Suddenly she felt overcome. She’d kept her head up through that interminable public event but now her hurt at Salim’s rejection and her fears for Marian’s business felt like stone after stone being piled on top of her, crushing her into the ground.
‘Come.’ His voice was brusque. ‘Sit. You look done in.’
‘No.’ She blinked and tried to gather her strength. It didn’t help when Salim was kind. That only fed her weakness for him. ‘I’d rather stand.’
Rosanna watched his fingers clench at his sides then stretch out as if he deliberately tried to relax. ‘You’re one obstinate woman, Rosanna.’
He should know. He was the same. It was something they shared.
‘It’s how I survive,’ she murmured.
She’d need every bit of tenacity and determination to get through the ordeal to come. Leaving Dhalkur. Never seeing Salim again. Knowing she’d damaged her aunt’s business at a time when Marian needed her help more than ever as she recuperated.
Finding a way to patch up her splintered heart.
Rosanna sucked in a quick breath that sounded horribly like a sob and forced her gaze from his. Yet she felt the phantom touch of his hand on hers as if he still held it. Just as she still smelled that intoxicating scent of virile man mixed with cedar and spice, though it wasn’t physically possible when he stood so far away.
How long before those memories faded? Or would they haunt her the rest of her life?
‘What was the idea, holding onto me like that in front of everyone?’
She needed something concrete to focus on. Preferably something that made her angry, because the alternative would be to reveal how sad and weak she felt.
Rosanna frowned, remembering the way people had stared while trying to look as if they didn’t. Her flesh tightened. ‘It was totally unnecessary.’
‘Oh, believe me, Rosanna, it was necessary.’
Staring into his midnight eyes she felt a familiar beat of connection. That infuriated her as did the fact he was holding back. ‘But people stared, as if you’d done something significant.’
Salim’s guarded expression grew even more unreadable and Rosanna felt her eyes grow round. Her nape prickled in premonition. ‘Itdidmean something! Are you going to tell me or am I going to be the only person in the dark?’
She folded her arms around her middle, as if that could prevent the hurt building inside. She didn’t know what was going on and felt like she was riding an out-of-control roller-coaster.
Salim spread his hands and lifted his shoulders. ‘In Dhalkur the sheikh shakes hands with other heads of state. Other than that, in public he would only touch a member of his family.’
Rosanna digested that. Clearly she wasn’t a member of his family. She surged forward, closing the distance between them. ‘You mean you were putting yourmarkon me?’
She’dknownthat touching him in public, or allowing him to touch her, was wrong. Except it felt so right that she hadn’t been able to pull away.
‘You can’t just reach out and...and...claim me like a chattel!’
‘You’re right.’ Yet he didn’t look in the least abashed. ‘Would you be less angry if I said I was primarily thinking about the need for comfort?’
Rosanna jerked back. Had she looked so forlorn? She hoped not, but Salim knew her well. He’d probably read her distress. ‘I don’t need you to comfort me.’
Salim’s mouth lifted in a rueful way that twisted her insides into knots. ‘Maybe I was the one who needed the connection.’
Salim watched Rosanna’s stormy eyes turn blank with shock.
He was shocked too. Admitting to weakness went against his character. Even as a boy he’d avoided it, with Fuad ever ready to pounce on any weak point. Salim had grown into a man who drove himself hard to do his duty and relegate personal feelings to the back of his consciousness.
He didn’tdopersonal feelings.
Until Rosanna.
‘What do you mean, Salim?’
Her voice wobbled and he felt an answering tremor rip through him, as if the very earth shook beneath their feet.