He looked down at her, half smiling. ‘If that’s what you really want.’
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I want.’
I think.
She dropped her eyes so there was no chance he’d catch even a glimmer of her inner turmoil, and moved to collect her case, doing her best to distract herself from wherever her thoughts were about to take her. She’d return to her room. Think about practicalities. Focus on doing her packing a little more thoroughly.
And forget all about uncertainty.
‘One more thing,’ he said as she reached the door. ‘I must attend a meeting with the desert tribes this evening. It will mean an overnight trip. I’ll be leaving later today.’
Surprise mingled with relief mingled with disappointment. She wouldn’t see him again before he returned to take her to the airport. Their time together before she left would be limited to a short ride in his limousine, if that. She should be happier about that, given the experience he’d put her through, surely?
‘Is it safe for you to travel away from Hebra, under the circumstances?’
One of his eyebrows arched. ‘Now you are concerned for my safety? You do surprise me. A moment ago I think you would quite happily have thrown my body out for carrion.’
She blinked, her lips tightening. ‘If I show concern it’s for the poor people you will no doubt drag along with you on this desert sojourn. It’s their safety that concerns me.’
His lips turned up in the barest smile. ‘Of course. But it’s perfectly safe. I’m headed to the opposite end of the country.’
‘Yet you thought it was safe when you brought me here. That doesn’t say much for your risk-assessment analysis.’
‘I assure you, I’ve assessed the risks,’ he said, his eyes narrowing to a dark gleam, ‘and I’m willing to take them on.’
Heat flooded her senses. She’d experienced enough of his double meanings to realise there was little doubt his words were aimed squarely at her.
But he had no chance. In one day, no more than two at the outside, she’d be gone. There was no way now that she could fall any further under his spell. Her own risk assessment told her she was just about home free.
‘In that case,’ she said, lifting her chin and finally feeling as if she was turning today’s events around, ‘I only hope you’re not disappointed.’
‘How could I be disappointed,’ he asked, ‘when you’re coming with me?’
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘NO,’ SHE said without a moment’s hesitation. ‘I don’t think that’s such a good idea.’
Whatever her see-sawing emotions were telling her, her brain was still screaming that she should get out of Jebbai as fast as possible and, failing that, to stay right away from Khaled. On that basis, going into the desert with him overnight was simply not an option.
‘Why not,’ he asked, ‘when you have seen little or nothing of my country? You’ve buried yourself in that workroom. This would be the perfect chance to explore wider afield, before you return home.’
‘Go with you, into the desert, when only minutes ago you were telling me I was to be your bride? You must think I’m mad or stupid to wander off into the desert with you when all I want to do is go home.’
‘You will go home, if you wish. I gave you my word.’
‘You got me here under false pretences. You lied to me all the way. You even let me believe in a bride that was an entire fabrication. I have to wonder what your word is really worth.’
He looked up, surprised. ‘I’d hardly describe you as an entire fabrication. Besides, I thought we’d sealed that particular deal.’
‘That was your concept of sealing a deal, not mine,’ she threw at him.
‘I see,’ he said. ‘You think we should seal the deal with something more…’ his eyes took on a predatorial gleam ‘…comprehensive?’
Heat suffused her skin in an instant, a heavy, longing pooling low down in her belly. ‘More comprehensive.’ The images his words conjured up sprang ready formed into her mind. A shock of tangled limbs; his smooth, sweat-slickened skin slipping over hers; his mouth, hot and hungry at her breast…
She forced the pictures back down, all of them, back to where they couldn’t betray her any more than the hardened peaks of her nipples already did. It was bad enough he was so painfully arrogant without her body responding to his taunts.
‘Don’t expect me to sleep with you, simply to get out of the country.’