The Sheik's Reluctant Lover (10 page)

The helicopter lifted off and Rachel’s stomach dropped out of her body.  She gripped the cases of wine in her right hand and the door handle in her left, praying silently that the pilot knew what he was doing.  It might take her two hours to get out to the farm by car, but when one didn’t have to deal with traffic and red lights, or even rights and lefts to get to the correct street, it was much faster.  The pilot simply flew over all the little
ant sized cars
below, flying directly to the farm and landing on
Rais
’
private helipad.  George, one of the older gardeners, was even there to meet her and carry
the case
of wine
and the other box of delicacies
from the helicopter to the back of his truck.  It took less than thirty minutes to get from her office building to the main house and she was shaking the whole time. 

Rais
was standing on the front of the steps, watching as George drove her up the long driveway.  When he pulled up at the front of the house,
Rais
walked down the steps and opened the door for her.  She almost didn’t get out of the truck as she gazed at his victorious eyes, filled with intent that made her stomach muscles tighten even more.  “Welcome back, Rachel.”

He took her hand and pulled her up the steps and into the house.  Rachel had been inside often over the years, but normally she entered through the kitchen door or the garage.  The main house was intimidating when coming in through the front, which was exactly his intent with most of his guests. 

“Why are you doing this?” she asked when he brought her into the dining room where Lucy already had a light lunch set out along with a whole tray of wine glasses ready for the wine tasting. 

“We’ll do the opening,” he said to George who was preparing the first bottle for the tasting.

George nodded and bowed himself out of the dining room, even closing the doors as he left.  Rachel saw that they were now alone and her shaking increased.  “Please don’t do this,
Rais
,” she begged, her fingers knotting the napkin on her lap. 

“Don’t do what?” he asked as he poured a small amount from the first bottle of wine. 

“Don’t do….this,” she said, waving her hand between the two of them. 

He looked down at her and stilled for a long moment.  “Help me understand why I shouldn’t try and make love to the woman I’ve wanted for so long I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want you in my bed.”

That was a startling declaration but she focused on his first request.  “I’m not in your league,
Rais
.  I don’t play by the same rules that you do.  When I have sex, it
will mean
something.”

That declaration infuriated him for some reason.  “So all of your old lovers meant so much to
you that you’re still with them?
  Its’ just me that you
don’t
want in your bed, is that it?”

She sighed and bowed her head.  “You keep referring to my old lovers, but that assumption isn’t accurate,
Rais
.”

“How many?” he demanded and placed her glass in front of her.  “Taste this one.  It’s an excellent red.”

She ignored the glass and stared at her fingers in
stead.  “None,” she whispered.  It was time to be honest with him.  Maybe if he understood, he would stop his pursuit of her and let her just be content with the way her life was moving. 

He didn’t move. 
Didn’t even breathe for a long moment.
  “Would you repeat that please?” he said softly, firmly. 

She didn’t want to repeat it.  S
he wanted to run out of the hous
e and hide from him again.  Being here, seeing him again as the memories of those hands on her breasts Sat
u
rday filtered into her mind, she had trouble focusing on anything other than that.  And what might have happened if she’d stayed, if her fears hadn’t come up and overwhelmed her.  He wasn’t leaving her any choice though.  He stood there looking down at her, waiting. 

Her chin lifted just so he didn’t think she was weak or embarrassed, which she was in this case but he didn’t have to know that. 
“I haven’t been with any other man.”

He sat down heavily in the chair next to her, downed the small amount of wine he’d poured in
his glass,
then
poured himself
another.  “Explain please.”

She stood up and took her glass of water, draining the glass as she looked out the window.  “Do you remember that
afternoon
a long time ago when I came home from school and saw Devlin and Dalia?”
They were two of the horses that were still on the farm, still producing excellent offspring. 

He remembered it vividly.  And he remembered how horrified she’d been that afternoon crying out her fear for the mare who, in
Rachel’s
eight year old mind, was being brutally raped when in
fact,
the mare was just putting on a show for the stallion.  “I remember.   You weren’t supposed to see those things.  Your father was pretty angry with himself that day.”

She smiled, remembering her father’s white face when he’d gotten home that evening.  “He tried to talk to me about it, but I was still too shocked.”
  She’d also cried that afternoon in
Rais
’ arms, begging him to stop Devlin from hurting the poor mare.  She’d buried her face on his shoulder, sobbing out the pain for the female horse. 

“And?” he prompted. 

“Well,” she took a deep breath, “I know
,
theoretically, that it isn’t as brutal with humans.  But the truth is
,
I haven’t really wanted to find out.  I’m too scared to test the activity.  I’m pretty sure I won’t like having sex
Rais
.  So I’ve pretty much avoided it.”

He was quiet, absorbing what she was telling him.  When he finally spoke he was right behind her, his chest mere inches from her back.  “Let me get this straight.  You haven’t ever had sex with another m
an because y
ou thought that sex with a man would be like
mating was with
Devlin and Dalia?”

And no man could match up to
Ra
is
’ manliness, she thought silently.
“That and other reasons.
  But yes.  So when you want me to give you a number, I can’t do that.  Nor can I be casual about sex like you are.”

He pulled her closer, kissing her shoulder softly.  “I don’t think there would be anything casual when I finally get you into bed, Rachel.”

She swung her head around, looking
u
p at him with an anxious expression on her face. 
“When?
  Not if?”

He shook his head.  “We will happen, my dear.  And it’s going to be soon.  But I promise that you won’t be scared and you will enjoy every moment of it along the way.”  He was thinking back to Saturday morning and the way she’d responded to his touch, begging him in her sleep to keep going.  Yes, she would be doing that with him again.  Very soon, he thought. 

He dropped his hand and stepped back.  “In the meantime, let’s have lunch and you can help me decide on which wine to serve.”

She breathed a bit easier now that he was walking back towards the lunch table.  She thought it was sweet that Lucy had chosen the pink roses to decorate the table and she walked closer.  “These are my favorites,” she said, touc
hing the delicate petals of
one of the
perfect, pink rose
s
with just a hint of red on the tips of each petal.  “I remember the day you brought this
plant
here
to your rose garden
.  I was so excited to see what it would be like after you described it to me.”

“I remember the day,” he replied
with a nostalgic smile
.  He’d made a special trip to
German to
find this particular rose, wanting to surprise her with it.  Almost all of the roses had been his gift to her, although she didn’t even know it.  When she was fourteen years old, he’d hired a man to find a special rose bush for her.  When he saw how excited she was by the roses, how she preferred to do her homework in the rose garden, he’d built up his collection of roses, trying to find unique and hardy flowers she might enjoy.  “I like the ones that have a stronger scent, but you want the ones with the most vibrant color.”

Rachel laughed and pulled her hand away.  “I used to love just laying in the garden and smelling the
roses.  My dad would find me lying
in the dirt, homework still not finished and he’d drag me back to the stables so he could monitor me while I finished.”

Rais
remembered several occasions like that.  He would chuckle from his office window as he watched her father storm up to the rose garden, irritated that he’d had to
come
look for her.  But she was always there. 

“He used to call them ‘damn girly flowers’ whenever he found me over there.”  She smiled at the memory and sat down at the table, pulling the linen napkin onto her lap. 

Rais
opened
another
bottle
of wine
and poured a bit of the white into a glass.  “I don’t really like this white, but let me know what you think.”

She
squinched
up her nose and shook her head.  “A bit too dry and tart for a dinner, don’t you think?”

“It goes well with cheese,” he suggested.

“Not everyone will be eating cheese,” she pointed out. 

Bottle after bottle, they sipped and laughed over the various descriptions. 
Rais
already knew which wine he wanted at the first party, but it was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.  And he could tell that she was getting a bit tipsy, which was even better.  He wanted her relaxed and enjoying herself. 

He encouraged her to eat the braised chick
en Lucy had made them for lunch
, and they both drank plenty of water to hydrate
themselves
and
ate
bread to keep the food in them.  But as the afternoon continued, he stopped opening new bottles and just kept topping off their glasses with the one wine they both enjoyed. 

Rachel knew the moment that the afternoon changed.  The relaxed feeling shifted slightly. 
As did
Rais
.
  They had moved from the dining room table to the living room with the soft, leather sofas.  She realized suddenly that he was sitting much too close to her and, as she looked down at her legs, they were actually across his lap, her shoes tossed to the side and she was leaning back against the
cushions
.  And he was leaning over her. 

“What are you going to do?” she asked, suddenly wary.

His handsome, firm mouth formed into a half smile.  “I currently don’t have a plan of action besides just enjoying you
r
laugh.”  He took a sip of ice water, his eyes dropping to her mouth.  “You have very sexy lips,” he said. 

She laughed and shook her head. “You’ll have to do better than that to seduce me,” she said.   When she realized what she said, her eyes widened and she started to pull away. 

He held onto her legs and shook his head slowly.  “I don’t think so,” he commented casually.  But there was nothing casual about the way he was looking down at her.  “You’ve challenged me.”

She shivered with the intent she saw in his eyes.  “No, really…I didn’t mean to…”she tried once again to pull her legs away but his hand stopped her
and his touch was so intimate that she froze. 

“Here’s the deal.  And bear with me because I’ve been considering this all afternoon while you sat here and looked like the sexiest woman alive so there might be a few salient points to work out.  But we’re going to go slowly, at your pace.  You’re going to learn to trust me, to show me what you like and don’t like when I touch you.”

She started to interrupt but he put a finger over her mouth.  “We’re not going to have sex today because you’ve had too much wine, but very soon, I’m going to make love to you.”

“I don’t want…”

“And you’re not going to lie to me and tell me that you don’t want me to make love to you, right?”

She bit her lip, her mind trying desperately to come up with an answer.  But with his hand on her upper thigh like that, and his massive chest leaning down over her but not touching, no pressure at all from that direction, she couldn’t form the words to deny his promise. 

“Good,” he said when she remained silent.  “We’re going to start today.  I’m going to kiss you and you’re going to help me so that we don’t go too far.  When the panic starts to seep in, you’re going to stop me, understand?  But you’re not going to stop me by running away.”  He said the words softly, slowly and seductively.  All the while, his hand on her thigh was moving up and down her skirt and she was painfully conscious that the material was moving higher.  Very soon, he was going to feel the skin underneath her skirt and she wasn’t sure she could take that kind of enticement.