by Leslie North
“And then the other frustrating thing is that he doesn’t express how he feels. Ever.”
“That is not surprising.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Technically, you are his boss too and the daughter of a powerful man. It wouldn’t be appropriate for him to tell you how he feels,” Cassie told her.
“Exactly. It’s because of my family background,” Adilah growled. “Why does it have to be so complicated?”
“The best things in life are the hardest to acquire,” Cassie said with a smile.
Adilah knew that Cassie was right. From the moment she met him, she thought that he was incredibly handsome and when she touched him, she could tell that she affected him, but beyond that, she had no idea how he felt. If he would only take a chance and say something.
Suddenly Adilah found herself daydreaming. She was wearing a billowy white dress with her long straight hair draped down her back. She was standing on the soft warm sands of the desert, barefoot. The sun hung high in the clear blue sky.
Looking up, she saw Kalik riding toward her on an Arabian horse. Dressed all in black from his turban to his djellaba and down to his trousers and boots, he bore down on her like a warrior hunting prey. With one arm, he swept her off her feet and onto the front of the horse as they rode off together deep into the desert, far away from her family and-
“Adi!” Cassie called out and waved her slim fingers in her face.
“What?” Adilah snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Cassie
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing.” Nothing at all. It was not as if she could run away with Kalik. It would have been nice though…
Adilah frowned when she noticed some strange guys staring at them from across the market. She casually linked Cassie’s arms and rushed to catch up with Rene and Tanya.
“Where were you guys?” Rene asked, rubbing her belly.
“Just behind you. Let’s go this way,” Adilah said and lead them to a different pathway. She panicked when she could not see Kalik or the bodyguards. Had something happened to them? She did not want to say anything to the other ladies, as she did not want to frighten them.
Adilah took the others into the rougher part of the marketplace. She knew the place very well, from when she used to go there with Hussain, so it was easy for her to navigate. She started walking a little faster trying hard not to panic. She turned and bumped into someone. She felt hard muscle beneath her fingertips.
“Kalik,” she breathed, relieved to see him.
“Are you okay?” he asked her looking concerned. Adilah looked behind her and only saw her bodyguards. She was sure that she had seen strange men following her.
“I am fine.” She thought that maybe her imagination had gotten the best of her. “Let’s head back to the car.”
“Okay.”
“Where are we off to now?” Tanya asked her.
“It’s a bit warm today, let’s go someplace for lunch that has air conditioning,” Adilah said, smiling as if everything was okay.
But was it really? She simply could not shake the feeling that she was being watched and not just by Kalik’s mesmerising brown eyes.
Chapter 9
Kalik returned to the St Garland Regis Hotel to conduct some final security checks. While Adilah would not talk about what happened at the souk, she seemed spooked and he was concerned that he might have overlooked something. So he was going over everything again in detail.
He had checked the hotel’s security room, where the security guards monitored the cameras around the hotel. He made sure that there were no blind spots. Kalik also left one of his security guards in there to work in conjunction with hotel security.
He met with the hotel security staff to double and triple check that everything regarding the safety of Adilah was in place. He could not afford for anything to go wrong. He told them to contact him immediately if they saw anything suspicious, no matter how small it was.
There were different media companies outside the hotel setting up their equipment and waiting for the event to start. Kalik made sure that they were checked out and had all their identities confirmed. The last thing he wanted was for someone to infiltrate the event; pretending to be from a media company.
As Kalik was talking to the staff members, he caught sight of Hussain out of the corner of his eye. He seemed to be moving around people; dodging. He avoided making eye contact with the security guards. Kalik had two female bodyguards escort Adilah to the spa earlier. He knew that she was safe. So he started following him.
It was very strange. Why would Hussain be acting that way? What could he possibly be up to and where was his security detail?
“Kalik,” a voice sounded from behind him and then a hand touched his shoulder. He turned and saw Rafe Tazeem standing there.
“Sheik.” Kalik bowed his head to him. The timing was simply awful. Kalik turned his head to search for Hussain but he had already disappeared into the crowd.
“How is everything going so far?” the older sheik asked him. He had his own bodyguard standing a few steps behind him.
“So far so good. Everything is in place and Adilah is currently at the spa with two female bodyguards,” Kalik replied. His eyes still searched the crowd but there was no sign of the younger Tazeem.
“Good. I trust you can handle everything but… I am still worried about my daughter.”
“I understand, sir.”
“I need her to be safe. She is my little girl.”
Kalik nodded, “I will do everything in my power to make sure that no danger comes her way,” he said sternly. He would rather trade his life than have even one hair on Adilah harmed.
“I am a well-respected sheik. Many people fear and admire me. People listen to me. My wishes are their commands. And yet, I fail to control one little girl,” the sheik complained.
“Miss Adilah is thirty-three and very much has a mind of her own. She is strong willed.” One of the many things Kalik loved about her.
“She looks so much like her mother that I find myself giving her everything her heart desires.”
Kalik smiled. It was difficult to say no to Adilah. Even he found it hard. The sheik put his hand on Kalik’s shoulder. “Because of you, I can lay down my worries. You have always been like a son to me,” he admitted. Kalik was shocked by the sudden sentiment.
“I have?”
“You have.” The sheik’s words weighed heavily on Kalik. It was obvious to him that he could never have a relationship with Adilah beyond a professional one but telling that to his heart was a different matter altogether.
“I appreciate your kind words, sir.”
“And yet you do not believe them.” The sheik patted him on the shoulder. “Sometimes the heart knows best.”
“I have to disagree with that,” Kalik said respectfully. He had a job to do and could not let his heart think for him. The sheik smiled and walked off as Kalik checked his watch for the third time. It was already time for Adilah to be finished at the spa. He decided to go fetch her.
Chapter 10
“I feel so refreshed,” Adilah said with a huge grin on her face as she exited the spa.
“I am glad to hear that,” Kalik replied.
The two of them went to check out Adilah’s suite, well their suite; since Hussain had ordered Kalik to watch over her during the night, which meant that they were going to have to share the room.
Like everything else at the hotel, the suite was exquisite. From the ornately carved oversized bed to the opulent upholstered furniture, the suite was indeed luxurious.
“This room is amazing,” Adilah said before she threw herself on the bed backwards and giggled. Kalik smiled to himself. Sometimes she was like a child, she was just so full of life. He glanced at the sofa on the right side of the room. He thought to get acquainted with it, since he was going to sleep there at night.
Adilah picked up the phone. “Are you hungry?” she asked him. “I’
m starving.” She started dialling room service before he could even answer, ordering enough food for the both of them.
Kalik answered the door when the food arrived and watched as the waiter wheeled in the food trolley and set the food out on the small dining table. “Let’s eat,” Adilah said as she uncovered the food and took a deep breath. Kalik reluctantly sat down across from her, feeling unprofessional dining with her, but she insisted.
“I feel nervous about tomorrow,” Adilah admitted to him.
“Why? You are great at these kinds of functions,” he replied to her.
“Because I want everything to go well.”
“And it shall.”
Adilah smiled. She bit into her lamb and hummed. “Yum. This lamb is nice and tender and the amount of spice is just right.” Kalik nodded as he watched her close her eyes in pleasure. She loved traditional dishes the most.
“It was cooked well,” he said stiffly.
“And this na’an bread smells so good.” Kalik noticed how alluring her voice was as he felt some physical discomfort at her shift in tone. Then it got worse. “The garlic and the cumin are intoxicating,” she said, her eyes lighting up.
“It is fine,” Kalik replied. For Adilah, food was like foreplay making it increasingly difficult to be around her when she flirted and he had to tame the beast inside him that so badly wanted to make love to her. There was a bed right there at their disposal and no risk of interruption. Concentrating on his food, Kalik attempted to shut down his thoughts.
“Even the fresh fruit smells wonderful,” she said when they were eating their dessert. Kalik raised an eyebrow. Did fruit even smell like anything? She hummed again. His gaze darkened as he watched her slowly put a strawberry in her mouth and bite down.
Juice settled in the corners of her mouth and she licked them clean. The discomfort in his groin was shifting to pain and he needed to do something. Anything. She was going too far. He cleared his throat and stood up.
“You should sleep soon. You have a long day tomorrow,” he said. He put the plates back on the trolley.
“Taste this cherry,” she said, holding it out to him.
“I am fine, thank you.”
“Just one cherry and then we’ll sleep.” She leaned toward him and reached for his mouth with a cherry in her hand. Placing the cherry in his mouth, she lightly grazed his bottom lip with her small finger. It sent jolts of electricity through his body. He wanted to take her fingers and kiss them.
She watched him chew. The way she looked at him drove him crazy. Her luscious lips were screaming out for him to kiss them as she smiled up at him.
“I will take the trolley outside so that you may get ready for bed.” Kalik left the room with the trolley, letting out a deep exhale as the door shut behind him. He really needed to be away from her for a moment as he was seconds away from making love to her.
He was not sure if her behaviour was intentional, but she was indeed a temptress and it was becoming too hard to resist her. This was going to be a tough night.
Walking back into the room, he was surprised to see that she was not already in bed. Looking around the now dimly lit room, he saw her standing in front of the window, her silhouette perfectly framed in the moonlight.
Turning toward him, he was shocked to see that she was completely nude.
“I’m not ready to sleep, just yet,” she said simply as she looked at him from across the room.
Kalik froze as he stared at her. His brain was screaming at him to turn around and leave the room immediately, but he was unable to move.
She was indeed perfection as she stood there in the moonlight waiting for him. Holding out her hand, she waited patiently, knowing that he would make the right decision. Closing his eyes, he contemplated again leaving, but his feet remained glued where he stood. Reaching a decision, he reached behind him to lock the door before striding across the room toward her. Reaching for her, he drew her into his arms as she leaned against his muscled frame. She fit perfectly in his arms as she reached up to stroke the side of his face. The gentleness of her touch caught him off guard as a wave of emotion swept through him.
Reaching his hand out, he did something that he thought he would never do and ran his fingers through her hair, which was as soft as he imagined. Sliding his hand around, he cupped the side of her face as she turned to press a kiss into his palm.
“You are so beautiful, habibti,” he told her, his voice thick with emotion.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Adilah went up on her toes and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Mmmm,” she moaned, “You taste better than the cherries.”
With a groan, Kalik scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed where he set her down. Reclining back on the pillows, she watched him with a hooded gaze as he began taking his clothes off.
As he took his clothes off, it was all Adilah could do to keep from helping him to make it go faster. Stepping out of his boots, he took off his side holster and set his gun on the nightstand. Pulling his shirt over his head, she muffled a gasp as she looked at his finely chiselled chest.
Fisting her hands, she waited for him to loosen the clasp on his belt and drop his trousers. As he pulled them down, she could see that he was already hard. Painfully so. Smiling to herself, she was pleased that she had that sort of effect on him.
She watched him stroke his erection as he looked at her. With a whoop, he leaped onto the bed as she yelped and then laughed in surprise.
“So, you do know how to have fun,” she told him, laughing as he gave her his first genuine smile.
Stretching out next to her, he smiled down at her. “You give me reason to have fun.”
Placing her hand on his chest, she traced her fingers across his sculpted body until he captured her hand and kissed her fingertips. With a groan, he pulled her tightly to him before leaning in to kiss her. Gentle at first, he brushed his lips across hers, sending tingling sensations through her body as she gasped in surprise.
Taking advantage, he licked her parted lips before delving his tongue inside to explore. In response, Adilah swirled her tongue around his, sucking lightly as he moaned. She tasted of strawberries and cream he thought, as his hands reached out to stroke her curves.
She was everything he did not dare to imagine and more, he thought as he touched her.
Wrapping one arm around his neck, as she continued to kiss him, Adilah stroked him, running her hand down his shoulder and arm, shivering slightly as his muscles seemed to ripple beneath her touch. Stroking her way across his chest and down his abs, she suddenly wished for frosting so that she could turn at least one fantasy into reality.
Sliding her hand down to his hip, she was struck by how smooth his skin was as she lightly ran her nails back up his back.
Shuddering in response, he captured her hand and held it between them as he continued to kiss her.
When their lips parted, both were panting as they caught their breaths. Kissing her hand, he drew it down his body and placed it on his now throbbing member as she wrapped her hand around it and began to stroke back and forth.
Kalik knew that if he died now, he would die a happy man as every stroke of her hand ignited a fire deep inside him and she was the only one who could put it out. He jumped when she ran her nails lightly over his balls as he thrust forward with his hips pushing against her.
Not wanting to wait another moment, “Take me, Kalik,” Adilah moaned. “Make love to me.”
“Your wish is my command, my lady,” he replied as he rolled on top of her and pushed himself up on his arms. Reaching down, he slid his hand between her legs, surprised at how wet she was. How ready she was to receive him. Sliding a finger up and down her slit, he pushed it inside as her muscles greedily clutched at it.
“Kalik,” she moaned his name. “I am done waiting. Please.”
Positioning himself, he rubbed the tip of his erection against her slit as she pushed her legs farther apart. Lifting her hips, she thrust impatiently u
pwards causing him to enter her faster than he planned to. Looking at her in concern, he worried that he might hurt her but she had wrapped her legs around his waist and rocked against him.
Kalik thought his eyes might roll back in his head at the sensations he was feeling as her body moulded around his perfectly. Looking down at her, he began to plunge in and out, adjusting his position based on the expressions dancing across her face.
Clutching at his arms, Adilah thought that she had died and gone to heaven when he finally entered her. Her body was more alive than ever, as pleasure wound its way through her body. He seemed to know exactly where and how to touch her as her body became tight with need.
