Page 4 of At the Sheikh's Bidding
“What?” exclaimed Leonora, looking from one to the other. “You’ve met before? How come? Amare, you didn’t say anything when I told you about Janey!”
Neither Amare nor Janey looked at Leonora, or replied immediately. Janey was in shock at seeing the man she’d had a one-night-stand with two years earlier, half-a-world away on an Australian beach. She couldn’t have spoken, even if she could think of what to say. Slowly, he turned to Leonora.
“We met in Australia at a conference.” Then he looked back at Janey and her heart leapt into a rapid tattoo. She wondered if he’d tell Leonora exactly what had happened that night that had changed her life. But he stopped there, his lips pressed together as if wanting to convey to her hecouldsay more, that hemightsay more in the future, but, at this moment, he wasn’t about to make their secret public knowledge. “Didn’t we, Dr. Montgomerie?”
She gave a quick nod.
“And may I call you Janey?”
“Oh, yes,” said Leonora. “Everyone does, don’t they Janey? No one stands on ceremony with our beach babe!” Leonora gave a laugh, which faded too quickly as she looked from one to the other.
“May I?” repeated Amare to Janey, as if he knew the answer had to come from her.
But Janey had lost any sense of the flow of conversation. She shook her head.
“May you what?”
Was it her imagination, or did he move toward her slightly? He must have done because she was suddenly aware of his scent and she drew in a deep breath, reacting instinctively to her knowledge of it.
“May I call you Janey?” he asked, his voice a shade lower, a shade gruffer.
Janey licked her lips, andhislips tweaked into a glimmer of a smile.
“Janey?” said Leonora, frowning in confusion.
Janey mentally shook herself free from the spell his proximity was casting on her and gave a brief nod of agreement. Although she’d have preferred to keep things formal, keep him at a distance. She’d have preferred it if he’d been anywhere else but here, with her. Preferably half a world away. But she had to face facts. The man with whom she’d spent a night of torrid love-making, and who’d then proclaimed they would marry straight away, sending her running for the hills, was here in front of her. And there was nowhere to run this time.
CHAPTER2
“Sure.” She cleared her throat. “Please do. Call me Janey, I mean.” She gave a slight grimace, hating that she sounded so unsure of herself. She was never unsure. Not now anyway. For some reason, being with this man brought all the bad memories flooding back. She cast a quick look around, instinctively looking for a means to escape.
“Good,” said Amare, with a finality which made her wonder if she’d agreed to something else. She was barely aware of what she was agreeing to. All she could think of was that the impossible had happened. The man who’d had such a profound impact on her life two years ago, was standing there, right before her, talking to Leonora as if they were best friends. She’d known he was from the Middle East somewhere, but they hadn’t talked much during their brief time together. They’d been too busy… She closed her eyes as a rush of heat swept through her body as she remembered what they’d been too busy doing.
“Janey?” said Leonora, clearly puzzled by her reaction. “Are you okay?”
Janey opened her eyes quickly and nodded reassuringly. “Of course,” she said in a husky voice. She cleared her throat. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Why indeed?” said Amare.
“Which conference did you meet at?” asked Leonora.
Janey licked her lips, willing her tongue to work. “It was in Queensland. Before I started at Oxford.”
“How come you didn’t mention you knew Janey, Amare?” said Leonora.
Amare kept his gaze locked on Janey. “Didn’t I? I must have overlooked it.” His gaze was intense. She felt it from the tips of her toes to the prickling in her scalp.
Suddenly his name was called, and he excused himself, and Janey watched him walk over to Darrius and another man. Janey exhaled a deep breath and turned to Leonora.
“What the hell was all that about?” asked Leonora, her eyes wide.
Janey pushed her hair from her face with an agitated gesture and glanced at Amare. “Don’t ask.”
“I just have, and I’ll ask again. What went on between the two of you? Because, judging from your reaction, something definitely did.”
“As he said, we met at a conference.”
“There’s ‘met’ at a conference and then there’s ‘met’ at a conference. And I don’t think you just exchanged business cards by the looks on your faces.”
