If Kamel ever found himself faced with an angry and unreasonable woman he generally removed himself from that scene. By choice he avoided women likely to indulge in scenes, but you couldn’t always tell and it paid to have a plan B.
He should have walked. She was asking him to explain his actions, and no woman had ever done that.
Looking into her eyes was like staring straight into a storm. Though storms were preferable to thinking too much about the flash of desperate hurt he had seen in those shimmering depths. Crazily, of all the emotions he was struggling to contain the one that rose to the surface—the compelling urge to wipe that hurt away. It made no sense. It had been her decision to enact a Greek tragedy when given the same circumstances most women would have chosen to tactfully ignore it.
‘Look. I’m sorry that the room was not cleared. I’ll have t—’
‘You’re crazy if you think I am going to sleep in that bedroom with you!’
His jaw tightened. ‘You know something? I’m starting to feel quite nostalgic for Hannah the ice queen.’ He jammed his thumbs into the waistband of his shorts and glared at her. ‘Just what is your problem, anyway? I had a sex life before we were married.’ He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. ‘Having sex does not make me some sort of weird pervert. Most people would think that it makes me a lot more normal than a woman who is so uptight and controlling that she saves herself for marriage.’
‘So now I’m not normal? Well, let me ease your mind on one thing. I sure as hell wasn’t waiting for you!’
‘And yet, you can’t get enough of me in bed.’
‘It’s the novelty value.’
He clenched his teeth and glared at the gold gown in her hands. ‘Give me that damned thing.’
She looked into his dark eyes and felt the answering passions surface. Heart thudding like a trip hammer, she ignored the hand extended to her and shook her head.
‘You’re being very childish. I have had other women. This can hardly be a surprise to you.’
Of course it wasn’t—so why the hell was she acting like this?
‘I don’t give a damn about your girlfriends!’ she contended, snapping her fingers to show how little she cared. ‘You can have a damned harem for all I care!’
‘I’m glad you explained that. So this—’ his hand sketched a toe-to-head line in the air ‘—is someone who doesn’t care a jot? If you hadn’t explained I might,’ he drawled, ‘have thought it was jealousy.’
Her reaction to the suggestion was dramatic. The colour that had flooded her face receded, leaving her eyes a deep well of colour.
‘This isn’t jealousy,’ she denied, trying desperately to think of an alternative and failing. ‘This is wanting to be treated with respect.’
‘Am I asking you to hide in the damned shadows?’ The woman, he decided, took irrationality to new uncharted levels. ‘This has gone on long enough. Hand it over.’
He caught the hem of the dress and Hannah responded with teeth-gritting determination, pulling it into her chest with such force she heard the sound of fabric tearing. She was clinging on so hard that when he pulled the dress she came with it.
To absorb the impact of her soft body into his, Kamel took an automatic step back and felt his foot hit the edge of the pool just as Hannah lifted her gaze.
She saw the intent gleaming in his dark eyes and shook her head. ‘You wouldn’t!’
His smile was answer enough.
She hit the water yelling a warning and spluttered as the water filled her nose and throat. His arm was wrapped around her waist as they both surfaced. When the water cleared from her eyes she saw he was laughing. She opened her mouth and Kamel pressed a hard kiss to it before he let go, kicking away from her.
She lifted a hand to her mouth. Thinking only of the kiss and not the fact there were several feet of water beneath her feet, she stopped treading water to stay afloat.
He waited for her to surface, breathless and angry and still, amazingly, clutching the damned dress.
‘I’m drowning.’
‘No, you’re not.’ Flipping onto his back, he kicked lazily away from her, still maintaining eye contact.
He was utterly heartless. She hit at the water surface angrily, sending a spray of silver droplets his way. None reached him, and she struck out towards him. Hannah was a reasonable swimmer but her efforts were severely hampered by her sodden clothes, and after a couple of feet she was puffing and panting.