In the Sheikh's Service

by Susan Stephens

  And an affair with him would be crazy.

  Yes. It would be crazy.

  She began to pace. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted, but it wasn’t this after the excitement of the evening. She wasn’t ready to go to sleep yet. She’d seen so much, experienced so much, and now she wanted more. Even this grand and special space was meant for sharing. There was so much here to enjoy and appreciate. Patterned carpets in jewel colours covered the floor, while the walls boasted hangings, embroidered with the royal emblems, as well as many other symbols she presumed were associated with Shazim. The silken cushions did indeed gleam beneath a honeyed light, just as she had always imagined, while the regal bed had been prepared for the night, and looked more than inviting—this huge, beautifully dressed bed, in which she would sleep alone.

  Peeling off the diaphanous robe, she draped it carefully over an intricately carved ebony chair. Slipping on the simple nightshirt she’d brought with her ‘just in case’, she climbed into bed and tried to settle. The sheets held the scent of sunshine and sandalwood...

  Like the man who ruled here—

  With a frustrated growl, she thumped the pillows in an attempt to bounce Shazim out of her head. Making herself comfortable again, she turned her face into the cushions. She wouldn’t think about him. She had no intention of compromising her professional standing in Shazim’s eyes by doing anything she might regret.

  Which wasn’t enough to stop her body from longing for things it couldn’t have.

  Like Shazim, she mused groggily as she drifted off to sleep.

  She was in the middle of a frenzied erotic episode, starring a shadowy figure clad in flowing robes, when she was rudely jolted awake. Catapulting off the bed, it took her a moment to realise that what she was listening to was the howling of a furious gale. This was the ear-splitting roar of nature at her most destructive. The sandstorm Shazim had talked about had arrived. When she’d read about storms like this on the Internet, they had made Shazim’s homeland seem even more exciting and challenging, but to be in the middle of one, and to know that there was only camel skin and tent poles between her and the deadly wind, was a terrifying thought. The walls of the pavilion weren’t billowing, as per her fantasy; they were straining to the limit of their resistance. It was as if some giant hand were trying to pluck the massive tent out of the ground. For a moment she was struck by panic, but then she remembered the animals.

  Tugging on her clothes, she wrapped Shazim’s scarf around her face and neck. Then, raising her arm to protect her eyes, she forced her way out of the pavilion. She had to battle a wind so strong she could only lurch crazily from one solid structure to the next, grabbing hold of whatever came within reach to keep her balance.

  Propelling herself forward took all her strength. Her goal was the clinic, and nothing was going to stop her from getting there. If she was frightened, the animals would be terrified. Some of them might even have been injured when they were thrown into a panic.

  The clinic was only a short walk away under normal conditions, but with the lack of visibility, and the power of the wind, it seemed to take for ever to get there. It was only when she reached for the door handle, she realised, that any uncovered skin had been all but flayed by the driving sand. She was relieved to find the rangers in attendance, a little less so to see Shazim standing in their midst, staring at her with disapproval.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ he barked.

  ‘My job,’ she fired back.

  ‘You need to dress those wounds,’ he said in a tone that suggested she had caused more trouble than they needed by braving the storm.

  ‘I’ll do that later,’ she said briskly. ‘I’ll wear gloves for now.’ She was already pulling them on. ‘You’ll have to get out of my way,’ she added, assuming command of the emergency clinic. ‘Can you handle the bigger animals outside?’ she asked Shazim, ignoring his look of surprise. ‘If I have to, I’ll do it, but it will stop me from working here,’ she said impatiently in answer to his enraged expression.

  ‘You should not have risked your life to join us,’ he said coldly. ‘We need you alive and uninjured. I thought I’d made that clear?’

  He was right, but she was here, and she was staying here to work. ‘Let’s get on,’ she said, staring up unblinking.

  ‘Very well,’ he conceded grimly. ‘If you’re staying I’ll work alongside you.’

  ‘As my assistant?’ she challenged.

  ‘As anything you need me to be. We have the same goal.’

  ‘Then, if you will please triage the animals outside, and bring them to me one by one in order of need.’

  ‘I will,’ Shazim confirmed, summoning the rangers.

  Isla lost all sense of time as she worked. The number of animals needing treatment never seemed to diminish. She rushed outside at one point to check on progress, only to find Shazim working harder than ten men in the paddock where the injured animals were being shepherded into covered stalls. It was quite a bit later before he joined her in the clinic, by which time he was grey with dust, and his eyes were as ringed and sore as hers.

  She couldn’t have been more surprised when he crossed the room and took her face in hands turned gentle.

  ‘Must you always be such a hero, Isla?’

  ‘This is what I came for. I’m in for everything, not just the celebrations.’

  Shazim stared at her. ‘You have many scratches. Let me clean them and dress them. You must be exhausted,’ he added as he reached for the antiseptic.

  ‘And you’re not?’ she said.

  When Shazim looked at her there were things she didn’t want to think about too closely, and the least of those was exhaustion. Their faces were so close as he cleaned her scratches their breath mingled, and when she glanced into his eyes she had to look away. She was in serious danger of getting carried away again. As the seconds ticked by, her entire body seemed to call to his in a way it had never done before.

  ‘Let me clean you up now,’ she insisted briskly when Shazim had finished tending her wounds.

  ‘I heal fast.’ He pulled away. ‘Come with me, Isla. You’ve done enough tonight. I’ll take you back to the pavilion.’

  ‘I won’t leave until I’m sure that every animal is calm and settled. I’m sorry, Shazim,’ she added with an apologetic shrug when his eyes flared with disapproval at yet another example of her stubborn refusal to do as he commanded. ‘I can’t automatically obey, unless it makes sense to do so,’ she explained. ‘Obedience isn’t in my job description, you see.’ She smiled, and was relieved when Shazim laughed too.

  ‘You are impossible,’ he admitted with a shake of his head.

  ‘You’ll get used to me.’

  ‘Will I?’ He raised a brow.

  Suddenly, she was on the back foot again, wondering if she would be in Q’Aqabi long enough for Shazim to ‘get used to her’.

  She started to protest when he called for one of the rangers to take her place.

  ‘They managed very well without you,’ he said firmly, ‘and I expect them to do the same when you’re not here.’

  Straightening up with a hand in the small of her back, she closed her eyes for a moment to try and rattle some sense into her brain, but she was too tired to think.

  ‘Isla?’ Shazim demanded with concern.

  Their determined stares met and held. She had to admit she was exhausted—and grateful to Shazim for working so tirelessly at her side. She wasn’t going to argue with him for the sake of it.

  ‘Bed,’ he insisted, ‘or you’ll be no use to anyone tomorrow. If I have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here, you’re done for the night.’

  It surprised her to see the air outside tinged with dawn. The wind had dropped and, though the air was still thick with dust, the visibility had improved. There was no immediate danger to the animals—

  ‘That was a direct order,’ Shazim insisted, cutting through her thoughts. ‘You rest, or you go back to the city. Your choice, Isla.
I won’t have anyone working on this project who isn’t as committed to safety as they are to doing their job.’

  ‘The building site all over again,’ she murmured, smiling faintly.

  ‘The desert is a lot more dangerous than that.’

  She had no doubt as Shazim stared at her, and another pulse of awareness joined the rest. Where was he going to sleep? She doubted he’d had time to make those other arrangements. She had read somewhere that Shazim was destined to marry in the near future so he could found a dynasty. She guessed he would choose a royal princess, or an heiress who understood the responsibilities that went with extreme wealth and privilege. If she were foolish enough to follow her heart, she might as well lay it on the ground for Shazim to stamp on.

  ‘Bed,’ Shazim instructed in a louder voice.

  ‘Fine, fine. Do you trust me to find my way back this time?’ She set her fingers flying to box up the remaining liniment and bandages, so she didn’t have to look at the answer on Shazim’s face.

  ‘I probably should trust you to get back on your own,’ he agreed, surprising her.

  She glanced up, and knew at once that her disappointed look had betrayed her.

  ‘Thank you for your assistance tonight,’ she said primly, in a vain hope that she could deflect the calculating expression in Shazim’s eyes.

  ‘It was my pleasure to work with you,’ he said. She breathed a sigh of relief at his acceptance of the change of subject. ‘You seem to have settled in.’

  ‘Oh, I have,’ she enthused. ‘It’s so wonderful here.’

  ‘Even the sandstorm?’ he demanded drily.

  ‘Apart from that,’ she conceded. And then she felt prompted to ask, ‘Did you find somewhere to stay tonight?’

  Shazim had closed his eyes, and now he opened one of them. ‘Why? Are you offering?’

  ‘Certainly not,’ she retorted. ‘But you must be as tired,’ she added, feeling guilty.

  He raised a brow. ‘Are you questioning my stamina?’

  Shazim moved so fast, she was in no way ready for it, and she was pinned against the wall before she knew what was happening, with Shazim’s fists planted on either side of her face. For a tense few seconds as he caged her, she was certain he was going to kiss her. ‘What?’ she challenged.

  ‘I’m going to clear something up,’ he said. His dark, mocking gaze dropped to her lips. ‘You asked where I’m going to sleep tonight. Where do you think I’m going to sleep?’

  ‘I have no idea. Maybe you’ve got a bed roll?’ she guessed, as her heart did its best to beat its way out of her chest.

  Was she really going to let him sleep outside in all that dust and fug? Wasn’t she bigger than that?

  ‘You’re coming back with me to the pavilion,’ she said bluntly. ‘We both need to get some sleep.’

  At least he had the good grace to look surprised by her offer.

  ‘And, if you did have it in mind to seduce me—which I’m quite sure you don’t—you’d better know that you’d have to wake me up first.’

  ‘Is that so?’ Shazim curved a smile as he pulled his fists away from the wall. ‘You’re taking a lot for granted, aren’t you?’

  ‘Seriously, Shazim—’ She put on her most serious work face. ‘Come back with me. At least try to get a few hours’ sleep. There’s plenty of food and drink, and you can bathe in the oasis.’

  ‘Thank you for telling me that.’ His smile reminded her who was the expert here. ‘I can’t think of anything I need more right now than a swim in ice cold water.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ‘I CAN’T BELIEVE you’re doing this for me,’ Shazim murmured in his usual mocking tone as they reached the entrance of the pavilion.

  ‘Shazim, I’d do this for an animal.’

  His laugh was so free, so uninhibited, that she began to doubt her decision to allow him to stay. Shazim didn’t sound in the least bit tired.

  ‘I’ll accept your kind offer, on one condition,’ he said, drawing her attention to his shadowed face.

  Alarm bells immediately started ringing. ‘Yes? What’s that?’

  ‘You allow me to check your wounds before you go to bed.’

  That seemed reasonable. She could hardly refuse.

  ‘You were so impatient at the clinic, I’m not happy that I dealt with half of them as thoroughly as I would have liked...’ As Shazim held the tent flap back and she walked past him into the pavilion, she felt like a piece in a game of chess that had just been held in check.

  Bathing wounds should not be this pleasurable, she thoughts minutes later, frowning as Shazim’s touch became seductive, rather than strictly therapeutic. ‘Haven’t you attended to that scratch before?’

  ‘I didn’t have this cream at the clinic,’ he explained. ‘We have special herbal remedies in Q’Aqabi—for just about everything,’ he added with a smile, ‘and there just happened to be some here.’

  She watched as he dipped his big hand into a golden casket containing the healing potion. It was hard to believe he could be so gentle, or that she could remain obedient and still for quite so long.

  ‘You’re smiling?’ he queried.

  And she wasn’t about to share the thought. She had sustained quite a few minor injuries during her training, but doubted that any of those big animals had been half as dangerous as Shazim.

  ‘Better?’ he murmured. Satisfied with his handiwork, he sat back, but as she went to tentatively touch her face he caught hold of her hand and kept it firmly in his grasp. ‘No touching,’ he whispered. ‘Only I am allowed to do that.’

  ‘Okay,’ she agreed with a shrug. As long as it was only her face he was thinking of touching.

  ‘You seem nervous, Isla.’

  ‘Do I?’ Was it so obvious? Intimacy between a man and a woman was so far out of her comfort zone she was surprised she hadn’t jumped off the bed by now, but she had seen tenderness in Shazim’s eyes, and it was hard to be frightened of that.

  Was she falling for him?

  Certainly not, Isla told herself impatiently. She would never lose sight of the fact that Shazim was the leader of a country, or that she was a vet on a mission to that country.

  ‘We should call a halt to this,’ she suggested, ‘or I’m going to fall asleep.’

  ‘No, you’re not,’ Shazim assured her.

  Time seemed to stand still. His hands were so soft on her face, and as they moved down to her shoulders, and on her neck, and then her breasts, she didn’t find them threatening at all. Shazim mapped her body so skilfully, so confidently, that she could only receive his touch and wonder why she had put this moment off for so long.

  ‘You’re not just a vet, Isla, you’re a very beautiful woman.’

  Easing her neck, she closed her eyes, wanting to believe him. Shazim’s touch was like heady wine. He made her feel beautiful, when she feared that wasn’t the case. He made her feel womanly, when she’d always striven to be practical and resolute. He made her make time for indulging in sensation and pleasure, which was something she had never done. His hands and touch were so knowing and instinctive that he made her body ache for him, but he knew just when to pull back.

  ‘More?’

  The question was in his eyes, and this time she could find no argument.

  Weighing her breasts appreciatively, Shazim smiled deeply into her eyes. ‘You were made for pleasure as well as practicality,’ he insisted with a smile. ‘Never forget that, Isla.’

  She was never likely to while Shazim’s thumbnails were lightly abrading her nipples. She closed her eyes and realised then that she had never known sensation like it. When she opened her eyes again, she decided she had never seen Shazim’s eyes so mesmeric before, and realised then that he liked to watch the waves of pleasure building inside her. She’d had no idea that pleasure was such a skill, or that it could be so addictive. He was backing her down on the bed and she wasn’t even resisting. Far from trying to find that practical part of her that always saved the day, she wanted it
to be lost for ever. There was a very small part of her that questioned her sanity in inviting him to stay the night, but it couldn’t compete with the pleasure waves consuming her.

  And then he moved and stood up, and reality came flooding back in.

  ‘You’ll sleep on the floor?’ she asked anxiously, not knowing why he’d suddenly broken away from her. Even to her, her voice seemed to have risen an octave.

  He just stood there, looking deeply into her eyes; she felt thoroughly examined...and she liked it.

  Slipping off the bed, she reached for the cushions and tossed them on the floor. ‘There’s no point in being uncomfortable,’ she said. ‘The floor rugs are thick, and with these cushions to lie on—’

  Shazim caught her up in his arms. ‘Stop,’ he murmured. Nuzzling her neck with his sharp black stubble, he whispered, ‘You don’t have to hide behind cushions and rugs and excuses, Isla. Free yourself, and stop this now—’

  ‘But I can’t—I...I won’t!’ With a supreme effort, she managed to pull away from him, and, turning her back, she hugged herself tensely.

  ‘Take the bed,’ Shazim commanded softly, clearly defeated. ‘You’re exhausted. We’ll talk about this some other time.’

  She was so relieved that Shazim had no intention of taking advantage of the situation that she wanted to cry. Her emotions were in shreds, and she was too tired to think anything as she crawled into bed. She barely had the strength to strip down to her top and thong before crumpling on the pillows in an exhausted heap. Pretty much everything after that was a blur. She couldn’t even remember pulling the covers up. It was so quiet after the noise of the storm that she slept like a baby. It was only when some goat bells woke her later that morning that she realised she had slept like a baby in Shazim’s arms.

  Catapulting off the bed, she staggered backwards until the walls of the tent prevented her from going any further. She frowned as she tried to work it out. At what point during the night had Shazim joined her on the bed?

  Calming herself, she absorbed the facts. She was still dressed in her top and thong, while Shazim was sprawled...naked on the bed. His bronzed skin bore no traces of the sandstorm. He was clean and gleaming, his thick black hair glossy again.