CHAPTER ELEVEN
TORILOOKEDATthe vast landscape spread below the chopper and felt a mix of awe, curiosity and unease. The desert plain seemed to wash up to the edge of ragged mountains that fringed the border.
She gulped, tasting remembered fear. It was somewhere there that she and Ashraf had been abducted.
A warm hand closed around hers, making her turn to the man beside her.
‘Okay?’ The expression in those ebony eyes told her he understood the fear closing her throat.
Tori nodded, refusing to succumb to panic.
‘I enjoy travelling by helicopter,’ Ashraf added, as if suspecting she needed distraction, ‘but I know some find it challenging.’
‘I like it,’ she finally admitted. She’d often flown to remote locations for work.
Why they were venturing so far from the city, she didn’t know. Yet the opportunity to spend time with Ashraf, seeing him in his own environment, had been too precious to pass up. Tori had important decisions to make about Oliver’s future. Getting to know Ashraf and his country was part of that.
Even if, after last night, part of her wanted simply to succumb to his demand for marriage.
If she’d known how profoundly making love to him would affect her she’d never have gone to bed with him.
Who did she think she was kidding? It would have taken a far stronger woman than she to say no. From the start he’d been irresistible.
She shivered and Ashraf stroked his thumb across her hand. Darts of arousal pierced low in her body. It worried her, how easily and how deeply she responded to him.
‘Here we are.’ He leaned across and pointed to a valley between two trailing spurs, where she saw traces of green and the sinuous curve of a river. ‘That’s our destination.’
‘It’s a long way to travel for a picnic.’ When he’d suggested leaving Oliver behind for a couple of hours, she’d imagined they’d go to a beauty spot near the city.
His hand squeezed hers. ‘I wanted you to see something of Za’daq apart from the capital.’
She turned to meet his eyes, trying to decipher that intent stare. ‘And you wanted to show me how safe this part of the country is now?’
It was a guess, but the curling groove at one side of his mouth gave Tori her answer. Hehadchosen this location deliberately. Did he know she was still anxious about returning to the desert? Did he read her so easily?
‘I don’t want you afraid of shadows, Tori.’ His eyes held hers. ‘Plus, I want you to meet my people. For a long time this region hasn’t had the benefits found in the rest of my country.’
The helicopter descended and he gestured towards what looked like irrigation channels following the contours of the land, and a surprising amount of green vegetation.
‘They are proud and hard-working. And things are changing here now Qadri has gone.’
Tori took a slow breath and nodded. She hated the anxiety niggling at her insides. Surely facing her fear would help her overcome that? It would be good to replace those terrifying memories with something else.
‘I’ll be interested to see them.’
Ashraf’s smile as he threaded his fingers through hers made something hard inside her shift. Logic told her to keep some distance between them. He’d so readily assumed she’d changed her mind about marriage because she’d gone to bed with him. But she didn’t have the energy to hold herself aloof. Basking in the warmth of his smile, in his company, was too tempting.
It was impossible to switch off the current of connection between them. Just this morning she’d gloried in his body and he in hers. She’d found heady delight and a sense of personal power in their lovemaking. How long since she’d felt powerful, much less mistress of her own destiny?
Since the kidnap she’d felt as if she was at the mercy of forces beyond her control. First her abductors, and then as her body altered to accommodate a new life, and later as she changed her life to put Oliver’s needs first. She’d taken her current job so she could work child-friendly hours, not because she especially wanted to work there.
‘Tori? Are you all right?’
Ashraf squeezed her hand. She looked around to discover they’d landed.
He leaned close, looking concerned. ‘If you’d really rather go back...?’
But a crowd had gathered. A cluster of serious-faced older men in traditional robes, and behind them people of all ages.