‘Rafiq!’ she called lamely, knowing in frustration that there was no way she could track him down easily in the giant building and simply hoping against hope that he was still somewhere within hearing distance.
The bathroom door opened and he emerged, wrapped in a towel, and she grinned.
‘So, back where we started, with you half naked,’ she commented cheerfully, rejoicing in the vision of him standing before her, all lithe and bronzed and damp. ‘I like it.’
Rafiq was shocked by that earthy honesty and struggled to hide it. Odd as it seemed, it had never really occurred to him that a woman might like to look at a man naked as much as a man liked to look at a woman and, acknowledging that, he felt off-puttingly out of his depth even though he was incredibly flattered and aroused by the appreciation that glowed in her sapphire eyes. That unabashed glow in her gaze had an immediate effect on him and he gritted his even white teeth, striving to suppress his arousal.
‘I wanted to say thank you for the clothes...but there are so many,’ she exclaimed. ‘I’m never going to get to wear all of them!’
‘You will be here for months,’ Rafiq pointed out levelly. ‘Through the hottest season.’
Izzy tried and failed to swallow as she studied him, her attention involuntarily glued to that tall, lean, powerful physique of his, the muscles indented in his torso that shifted with his every slight movement, the flatness of his stomach and the little dark silky furrow of hair there that snaked down out of sight below the towel. Her mouth ran dry. ‘Not as hot as you,’ she mumbled while thinking, I didn’t just say that, I didn’t.
‘You find me...hot?’ Rafiq breathed without any thought at all.
Colour claiming her cheeks in a feverish surge, Izzy simply nodded with a jerk.
The silence seethed, dark golden eyes welded to blue like heat-seeking missiles, and she felt her whole body leap into awareness, jolting her with embarrassing sensation as her breasts swelled and the peaks tightened and that hollow hungry pulse throbbed between the slender thighs she pressed tightly together.
A phone rang, breaking in like a sudden bucket of ice water flung over her heated skin, and she turned away in haste as he reached with a stifled apology for the mobile phone lying at the foot of the bed. She was crossing back into her own room again when he murmured abruptly, ‘It’s cold in the desert in the evening. Wrap up warm,’ he advised.
Coldandsandy, she thought dolefully. Oh, joy.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THENIGHTSKYwas a great arching black velvet expanse spangled with white glittering stars and it was, indisputably, very beautiful. The fire crackled and burned with blue and orange flames that were almost hypnotic, light leaping and casting shadows over the robed and armed men guarding the encampment. Dinner in the desert with a crown prince demanded a substantial number of people in support and protection roles, Izzy reflected ruefully.
There was the cook and his helpers, who had slaved over a brazier to provide a wholly impractical elaborate meal that ran to several courses. There were also Rafiq’s bodyguards, the maid hovering for Izzy’s benefit, lest she might need some service carried out. There was a black cloth tent behind them for their comfort and given the excuse she would have retreated to it because it looked cosy and shewashorribly cold, in spite of the layers she wore. Across the fire, musicians pounded skin drums softly, another man plucking at a stringed instrument that resembled a mandolin while two more wielded flutes. The music was rhythmic and melodic, the muted beat of the drums humming through her bones.
‘My brother will visit us tomorrow. He is eager to meet you,’ Rafiq told her quietly, after they had eaten.
With their backstory, Izzy winced a little at the prospect. ‘What have you told him about us?’
‘Very little. He has no interest in the details. Let me be blunt—you are the answer to Zayn’s every prayer,’ Rafiq declared with amusement. ‘With me married and on track to have an heir, he finally has the freedom to do as he likes. He will join the army, train at Sandhurst, abseil down cliffs, shoot and blow up things. The active life of a professional soldier has always been his dream, but it was deemed too dangerous for the younger son who still had to marry and produce an heir and he was barred from it until now.’
‘It’s good to know that our...er...misfortune will bring someone else a happy result.’
‘Our children arenota misfortune,’ Rafiq sliced in with ruthless bite, grasping her slender fingers in emphasis, and then his ebony brows shot up and knotted into a frown. ‘Your skin is like ice...why didn’t you tell me that you were so cold?’ he demanded, vaulting upright and carrying her up with him in the sudden movement. ‘We’ll use the tent.’
He urged her inside and she blinked rapidly, momentarily blinded by the brilliance of the many intricate jewelled glass lanterns that hung from the poles above them and sprinkled the soft rugs on the floor with slanting shards of rainbow colour. He tugged her down onto an opulent sofa scattered with cushions and rubbed her slender spine as if he could somehow force heat into her chilled bones.
Taking in her luxury surroundings, she laughed. ‘Your people can’t really have carted around all this furniture when they travelled into the desert.’
‘Of course not, but this is what my father taught the staff at Alihreza to do. He never set foot out in the desert without insisting on every possible comfort,’ Rafiq told her wryly, arranging a velvet throw round her shoulders and then laughing as he looked down at her, touching the pink tip of her small nose. ‘You’re bundled up in so much cloth you look like a baby being swaddled!’
Izzy gazed up into stunning dark golden eyes fringed with black curling lashes and her heart skipped an entire beat, her body engulfed by such a wash of heat that she broke out in nervous perspiration and quickly shrugged her shoulders to emerge from the cocoon of cloth she was wrapped in. ‘Just being in here warms me up,’ she muttered awkwardly, ducking her head down to break that visual connection in case he guessed what being that close to him did to her wretched hormones.
Long brown fingers pushed up her chin and their eyes met again, colour warming her cheeks, her lips softly parting. A growl broke free low in his throat as he scanned that pink pouting invitation and his mouth crashed down on hers with a raw hunger that stole her breath away.
‘I’m burning up for you,’ he breathed raggedly as he finally wrenched his mouth from hers to allow her to catch her breath.
Staring at him, Izzy sucked in oxygen like a drowning swimmer until instinct drove her back for more of his mouth, hunger sizzling through her like a forest fire that had only required a spark to blaze. Her hands slid up over his shoulders and locked in the lush depths of his hair, a gasp sounding from her as his tongue tangled with hers and then plunged deep, sending a piercing shard of need arrowing to the very heart of her.
Without warning, she was on her back on the sofa and Rafiq was engaged in impatiently extracting her from her clothes and removing his own. Nothing had ever felt so desperate for her as that overpowering need to feelhisskin againstherskin.
‘We weren’t going to do this,’ Rafiq growled the reminder as he straddled her in the act of pulling off his T-shirt before jerking down the zip on his jeans.
‘Shut up,’ Izzy said resolutely, running exploring hands appreciatively up over his bare bronzed torso and rejoicing in the sheer heat and masculinity of him.