“I think you are an incurable optimist. And when it comes to people you love, you make reckless decisions with your heart. I cannot allow you to put yourself at risk. So I intend to sleep here. With you. All night.”
“Here?” she squeaked. She frantically tried to regroup, to think of a way she could still try to escape. Maybe if she waited until he was deeply asleep in the middle of the night... She licked her lips. “So you’re going to sleep where—on those pillows? Or on the carpet, across the doorway of the tent?”
“Sorry. I’m not sleeping on the floor.” Coming closer to her, he smoothed a tendril of hair off her face, looking down at her with something like amusement. “Not when I have a nice big bed.”
She furrowed her brow, then with an irritated sigh, she rolled her eyes. “You mean after all that song and dance about me being your honored guest, you want the bed, while I get the floor?” She folded her arms, scowling.
Then she saw a spot on the floor not too far from the door. He was actually doing her a favor. She brightened. This would be almost too easy! Looking up, she saw his suspicious, searching glance, and tried to rearrange her own face back into a glower. She tossed her head, pretending she was still really, really mad. “Fine. I’ll sleep on the floor like a prisoner. Whatever.”
“I’m afraid that solution is also unacceptable,” Kasimir said gravely, looking down at her with his midnight-blue eyes. “There is only one way I can make sure you do not try to sneak out in the night the moment I am asleep.”
She stared at him in dawning horror.
“We are going to share this bed,” he said huskily.
CHAPTER SIX
“NO WAY!” JOSIE exploded. “I’m not sharing a bed with you!”
She folded her arms and stuck out her chin, glaring at Kasimir in a way that told him everything he needed to know.
He’d been right. She’d been planning to escape.
Narrowing his eyes, Kasimir folded his arms in turn and glared right back at her. “If I cannot trust you, I will keep you next to me all night long.”
She now looked near tears. “You’re being ridiculous!” She unfolded her arms. “Can’t you just trust me not to escape?”
His eyebrow lifted. “Sure. I told you. All you need to do is give me your word of honor.”
Her eyes widened, and then her shoulders sagged as she looked away.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
Kasimir brushed back some long tendrils of light brown hair that had escaped her ponytail. “I know.”
Her brown eyes were bright with misery as she looked back at him. “How did you guess?”
“Ah, kroshka.” He looked down at her trembling pink lips, at her cheeks that were rosy with emotion. “I can see your feelings on your face.” His jaw tightened. “But you saw how deep we are in the desert. Even with your reckless optimism, you cannot think that running away on foot in the middle of the night is a good idea.”
“That wasn’t my plan,” she mumbled.
“If you try to flee, you’ll die. You’ll be swallowed up by the desert and never be found again.”
Her shoulders slumped further, and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I wouldn’t...” She took a deep breath, then lifted her eyes, shining with unshed tears that hit him like a knife beneath his ribs. “I just can’t share a bed with you,” she whispered.
His hands clenched.
“Damn you, can’t you understand?” He had to restrain himself from shaking her. “It’s either share a bed with me, or I’ll tie you up as you were before, and leave you to sleep on the floor!”
She didn’t answer.
“Well?” he said sharply.
“I’m thinking!”
He exhaled, setting his jaw. “I’m not going to seduce you. Surely you know that by now. What more can I do to prove it to you?”
“You don’t have to do anything,” she said in a small voice. “I believe you.”
“Then what are you so afraid of?”
She looked at him in the dim light of the flickering lantern as they stood alone together in his tent.
“But what if I touch you?” she whispered.
Kasimir’s whole body went hard so fast he nearly staggered back from the intensity of his desire. He held his breath, staring down at her as he choked out, “You—”
“Just accidentally, I mean,” she said, her cheeks red. “I might roll over in bed in the middle of the night and put my arms around you while I’m sleeping. Or something. You might wake up and, well, get the wrong idea...”
The wrong idea? Kasimir’s mind was filled with dozens of ideas, and all of them seemed exactly right. He looked at the way she was chewing her full, pink lower lip. A habit of hers. He wanted to lean forward and taste its sweetness for himself. To part her mouth with his own and stroke deep inside with his tongue. To push her back against the blue cushions of the bed, to feel her naked skin against his, and bury himself deep inside her.
“Well, would you?” she said awkwardly. “Or would you know it was all...an innocent mistake?”
Kasimir cleared his throat, forcing the seductive images of her from his mind. “You don’t need to worry,” he said, hoping she didn’t notice the hoarseness of his voice. “I do not make a habit of pouncing on virgins in the middle of the night.”
She stared at him, then gave him a sudden, irrepressible smile that caused a dimple in her cheek. “Why? Is there some other time you prefer to do it?”
She was teasing him! His lips parted in surprise, then he gave a low laugh, shaking his head. “For your information, I’ve never been anyone’s first lover.”
Josie blinked. “Ever?”
“No,” he said softly. “You were my first ‘first’ kiss.”
“I was?”
“And I’ve changed my mind,” Kasimir said in a low voice. “I’m not sorry about kissing you. Because I’ll never forget how it felt.”
For an instant, they looked at each other in the flickering light.
“Nor will I,” she whispered.
The night wind shook noisily against the canvas of the tent, and he forced himself to turn away. “Change for bed.”
“Change clothes in the same tent? Forget it!”
“You can change behind the screen. I won’t look.”
“Can’t you please wait outside?”
“And give you the chance to run off in the dark? No.”
“But I don’t have a nightgown.” She choked out a nervous laugh. “Am I supposed to sleep naked?”
Naked. He squeezed his eyes shut, imagining the full, bare curves of her naked body, hot and smooth beneath his hands. He shuddered, his body aching. He realized he had clenched his hands again. His fists were as hard as the rest of him.
Stop it, he ordered his body, which ignored him. He exhaled.
“Look in that trunk.” He waved his hand behind him without looking towards her. “Over there. They should fit.”
“Really? Thanks.” He heard her go to the trunk and dig through it before she went towards the wooden screen painted with designs of flowers. “I guess I owe you.”
“You can pay me back by not getting yourself killed,” he growled, still not turning around. “What was your plan of escape, anyway?”
“My plan?” When he heard her voice muffled behind the screen, he knew it was safe to turn around. He saw her arms lifting over the top of the painted wooden panels as she pulled off her shirt. She tossed it over the screen, followed by the white lacy bra he’d given her. He swallowed, feeling hot. She gave a low laugh. “You’re right, it was completely stupid. I hadn’t figured out the exact details, but I was going to steal a horse from your pen, fling myself on it and ride bareback into the sunset.”
“Do you have experience with horses?”
“Absolutely none.” She tossed her pants over the top of the screen with a merry laugh. “Now that I’m considering my plan in a more rational light, I’m kind of relieved you figured it out.”
Josie was naked behind the screen—or nearly so, just wearing the lacy white panties he’d had purchased for her in Marrakech. He tried not to think about it. Because in a moment, they’d be lying beside each other in his big bed.
He had the sudden feeling that it was going to be a long night.
“Pretty nightgown,” she mused behind the screen. “And modest, too.”
He was grateful for that, although in his current state of mind he knew he’d be aroused by her even if she was covered from head to toe. Turning away, he pulled off his djellaba, leaving his chest bare, wearing only his lightweight, loose-fitting pants. “Just so you know,” he said, “I generally sleep in the nude.”