My Desert Rose (7 page)

He chuckled.
"You're lucky I'm wearing these."

He normally
goes commando!

Both of them
looked at the black scrap of material.

"Being lucky is
such an overrated thing," she quipped.

Tariq grinned.
"I could make it unlucky for you?"

"No, no,
absolutely not," she protested. "No funny business, remember?"

Tariq brushed
past her and climbed into the bed, leaving a subtle scent of
sandalwood behind him. Following him, she snuck under the cool
cotton covers and peered at him over the wall. "Can you turn out
the light please?"

The room
descended into darkness and the only sounds came from their breaths
as they combined and echoed around the room. Inside, she was wound
up as tight as a spring. Plumping up her pillow with her fist, she
dropped her head onto it and sighed heavily. There was no way she
was going to get any sleep. A tingling sensation in her belly made
her shuffle on the bed and she could feel her whole body humming
for the man next to her. In fact, she'd bet that trillions of her
atoms were planning a strategy on how to magnetically pull him over
the wall. The traitors! She needed a distraction. "Tariq?" she
asked brightly.

"Hmmm?" he
replied sleepily.

Ask him
something,
anything
to delay those atoms! "Do you have any
other brothers and sisters?" Not a bad distraction, she mused.

"I have a
sister called Miriam," he replied yawning.

"What's she
like?" That was the one thing Katie had always yearned for, a
sibling.

"She's
wonderful. When she was born, she had the umbilical cord wrapped
around her neck, starving her of oxygen, which resulted in slight
brain damage."

A little
flutter of emotion burst from her heart. "Oh, that's so sad."

"Well, you'd
think so wouldn't you, but it's never held Miriam back. She lives
life to the full and she has a huge heart."

"I can't wait
to meet her."

"You will
tomorrow."

"I always
wanted -"

"Katie," he cut
in.

"What?"

"Go to
sleep."

"I can't," she
whispered. How could she with Mr. Hot Arabian God Bollywood lying
next to her.

"Well, I could
help you with that," he replied, smiling into the darkness.

The temptation
to shove off all those pillows and make a grab for him was
overpowering, but her mental logic reminded her that she'd only
known him for just over a day, and for part of that she'd been
unconscious. "No, no thanks, I'll go to sleep now."

Chapter
Five

Tariq didn’t
know where he began and she ended. Not daring to move, he lay there
as still as a wooden board with Katie draped all over him. The
pillows that she’d painstakingly placed between them last night
were either at the bottom of the bed or on the floor.

His right arm
was trapped at his side and his left was touching her bare knee as
it bent over his middle. The little cute pyjama shorts had ridden
up high on her thigh, revealing soft velvety skin and she still
smelled of bloody lilacs. Gently, he moved her knee down lower and
off his morning erection, which was stuck at double attention,
living in the hope of some action after discovering the feel of
full breasts against his chest.

Katie stirred
at the heat of something on her leg. Images of a dark, brooding,
sexy man filtered into her dream, caressing her thigh and then
running his hands up the side of her body. In response to that
touch, she moved her chest into the path of that hand, sighing in
pleasure as it landed on her breast.

Tariq froze.
His intention had been to move her off by her shoulder, but now he
was palming the most delicious breast. If she woke up and caught
him, she’d think he was doing the funny business. Carefully, he
tried to lift his hand, but she grabbed his wrist and made a little
mewing sound as she pushed deeper into his palm.

Shit!

Then he smiled
wickedly. It wasn't his fault that her nipple was so erect through
her T-shirt that you could’ve hung a coat on it. Not one for being
able to resist such a delicious offer, he tweaked it gently and she
pushed further into him.

In her dream,
Katie bit her lip as the dark man pinched her nipple. "Mmmm, yes,
just like that please," she murmured.

His dick just
got harder.

How was he
going to get out of this? Not that he really wanted to. Her plump
breast felt divine in the palm of his hand, but he didn't want to
face her wrath either. Turning towards her, he managed to dislodge
her body, but she still had his wrist in a vice grip to her breast.
Coughing gently, he called her name. Her eyelids fluttered in
response, but she didn't wake up.

In her dream,
Katie heard the dark man utter her name. "Yes, more," she answered
breathlessly.

They were
virtually lying face-to-face and Tariq itched to bite and suck at
her lower pouting lip before moving to devour her whole. If she
opened those big blue eyes of hers and found him licking her all
over like a lollipop, he knew he’d be in the dog-house and tonight
the sofa would be his bed partner, so he tried again. "Katie, wake
up, you’ve trapped my hand."

"Hmm, what did
you say?" The sexy man was fading, but the warmth on her breast was
not. She snapped open her eyes to meet a pair of lazy, sensuous,
hazelnut chocolate ones.

"My hand?
Unless of course this is you making the first move?" he enquired,
as humour seeped into his gaze.

She looked down
at where she had his hand gripped to her breast. "Oh my God, crap!"
Immediately, she let him go and he rolled out of the bed and
strutted into his dressing room.

"Next time, I
will take that as a green light," he called out, as he closed the
door behind him.

Katie was
mortified. It was bad enough having to share the same bed, but
after taking one look at his near nakedness last night, she’d
climbed into bed nearly choking with desire. By the time she’d
managed to bring her body under control and get comfy, she’d had a
random thought that perhaps it was him who needed the wall of
pillows for protection from her jumping his bones. No wonder she’d
had an erotic dream.

After a quick
shower she dressed in a pair of pale blue linen pants with a
matching tunic top. Making her way into the lounge area of the
suite, she found Tariq waiting for her by the patio doors, which
had been opened wide, allowing a cool breeze to drift in.

"I thought we
might eat breakfast on the balcony and then decide what you would
like to do with your day before the dinner tonight."

"Perfect," she
muttered, still feeling slightly embarrassed about her iron grip of
his hand to her breast. He gestured for her to go before him and
she stepped out into the morning sunlight. The vista that met her
eyes took her breath away. Endless powdery white sands and a
turquoise ocean stretched out before her.

"You like?"

She shivered as
he breathed the words into her neck. "I like very much," she
answered with a smile in her voice.

"Come."

He turned her
by her shoulders and guided her to a chair where he unfolded a
napkin and laid it over her knees. "Thank you," she said politely,
as she sneakily took in his profile out of the corner of her eye.
Today, he was wearing jeans with a royal blue shirt tucked in. His
sleeves were rolled up and his feet were bare, giving him a relaxed
aura.

Sitting down
next to her, he picked up an orange from the fruit bowl, rolled it
in his hands and then slowly peeled away its skin before putting
the fruit on her side plate. "Eat," he ordered.

No-one had
peeled fruit for her since she was a child, but when he did it, she
nearly drooled all over it. How can peeling an orange be so
sensual! Now she was beginning to blush again. Taking a slice of
the plump flesh she put it halfway into her mouth and sucked on it,
feeling the tangy juice as it hit the back of her throat.

Tariq stood
stock-still. The coffee pot hung in midair as his hands stopped in
their tracks. Who on earth ate oranges like that! Heat shot to his
crotch and he wished he could replace that slice with a certain
piece of his anatomy. Damn! Here he goes with the sex thoughts
again. Trying not to look over at her as she devoured the whole
orange, slice-by-bloody-slice, he went about pouring the coffee and
buttering his toast.

Katie noted his
attempt at avoiding her, so she bit her final piece in half and
sucked on it loudly, then asked, "Yesterday, you mentioned that you
had a camera for me. Can I see it after breakfast?" It felt like
forever since she’d been behind a lens and she was missing its
constant presence.

The
witch!
"Sure. I’ll have a picnic packed up and we’ll do a bit
of touring so that you can test out the camera if you like?"

A huge smile
moved across her face and Tariq sucked in a breath. This was the
first full-on smile she’d given him since Tristan and Annabelle’s
wedding and it was like the sun coming out after a desert
storm.

"Do you know
the make and model of the camera that you have?" she asked him
lightly. Okay, so she was seriously anal about the type of camera
she preferred.

"Well, I wasn’t
sure, so I ordered the top design of every make."

She nearly
choked on her coffee. "Are you for real?"

He wasn’t sure
whether that was a compliment or not, so he decided to dodge it by
adding, "Once you pick one out we can return the others." That
seemed to placate her as she nodded her approval.

After breakfast
they left the suite and Tariq guided her further down the corridor
and through another set of doors.

Katie was
rendered speechless. The whole room was set up as an
office-cum-photo lab, full of the latest technological equipment.
Most of her work was now digital, but he’d cared enough to provide
her with lighting, tripods and background screens for portraits. A
table in the middle was full of various types of cameras and she
fingered them one by one, Nikons, Leicas and Canons. Her favourite
had always been the Canon EOS, which is what she'd left behind, but
she couldn’t resist picking up her dream camera, the one she'd been
going to buy when she’d established a name for herself - the
Hasselblad H4D. It felt good in her hands, not too heavy. She held
it up to her eye and clicked the shutter. It was an extraordinary
piece of equipment. "This is incredible, Tariq, thank you. I will
use this one and return it to you once we’ve finished the job."

Tariq couldn’t
stop himself from smiling. She’d picked the one that he too thought
was the best and his knowledge of cameras was zilch. "Take it, it’s
yours."

"I...I," she
stammered as she thought about her dressing room full of clothes
and shoes in her size that had been bought for her. Accepting this
too felt as though she was being overindulged.

Tariq could
sense her quandary. "If you won’t take it as a gift, then see it as
payment for your services."

Something
darkened in her eyes and she raised her chin in a stubborn stance.
"I didn’t marry you for money or to obtain possessions, Tariq. I
married you to save your men’s lives and to see my father
again."

He could’ve
kicked himself for ruining a special moment. To ease the tension he
raised his hands in the air as though surrendering. "Okay, I give
in. Do it your way."

The pressure
relaxed in her belly and she laughed. What was she thinking? He was
only trying to be kind in this difficult situation. "Thank you. I
accept your generous gift."

Now pleased, he
nodded at her change of mind. "Shall we go?"

"Absolutely!"
The excitement from earlier was now back.

Downstairs in
the lobby, Thebes was waiting for them with a picnic basket and a
straw bag containing suncream and a blanket.

"Your car is in
the courtyard, Sayyid," he said with a wink at Katie.

She looked over
Thebes' shoulder and saw a little red Mercedes convertible waiting
for them. Smiley widely at Thebes, she was secretly pleased that
they weren't going in the limo and she'd guessed that Tariq somehow
knew that.

Following
Tariq, who'd picked up the bags, she jumped into the passenger seat
and then turned to take a picture of his profile as he started the
engine. "Where’s your family?" she asked out of interest.

"They’re at the
back of the house eating a leisurely breakfast by the pool."

"You have a
swimming pool?" She gawked at him.

"Yes," he
replied laughing, as he whizzed the car down the drive and out of
the gates.

"So, where are
you taking me?" she asked, as the breeze lifted her hair and fanned
it out behind her.

"You’ll see,"
he said smiling at her.

Within a few
minutes, he pulled into a carpark and from here she could see a
bustling bazaar. Now giddy with the possibilities of colour,
vibrancy and natural shots, she checked her camera before jumping
out and following him through the gates into a swirl of noisy
activity.

A few hours
later, an exhausted Katie had taken over two hundred pictures.
Never had she met such a warm welcome from people. Children had
milled around laughing and smiling. Store owners had taken their
time to show her their wares and allow her to take photographs.
They'd even sat and had coffee with a carpet maker as he showed her
how to weave the threads through the strings.

At the end of
the bazar, near to the tiny port, fishermen had explained their way
of life and the rare diversity of the local marine life. They'd
showed her the previous night's catch of shark, tuna, lobsters and
king fish. They were all very gentle people and she said this to
one of them, who explained that the name 'Socotra' meant 'the
island of happiness.'