Page 37 of At the Sheikh's Bidding
“I’d never do that.”
“You say that. But who knows what the future might bring? You like to control things, you can’t deny it.”
“It’s true. I’ve learned that to protect, I need to control.”
“I don’t need protecting, and I don’t understand why you think I do.”
He withdrew his hands from her and sat up, looked away for a few moments, and then got out of bed and stood before the window. The storm had subsided and there were already signs of dawn light streaking the sky.
“We should leave as soon as it’s light.”
* * *
She huggedher knees and watched him. If she had her demons, so did he. She hadn’t fully realized it until now. But he was as much a product of his past as she was of hers. Trouble was, she hadn’t a clue about his past. Whenever their conversation had shifted that way, he’d deflected it and talked about her. Now she thought about it, he’d told her very little about himself. Well, that was about to change. She suddenly realized that the key to confronting her commitment issues lay with him, and his controlling ways. She needed to understand him better.
“Sure,” she said, deciding not to ask him any more pointed questions about what had made him so controlling, so insistent that he needed to protect everyone. “We can go to the harem.”
He shot her a relieved look, obviously glad she wasn’t about to ask him questions. “Yes, of course.”
“And you can tell me about your grandmother,” she added, wanting him to know that she wouldn’t avoid the subject of his past. Shewouldfind out what was behind his behavior. This was no longer only about her and her demons, but his, too. And, she suspected, he had plenty of them. Growing up in his family couldn’t have been easy.
He nodded in agreement and returned to the bed. He took her hands in his and kissed them. “You’re not going to let me off so easily, are you?”
She huffed a laugh. He could read her mind and she was beginning to find it less disconcerting and more settling, somehow. “No, I’m not. I want to knowyou, Amare. The real you. And, until I feel I do, I can’t decide about where my future lies.”
He frowned. “I guess that’s only fair, but…”
“But?”
“I hate the thought that you will not like what you find. Because I know then you will leave.”
“Amare,” she said, kissing him on the lips, again and again, trying to provide reassurance that she couldn’t put into words. He responded as she’d hoped he would and the kiss ignited like a flame in that dry desert air, consuming them both as they surrendered to their desires, and fell back onto the bed and became one once more.
Outside, the first silver threads of dawn light slowly grew stronger and cast their growing light over their bodies as they pleasured each other and were transported to a place where no words were needed.
CHAPTER17
Janey returned to the palace a changed woman. She felt the barriers separating her from Amare were slowly disintegrating. But they hadn’t yet collapsed completely. She knew the final blow to the walls with which she surrounded herself would only come from knowing Amare better. And, as she prepared for the day ahead, she was determined to do exactly that.
She was just leaving when she received a message from her colleague, Leonora, Amare’s new sister-in-law. It seems you couldn’t take the academic out of a newly married woman and she’d arranged for a social media event to publicize Gleave College’s forthcoming bi-centenary. Its focus would be the hunt for the diamond. Leonora still believed they could find the diamond and was determined to build hype around the college’s centenary.
Janey stepped out of her room with renewed enthusiasm to find the diamond, or at least discover something new to talk about at the event.
* * *
Amare’s heartlifted when Janey walked around the corner toward him. Within the palace, guests could wear what they liked, and she had on her usual linen pants and plain shirt, clutching a laptop bag and what looked like a small drone. Not for the first time, he wondered why she covered that gorgeous body, which he’d explored so intimately and so thoroughly all during the night. But he was beginning to understand her a little. Whatever had happened to her in her youth, whatever made her shy away from commitment, also made her want to cover her body so thoroughly that people had to guess at what lay beneath. There was a macho, proprietorial part of him which didn’t mind this at all. Because, he suspected, he was the only man who knew what made her gasp with pleasure, and he wanted to keep it that way.
“Janey,” he greeted her. He didn’t attempt to kiss her, nor did she reach out to him, as she’d done in bed. That sort of public intimacy was frowned upon within the palace.
She grinned, a smile full of carnal knowledge. It warmed him to his core. “Good morning. And how are you? Not too tired after your hard labor last night?”
He loved the way her cheeks dimpled when she was joking. It was all he could do not to tilt her head to his and kiss each charming indentation. But that wouldn’t get him anywhere, and he needed to keep his wits about him this morning. He suspected things had changed, and the focus was being switched to him. And he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
“If that’s what you call hard labor, then I’m ready for it anytime. Just let me know and I’ll be there in a heartbeat.”
She inclined her head to his. “Glad to hear it,” she said, as they began walking toward the harem. “There’s tonight… I hope you don’t have any plans.”
He sucked in a deep breath, trying to stop his groin from responding to his wayward imagination. “All my plans include you,” he said with a smile, which he forced to be light-hearted as he opened a door for her.
