The Sheik's Reluctant Lover (3 page)

He led her down to the third stall and opened the top gate.  “What do you think?” he asked and stepped back, letting her peer inside.

Rachel looked at his handsome face filled with excitement and had to smile herself.  He looked a little bit like a small boy on Christmas morning, eager to see what kinds of presents he’d received under the tree.  She took a step closer and looked inside the stable and the sight she saw made her gasp with awe.  Staring back at her
were
two of the most beautiful
Thoroughbred
horses she’d ever seen in her life.  One was pure white and the other pure black, both of them just standing in the middle of the large stall, sniffing the air in order to determine if the new scent was friend or foe. 

When she stuck out her hand, wanting to touch the newest beauties, they rebuffed her initially, too proud to
come close.  “Here,”
Rais
said and handed her some sugar cubes.  “They both have a horrible sweet tooth.”

She took the sugar cubes, pretending that she didn’t shiver when their hands touched, then turned back to the beauties.  “I thought a white Thoroughbred was rare.”

“They are.  But this one came on sale just a few months ago.  There was a bidding war for him but I was determined.”

As the horses approached, sniffing in her hand to see what she had for them, Rachel couldn’t stop her eyes from rolling at his comment.  “Of course you won.  Don’t you always?”

“I prefer to win.  Don’t you?” He leaned against the stall, watching her as she smiled at the horses as they nuzzled her palm licking up the last of the sugar crystals. 

“Oh, I would love to win all the time.   But that doesn’t happen.”

“What have you lost recently?”
she asked, not believing he’d ever lost at anything in his life. 

His smile grew slightly and he shrugged one shoulder. 
“Nothing recently.”

She raised one eyebrow at him as she said, “Have you ever lost something?”

He laughed softly and moved closer, running his hand down the black mare’s neck.  “Sure I’ve lost.  I don’t keep track of those issues though.  I move on and figure out how to overcome that challenge.”  He hesitated for a moment,
then
said, “Come riding with me tomorrow?”

Immediately she shook her head.  “I can’t.”

“Why not?
  You used to love to ride.  And I used to love watching you ride.  I haven’t seen you on a horse in years.”

She blushed and shook her head again.  “I ride,” she countered.

“Just not when I’m around.
  Why is that?”

She shrugged, feeling as if he were closing in on her.  “I guess our schedules just haven’t been in sync lately.”

“Or you’ve purposely been avoiding me.”

She bit her lower lip nervously and took a step backwards.  “Why would I do that?”  She shook her head. “No, it’s really just been a crazy period in my life.”

“Then come with me.  Show me that you can ride like you used to.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t ride like you used to or you can’t ride at all?”

“I can ride!” she gasped, rising to the challenge he was tossing out there at her. 

“Good.  Then we’ll ride tomorrow morning.”

She blinked and shook her head slightly.  “What?  No, I didn’t mean that I could….”

“It’s settled, Rachel.  You can even ride this guy here.”

What had just happened?  “I didn’t agree to ride with you!” she gasped.

He moved in even closer.  “Sure you did.  I know that you’re afraid to be alone with me for some reason.  But it will be fine tomorrow.  I’ll be the perfect gentleman.”

She laughed and shook her head.  “I’ve seen you in action,
Rais
.  You’re never the perfect gentleman.”

He put his hands on her hips as he moved even closer.  “Were you spying on me as a kid?” he asked softly, his eyes looking at her lips. 

She pressed back against the wall, her breathing ragged and heavy.  “No!”

“Then how do you know I wasn’t a gentleman?”

“I
wasn’t
spying.  I was around doing my chores
or my homework
and you just happened to be around with
your
….”
She halted, not exactly sure what to call the parade of brunettes that had come through his life. 

“Lady
friends
?” he put in for lack of a better word.

“Yes. 
Lots of them.”
  She tried to keep the jealously out of her voice, but even she heard the angry tone come out.  “And I really don’t want to be one of them.”  She put her hands on his chest and pushed, but he didn’t move, not even an inch. 

“What if you’re not one in a crowd?” he suggested.

“I’m not.”

He looked at her beautiful features and had to agree with her.  “No.  You’re definitely not part of the crowd, Rachel.”

“Please let me go,” she begged, looking to the right so she
didn’t
have to look at him.  She was shaking everywhere and his touch was strong and firm, even better than she’d dreamed about.  Rachel wanted so much to be kissed by this man, to know what all the other women had experienced.  But she wouldn’t be able to endure it when he moved on to the next woman.  She had enough trouble coming out here to visit her father.  If she had memories of his kiss to deal with, those visits would be even worse. 

Rais
hesitated.  She sounded sincere but everything inside him was telling him to move forward, to test those lips and find out if she really was as soft as she looked.  His body was already hard and aching, wanting to pull her against him, to make love to this woman
so thoroughly that she wouldn’t remember any of the men in her past. 

“I have to go,” she gasped and slipped out of his arms, relieved that he hadn’t been holding her very tightly so it was easier.  “It was nice seeing you,” she lied without looking back in his direction.  She didn’t want to see him
again,
she didn’t want to know if he was angry with her for leaving him like that.  All she wanted to do was get as far away from him as possible. 

When she reached her father’s cottage, she slammed the door closed and leaned against it, trying to get her breath back after the frantic rush out of the stables. 

“Hard run?” her father asked from his favorite cozy chair. 

Rachel jumped and opened her eyes, looking around to find her dad.  “I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

He raised an eyebrow.  “At only eight o’clock?” he laughed.  “I’m old, but I’m not that old yet, little lady.”

She sighed and walked over to the sofa, pretending that nothing was bothering her even though he’d seen her against the door.  “So what are you reading tonight?” she asked conversationally.

Her dad laughed softly. “Are you really going to try and pretend like you didn’t just come into the house like the demons from hell
were chasing you
?”
  He paused as he took in her flushed cheeks and bright eyes.

She looked at him as if he’d just spoken a
scary
truth that she didn’t
have the courage to
acknowledge. 
Which was exactly the case.
 
When had her father become so aware of human frailties?  He was a genius at guessing when a horse was upset, but she’d always thought he was oblivious when it came to human interactions. 

Taking a deep breath, she pasted a smile on her face and pretended to be relaxed, letting her shoulders drop and her stance widen slightly so she didn’t look like a terrified rabbit hiding from a wily fox. 
“The horses were beautiful.  How long have they been here?” she asked.

Her father smiled and shook his head
, not letting her get away with a subject change
.  “What happened between you and
Rais
?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes and
straightened
up to get herself a cup of
herbal
tea which she knew her father had probably
already prepared
for her.  Sure enough, sitting on the counter was a cup of
peach
tea brewing with steam rising from the
aromatic
liquid.  “He just…” she waved her hand in the air
, trying to put a description to
Rais
that wouldn’t reveal too much about what had just happened
.  “Well, he was his normal self.”

He paused, one eyebrow raised as he watched his daughter carefully. 
“He made a pass at you then?”

She coughed from the sip of peach tea she’d just sipped.  When she finally had her breath back, she looked up at him and shook her head.  “Why would you say that?  I’m like his kid sister, you’ve always said.”

He rolled his eyes
and dropped the magazine he’d been reading
.  “Have you taken a look at yourself lately, Rachel?”

That was an odd question coming from her father.  She looked back at him curiously as she sat back down on the sofa, pretending to be relaxed when all she wanted to do was hide in her room
and try to figure out what had just occurred in the stable between her and
Rais
.  A subject she definitely didn’t want to discuss with her father of all people
. 
“Of course.
  What do you mean?
”

“Then you have to know that
Rais
hasn’t looked at you like a sister since you were about sixteen
or seventeen
years old.”

She glanced at her father, surprised by his comment.  “Why would you say something like that?”
What had she missed over the years?  Had
Rais
said something to her father?  What was she missing?

John smiled at his lovely
but oblivious daughter.  “Rachel, that man has been interested in you for
years
.  The only reason he’s waited this long to do anything about it was because initially you were too young
.  Once you were old enough, I’m pretty sure he would have done something about his interest, but by that time, you were off at college and making darn sure you weren’t here when he visited.
”

With his last comment, she narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.  “Did you trick me into coming here
tonight
?  Knowing that he would be here?”

He was already shaking his head.  “You know me better than that.  I respect your wishes, honey.  But I don’t think you’re being very fair to him.  The two of you used to talk so much I was sometimes jealous of the friendship you had.”

That startled her because she
loved her father, never wanted
to hurt him.  And here he was admitting that the times she’s spent with
Rais
in the past had given him pain. 
“Why didn’t you say something?”
she asked, worriedly looking across the room at him. 

His smile soothed her slightly. 
“Because he was good for you.
  You were more outgoing with his encouragement.  He would say you might be good at something at school and that was all the encouragement you needed.  You went after
whatever he’d suggested
with gusto
and excit
e
ment
.  Sometimes you failed and sometimes you succeeded.  But without his words of encouragement, you wouldn’t even try anything new.  You were such a shy little girl for so long, afraid of your own shadow most times
and nothing I said would change the way you looked at yourself
.”

“That’s not true,” she said
,
not sure if she was denying
Rais
’ influence over her choices or ho
w shy she was as a little girl.

He smiled softly at her and shook his head. 
“Of course it’s true.  And believe it or not, you probably had the same
, surprisingly powerful
influence over him.  I remember the two of you arguing over poverty one afternoon.  I don’t even remember what the argument was about
specifically
but you were pretty firm about what you thought his dad should be doing in
Dunari
.”

She remembered that argument clearly.  It had been a hot afternoon and they’d just come back from riding down to the creek and back.  She was standing in the stables rubbing down her horse and he was standing next to her, helping at times but mostly just
arguing with
everything she said. 
“So?  We argued about a lot of things when I was younger,” she said, fidgeting in her chair
, unable to look him in the eye
. 

Her dad smirked before he said, “Honey, you argued with
Rais
about poverty and
the next week
I read
about
a huge shipment of school books and
pre-packaged
meal
s
heading into the desert villages
of
Dunari
.  Education levels increased in
that country
tenfold
over the five years following your argument.”