Page 5 of At the Sheikh's Bidding
Janey shrugged. She really didn’t want to go into the sordid details at Leonora’s wedding reception. “It was a long time ago. Water under the bridge and all that.”
“Youarea dark horse.”
“We all have our secrets. And I think you’ve been keeping some from me.” She was determined to divert the attention back to Leonora. “You came here looking for a diamond and a few weeks later, you’re married. How exactly does that work without a secret past?”
Leonora shrugged and turned a loving gaze to her husband, who was talking to Amare. “I’ll tell you all about it one day.”
Janey frowned. Now she was recovering from the shock of seeing Amare, she wondered exactly how he fitted into things. Presumably he was a friend of Darrius’s who’d turned up for the wedding and was likely to disappear immediately afterwards. God, she hoped so.
She turned away from Leonora, her eyes seeking him out as if she didn’t have any other option. He didn’t fit in like the others. His appearance was more western, for one thing, not dressed in traditional robes like most of the others. And, for another, he had an air of sophistication about him, of worldliness she remembered from before. Simply put, he was drop-dead gorgeous.
Her frown deepened at the thought of him disappearing after the wedding. They’d spent the most incredible night together, during which she had really and truly believed that it would be more than a one-night stand. They’d connected at such a depth that she thought she’d met someone who’d be important in her life. And then he’d done something which had swept away all her feelings in one huge tsunami surge, devastating everything in its path. He’d told her theywouldmarry. He hadn’t asked her and he hadn’t discussed it with her, simply told her that this would happen. It had been enough for her to walk out the door and keep on walking. No one would ever control her life. She knew what that meant more than most. And this time it would be him who left. She had work to do.
She turned back to Leonora to discover she was with her new husband. From the way they were looking at one another, she didn’t think they’d appreciate any interruption. She sighed and turned back to look for Amare once more, and jumped, startled to find him standing directly in front of her, looking at her as if he wanted to devour her.
“Sorry to surprise you,” he said smoothly. “May I?” He indicated the chair beside her.
He didn’t wait for her to answer and sat down, presumably understanding that the likelihood of her wanting him near her was approximately zero.
“You don’t exactly look happy to see me again,” he commented in a deceptively nonchalant tone. He took a sip of his drink and set it with deliberate care on to the starched tablecloth, before lacing his fingers before him. She remembered the precise movement, recalled how everything he did was considered, under control. A shiver ran down her spine.
She took a breath. She could do this. This might be the same man, but the situation was entirely different. He was simply a guest at a wedding. He’d disappear and then she could get on with her work. She fixed a polite, neutral smile on her face.
“It’s a happy occasion. Why wouldn’t I be happy?” she said evasively, only able to look him directly in the eye after she’d finished speaking. She didn’t like what she saw there—amusement, appreciation, and heat. She looked away.
“The way you avoided answering a question by asking one of your own suggests you should be a politician, not an academic.” His heated gaze swept her body—from her painted toenails to her glossy lips. She immediately licked them. He sighed and looked her in the eyes once more. “But then I hadn’t known you were an academic when we met before.”
“If you’d actually attended the conference, you would have,” she answered sharply, determined to keep up her guard.
“I didn’t connect the conference with you. You hardly looked the part. Emerging from the sea in that brief bikini, your long hair plastered over your…” He trailed off, and his eyes narrowed. “…Body,” he said, his voice lowered to a huskier tone, which sent a tweak of desire deep inside of her. His eyes darkened with arousal and he shook his head as if to force himself back into the present, away from the allure of the memory.
She refused to give in to the desire, to allow it to take over her. Instead, she focused on what he’d said, and a spark of anger fueled her defenses. It had always been the same. How she looked made people believe she didn’t have a brain.
“You appear to be under the misapprehension that long hair indicates a small brain. Maybe it’s the opposite.” She glanced at his cropped hair. “Your hair is very short…” She folded her arms as she waited for him to understand the insult.
He smiled coldly, but instead of answering immediately, he leaned forward and rested his arms on his legs, tilting his head so she was forced to look into his eyes. Once their gaze was locked, she couldn’t have looked away if she’d wanted to. And she did want to. Desperately. “You can say what you like,habibti, because nothing you can say will make me believe you didn’t want me as much as I wanted you.” He licked his lips. “Nothing. Because I remember every moment, every detail of our time together. And you want me now, I can tell.”
She tried to speak, but her mouth was dry. Her pulse throbbed in her head and deep inside other parts of her which had melted the moment he’d turned that scorching gaze on her. She swallowed and his gaze lowered to her throat before flicking up once more. She shook her head in a weak attempt to deny what every part of her body wanted to admit. “No,” she managed to say in a tone which contradicted her denial.
Then he did something which she really didn’t want him to do. He reached out and ran his index finger along hers. Sensation skittered through her body. “I don’t believe you,” he said. His gaze roved her face. “Your cheeks are suddenly flushed.”
“It’s hot in here,” she whispered in that same traitorous, husky tone.
“And your eyes have darkened.” He looked at her assessingly. She gasped and closed her eyes as her only defense against him. She shunted her chair away from him and jumped to her feet. She had to get out of there. She had to put distance between them. It was her only hope. She felt as if he were claiming her inch by inch. And if he did? Where would she be? Lost. Once more. Like she’d been when she was a child.
“I… I have to go.” She looked around, desperate to find the only person in the room she knew—Leonora. But she was far away, obviously about to leave. But Janeyhadto see her before she disappeared on her honeymoon. She needed to know as much as possible about the work she was to begin the next day. She was annoyed all over again that her flight was so late, reducing the time they had together.
Janey pushed her way through the crowd, glancing back over her shoulder only once to see Amare standing watching her. At least he wasn’t following her, she thought as she continued on toward Leonora. She tapped her friend on the shoulder, and Leonora turned to her with a big glowing smile.
“Janey! I’m so sorry that we haven’t had any time together. But you’ll be here when I get back.”
Janey frowned. “That’s a month away. I’ll be long gone by then. It won’t take me a month to complete my research.”
Leonora gave a wry chuckle and leaned in to Janey. “Don’t bet on it. Sifra and its men have a way of getting their claws into you.”
Janey bridled. “I don’t want anything, or anyone, to get their claws into me!”
Leonora shrugged. “Maybe not. But it happens all the same.”
