SHEIKH'S SURPRISE BABY: A Sheikh Romance (91 page)

That was one thing she appreciated about Walid. Just like her, he appreciated the need to keep up appearances. Not that she was going to go so far as to think he felt anything about her. That would be silly, and wonderful. But no, it was also incredibly unlikely. He could have anyone he wanted.

A man that rich and powerful and sizzling hot could have anyone he wanted. He wasn’t going to go for his
lawyer!
That was ridiculous.

Feeling far more confident, she picked up the manila envelope from the passenger seat and left her car. Her heels clicked in the parking area below Walid’s hotel. It was a brisk evening, but not too bad. She let herself think about the weather and when autumn was finally going to show up. It seemed like it took longer and longer every year.

When she reached the elevator, she pushed the button for his room, and all thoughts of weather went right out of her head. She was going up to his hotel room. She laughed at herself as she felt her heartbeat increase. Why was she so stupidly nervous about this?

When she reached the floor of his penthouse, she saw one of his guards outside the door. He nodded to her as she approached the door and she smiled back.

“Is he home?” she asked playfully. The joke seemed to go over the man’s head as he simply nodded and let her pass.

“Okay,” she muttered under her breath and walked up to his door.

The floor consisted of a single hallway and three suites. Some hotels dedicated the entire top floor to a single suite, but the way this building was constructed they had the room for three.

As she walked up to Walid’s door, she mentally noted that since there was a man outside, there would be two inside. Still, two watchful sets of eyes. She’d be fine. Filled with faux self-assurance, she knocked on the door.

It was a long, uncomfortable three seconds before he opened the door. This was the most relaxed she’d ever seen him. No tie, no shoes, just his black dress socks. His blue button-down shirt had the first few buttons undone showing the top of his A-line undershirt. The tone of his skin contrasted against the white of the undershirt like caramel covered in powdered sugar.

“I appreciate you coming down so late,” he said and opened the door to invite her in.

“No problem. It’s on my way home anyway.” Such a lie. It was twenty blocks out of her way, but just seeing him in socks made it all worth it. Lacy walked in and scanned the entryway for his security.

“Is everything well?” he asked after he closed the door. He came down the two steps into the main room. The TV was playing, big read letters in the corner read “MUTE”.

“Yes, of course,” she said and gave a smile she hoped didn’t betray how anxious she felt. “I was just looking for your associates.”

Walid gestured to the chair beside the coffee table. “This late? No, they are in their own rooms.”

What? Lacy couldn’t believe it. She was alone with him? In his hotel room? The anxiety she’d barely kept under lock suddenly burst free. Her heart hammered like she was running a marathon, her skin feeling like it lit on fire.

“Really?” she asked as casually as she could.

She wanted to run out of the room, to just drop the papers and go. That, of course, would be rude and so incredibly awkward to explain the next day. How could she be alone with him? This so wasn’t professional. How could he allow that? Him, Walid, with a stone wall for a face that hardly betrayed emotion. He was a rock of professionalism to a degree she both admired and feared. Yet here she was, alone, in his hotel room.

“Do you feel safe enough considering…?”

Walid waited patiently, but the awkwardness of his gesture was growing with every second she wasn’t moving. He didn’t answer until she acquiesced and moved to the chair.

“This late, there are fewer distractions. I am more aware. Additionally, I have my man outside. That is enough.”

“Enough,” she asked teasingly. “You’re not concerned about an aerial attack?”

“Aerial?” he asked with a smile. He sat after she did.

“Well yes. Someone with a jetpack could come right in through that window.”

Walid turned in his seat to examine the wall of windows, then turned back to her with a grin on his face. “Yes, I suppose so. I think, would that to happen, I would salute him. Anyone who successfully straps a rocket to their back deserves their success.”

“I guess that’s what made the Rocketeer comics so popular, huh?” She gave a small laugh but recognized the polite smile on his face. That joke went right over his head. Damnit.

“Well,” she said pointedly, “I brought your papers. I should go.” She put the papers on the coffee table and stood.

“Must you go?” he asked.

It was ridiculous, but a spark of hope charged through her. Stop me, she thought. Please keep me here.

“I had some questions about the contract I wished to discuss first. Unless you have someone expecting you?”

Just like that her hope evaporated. Business. Of course it was business. “No,” she admitted, “no one is waiting for me. I suppose I have time to answer a few questions.”

“Excellent.” He clapped his hands together and rubbed his palms. “Please, one moment.”

He then dashed off through the room toward the kitchen. She heard cabinets opening and closing. She couldn’t think of what he was getting.

The disappointment that he wanted to talk business and nothing else stung more than she had been prepared for. With a sigh, she set down her purse beside her chair and undid the button on her jacket.

She wasn’t going to take it off, but if she was going to be here for a few minutes, she was at least going to get comfortable. That thought made her acutely aware of how stiff the chairs were.

The clink of glasses caught her attention. As she turned to face the kitchen, she saw Walid coming back with an opened bottle of wine and two wine glasses.

“Oh, no, I don’t think…“ she started.

He set the glasses down on the coffee table and began to pour.

“Please. You’ve come out all this way, it’s late. I already had it breathing. Share a glass with me.”

How could she say no? That smile of his was melting through all of her worry. Even if it was just business, she enjoyed talking with him. “All right, but just the one. Then I really should go.”

He gave a small pucker of his lips in understanding and handed her the glass. After setting down the bottle and picking up his own glass he clinked against hers and they both drank. The wine was rich and dark, far smarter than anything she’d buy for herself.

“It is good, yes?” he asked.

“Very much.”

Walid sat in the chair and she saw him trying to relax. “Do you like wine?”

“I do. I have to admit I know very little about it, but I do like it.” He gave a knowing smile.

“I assumed. You drink wine on each of our dinners, but they are different each time, and terribly paired with the dinners you order.”

She sucked in and bit down on her upper lip in embarrassment. Walid wore a small smile. Was he teasing her?

“Well it was either the wine,” she said snarkily, “or I start doing shots.”

“Is my company so difficult to tolerate?”

She wanted to tease him back. Lord knew he made it so easy to, but that was a serious preach of professionalism. She smiled at him in a way that let him know she was holding back and took another sip of her wine.

“So what are these questions you had?”

“I am impressed,” he said.

“Hmm?”

“Most women would be throwing themselves at me right now. I would not have to try so hard to get any sort of conversation from them. With you it is, how you say here, like pulling teeth?”

Lacy died inside. Talking to her was like pulling teeth? “I apologize,” she said, turning her eyes to the coffee table. “I should—“

“No, no, no,” he said rapidly and came over to kneel beside her chair. “It is a compliment. It is I who apologize. This is coming out wrong. You maintain your professional air. When you do speak, it is genuine. Your words come from your heart.”

Lacy could barely breathe. Here was the most attractive man she’d ever been near on his knees and singing her praises. She was frozen, staring down at him as he spoke

“Where else would they come from?”

“Your head, where you think you know what I want to hear.”

She gave a small laugh through her nose. “Yeah, not my style.”

“I know. That is one of the reasons I am so attracted to you.”

She swallowed, the words hitting her like a meteor striking the Earth. “You’re attracted to me?”

“Of course,” he said with a smile. “Why do you think I invited you over so late?”

“The papers,” she said dumbly, pointing to them on the table.

He gave her a sidelong look. “Have you not had much experience with men?”

“I had a, uh, a boyfriend in college.”

“One?” he asked dubiously. “This is all?”

Lacy shrugged a shoulder and looked away. In all her life she’d never really felt one way or another about her experiences with men. Then at that most inopportune moment, her mind recalled the lunch with her friend Wendy and the conversation about her family.

“Not all of us have had time for relationships. Some of us had to work our asses off to get where we are.”

Lacy closed her eyes, unable to recall the harsh words. Shame bled into her defensive anger and threatened to swallow her whole. When she opened her eyes to apologize, she saw him smiling at her. It wasn’t polite, it wasn’t amused, it was… she wasn’t sure what it was. No one had ever smiled at her that way before.

“What?”

Walid clenched a fist in front of him. “The fire in your belly. It burns, unquenchable, undefeated. I would fear to be your enemy.”

“I…” The depth of emotion in his words through her entirely off-track, and she didn’t know how she felt. That was when he kissed her.

She put her hands to his shoulders to push him away, but paused. The feel of his lips against hers, the smell of his skin, and when he opened his mouth, she tasted the wine they had been drinking. All at once the torrent of her emotions focused to a pinpoint and the world disappeared. All that existed in that moment was Walid and his delicious lips kissing hers.

After a few moments of kissing, she felt his hand caress her breast, and that pulled her out of the moment. Breaking the kiss, she shook her head.

“I can’t. I mean, we can’t.”

Walid, as respectful as he always was, stopped and removed his hand from her breast. It didn’t slip her notice, however, that he rested it atop her thigh. “Why?”

“I’m not, I mean, the women that you’re with I’m sure are—“

He put a finger to her lips gently. “You are not. And that is not what this is.”

She looked him in the eyes, almost pleading with him to say the right thing. Her entire body was on fire. “What is this?”

He cupped her face in his palm. “I adore you and all that you are.”

That was good enough for her. She had heard of women throwing themselves at men, but in all her life she’d never taken the phrase literally. This, however, was that.

Lacy lunged forward into his arms, placing her mouth against his. In her mind she wanted to press him to the ground, lay atop him, and feel his body against her own as she ripped his shirt open.

Walid, however, was just as much a stone tower as he was man, and when she launched herself into his arms, he caught her. Lacy grunted in disappointment, but melted against him when he wrapped his arms around her.

“Hmm?” he asked, pulling back just enough to look into her eyes.

“I was trying to push you to the ground.”

Walid’s eyes squinted and he smiled. Then, likely out of spite, he gripped her under her thighs and lifted her into the air as he stood. The muscle-power it took must’ve been incredible. Lacy wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her back to the bedroom and laid her gently on the bed.

Lacy twisted at the hip and moved him onto his back, then straddled him there. “Hah, gotcha.”

Walid laid on his back, his hands up. “I am your prisoner.”

Lacy traced her fingers down his chest and along the seams of his shirt where it was open. “Yes you are.”

Then, just as she imagined, she grabbed his shirt and tore it open. Buttons came free, his shirt wide open.

Walid grinned at her and gave a small sound of approval before pulling her back down to him. They continued to kiss as she ran her hands under his shirt and felt his skin under her palms. It was incredible. In all her life she’d never been so turned on by anyone. It felt like every muscle in her body was quivering.

As he kissed her, he undid the buttons of her blouse and slid it free of her shoulders. She sat atop him in just her bra and skirt, and though she knew she should’ve been more nervous about being so exposed to someone like him, the way he looked at her was so full of affection that she lost herself to it. In that moment, she felt like the most beautiful woman in the city.

How had she won over the attention of someone as incredible as him? Wishing to impress him further, she reached behind her and undid her bra. This she removed herself and tossed to the side.

She watched him watch her, and the excitement and arousal in his eyes only served to make her even more turned on. She could feel it under her, and she could feel it in the heat of his skin as he reached up and cupped each breast in his hand. Lacy closed her eyes and let out a long slow breath as he fondled her, pinching her nipples between his fingers.

“You are a beautiful woman,” he said. Such a simple phrase became the greatest compliment she’d ever received when it was accompanied by the way he was looking at her.

“And you are an incredible man.”

He raised his hips under her slightly, and she felt the rigidness of him against her sex. The sensations it sent through her filled her with heat, and she ground back against him out of reflex to summon back those feelings before they went away. He rose up again against her, and she found herself grinding down again. The smallest smile spread his lips as he watched her, and she reached out to touch his mouth, needing to feel those lips in some way.

There were moments that, as enjoyable as they were, would be forgotten by the next day. There were moments that were so mundane, so unremarkable, it was incredible that they could last. Often, those were the ones that stayed with her. Rarely, but sometimes, there were moments she knew while living them that would stay with her for a lifetime. No matter what came of her and Walid, this was a moment she was going to think of fondly for the rest of her life. The feel of him under her, the smile on his face, how sexy she felt and how turned on he made her.