Page 49 of The Sheikh's Desert Captive

Nicole held the door and leaned against the doorframe. "I'm not sure that's a good idea, right now, Rashid," she replied.

Of course she couldn't let him into her room, she told herself. Not after what she'd been thinking about for the last half hour. Not while her emotions were still so raw, so chaotic.

He looked disappointed, but didn't react by immediately repeating his request. Instead, he simply nodded. His gaze was intense, examining her features for a few moments.

Rashid advanced toward her, and she drew the door closer to her, as if closing the space, making it clear that he wasn't going to gain entry to her room.

Rashid lowered his head and sighed. When he lifted his gaze back to her he leaned his hand against the wall by the door. He was so close now, she could breathe in his musky scent, the same one which had driven her senses wild down on the terrace. Nicole felt her face color, heat making her cheeks flush. She saw that he'd noticed, and was sure that the corner of his mouth creased with an appreciative smile.

When he spoke, his voice was low. "I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the evening," he said slowly. "The dinner, the chat. Everything."

Nicole lifted a brow. "Everything?" she said teasingly, but she didn't see him smile. He nodded. His expression was intense and serious. He'd come here to tell her something. Maybe he'd been pacing in his own room, thinking exactly the same thoughts with which Nicole had been tormenting herself. By the look of his slightly untidy appearance, he must have been doing a lot of thinking, she told herself.

"I enjoyed the evening, too," she admitted, trying to sound polite.

Rashid smiled. "I'm glad."

He cleared his throat and she knew he was going to tell her something, get what was bothering him off his mind.

"I was thinking about what happened," he said.

"Look," she said interrupting him. "There's nothing to say about that. It's just one of those things."

"Really?" he asked, his brow lifting. He didn't seem convinced.

"It was the moonlight, the desert, the stars," she said trying to sound flippant, even dismissive. Although she knew, inside herself, that she really wanted to tell him something completely different. She wanted to tell him just how much it had meant to her, how he'd made her feel. But, she couldn't do that. Not right now, with him standing at her door with that look on his face.

Rashid frowned. "I wanted to say that if you really need to go home, you know you can."

His words hit her like a physical blow. An icy chill ran up her back. She held onto the door, her grip suddenly tighter.

"Go home?" she gasped. "What do you mean?"

"I'd understand if you needed to leave." He lifted a brow at her. "After what happened tonight."

She gasped, her heart racing suddenly. He was asking her to leave? No. He wasn't asking her to go. Not at all. He was just giving her that option. Surely that was it.

Nicole squinted at Rashid. "You want me to leave, Rashid?"

He looked steadily at her and she could see by the sternness of his expression, the emotion in his eyes, the tightness of his jaw, that he didn't want that. Not for one moment. But, he'd obviously felt some instinctive sense of duty to suggest to her that she go. That she turn her back on him, after the way they'd acted.Their attraction for each other had been revealed and they both knew what it could lead to.

He leaned closer. "I don't want you to leave, Nicole," he murmured, his voice heavy with emotion. "That's the last thing I want."

Nicole drew in a long, deep breath and let it ease out of her, tension draining out with it. He wanted her to stay, she told herself. The chill softened, replaced by something else. Hope? She pushed that thought away. She needed to think clearly. So, how come it was proving almost impossible?

"I just thought you might want to reconsider staying here with me for the next few days," he continued.

"I wasn't thinking of leaving," she said. His eyes brightened slightly as he heard her words. "In fact, I was going to come to speak to you. To hear what you thought," she said softly.

He shook his head. "You don't want to know what I've been thinking since I came upstairs," he said with a wry smile. His gaze settled on her, and she could see the torment in his eyes. He'd been having as hard a time as her, trying to come to terms with what had happened. She could see that now.

Nicole laughed quietly. "Looks like we've gotten ourselves into a whole heap of trouble," she observed.

"Is that what you'd call it?" he asked. "Trouble?"

Nicole shook her head and sighed. "I'm as surprised as you are, Rashid."

He ran a hand through his hair. "Surprise isn't exactly the word I had in mind," he declared.

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