The Sheik's Reluctant Lover (5 page)

When he walked out, he was treated to a view of her cute bottom while she bent over, trying to pull her riding boots on.  She stumbled and he thought about reaching out to steady her, more than willing to help.  She must have read his mind because she swung around and glared at him.  He knew he was
caught staring at her but didn’t care.  He even smiled and continued to run his eyes over her slim figure, loving the way
her cheeks turned even more colorful
with each passing moment. 

“Don’t you have things to do?  Wars to start or villages to plunder?” she asked as she stomped her foot one more time to get the boot fully on. 

He chuckled at her taunt, enjoying her dry wit. 
“I’ll plunder tomorrow.  Today, I’m completely free, and ready to entertain feisty brunettes.”

Rachel glared at him, wondering if he’d meant to imply the double entendre.  “Let’s ride,” she said and pulled the front door to the cottage open.  “I’m not spending the day with you
though
,” she argued.  “I’m here to spend the weekend with my dad so you’re just out of luck.”

Rais
smiled and followed
her out the door
, enjoying the view. 

The horses were already saddled and were walking around one of the
corral
s.  At the first sight of Rachel a
nd
Rais
coming down the pathway
her horse
,
Dolce, hurried over towards her, eager to be reunited with her companion.  Rachel greeted her horse, petting her and loving her, telling her ho
w beautiful she was, her hands
sliding over the flanks of the horse to make sure that the stable hand had saddled her properly.  Her father had given her this beauty when she was fourteen and Dolc
e was getting up in the years but she was still a really wonderful horse. 

“Wouldn’t you like a younger ride?”
Rais
asked, already knowing the answer.  A rider and horse with that kind of commitment wouldn’t want to be exchanged for a newer model.  He could tell they were inseparable. 

“
Shh
!” she snapped at him, running her hands over
Dolce’s
long, shiny neck
.  “Don’t say things like that!
  You’ll hurt her feelings.”  She turned to the horse and reassured her with soft words.  “Don’t listen to the bad man,
sweetie
.  He’s just mean and horrible.”

Rais
rolled his eyes, but he was amused by her characterization of him.  “Mean and horrible?  I don’t think anyone has actually said that to my face, or even in my hearing before.”

“Oh, they say it,” she said
with a grin
as she walked Dolce out of the
corral
and pulled herself up onto
Dolce’s
back
on one graceful movement before she turned to look down at him from her new
height
.  “You just probably put them in prison for it, don’t you?” With that, she laughed and nudged the horse with her knees and off they were down the pathway. 

Rais
watched
her ride away
, always mesmerized by the sight of Rachel on her horse.  They were like one, he thought.  Both of them knew exactly what the other was thinking and it was a stunning sight.  Rachel’s hair flew out behind her back and she barely held onto the reigns, letting them hang loose while she controlled the horse with
those incredible legs of hers
. 

When she turned the corner in the path and headed out of sight,
Rais
realized that he’d just been standing there like a lovesick idiot while she rode away.  He
chuckled but
remedied
the situation
quickly by pulling himself up on his stallion, turning him in the direction she’d just disappeared into.  He caught up to her easily since his stallion was much younger and stronger than her mare.  He didn’t even mind
riding behind her, enjoying the view of her bottom bouncing on the saddle as she pushed the horse to a trot. 

They rode through their usual paths, down by the creek, up through the pastures and along the river.  The path hadn’t been used as often, but it was still there. 

When they reached the creek once again, he pulled up beside her and
gently
pulled at
Dolce’s
reigns, slowing her down until they were stopped.  

“Why did you do that?”
Rachel
asked
,
refusing to get down from the mare’s back. 

Rais
wasn’t having any of that.  He jumped down from his stallion and came around to her.  When she refused to come down, he simply reached up and lifted her off the horse. 

“I wasn’t finished riding,” she said angrily
and pushed her way out of his arms
.

“Let’s walk,” he said, ignoring her comment. 

She sighed and let Dolce nibble on the grass next to the other horse.  “Why?” she asked and took several steps backwards.  The sun was starting to warm up the air and her sweatshirt was getting a bit
too
hot, but she couldn’t pull it off because she knew her shirt was too small underneath. 

“Tell me about your job,” he said and pulled a leaf off of the tree. 

She did the same, examining the veins on the leaf as she
absently
walked beside him.  “What do you want to know?”

He shrugged slightly as he looked down onto her shiny hair. 
“Everything.
  It’s been years since we talked like this
and I remember how you would change your career goals about every month when you were a kid
.
  You wanted to be everything ranging from a gourmet chef, neurosurgeon or gardener who would save the world.  Besides, I miss talking to you.  It’s been too long.
”

Rachel knew he was right, but s
he didn’t want to talk to him.  She didn’t want to even be near him.  This morning felt like old times, before she realized what he meant to her and before he hurt her by being with so many other women.  “I plan parties.  I help others figure out what they want and
get it for them.”

He heard the resistance in her voice but wasn’t going to accept defeat.  He wanted to get to know the woman she’d become and he usually got what he wanted. 
“And do you enjoy that kind of work?”

She shrugged, afraid to give him any insight into her life.  He could use it to hurt her in some way
so she was as evasive as possible
. 
She stopped along the path and turned to face him, squinting up at him despite the sunshine. 
“
Rais
, what do you want from me?”

He leaned against a tree and looked
down
at her. 
He thought of several different ways he could answer her question, but rejected each of them, deciding instead to be bluntly honest with her. 
“I want you.”

She
blinked at his response
, not sure she heard him correctly.  “Excuse me?”

He almost laughed at her stunned reaction, but held back so she would know that he was completely serious about what he was about to say. 
“I want you, in my bed.  Naked and calling out to me, as excited to be with me as I am to be with you.”

She couldn’t believe how
direct
he was but she should have known better.  “That’s impossible,” she said softly and started walking again. 

“Why?”
he asked as he fell into step with her. 

“Why what?” she asked.  She couldn’t help it, but the idea of having sex, not just with
Rais
, but with any man, was terrifying. 
She had a deep dread of the sexual act, afraid of the pain and humiliation of it all.  And sex with
Rais
?  That would be even more terrifying, even if she knew that their relationship had a future, which it didn’t since
Rais
wasn’t the kind of man to have just one woman in his life. 

“Why would a relationship between the two of us be impossible?” he clarified.
They were walking along
a
path that went in and out of the sunshine as they passed under trees, stepped over rocks and jumped the creek as the path wound its way through the woods along the border of his property. 

She had to laugh at his question
as she balanced one foot on a rock before jumping onto another, keeping her feet out of the quickly flowing water
.  “Well, first of all, you were just talking about sex which isn’t a relationship, I’m sorry to inform you.  But secondly, you don’t do relationships,
Rais
.  You’re not a one woman kind of man and I don’t really enjoy being just another in a long line of
women in your life.”

He thought about that for a moment and nodded.  She had some valid concerns and he could easily explain away those women, but he didn’t want to frighten her.  He had to show her that she could trust him. 
“So if I were to declare fidelity to
you, that
would reassure you of my intentions?”

She glanced up at him, then away.  “No
Rais
.  We’re not going down that road.”  She abruptly turned around and headed back to the horses, intending to ride back to the stables and start brushing down Dolce. 

“Where are you going?”

“This conversation is finished. I have things to do.”

She heard him behind her only moments before he grabbed her arm and spun her around.  “So do
I
,” he said.  A moment later, his mouth covered hers, obliterating her admonishment for him to leave her alone. 

She stood still for all of one second, maybe only half that time, before she whimpered and her arms went around his neck, her fingers holding on
to his shirt
tightly because she wasn’t sure what to do.  This seemed so familiar to her, like it had just happened a few hours ago but that was impossible.  She couldn’t help but kiss him back, feeling her body ignite as his hands moved around her waist and pulled her against his hard body.  She’d never felt anything like this, her whole mind shut down from reality while he kissed her.  His tongue moved inside her mouth, tangling with hers and driving her more insane, heating her up even higher with a need she didn’t really understand. 

He pulled away for a moment, both of them staring at each other as if to gauge the other’s reactions, their breathing heavy and labored. 
“We can’t do this,
Rais
,” she
finally
whispered, but her body pressed against his, her mouth opened to scream out but nothing
happened
as
his head dipped down again towards her,
his mouth explored her neck, her ear, finding little places that made her shiver and go crazy. 

“We seem to be doing it quite well already,” he replied, his hand moving underneath her sweatshirt, then under her shirt to finally find her soft skin. 

“This isn’t right,” she sighed
and shivered when she felt his hand against her skin, the rough calluses creating a delightful texture that she hadn’t expected possible
.

“It’s very right.”  He pulled her hand down and pressed her palm against his heart.  “This is what you do to me,” he said and pushed her
backwards
, looking down at her the whole time.  “I want you, Rachel.  I think you’r
e one of the most beautiful and intriguing wome
n I’ve ever met in my life.”

If he hadn’t stopped touching her, she might have been lost.  But his words didn’t sound right.  They felt practiced and insincere.  Maybe it was her suspicious nature, or perhaps it was just too close to what she wanted to hear.  But the words were like a cold bucket of water over her libido.  “Is that what you used to whisper to all those other women?  The ones you used to bring out to your house and make love to in the stables or near the rose garden?” she asked, her eyes focused and her hand steady even if her heart was still pounding away. 

He lifted his head and looked down at her, trying to translate her words.  “I’ve never said those things to another woman,” he replied.

She watched him, won
dering if he was sincere or again
telling her what she wanted to hear.  “That’s a shame.  You might have made more progress in working your way through the female population if you had used those lines.  They’re very pretty.”

She pushed away from him, standing up
straight
and stepping back.  She was relieved that he allowed her the space because she was on the borderline between just letting him continue, wanting to know what all those other women knew.  She wanted to feel what they experienced just once in her lifetime. 
With this man.
 

She knew she was close to giving in, to throwing caution to the wind and begging him to make love to her
despite the fears that were always lurking in the back of her mind
.  Thankfully, sanity prevailed
and she took a deep breath to steady herself. 
“I have to go,” she said, hurrying over to Dolce so she wouldn’t change her mind.