The Sheik's Sensuous Trap (5 page)

It wasn’t that she was opposed to marriage.  She just hated the idea of being sold off to someone for political purposes.  She wasn’t a commodity.  Her mother agreed with her and as
Alea
laid in the luxurious bed, she considered the possibility that maybe her father agreed with her as well
, to a point
.  The more she thought about it, the more she thought she was right. Perhaps her father had never called her home because he wanted her to choose her own husband.  He’d found their mother and they’d been extremely happy over the years.  Her older brother had been without a wife and he was five years her senior. 

Alea quickly pulled on her clothes, not even considering a shower although she desperately needed one
after the previous twelve hours
.  Even if she’d known John was out for the next hour, she didn’t want to risk him returning. 

She could not believe what she’d done!  She’d had a one night stand with a man and she didn’t even know his last name!  Alea wished she could bury her head in her hands and curl up into a ball of shame but that would be pointless.  She needed to get out of here fast. 

Biting her lip, she thought about how rude it would be if she simply left.  Turning to the desk filled with papers, she grabbed a
blank
piece and a pen.  Leaving the simple note, she folded it and put it on the bed, feeling satisfied that she wasn’t just slinking off like a prostitute or something. 

Opening the bedroom door, she heard voices down the hallway.  She slipped out, trying to find some way to avoid what was obviously a group of men talking about business.  She heard the Arabic and wondered why they were negotiating oil leases but didn’t stop to hear anything more
, too worried about making her escape before John saw her.  She didn’t want to know what would happen if she ran into him.  Not just the awkwardness, but also the need, which had driven her wild so many times, might rise up again
. 

Luckily she found the kitchen and, from past experience, knew that there was probably a servants
’
elevator
somewhere nearby
.  Snooping through the corners
and opening some of the larger cabinets in the assumption one might be just a fancy cover for an elevator or hidden stairway
, she found it at last. 
She pressed the call button and, thankfully, it was already at the penthouse level. 
Alea breathed a deep sigh of relief as the doors closed on her.  “Thank goodness,” she said out loud
when she was alone and descending from the site of her fall from grace.  She
finally permitted herself a moment to wallow in self-pity.  The tears were quick to follow and she closed
her eyes
, hoping to regain a measure of dignity.  “What have I done?” she whispered, then dropped her head
into her hands
to cover her face, shaking her head, uncaring that her long, black hair was soothing against her shoulders, then forming a curtain of black to hide her reddened cheeks
from the security cameras
. 

The elevator opened smoothly
on
the cellar floor and she quickly found her way out to the street level.  It was a long walk back to campus and, having quit her job two weeks ago so she could concentrate on her studying for finals, she was
just about
out of funds. 
She had money in a bank account her father had provided for her, but wanting to be just a normal student, she hadn’t touched it after her first year away from her family.  Walking home
would be her punishment for her
one
night of passion, she told herself as she hot footed it down the street
toward
her tiny apartment
.  She only had this next week to finish her exams, then she woul
d be finished and off on a hiking and camping trip
before settling back to the life of a princess. 

Alea shuddered at her old life
at the palace
, wishing that things were different. 
She loved the freedom of being a student, hidden among the thousands of other students, none of whom had ever recognized her.  The anonymity
she had enjoyed over
the past five years had been wonderful.  Living in Abdel, she was recognized everywhere.  There was no privacy and her picture was taken constantly, even if she was just smiling to a group of people on the side of the road.  Alea thought it had become ridiculous. 

Being a princess was invasive and difficult. 
But she could do a lot of good, she
reminded
herself. 
Now she would just have to figure out how to avoid marriage to a stranger.  After her exams, she would focus her mind on her arguments to her father.  She’d have to be creative and firm, she told herself.  But she could not allow her father to marry her off to increase a political alliance.  Not after last night, she thought, shuddering at the idea of sleeping with another man. 

Rashid impatiently glanced at his watch.  It was already
two o’clock in the afternoon
.  She should be awake by now.  Ending the conference call, he stood up and walked away, not even excusing himself from the other members of the meeting who were sitting around the large
, polished
table
in the penthouse
. 

Walking down the hallway, he noticed the door to his bedroom open and his gut tightened. 
Instinctively
, he knew something was wrong.  Looking inside, he saw the rumpled bed and the condom wrappers that were on the bedside table but no princess.  His sharp eyes scanned the room to see if she were somewhere else but even her clothes that had been scattered about the place were gone. 

“Dammit,” he cursed and stormed into the room, looking into the bathroom and the closet just to be sure.  It was true, she was gone.  His eyes scanned the room for signs of anything and hit upon her note.  Angrily reaching down to the small scrap of paper on the desk, he read the words that filled him with rage.  “John – thank you for a wonderful night.  A.”  That was all she wrote? 

“Hell!” Walking out of the bedroom, he slammed the door against the woodwork on his way.  “
Maheen
!” he called out for his head of security.  “She’s gone,” he snapped.  “Find her immediately and bring her back.  I want her in this room by dinner time.  Understand?” he said forcefully, his eyes glaring at the man who had been responsible for ensuring the woman’s safety for the past twelve hours.  Now she was gone. 

Rashid didn’t really blame
Maheen
though.  He blamed himself.  He never should have left her alone this morning.  His body tightened at the idea of spending the morning in bed with her but he’d had things to do.  And never in his wildest dreams did he think that the woman would just leave him like this.  Usually it was the other way around, with Rashid having to push the women out the door.  He spent evenings with experienced women, those who understood that the nights were only sex and when the morning came, it was done and they were out of his mind. 

Now that the tables had been turned on him, that a woman had actually left him without notice, he was livid. 

Nothing showed on his face though.  He continued on with his day as if nothing urgent were happening.  Inside, he was constantly looking at his phone to determine if any progress had been made in retrieving his yet to be announced fiancée. 

When dinner came and went with only a brief message from
Maheen
that his security team was “still working on locating Princess Alea”, he wanted to smash something.  Instead, he attended the ballet, and discussed politics and other trivial issues with the other attendees, all the while, thinking up appropriate punishments for the absent woman. 

Back at the penthouse that night, he pulled off his jacket and accepted the cup of coffee his butler had poured for him. 
Sipping coffee with an outward appearance of calm, Rashid heard the report
from
Maheen
with growing frustration
.  “We watched her apartment for hours
today
.  All entrances were in plain sight and there was no sign of her.  We questioned her roommate but the other woman had not heard from Princess Alea since they left for the dance club
the previous evening
.”

“Was her roommate concerned?” he demanded.  Something inside him was clawing, and it was more than anger.  Fear.  He didn’t like it.  But he knew that he was afraid something had happened to her. 

Maheen
instantly shook his head.  “No.  The woman, Leslie Morgan, indicated that she was probably studying somewhere privately since they’d dragged her out against her will last night.”

“Is that normal for her?”

Maheen
nodded somberly, knowing that his king was angrier than he’d ever seen him.  “Apparently the princess is very dedicated to her studies,” he explained, hoping the news would ease the tension somewhat. 

It didn’t.

Rashid gritted his teeth.  “Find her!” he said forcefully. 
“But don’t let her know who I am or why I want to see her.”  He didn’t say anything else.  He didn’t need to.  All of his security team were the elite of the
Ibel
military and could think as well as act.  They understood that Alea’s father had been battling their country for decades and might not agree with the marriage. 

Chapter 4

It took two hours, but she finally made it to her apartment.  Thankfully, her flat mates were out so she was able to shower without the hundreds of questions she knew would be coming
after her disappearance the previous night
.  Scrubbing her body hard, she wished she could erase the memory of John’s touch.  Just thinking about the man’s body and his mouth, touching her everywhere, wanting to do the same back to him, made her hungry for more.  Turning the water to cold, she shivered in the blast of icy water.  How could she want the man when he wasn’t even around?  It was impossible!  She’d always considered herself not really sexual.  Her boyfriends had even thought that. 

What was it about John that made her shiver in anticipation at just the thought of him touching her? 

She shut off the water and toweled herself dry, then pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt.  She’d just bury herself in her studies.  That
had
always worked before.
Hurrying out of the apartment, afraid her friends would come in at any moment, she grabbed her books and laptop and headed out, her direction was the library, but at the last minute, decided that the cafeteria might be a better choice.  The
con
stant noise of the other students usually helped her focus. 

Unfortunately,
several
hours later, she still was having problems concentrating. 
She realized that she’d spent the majority of her day staring into space reliving last night.  Sighing, she looked around at her surroundings. 
It was dark outside now, probably late, she thought, not sure what time it was since she’d forgotten to put on her watch
in her rush to leave her apartment
.
  How that had happened, she wasn’t sure.  She always put her watch on the side of the sink before taking a shower.  Thinking back, she gasped in horror.
  Slapping her forehead, she realized that her watch was still at John’s house. 
That watch had been a present from her father on her sixteenth birthday, she thought sadly. 

Packing up her books when she knew that it was a pointless endeavor to continue
trying to study
,
Alea walked slowly back to her apartment
.  T
he bag of books on her shoulder
was
heavy and weighing her down as much as her recriminating thoughts. 

“What’s wrong?” Cindy, one of her friends from class asked as she
caught up with
Alea along the campus sidewalk.

Cindy was a petite blond with dimples and one of the most outgoing personalities Alea had ever met.  She was vivacious and cheerful, sometimes in spite of an overwhelming work load since she attended classes full time and was usually working at least two jobs. 
“Oh, men problems
,”
Alea said, sighing as she shifted the books onto her other shoulder.

Cindy giggled. 
“Yeah, I know the feeling.  Well, there’s nothing that a little pizza and beer can’t handle, right?”