The Sheik's Reluctant Lover (4 page)

Her eyes widened at his announcement and she felt weak, shaky
enough that she needed to
put her cup of tea on the small, wooden table beside the sofa. “That doesn’t mean I had the influence to change his mind.”
  She said that disclaimer softly, as if she were worried about speaking them too loudly. 

John groaned.  “Why are you so powerfully against the man?  You didn’t used to be this closed minded.”

She sighed and pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.  “I don’t like who he is now, Dad.  Can’t we just leave it at that?”

Her father was silent, thinking things over in his mind.  “Why don’t you call it a night?  You look pretty tired.”

She was exhausted
and relieved to have a break from this conversation
so she smiled and stood up
quickly to escape
.  She washed out her tea cup, grabbed her bag from
the floor where she’d dumped it earlier then walked over to her father.  “Good night, dad,” she said and kissed him on the
cheek
. 

I
n her tiny room that barely had enough room for
a bed and a dresser, she got ready for
sleep
,
then
curled up under the warm blankets
, ready to just lose herself in
slumber
so she didn’t have to think about what her father had revealed to her tonight. 

Unfortunately, no matter how tired she was, she couldn’t find the escape of sleep.  She kept goi
ng over the evening, the almost-
kiss with
Rais
, her father’s comments about how
Rais
might have steered her life
, the way she’d felt when he was close to her and made her whole body shiver with excit
e
ment
.  She thought about the conversations they’d had together while she’d been growing up but too many times, those memories were interrupted by images of
Rais
with a long-haired beauty in his arms, kissing her in the stables or wherever they happened to be.  She hated him for all of those women.  And for being so handsome and incredibly male that she hadn’t seriously dated any man
herself
.  She’d dated, of course.  And she’d kissed many of her dates.  But it hadn’t ever gone further than that.  She just couldn’t become intimate with a man who left her feeling lukewarm at best when she knew that just the thought of
Rais
made her feel things that no man had ever even come close to engendering within her. 

Damn him!  Why couldn’t he just stay out of her life?  She’d been doing so well!  She even had a man she was interested in that worked in her building. 
As an even planner i
t was a bit harder to date when most of her Friday and Saturday nights were taken up with overseeing parties and weddings.  But she’d been smiling at a handsome man in her
office
building, someone who was
kind
and made an effort to speak to her in the elevator.  He was nice, normal and didn’t rule a powerful country.  In other words, he was in her league and she could have a future with him. 
Potentially.

She felt the
firm
lips on hers and sighed with happiness. “
Rais
,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer.  When she felt his hands on her waist, she grabbed his wrist and moved his hand higher, pressing his
palm
against her breast and arching into that caress. 

“Rachel,” she heard him groan and she smiled as she kissed him again, deeper, her mouth pressing against his. When she felt him pull away, she shook her head and cried out for him not to leave her again.  With a groan, he kissed her back, hard, taking charge of the kiss and sending shivers throughout her whole body. 

The dream was wonderful, she thought.  This had to be the best dream of
Rais
she’d ever had and it melted her mind, fizzled electricity through her toes and she wanted to sleep forever.  But his hand was moving on her breast and that made her…not really uncomfortable.  That wasn’t the word.  It made her hot.  She kicked the blankets off of her and tried to cool down, but the heat only increased. 

“Hot,” she sighed
and pressed herself against the heat, rubbing her body against his hard length.  “Too hot,” she gasped.

Rais
shook his head, trying to clear it from the desire that was surging through him.  He pulled away, only to have her hands pull her down again. “Rachel,” he growled, not sure how to handle this.  She was still half asleep and, even knowing that, he wanted desperately to take advantage of her soft sighs and her sweet, warm body. 

“Rachel, you have to wake up,” he said and pulled his hand away from her perfect breast covered in only a thin, blue camisole.  She wore nothing but this top and her underwear and looked like any man’s dream woman.  All her curves were on display and when she pushed those blankets down, he was able to look at her slender waist, her slightly curved stomach and those hips that ended with her long, strong legs with muscles built up through years of riding and tough chores. 

He told himself to look away, but this woman had been the subject of his fantasies for so long, he just couldn’t help but drink his fill.  She was even lovelier than he’d imagined and he wanted to bend down and kiss her, to taste her and feel her wiggle underneath him. 

“Don’t want to wake up,” she sighed, and ran a hand down his chest.

Rais
caught her hand moments before she reached his erection that was pressing against his riding pants and he had to stand up and walk out of her bedroom.  In the kitchen, he braced his hands against the countertop, breathing hard and willing
himself
to regain control of his body.  Knowing that she was in that bedroom, less than five feet away with barely any clothes on
was painfully hard to resist
.  And
what made the whole situation
worse
was
that she wanted him.  Possibly just as much as he wanted her!  That was pure torture!  Damn her!  Why had she stayed away so long?  Why had she hidden from him?  If she felt this way about him, she should have done something about it years ago! 

He was furious with her for staying away, for denying them this attraction they felt for each other.  He’d been aching for just the sight of her for six long years and all this time, she’d been feeling the same
way?  He’d be damned if he would hold back now!  He thought about last night, when she’d turned and practically ran away from him he’d thought she might not feel that way about him.  He’d gotten the signals from her from the moment she’d walked into her dad’s house but when she’d run away, he’d thought that maybe he’d misunderstood. 

Now he knew better and she wasn’t going to pull away from him any longer!  No way! 

All those other men she’d had in the past….the men who had taught her to do those things she’d just done to him….he’d make them disappear from her mind.  No man was going to occupy that woman’s mind but him! 

He heard movement behind her door and closed his eyes, reigning in that temper and the lust just in time.  She opened the door, pulling on her thin,
cotton
robe at the same time.

When she saw him, she yelped and almost jumped back into her bedroom, but instead, she pulled herself together and finished tying the robe closed, even clenching the neckline with one hand while she stood there in her bedroom doorway looking at him warily. 

Rachel was so startled to see
Rais
in her dad’s kitchen that she almost dove back into her bedroom.  After dreaming such vivid scenes of him making love to her she felt stunned to see him in the flesh like this. 
He was ruggedly handsome with
a darkness
in his eyes that always fascinated her.  This morning, it seemed to be stronger.  There was something about him that was….almost magnetizing her eyes to his physique.  Perhaps she was just imagining things after that dream that had felt so….real!

“What are you doing here?” she
asked,
her voice hoarse and dry.  She needed coffee desperately, but she’d have to go around him to reach the coffee on the counter. 
After the dream she’d just had, she didn’t want to get too close to him, afraid of what she might do.  She was still shaking from the impact of that dream
and her body was almost humming in anticipation
. 

Rais
looked at her, taking in her long legs and her messed up hair. She looked like she’d just made love with passionate abandon and he had to close his eyes or lose that control again.  He took a deep breath and when he opened them again, he was back in control.  “We were going riding this morning.”

She shook her head and backed away.  “No.  I’m not going riding today.  I’m going to help my dad in the stables.”

He put his hands on his hips
, shaking his head at her rejection while his grin grew wider
.
  She was challenging him and he thought she was adorable.  He would win her over but he was going to enjoy the chase.
  “You agreed to go riding with me last night.  That’s why I’m here.  So go pull on riding clothes and
let’s
get out of here.”  He stopped and his smile turned lethal.  “Unless there’s something
more interesting that
you’d rather do inside.”
  He paused to let his words sink in before he said, “I’m open to suggestions.”

She gasped and shook her head. “
Rais
, I’d really rather not go…”

“Too bad.
  You either come riding with me right now, and believe me, I have a great deal of…energy…to work off,” he said, using the term diplomatically because he was still in a rage about the
idea of another man touching her perfect, beautiful body, “Or I’ll take that as an invitation that you want me to stand here and think of other things to do with you.”

She gasped at his suggestion, her eyes wide with the possibilities.  But before she could go much further, he took a step towards her and she yelped before diving back into her room. 

“Ten minutes Rachel.  You have ten minutes and then I’m coming in after you.”

She flew into the bathroom and showered, not bothering to wash her hair because she didn’t have that kind of time.  She didn’t think
Rais
would really come in
to fetch her in ten minutes
.  H
e’d always acted like a gentleman when he was around her in the past
but something told her not to challenge him
today
.
She wasn’t sure he was willing to offer that same gentlemanly behavior this morning.  That look in his eyes told her that he appeared to be a man on the edge of a dangerous emotion
and she had absolutely no idea how to deal with whatever was bothering him
. 

She showered and dried off in record time, her eyes flying to the clock every few seconds to
gauge
her progress.  She pulled on a pair of old riding pants and was just slipping her arms into
the sleeves of an old, flannel shirt
when the door to her bedroom flew open.  She swung around while her fingers fumbled with the buttons, trying to close her shirt.  “That wasn’t ten minutes
Rais
!” she snapped at him. 

He chuckled and walked further into her bedroom.  “I realized that you didn’t have any coffee this morning so I was trying to be nice and bring you some.”  He set the cup on the dresser then backed up, but not completely.  “Cream and sugar, right?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited for her to finish buttoning her flannel shirt.

“Fine!” she snapped, not even thanking him since he’d barged in here like that. 

“You’ll need a sweater,” he commented when she turned around and took a sip of the coffee.  “It’s cooler outside than normal.”  His eyes lit on her shirt, enjoying the way the buttons gaped in the center where her breasts pushed against the material.  “I like the black lace, by the way.”

She smacked her hand over her breasts, knowing exactly what he was looking at.  The shirt was one of her older ones and she’d filled out more than she’d realized
over the years
.  “Go away,” she growled and set her cup back
down
on the dresser
with a thud
.  She pulled a large sweatshirt out of the top of her closet and pulled it over her head before turning back to him.  “My boots aren’t in here,” she said and left, leaving him standing in her bedroom.

Rais
watched her walk out of her room, knowing that she was furious with him.  He thought it was cute the way her eyes flashed and her chin jutted out.  No one ever dared to show their anger at
him, afraid of losing their job
or even their life.  With a snap of his fingers, he could have someone imprisoned for life but this slender beauty didn’t care.  She gave as
good
as she got and he thought it was adorable.  Even sexy!