Awakened by Her Desert Captor(10)

 She was effectively swaddled. And it was only then that she realised  that the Jeeps were driving off into the distance, towing the buggy  behind them. Arkim's scent was disturbing, and all around her. The  thought that this fabric had been across his mouth was almost too  intimate to take in.

 He held his horse by the reins and was leading it over. Sylvie pulled  down the material covering her mouth.'What are you doing? Where are the  Jeeps going?'

 He stopped in front of her, the huge horse prancing behind him.'We are going for a little trip.'

 Before she could ask more, Arkim had his hands around her waist and  was lifting her effortlessly onto the horse. His sheer strength took her  breath away and she clung to the saddle, her brain reeling at being so  high up. She hadn't been on a horse since she was a teenager...

 Arkim put his foot in the stirrup and vaulted on behind her, his  agility awesome. And suddenly he was all around her. Strong muscled  thighs gripping hers, his torso against her back, his arms coming around  her to take the reins.

'Cover your mouth.'

 Sylvie was too stunned to move.'Wh-where are we going?'

 Arkim angled himself so he could see her and made a rude sound.'Don't  you ever do anything you're told?' The material was firmly pulled back  over her mouth and he said,'It'll stop sand getting in.'

 Sylvie couldn't say anything else, because Arkim was turning the horse  around and they were galloping in the opposite direction from where the  Jeeps had gone. For a semi-hysterical moment Sylvie thought that  perhaps she'd pushed Arkim so far he was just going to dump her in the  desert and leave her to die a slow, painful death.         

     



 

 Gradually, though, as they galloped into the seeming nothingness of  the sandy landscape, almost against her will she felt herself relaxing  into Arkim's body, letting him take her weight. One of his arms was  around her torso, holding her to him, and she felt the intimate space  between her legs soften and moisten.

 She was fast losing all sense of reality. The real world and civilisation felt very far away.

 After about twenty minutes Arkim drew the stallion to a stop, its  muscles quivering under Sylvie's legs. He got off the horse and Sylvie  looked down to see his arms outstretched towards her. His mouth was  stern.

'Bring your leg over the horse, Sylvie.'

 She wanted to disobey, but she knew Arkim would pull her off the horse  anyway. Better to do it with a modicum of decorum and not let him see  how intimidated she was. And she was scared... Even though she knew-in  some way she didn't like to investigate-that he wouldn't harm her.

 Her hands landed on Arkim's wide shoulders and his hands clamped  around her waist as he lifted her down as effortlessly as before. She  saw the reins on the ground and said nervously,'Won't the horse just  go?'

'Aziz won't move unless I say so. And we won't be long.' Arkim's tone brooked no disobedience-from her or the horse.

 Sylvie broke away from Arkim's hands. The keffiyah was still around  her mouth and she pulled it down as she looked around at a sea of  nothing but blue sky and dunes.

'Why are we here?'

 Arkim planted himself in front of her, hands on hips.'Because this is  where you would have ended up if the buggy hadn't run out of fuel. This  is where we might have found you in two days, if we were lucky enough,  dehydrated and burnt to a crisp.'

 Sylvie looked at him and shivered.'You're exaggerating.'

 Arkim looked livid. He grabbed her arms with his hands.'No, I'm not.  Men who know this area, who have lived here for years, can still get  caught out by the desert. Right now it looks calm, wouldn't you agree?'

 Sylvie nodded hesitantly.

 Arkim's mouth thinned.'It's anything but. There's a sandstorm due to hit any day now. Have you ever been in a sandstorm?'

 She shook her head.

'Imagine a tidal wave coming towards you-except in this case it's made  of sand and debris, not water. You'd be obliterated in seconds.  Suffocated.'

 Genuine horror and fear finally made her realise just how reckless  she'd been. She seized on the surge of anger. He made her feel as if she  was a tiny ship bobbing about in a huge raging sea.

'Okay, fine-I get it. What I did was foolish and reckless and silly. I  didn't know. I didn't mean to put everyone to so much trouble...' A  very unwelcome sense of vulnerability made her lash out.'But, in case  you don't remember, it's your fault I'm even here!'

 * * *

 Arkim looked down at that beautiful but defiant face and felt such a  mix of things that he was dizzy. He shook his head, but nothing rational  would come to the surface. All he could see was her.

 He gave in to the urgent dictates of his blood and lowered his mouth to the lush contours of hers-and drowned.

 His tongue swept into her mouth in a marauding move and he quickly  became oblivious to everything except the rough stroke of his tongue  against Sylvie's, demanding a response.

 She resisted him for long seconds, but he felt her gradually relax, as  if losing a battle with herself. Once again there was an almost  unbelievable hesitance-as if she didn't know what to do. The thought  that she could do this-get under his skin so easily, make him doubt  himself-made Arkim's blood boil.

 He held the back of her covered head and put his hand to where her  neck met her shoulder in an unashamedly possessive move, his thumb  reaching for and finding that hectic pulse-beat, which was telling him  that no matter how ingrained it was in her to act, she couldn't control  everything.

 And finally he felt her arms relax and start to climb around his neck,  bringing her body into more intimate contact with his. Her mouth  softened and she...acquiesced. The triumph was heady. Her tongue stroked  his sweetly, sucking him deep-as deep as he imagined the exquisite  clasp of her body would be around his in a more intimate caress.         

     



 

 He wanted to throw her down on the ground right here and pull up that  robe, yank down her jeans, until he could find his release. The desire  was so strong he shook in a bid to rein it in. And that brought him back  from the brink of losing it completely.

 Reality slammed into him. He was in the middle of the desert, under  the merciless sun, about to ravage this woman. Make her his...brand her  like some kind of animal.

 He wanted to push her away from him and yet never let her go.

 He hated her. He wanted her.

 He pulled back from the kiss even though everything in his body and  his blood protested at the move. He felt the unrelenting beat of the sun  on his head. Her eyes opened after a moment, wide and blue...and that  intriguing blue-green. Her cheeks were flushed. Lips swollen.

 And then suddenly she tensed and scrambled free of his arms. Arkim  might almost have laughed-even now she was intent on playing this game  of push and pull. Acting her little heart out.

'Have you forgotten that you're a civilised man?'

 Even her voice sounded suitably shaky. But Arkim barely cast her a  glance as he reached for the horse's reins.'I don't have to be  civilised here.'

 That was why he'd brought her here in the first place-because he  didn't trust himself around her in more civilised surroundings. It was  as if he'd known the desert was the only place big enough to contain  what he felt for her.

 He picked up the reins, ignoring the dull throb of unsatisfied desire  in his system...the way his arousal pressed against his trousers under  his robe.

'You really can't turn it off, can you?'

 Sylvie scowled at him. She should have looked ridiculous. The keffiyah  was askew on her head, and slivers of bright red curling tendrils of  hair peeped out from under its folds. She crossed her arms.'Turn what  off?'

'Your constant need to act out some role-pretend you don't want this.'

'I'm not acting. And I don't want this! I don't know what happened  there...a moment of sunstroke...but it won't be happening again.'

 Arkim almost felt pity for her. He reached out and rubbed a thumb back  and forth over her plump lower lip.'Oh, don't worry-it'll be happening  again, and you'll be fully participant in it when it does.'

 Sylvie slapped his hand away. She might have screamed at his  arrogance, but he was lifting her up onto the horse again before she  could take another breath. And, in any case, what could she say after  she'd just melted all over him?

 It was pathetic. She was pathetic. She turned to mush when he came near her. So she'd just have to keep him at a distance.

 But then he got up on the horse behind her again, and predictably  Sylvie's body went into a paroxysm of anticipation as one arm snaked  around her torso, holding her to him, and his other hand expertly  gathered the reins to urge the horse on. Of course he would have to be  an expert horseman too. Was there anything this man couldn't do? Apart  from act in a civil manner to her?

 His lower body was pressed against her backside now, and she could  feel the thrust of something unmistakably hard. Her face flamed, and it  had nothing to do with the sun. She yanked the material of the keffiyah  back over her mouth. He wouldn't have to ask her to cover up. She'd  never uncover herself again in this man's presence.