The Sheik's Pregnant Lover (Love By Accident) (12 page)

His hand moved into her hair, pulling the pins out and tossing them to the side until his fingers could feel the softness, tangle in the tresses.  He pulled her head back, deepening the kiss and forcing her to acknowledge that this
was
exactly where she wanted to be.  When he realized that she wasn’t fighting him, was in fact pulling him closer, he relaxed his hold somewhat, moving his hand under her suit jacket and tearing at the silk shirt she was also wearing.  His frustration level increasing until he felt her skin. 

H
e heard her sharp intake of breath as he moved his hand from her back to her stomach, moving upwards to cup those incredible breasts that he remembered in his mind, he growled, “It’s me you want, isn’t it?  Forget that bastard and come back to me.  I can make you feel this better than any man ever could.  Just say the word,
Sidra
.”

His words, spoken with a deep, husky growl, penetrated her mind and she pulled back slightly, looking up at him and wondering what was wrong.  She was breathing heavily, wanting so much to just move
back against him but then she remembered what was wrong.  The woman!  The three weeks!  She’d been such a fool to believe him, to have waited for him! 

She stepped back and was relieved when he released her.  She took several steps away from him, holding onto the conference room table to keep herself from falling onto the floor because of her wobbly knees.  “Leave me alone,” she whispered.  “You can’t do this to me again.  I won’t let you,” she finally got out then bit her lip to keep herself from sobbing out the pain and anguish she’d felt at his betrayal and absence. 

“Can’t do what to you?” he snapped back.  “Make you react to my touch?  Make you shiver with need?”

“
Stop it!” she almost shouted back at him.  “Just leave me alone!”

He moved closer to her but didn’t touch her.  Leaning down so he could see into her eyes, he watched as she tried to shrink away from him and it only made him angrier. 
“I wish I could but we both know that’s not an option.”

She was
more furious
than she’d ever been in her life and she was trapped on a plane with a man she didn’t understand.  “Let’s just stick to the project, okay?”

Rashid looked like he wanted to argue but after fighting with himself for a moment, he nodded his head curtly.  “You eat while you talk though.  You’ve lost too much weight and you look dead on your feet.”

She slapped the files she’d brought onto the conference room table and kept herself from rolling her eyes.  “You can’t make me eat, Rashid.”  She pulled out the plans he’d left at her office the previous day and started rolling them out as she said, “or am I supposed to refer to you as ‘Your Highness’ as well as all your other minions?”

He spun around and glared at her. 
“If you do I’ll turn you over my knee and spank you.”

She looked up at him, all the hurt and despair showing through in her eyes as she said, “I thought you were just a horse trainer.”  She said the words softly but he heard her and some of the anger left him.

He sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair, his shoulders still tense, but looking suddenly defeated. 
“It was nice to be thought of that way for a few days.  You don’t know what it’s like to be bowed to all your life.  When we met, you didn’t do any of the normal things women do around me and I liked it.”

She sank gratefully into an empty chair and tried to steady her shaking hands. 
“You mean they didn’t cater to your every whim?”

He smiled seductively and shook his head.  “I believe I remember you catering to several of my whims,” he replied.

Sidra blushed and looked away, focusing instead on the plans and refusing to reply to his comment.  She’d more than catered to him, she remembered.  She’d begged and pleaded that third day for him to
end their torment.  And that was after she’d done some tormenting of her own, following his instructions even if some of those instructions had been non-verbal.  She was embarrassed now by how uninhibited she’d been with him and wanted to wipe those mornings from her mind.  “I thought you might like to switch
the sitting area in here around so that the light coming in through these windows could be more useful.”  She was referring to the living area of his private quarters, her finger pointing to the largest area and praying he would take the hint that she couldn’t talk about their
intimate
time together any more. 

Rashid considered pulling her back to the previous conversation, but he looked down at her shaking fingers and quivering chin and gave her a bit of space.  He wanted this woman and he wasn’t giving up on her, but he could tell that she was pulling from the bottom of her capacity to cope right at the moment.  He didn’t want to destroy her.  But he wouldn’t let her walk away. 

“Start in the bedroom,” he commanded and pointed to the opposite side of the plans.  “What are your ideas for this room?” he asked and took a seat on the other side of the conference room table so he could watch her. 
He couldn’t give a damn about redecorating his private quarters.  The whole idea was just an excuse to get her on his own turf and understand what had happened that last day. 

Sidra’s heart sank at the reference to his bedroom.  She didn’t want to discuss the private areas where this man slept, where he probably took the women in his life, maybe even had enjoyed a love affair or two.  How many women had shared his bed?  Had he felt anything for them? 

With shaking fingers, she pulled out the ideas she and Debra had discussed for his bedroom and stammered through several of the ideas, explaining the advantages.  He was very considerate as they talked, asking her opinion, why she would do one thing versus another and suggesting very few alterations.  He even asked her what her favorite color was and told her to use that for the basis of the design. 

She looked up at him, confused by his response. 
“Are you sure you want a yellow bedroom?  We could use a darker shade, more gold than yellow…”

“Show me that color chart again?”

She pulled it back out from underneath several of the plans she’d drawn up with Debra the previous night and handed it to him. 
“Would you mind if I grabbed something to eat now?  We’ve made some good progress.” 

He instantly looked up at her and shook his head.  “Please, fill a plate with anything you’d like. 

While he examined the options, she walked over to the food
.  The breakfast dishes had been taken away at some point and replaced with snacks and delicious cheese with savory crackers and olives
.  It was lunch time and she was actually famished.  Apparently work really had helped her settle her stomach.  And keeping off of subjects that produced anxiety definitely helped. 

If she could just stay out of his arms, she might get through this project with her heart intact and her pride only somewhat in tatters. 

She took a fork and tried to be polite about the food, but she was just too hungry.  She was focusing on the strawberries, savoring their tart sweetness when she felt something
strange
and opened her eyes.  Rashid was sitting back in his chair, no longer reviewing the plans but simply staring at her with open amusement. 

“
W
hat?” she asked, swallowing the strawberry.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, just continued to watch her, thinking how sexy she was as she enjoyed the food. 
“We haven’t even shared a meal.  This is our first meal together.”

That reminded her of how silly she’d been to fall into a relationship with a man she didn’t know.  “Lessons learned for next time, eh?”

He frowned and she saw his eyes darken. 
“What do you mean, next time?”

“When we meet our next partner,” she clarifie
d, her stomach clenching with disgust at both the idea of another man touching her as well as any woman touching Rashid.  Her eyes glanced down the stairs, thinking of the lovely flight attendants.  She wondered if Rashid had already sampled their beautiful bodies and she hated them instantly. 

She pushed her plate away, unable to eat anything more.  “If that’s all you wanted to discuss,” she said wearily, her exhaustion coming back up to bring down her excitement from the past several hours of discussing the details
of his home changes
with Rashid, “I’ll go find a spot to work.”

Rashid glared at her, wondering how he could get her to understand that what they’d shared in England was rare and she shouldn’t be so cavalier about it.  Surely she’d realized that when she’d been with that other man at the hotel?  How could she just dismiss something so special?

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.  “That’s fine.  Have more plans for me by the time we land and we’ll discuss them over dinner tonight.”
  He felt like he’d made some small progress and he wanted to continue during dinner.  Maybe a glass of wine or a hot meal would help her relax and they could talk more openly. 

Sidra nodded and shuffled all of her papers together, wondering how she was going to come up with more ideas when all she wanted to do was fall asleep somewhere.  She was so worn out she wasn’t sure any ideas she came up with now would be any good. 

She picked up her papers and stuffed them into her briefcase, then walked carefully down the stairs.  At the bottom, several men were waiting and, at the site of her, they quickly moved upstairs.  Sidra wondered if she’d taken up more of Rashid’s time than she’d been allotted.  If that were so, she thought as she walked down the plane, looking for an empty seat in a quiet corner, then it was all his fault.  She hadn’t wanted to do this on the plane.  She’d wanted to sleep and work and
possibly more of the first
than of the second
.  But here she was, her mind trying to come up with unique ideas to create a masculine bedroom with butter yellow décor.  That was impossible, she told herself as she found a chair way back in the back of the plane.  It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it was out of the main walkway which meant she wouldn’t be disturbed and could get a couple of hours sleep before landing. 

She placed her briefcase next to her feet, then slipped her shoes off and pushed the button that would lower the back of the chair into a reclining position.  It took her perhaps three seconds after her eyes closed
before
she fell asleep. 

She didn’t hear the pilot turn on the fasten seatbelt sign.  Nor did she hear the rest of the crew as they finalized preparations for landing.  The day had disappeared as the plane moved across the sky to the
e
ast and it was now early morning in Tasain.  As the plane taxied to a stop, the personnel rushed about, collecting their papers and hurrying down the stairwell so they could finalize their work prior to reporting
later in the day
.  No one remembered to check for the new interior designer who had joined their ranks until Rashid descended the steps and inquired
as to
her whereabouts to his security chief.
He wanted her to ride with him, but no one had seen her since she’d descended the stairs earlier in the flight. 

When the
body guard
looked back blankly, Rashid cursed and called a halt to everyone’s departure.  “Find her!” Rashid hissed and even he stormed back up the stairs in search of his missing lover.  Twenty minutes later, and still no sign of her, Rashid was starting to wonder if she’d gotten off the plane with someone else and was already heading back to the United States. 

No, he hadn’t known her long, but something inside him told him that she wouldn’t just run away.  She was too proud and when she’d descended the stairs several hours ago, she looked about ready to pass out from exhaustion. 

“She’s sleeping somewhere.  Search all the areas where someone might have curled up and fallen asleep and make sure she’s okay.”  Rashid swore under his breath, thinking about how he’d wanted to call her back
and ordered her into his bedroom to sleep
before she’d gone back down the stairs.  No one had ever entered that area but himself
so it would have looked odd, and declared his intentions more quickly than he wanted them known.  But his frantic search now was giving away exactly what he wanted to hide and he didn’t give a damn.  He just wanted Sidra found to make sure she was okay. 

He was walking down the aisles of the plane, looking to his right and left, trying to think of any place she might have hidden to find some sleep when he almost stumbled upon her.  She was curled up in a chair, her hair fanned out behind her and both of her hands stacked on top of each other to form a pillow for her chin.  She looked exceptionally lovely and peaceful. 

He signaled to one of his body guards who immediately radioed to the others that the woman had been found.  Rashid bent down and watched her for a moment, looking at her perfect skin, the heart shaped face that had caused him so many nights of frustration.  As well as her lovely, long legs and her perfect breasts that fit in his hands exactly. 

As he watched her, she sighed in her sleep and mumbled something, but he couldn’t understand her.  He knew he’d have to wake her up, but she looked so peaceful, he regretted it when he touched her shoulder gently and she jerked awake.