent, but my reading skills received the highest marks."
"Good. Open the book to the marker and begin to read, please."
Anna felt a tiny stab of pride as she did as he said. Her translation skills, especially with regards to translating on the fly, had always been praised by her teachers, and she started to read with confidence.
"And in the coldest days of the year, the princess lived alone in her tower until the prince came to attend to her. He found her bower as warm as summer, and at the door, she bid him to remove his clothes. He stripped his clothes from his body until...until he was gleaming and naked..."
She paused, glancing up at him, and there was that same slight smile on his face. Anna swallowed, but kept reading. After all, she could tell that this was a classical text. There was nothing wrong with that, was there?
"And when he came to her in her bower, he found that she was naked as well. She...she stretched out on a bed of silk, and her skin was dark as honey and as sweet..."
Anna looked up at the sheikh, shocked, but he only gestured to her to keep reading. She licked her lips and cleared her throat, trying not to squirm.
"And he came to her and put his arms around her, saying, 'I have found you, oh Zubadiah, most beautiful of all women, and your breasts hang like round fruit from the tree, and your hips curve like the lute. Your eyes are as deep as the deepest well in the world, and when you open your mouth, I only think of sweetness and rose water."
Anna stuttered a little, but it wasn't so bad. Not at first.
"And the princess reached for him, her hand sliding from over his heart to his manhood, which only grew in her grasp and...and..."
Anna knew that she was blushing so hard that she must be nothing but red now, and her eyes flew up to meet the sheikh's.
"Have you heard enough?" she demanded. "Surely you can tell that I am familiar with Arabic at this point!"
"I am still not sure," he said blandly, but now she could tell that there was a spark of mischief in his eyes. It didn't help that reading the arousing words were having an effect on her as well. She couldn't help imagining what it would be like to run her hand from his chest down to his...his manhood, and she hoped that that wasn't showing on her face.
"Can I read something else?" she asked. "Please, I swear, I can read this..."
"Just a little longer," he said and from the firmness in his tone, she knew that he would not be denied. Her face feeling as if it would light on fire at her embarrassment, she looked down at the words again."
"And when skin met skin and mouth met mouth, there arose a great many yearning moans and sighs from the lovers. He worked over her, rising over so that he was the night sky and the moon to her, cool and soothing and beautiful, and she was as the humid earth beneath him, lush as the delta and as fertile."
She swallowed hard, but he gave no indication that she should stop. Suddenly, Anna found herself angry instead of embarrassed. So he wanted to test her skills? Fine, then she wouldn't back down. When she continued to read, her voice was strong.
"And they yearned towards each other, pushing each other towards the grea
t mystery that lies between two lovers, her legs clasped around his powerful thighs, and his mouth locked on to her shoulder. They recalled the struggles of stallion against mare, both locked together in passion. They called each other's names and the names of the stars above them, asking them to witness their great passion and millions of kisses they laid on each other's bodies. It was the princess who found her pleasure first, crying to all of heaven to look down and see her in her joy."
Anna took a breath and realized that the sheikh was standing far closer to her than he had before. He stood slightly to her right, looking down at her, and suddenly, her anger was gone as well, leaving behind it a yearning for the joy written about some few hundred years ago.
"Well?" she asked. "Do you believe me now?"
In response, he tugged her to her feet and drew her into a kiss. This one was slower than the one he had given her yesterday. That had been playful if not downright flirty. This one was more serious and more considered. He was trying to learn about her with this kiss, and she might have protested if the tide of pleasure didn't rise up again, even more intense this time, preventing her from struggling.
Anna thought hazily that she could drown in this pleasure, and that thought was the one that woke her up.
What the hell was she doing? She was kissing the man who signed her paperwork, and whom she had just kicked out of her library the day before. He had made her read a book that still made her cheeks flame red, and now...now she was kissing him?
With a soft cry, she pushed him away, but this time, she had no ability to shout at him. Instead, choking slightly on the strength of her emotions, Anna whirled on her heel and sprinted for the door. She couldn't help but feel like a deer brought to bay by the hounds. She got the door open somehow, feeling as if she would be devoured at any moment, and then she ran for the library, her refuge.
***
Rakim stared after Anna, slightly breathless as if he had been running a long race. His body was still burning with the pleasure they had given each other, and there was a part of him that demanded he go to her, to give her even more sensation and to take more in return.
Instead, he took several deep breaths, pushing his body more towards calm.
He hadn't had much on his mind when he brought her into the interview. He had thought that having her read a slightly racy paragraph in an ancient text would be amusing, and perhaps a fit punishment for trying to kick him out of his own library the day before. He hadn't anticipated the fact that it would awaken something inside him that now did not want to be ignored.
When he looked down at her flushed face, saw her green eyes nearly black with desire, he had wanted nothing more than to carry her to his bed, to make love to her until neither of them could move. There were women he had met that would have wanted exactly that, but he could tell that Anna Mills was going to take a little more time.
A slight smile played over Rakim's mouth.
He had thought that being stuck up in the mountains for a few weeks was going to be dull. Now it looked like it would be nothing of the sort. Instead, there was the prospect of a hunt, a beautiful woman who seemed to want nothing more than to be seduced.
How sweet it would be for both of them when he succeeded, he thought.
No, a few weeks at the remote mountain palace wasn't going to be boring at all.
Chapter Three
Anna slammed the library door behind her and threw the latch for good measure. She knew that the sheikh had a key, but right now, she felt safer if it at least looked like she had a place where she could be utterly alone.
What the hell had happened?
She could say that the kiss was unexpected, but in no way could she say that it was unwelcome. She had never thought that she would be the kind of woman who wanted to kiss her boss, but here she was. She wanted him, she craved him, and now what was that going to do to her position?
Whenever she heard a sound in the hallway, she flinched, sure that it was someone telling her to pack her bags. Perhaps it would be for the best. There was something about this man that made her uncomfortable, even if she felt drawn to him. She wasn't sure she could trust herself around him, and that was frightening.
Slowly, though, time passed and she grew calm. No one came to speak to her, and trembling in the library got tiring. She sighed, and figured that even if she was going to be fired, she wasn't fired yet. That meant that she should do her work.
Over the rest of that day and the beginning of the next, Anna calmed down. She threw the sweater dress back into the back of her closet and resumed wearing her normal sweater and jeans. Things were getting back to normal when the door to the library opened and the sheikh walked in.
She couldn't stop herself from gasping when he entered; seeing him was like a splash of cold water. As Anna made her way towards him, she could see that he was dressed elegant and casually, wearing a deep red tunic and narrow trousers.
"I trust I am clean enough for your taste now?" he asked mildly, and Anna couldn't stop herself from laughing a little nervously.
"Your...Your Highness, I can't tell you how sorry I am that I...acted towards you the way I did when you first came in here. I would have said it yesterday..."
"But I surprised you and kept you off-balance, I know," he said. "And I suppose despite being ushered so abruptly out of my own library, I can appreciate how defensive you are of it. You looked like you would burn down hell to keep it safe."
"It is very precious to me," she said, blushing a little. She knew how foolish she sounded, but he only nodded.
"Come," he said. "I would like to speak with you."
He walked over to a wing chair set up close to the fireplace. It would be a wonderfully cozy place to read in the winter, and Anna wondered briefly what a man like the sheikh would read.
There was no chair for her, so she stood, her hands clasped in front of her. She briefly wondered if such a situation should have offended her American sensibilities, but then he started talking.
"I saw that your name is Anna, yes? Is there anything else you prefer to be called, perhaps Ann or Annie?"
"No, Your Highness," she said with surprise. "No, just Anna. That is what my relatives and my friends have always called me."
"Good," he said with a slight smile. "Then I shall call you Anna. And you must call me Rakim."
He held up his hand at her startled protest.
"I have it in mind that I would like to spend some of my time in the library while I am at the palace," he said. "It will be too cumbersome if you are always calling me 'Your Highness' and trying to trip over protocol as you do your work. It is far more direct if you are willing to call me Rakim."
He gave her a slightly speculative look.
"Can you bring yourself to say it? You looked like you were going to say 'yes, Your Highness' again before you stopped yourself."
She stifled a laugh because that was very true, and she nodded.
"Yes, Rakim," she said, and it was clear, even if her voice was soft and slightly meek. He grinned.
"That is a very good start," he said, his voice so warm that it sent a shiver through her.
"So we are Anna and Rakim, and I assume that while I will send you on the odd errand, you can continue as you are. You have been doing a good job, and I am pleased with the progress you have made so far. If you continue as you have been, I can see when this library will return to its former greatness."
She started to smile, because that was nothing more than what she wanted as well, but he was still talking.
"And because we are going to be spending a fair amount of time together, I must give you an order. You are never to lie to me."
She blinked.
"Of course not."
"One of the things that told me that I had the right woman in the library was when you were so vicious in defense of your domain. That is the kind of honesty I mean. If I catch you lying to me, I will send you away. Do you understand?"
She shivered a little at t
he sharpness in his voice and the sudden icy gleam in his eyes.
"Yes, Rakim," she responded, and the sharpness drained away, leaving a slight smile behind.
"Good, then we shall get along famously. Now, right now, why don't you run along and fetch me…hmm, a small plate of cheese and fruit from the kitchen? I am interested in doing some reading, and I have not had breakfast yet."
For a moment, Anna wanted to rebel. Who the hell did he think he was, coming in to interrupt her morning and to send her to fetch and carry for him?
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to get his own damned food, or to get someone whose job it really was to do so. However, when she opened her mouth to speak, she found him looking at her with that faintly challenging, slightly amused look.
"Yes, Rakim, of course," she said, and she walked towards the kitchen.
Anna realized with a slight shiver that she wasn't in the United States anymore. Things were very different in the UAE, and in a way that she hadn't understood before, now she knew that Rakim's word was law.
The kitchen staff seemed completely unsurprised when she asked for cheese and fruit, and in a matter of moments had arranged a lovely little platter for the sheikh. It looked so pretty that she wanted to take a bit of the cheese for herself, but she held back.
Rakim smiled at her approvingly when she returned, gesturing to her to put the food down on the small stand next to him. At some point, he had gotten up to find himself a book, something newer and in Arabic, though she couldn't make out the title.
He made a dismissive gesture that told her she was fine to continue her work, and as she did so, Anna wondered at herself.
She should have found that exchange demeaning. He didn't once say please or thank you, and fetching and carrying was definitely not in her job description. That was somehow less surprising than the fact that something deep inside her had responded to his orders. There was a kind of peace to it, a kind of pleasure in serving his needs and making sure that she had done what he had asked of her to the letter. She tried to make it out as demeaning, but inside, she couldn't agree. She liked it, and perhaps that was the most alarming thing.
