The Sheik's Sensuous Trap (6 page)

Alea laughed.  “I don’t think so.  Nothing can help tonight.”
  She smiled
at Cindy
despite her misery and realized that she had made a wonderful group of friends at school.  They were all genuine and caring, unlike the backstabbing political atmosphere she’d grown up in. 

Undeterred, Cindy grinned, her eyes twinkling
playfully. 
“Well, why not try it?” she suggested and then looped her arm through Alea’s and dragged her in the direction of her own apartment which was only a block away.  “We’ll get Leslie and the group together and watch a sappy movie and by the end of it, we’ll all be crying and will drown our tears in
chocolate
.”

Alea laughed and followed, not really wanting to be alone tonight anyway. 
S
he allowed Cindy to pull her along
, grateful for the large group of women already hanging out in Cindy’s apartment. 

She slept fitfully that night
on Cindy’s beaten but comfortable sofa
, the thoughts of the day moving into her dreams, but much more erotically. 

The week that followed was stressful with exams, but to top that off, she
suspected
she was being followed.  She was moving from class to class on Monday and thought she saw a strange man standing outside her
classroom door
. 
At
the first sign of danger, she knew she should call her father and tell him, but that would result in
one of
two possibilities.  Neither would be good.  The first would be that he would fly her body guards out here to watch over her.  But since it had taken
the first
two years
of attending university
to convince her father that
her guards
were unnecessary
, even intrusive
, she didn’t want to call him up and admit that they were
needed and ruining
her last week of freedom.  The other possibility was worse.  She would immediately be flown home without the final days to pass her exams. 

So she took matters into her own hands.  There were four days left before she was done.  She used all her skills and disguised herself as she walked through classes, blending in as her body guards had taught her, using glasses and even different hats, inconspicuous clothes
to help her
lose herself among
the crowds of other students
.  It actually worked, she thought, smiling as she walked easily past the four men who were literally scratching their heads in an effort to find her.  It only confirmed her
suspicions
that she was being followed so she was extra careful, staying at friends’ houses or apartments, explaining that her flat mates had me
n
sleeping over, a situation everyone understood and appreciated, more than willing to let Alea sleep on their couches in the hopes that
she
would do the same for them in the near future. 

On the day of her last exam, it was a thrilling moment.  Closing her exam booklet, she sighed with satisfaction, knowing that she’d done extremely well on all of her
tests
, despite a large, male body creeping constantly into her thoughts. 

Handing in her exam, she pulled the non-descript hood up over her black hair, slipped the
tinted
glasses over her eyes and reapplied the tan lipstick.  As she stepped out of the classroom, she saw the man look up from his newspaper, then back down again, ignoring her completely.  Smiling excitedly, she walked down the sidewalk, almost skipping in her excitement since she was finally finished with her courses. 

“Are you ready?” Cindy asked as soon as Alea walked into
her
apartment. 

“More than ready,” Alea replied
, dropping her book bag by the door with relief and excitement
.  “
Leslie has
everything all packed up
for me,” she explained.  All her friends knew that she was avoiding her apartment but none of them understood completely the reason
s
. 
“
We leave this afternoon, right?”

“Right,” Cindy confirmed, stuffing her sleeping bag into the top of her backpack. 

Eight of them were heading off to the wilderness this afternoon, eager to get away from the pressures of exams and into the freedom of nothingness.  Alea sank into the beaten up sofa that was comfortable, but had definitely seen better days.  “Are you sure you’re going to be able to get that in?” she asked, amused when her friend was almost out of breath from the exertion her sleeping bag provided.

“Absolutely.”

“What do you have in there?  We’re only going for three days.  You should have four pairs of clothes, a toothbrush and sleeping bag.  What else do you need?” Alea asked, noticing the bulging pack.  “You have to carry this around, you know.  We’re hiking, not driving somewhere to a camp ground.”

“Yes, but we need the essentials.  Makeup, brush, tennis shoes.
  Besides, I’m only going to be there for one night.  I have to get back home tomorrow to work but I didn’t want to miss out on the first, fun night.  Besides, one day’s delay won’t make my new boss too crazy,
”
she laughed.  With one final push, she was successf
ul with her sleeping bag
and smiled triumphantly at Alea. 

Alea rolled her eyes.  “You’re kidding, right? 
First of all, we’re hiking more than five miles to the sight.  You’re going to head up there today, only to leave tomorrow?  Secondly, why are you bringing your make up for a ten mile hike?  T
here won’t even be a mirror to put your makeup on.  Why would you bring it?”

“Because Roger is going to be there.  And I’ll be dammed if I’m going to let him see me without makeup,” she said forcefully,
pushing a soft, fluffy sweater
into the top of her backpack.

Alea shook her head and thought for a moment.  She would probably do the same if John were around. 
“Well, suit yourself, but
it’s
a tough hike to the top of the ridge,” she said, referring to the site they had picked out earlier in the month. 

Within the next two hours, all eight of them were packed up and waiting for the van.  Alea looked around nervously and sure enough, she saw the
men who had been following her around campus
.  There were four of them, all walking
toward
her.  One of them was speaking into a cell phone and Alea panicked.  “Um, could we move a little faster?” she asked.

The others
picked up on the note of panic in her voice and
looked
across to where she was looking.  Everyone
noticed the men
walking in their direction and looked back Alea with concern
.  “Friends of yours?” Adam asked curiously.

Alea shivered in fear, all the stories of kidnapping coming back to haunt her as the dangerous looking men approached their group intently. 
“I don’t think they are anyone’s friends,” she said quickly and handed him her backpack. 

Her
four
male friends
started doing their he-man poses, assuming they would be able to take the other four.  Alea knew better. 
She was touched by their confidence as well as their instinctive plan to defend her.  Unfortunately, the four men approaching the van were obviously trained military personnel.  From experience, she knew that i
f they were trying to corner her for some reason, they would be extremely well trained in just about any form of fighting
not to mention having weapons concealed under their dark suits
.  A scruffy group of college students would not even tax their abilities.  “Guys, I don’t think standing up to them would be the best option.  Perhaps just driving away and leaving them in our dust would be a better plan,” Alea cautioned. 

Fortunately,
as the strangers came a little closer,
her friends
received
a better view of the
four men
as well as their bulging muscles
and other, non-human, bulges,
underneath the suits. 
Her friends
all smiled gamely
, well versed in the James Bond type scenario, at least in theory
. 
“Well, let’s show them how
it’s
done,” Bruce said, catching onto the situation and smiling, obviously relish
ing the idea of losing the four
dangerous looking
men. 

Alea was more worried than she would let on.  Smiling, she looked up into Bruce’s soft face.  “Think you can do it?” she laughed
tightly, hoping it didn’t come across as forced as it had sounded
to her own ears
.  “I think they are professionals.”

Bruce looked down into her laughing face and sighed.  “You have the strangest life, Alea,” he replied. 
Then he smiled. 
“But I don’t think I’m going to let a challenge slide.”

He tossed her backpack into the van, then lifted her up as well, putting her more gently into the recesses of the large vehicle.  “There you go,” he said and did the same for the rest of the girls.  Less than
thirty seconds
later, all eight of them were packed up and, before everyone even was settled into a seat, the van was moving down the street away from the four men who had increased the pace of their steps to catch them. 

“Uh oh, Alea,” Cindy said as she stared out the back of the van.  “I think your rich daddy is not going to like this,” she laughed. 

Alea looked out the back windows as well and shivered.  She knew her security detail and those men were definitely not part of it.  “Those aren’t my father
’
s men,” she said, confirming for the first time since she’d met this group that her father was indeed wealthy enough to hir
e body guards for her.  For six
years, she’d laughed away her friends’ jokes about their suspicions regarding her social status. 
Sh
e didn’t deny them, but nor
had
she
ever
confirm
ed
them, preferring not to lie but also
wanting to
remain anonymous for as long as possible. 

As the miles passed with no sign of someone trailing them, Alea finally relaxed.  They arrived at their
launch
site earlier than anticipated and laughing
ly
spilled out into the parking lot.  As everyone hefted their backpacks onto their backs, she was relieved to be able to disappear into the forest. 
No one would be able to find her out here, she thought to herself, laughing with the group as they all hefted their supplies into the wild outdoors. 

Five hours later, they found the perfect campsite and Alea gladly pulled h
er backpack off her shoulders, instantly feeling the relief as she walked around
without the heavy pack.  It had
seemed so light down at the parking lot.  But after several miles uphill, the weight became something different altogether.

The group was divided up, with half of them assigned to search out firewood, while the other half was given the task of preparing dinner.  Alea was in the firewood group. She happily went off in search of sticks and old logs, glad to have time away from the prying eyes of whoever had been tailing her all week.  She realized that, although it had been exciting
to outmaneuver them
, it had also been stressful.  She picked up a good sized log, brushing off a spider as she wondered about who the men might have been
working for
.  All her life, she’d been brought up with the fear of kidnapping.  But these men didn’t appear to be kidnappers.  She’d never actually met one before, but had always thought of them as less savory people.  The men tailing her all week had been dressed casually, obviously in an attempt to blend in as students, but her trained eye caught them easily.  And the four men this morning had been in dark suits, not even trying to blend in at all. 

Who were they?  Who did they work for?  Why had they been so intent this morning while the o
t
her men hadn’t shown a strong desire to tail her until she disappeared into her disguises
?  Was
there more than one group after her?  She’d fallen out of the political world so she wasn’t sure what was now happening at home.  Had something happened to her father?  Was something wrong?