Awakened by Her Desert Captor(4)

 She ungritted her teeth and desisted from belabouring the point of  whether or not love existed. Clearly in his world it didn't.

'Sophie's not right for you-and you are certainly not right for her.'

 An assessing look came over that starkly handsome face.'She's perfect  for me. Young, beautiful, intelligent. Accomplished.' He looked her up  and down.'And above all she's refined.'

 Sylvie held up a hand, hating it that that stung.'Please-save your  insults. I'm perfectly aware where I come on your scale of condemnation.  Clearly you have issues with certain industries, and you've deemed me  worth judging on the basis of what I do.'

'What you are,' he said harshly.

 Her hands clenched into fists.'You didn't seem to have much of an issue with what I am the last time we met.'

 His face flushed dark red and Sylvie felt the bite of his self-condemnation as sharply as if he'd just slapped her.

'That was a mistake-not to be repeated.'

 Something about that lash of recrimination made her want to curl up  and protect herself. The look on his face was pure...disgust. And it  would have been worse if it was solely for her. But she could tell it  wasn't. It was for himself.

 Hurt lodged deep in her belly like a dark, malevolent thing, tugging  on other hurts, reopening old wounds. Reminding her of the disgust on  her father's face when he'd looked at her after her mother had died...         

     



 

 She desperately wanted to lash back and see this man's icy  condemnatory control snap. Acting on blind instinct, and on that hurt,  she stepped out from behind the chair and right up to Arkim Al-Sahid.  She pressed her body to his, lifting her arms to wind them around his  neck.

 His nostrils flared and those black eyes flashed. His hands were on  her arms, his grip tight.'What the hell do you think you're doing?'

 But he didn't pull her arms down. Sylvie's entire body was quivering with adrenalin at her bravado.

'I'm proving that you're a hypocrite, Mr Al-Sahid.'

 And then, in the boldest move she'd ever made in her life, she reached  up and pressed her mouth to his. She moved her lips over his and  through the frantic thumping of her heart she could feel excitement  flooding her at the sheer proximity of their bodies. Brain cells were  scrambled in a rush of heat.

 She could feel the tension holding his body rigid... But what he  couldn't disguise was the explicit thrust of his arousal against her  belly. That evidence was enough to send a thrill of exultation through  Sylvie and help her block out the memory of how he'd pushed her away the  last time.

 Except then she started to forget why she'd even started this. Her  body moved against him, closer. Arms locked tighter. And after a  heart-stopping infinitesimal moment his hands loosened from her arms and  slid down the length of her torso to her hips, gripping her there as  his mouth started to move on hers-slowly at first and then, like a storm  gathering strength, with an almost rough intensity.

 For a long moment everything faded into the distance as the kiss  became hotter and more intense. Arkim Al-Sahid's hands pulled Sylvie  even closer-so close that she could feel his heart beating. And then  something shifted. He went very still, before abruptly breaking the  kiss.

 Sylvie was left grasping air when he thrust her away from him. She  stumbled backwards and found herself landing heavily in the chair behind  her, her breathing laboured, her heart out of control. Dizzy.

 Arkim's mouth twisted and his voice was rough.'No. I will not do  this. You dare to try and seduce me on the evening of the announcement  of my engagement to your sister? Is there no depth to which you won't  descend?'

 Sylvie was going cold all over. The lust which had risen up like  wildfire dissipated under his murderous gaze. Her brain felt woolly...it  was hard to think. Why had it been so important to kiss him like that?  What had she been trying to prove? How did this man have the ability to  make her act so out of character?

 She looked up at him.'It wasn't like that. I'd never do anything to hurt Sophie.'

 Arkim made a rude sound just as a knock sounded at the door and it was opened.

 Sylvie heard a voice say,'Sorry to disturb you, Mr Al-Sahid, but they're ready to make the announcement.'

 Sylvie realised that whoever was at the door wouldn't be able to see  her in the chair just as Arkim Al-Sahid answered with a curt,'I'll be  right there.' The door closed again and he looked down at her, black  eyes glittering with disgust and condemnation.'I think it would be best  for all of us if you left now, don't you?'





  CHAPTER TWO

 Present day-a week after the ruined wedding...

 ARKIM AL-SAHID LOOKED out over the view from his palatial office and  apartment complex, high in the London skyline. And even though the past  week had brought to life a lot of his worst nightmares all he could  think about right at that moment was of how he'd only met Sylvie  Devereux twice in the past six months-three times if you counted her  memorable appearance in the church-and yet each time he'd let his  legendary control slip.

 And now he was paying for it. More than he'd ever thought possible.

 Anger was a constant unquenchable fire within him. He was paying for  the fact that she was a privileged spoilt brat, who didn't take  rejection well. Who had acted out of her poisonous jealousy of her  younger sister to ruin their wedding.         

     



 

 Yet his conscience pricked him. It had been him who had fallen for her  all too obvious charms. He'd had to fight it from the moment he'd laid  eyes on her, when she'd stood in the reception hall of her father's  house with her hand on her hip, her beautiful body flaunted to every  best advantage.

 He could still see her eyes landing on him, widening, the familiar  glitter of feminine awareness, the scenting of his power. Sensing a  conquest. And then she'd sashayed over as if she owned the world. As if  she could own him with a mere flutter of her eyelids. And, dammit, he  had almost fallen right then-as soon he'd seen those amazing eyes up  close.

 One blue and the other green and blue.

 An intriguing genetic anomaly in a perfect face-high cheekbones,  patrician nose and a mouth so lush it could incite a man to sin.

 His body had come to hot, pulsing life under that knowing feline gaze,  showing him that any illusion that he mastered his own impulses was  just that: a flimsy illusion.

 His mouth compressed now as he stared unseeingly out of the window, as if he could try to compress the memories.

 The full repercussions of his weakness sat like lead in his belly. The  marriage to Sophie Lewis was off. And Arkim's very substantial  investment in Grant Lewis's extensive industrial portfolio was teetering  on the brink of collapse. Losing the deal wouldn't put much of a dent  into Arkim's finances, but the subsequent loss of professional standing  would.

 He was back to square one. Having to prove himself all over again. His  team had been fielding calls from clients all week, expressing doubts  and fears that Arkim's solid business reputation was as shaky as his  personal life. Stocks and shares were in freefall.

 The tabloids had salivated over the story, featuring a caricaturised  cast of characters: the stoical and long-suffering father; the  scandalous daughter bent on revenge borne out of jealousy; the sweet  innocent bride-the victim-and the ruthless social-climbing mother.

 And Arkim-son of one of the world's richest men, who was also one of its most infamous, dominating the world's porn industry.

 Saul Marks lived a life of excess in Los Angeles, and Arkim hadn't  seen him since he was seventeen. He'd made a vow a long time ago to  crawl out from under his father's shameful reputation, even going so far  as to change his name legally as soon as he'd been able to-choosing a  name that had belonged to a distant ancestor of his mother's as he  hadn't thought her present-day immediate family would appreciate their  bastard relative making a claim on their name.

 Arkim's mother had come from a wealthy and high-born family in the  Arabian country of Al-Omar. She'd been studying in the States at  university when she'd met and been seduced by Saul Marks. Naive and  innocent, she'd been bowled over by the handsome charismatic American.

 When she'd become pregnant, however, Marks had already moved on to his  next girlfriend. He'd supported Arkim's mother, but wanted nothing to  do with her or the baby...until she'd died in childbirth and he'd been  forced to take his baby son into his care after Zara's family in Al-Omar  had expressed no interest in their deceased daughter's son.

 Arkim's early life had been a constant round of English boarding  schools and impersonal nannies, interspersed with time spent with a  reluctant father and his dizzying conveyer belt of lovers, who  invariably came from the porn industry. One of whom had taken an  unhealthy interest in Arkim and given him an important life lesson in  how vital it was to master self-control.