CHAPTER NINE
WHEN HANNAH WOKE it was light and she was alone.
She felt the bed beside her—it was still warm. She gave a wistful sigh. She hadn’t expected him to be there but it would have been...no, nice was not part of their relationship. Though yesterday she would have said the same about sex. It was crazy, in a good way, that the area of this marriage she’d thought would be hardest—that she had been dreading—turned out to be the easiest and the most pleasurable.
She gave a voluptuous sigh and smiled. It had been easy, natural, and totally incredible.
She sat up suddenly, her eyes flying wide in dawning alarm. She was assuming that it would be happening again soon and often. But what if last night wasn’t going to be something that happened regularly? While she hadn’t known what she was missing, celibacy had been easy—but now she did know. She gave an anxious sigh.
It would be...terrible. One night and Kamel was her drug of choice; she was a total addict.
She showered and dressed in record time, wondering if she should just come out and ask him. She was on her way to see Sarah when she literally bumped into him. He was dressed in running shorts and a tee shirt and looked so gorgeous that she was struck dumb.
‘I’ve been running.’
She nodded, and thought that there really was such a thing as being paralysed with lust. If she’d stayed in bed, would he have walked in? Her eyelids drooped as she imagined him peeling off his top and—
‘And you are...?’ he prompted.
Hannah started guiltily, the colour rushing to her cheeks. ‘I’m going to see Sarah, and Olive and the puppies.’
‘Sarah?’
‘The cook...but she’s more than that. I’ll be ready for the flight.’
‘I’m sure you will. See you then.’
He actually saw her much sooner. He had showered and was beginning to wade through his emails when he heard her bedroom door slam, quite loudly. A slamming door was not in itself indicative of a problem. He cut off the pointless line of speculation and focused on work. Luckily his ability to ignore distractions was almost as legendary as his reputation for zero patience for those undisciplined individuals who brought their personal lives into the workplace.
Five minutes later he closed his laptop, realising that in the interests of efficiency it would save time if he just went and checked she was all right.
He didn’t ask. It was obvious she wasn’t.
‘What’s wrong?’
Hannah stopped pacing and turned around. ‘Nothing.’
He arched a brow.
‘I can’t tell you.’ She pressed a fist to her mouth.
He walked over, removed her fist and said calmly, ‘What can’t you tell me?’
‘I walked in on Sarah with Dad, They were...’ her eyes slid towards the bed ‘...you know.’
Kamel blinked. ‘You walked in on your father having sex with the cook?’
She covered her ears with her hands. ‘Don’t say it out loud!’
Kamel fought back a smile. ‘It always comes as a shock to a child when they learn their parents have sex.’
‘I know my father has sex. I just don’t want to see it!’
This time he couldn’t fight the smile. ‘It’s going to be tough for him—’
‘No, they didn’t see me. That really would be awful. No, the door was half open and...’ She stopped, closed her eyes and shook her head, shuddered. ‘I backed out and ran.’
‘I imagine you did.’ His lips quivered.
‘This isn’t funny,’ she protested.
Unable to stop himself, Kamel began to laugh.
A laugh bubbled in her throat. ‘I want to delete the image from my mind. I really do.’ The laugh escaped.
Five minutes later Hannah was all laughed out, and Kamel was sprawled on the bed, one arm under his head, telling her that when he had walked in he had thought there had been some major disaster.
‘Your face! Honestly it was...’ He sat up and sighed. ‘I should get back to it. I’ve got a stack of—’
‘I’m sorry I stopped you working.’
He gave a sudden grin. ‘No, you’re not.’ He patted the bed beside him and leaned back against the pillows.
Hannah came across the room, hesitating only a moment before she manoeuvred herself to sit straddling him.
‘I like your thinking,’ he purred, his eyes flaring hot as she pulled the top over her head. ‘I like other things even more.’
* * *
‘Are you all right?’