Desert King, Pregnant Mistress(15)

'Ms Torrance?' he invited, in a voice that warmed  every part of her, a  voice that was entirely professional and  emotion-free. 'Would you like  to give us your suggestions now?'

She  had a few for him, Beth thought, feeling hurt rise up inside her.  How  could Khal have just walked away after everything that had happened   between them? And she didn't just mean the sex-they'd drawn closer and   seen inside each other's minds; they'd made love. Well, she had. And  he  hadn't even said goodbye to her before she'd left the country.

What  was the point in going over everything in the past? This was the   present, this was business; this was real life, and not a fantasy of her   own making in Q'Adar.

Khal had taken over the room with the  sheer weight of his presence, and  as he sat forward attentively Beth  knew she had to be as professional  about this meeting as he was. She was  good at presentations when she  believed in something, and she was here  to represent her team. She had  no intention of letting them down.



He  had invented the flimsiest of reasons to be at a meeting he knew she   would attend. No one had questioned him; no one had dared. He had  taken  over the Managing Director's office for the day, and now he was  forced  to sit here as if he had nothing more on his mind than the  Christmas  window-displays at Khalifa, when the truth was he wanted  Beth. He had  tried and failed to put her out of his mind, and so he had  come for her.

But  as the meeting progressed he found himself drawn in and captivated  all  over again. He had always thought Beth younger than her years, but  in  this formal business setting he was seeing another side of her. He  could  understand why she excelled at her job now. This presentation was   thorough, disciplined and innovative. Beth had researched her subject   well, and had the statistics to hand to prove her case, as well as an   impressive line in persuasion. She would get the budget she requested;   favouritism didn't come into it. Where was the need, when Beth's   proposal succeeded on two fronts: originality and sound business-sense?                       
       
           



       

'You've  got it,' he said, refocusing when she displayed her final  budget  calculations. She looked at him then for the first time,  straight in the  eyes.


'I have?' She flushed, unable to hide how thrilled she  was. For him  that was pure Beth. His senses stirred as he realised when  he'd last  seen that sort of colour on her face.

The meeting  concluded without any suspicions being aroused as to why  the owner of  the Khalifa brand had decided to make a surprise visit,  and later Beth  brought her portfolio of ideas to the office he was  borrowing as he'd  asked her to. The secretary had already left for  lunch, and so it fell  to him to take them from her. 'You can leave them  with me … ' For her sake  he had meant to keep it brief, but he had  forgotten how she affected  him. She walked past him and went to stand  in the furthest corner of the  room, with her back turned to him.

'How could you do that to me?' she said, without turning.

'Walk away?' he said, thinking back to Q'Adar. 'I needed time to think. We both did.'

'I  don't mean in Q'Adar. I mean just now in the boardroom.' Slowly, she   turned. 'First you arrive without warning anyone, and then-' She   stopped, clearly fighting back emotion.

'And then?' he prompted gently.

'Why did you look at me like that?' she asked him in a small voice.

'I thought I was being extremely professional.'

She shook her head. 'Couldn't you see what you were doing to me? I couldn't speak, I couldn't breathe.'

And  how had he felt? 'Stunned' didn't even begin to cover it. He could   never have been prepared for seeing Beth again, he realised now. 'You   made a great presentation.'

She ignored his attempt to return to safer ground. 'I couldn't think straight … not with you staring at me.'

'I  was listening to you.' He was trying to stay calm, but for the first   time in his life something inside him snapped. 'Do you think I want to   look at you? Do you think I want my mind full of you when I should be   thinking about my country? Do you think I should be here, while my   people wait for me in Q'Adar?'

'So why are you here, Khal?'

'I think you know.'

Pressing her lips together as if she didn't trust herself to speak, she shook her head.

'I'm here for you,' he told her bluntly, tiring of the act.

'What?  You're here for me? Oh, Khal, please!' She gave a short, angry  laugh  that spoke of all the hurt inside her. 'What happened to all  those other  women?'

'Other women?'

'Here, look at them.' From under  the pile of documents, she took a  magazine and thrust it at him. 'Take a  look at that and then tell me  again why you're here.'

He only  had to look at the first one. 'When tensions began to heighten  in  Q'Adar, my first thought was to divert attention from you. Clumsily,   now, it seems.'

'Yes,' she said, sounding bitterly hurt. She  glanced at the headline on  the cover and read it out loud to him.  '"Princess Layla comforts the  ruler of Q'Adar on one of his rare breaks  from leading his army against  the insurgents" … Or what about this one?  "The Sultana Lydia enters  negotiations for an arms deal with the warrior  sheikh" … A clever play on  words, don't you think, Khal?' Snatching the  magazine from him, she  flung it on the floor at his feet.

'What  better way is there to get a message across than through the  media?' he  said grimly. 'I was trying to protect you, and I could  hardly make an  announcement on the news. Those women were nothing more  than props.'

'Props?' Beth's mouth worked. 'And what am I, Khal?'

'You're the woman I want.'

'Just like that-you decide? After all these weeks, you decide?'

'You … ' He searched for words that properly expressed his feelings. 'Preoccupied my mind.'

'You mean you want sex?'

'No!'  The word exploded from him. 'Don't demean yourself. I left a  country  enduring the birth pangs to come here for you. And I came the  first  moment I could get away.'                       
       
           



       

'So now you want me-as what?' she said in a small voice. 'As your mistress?'

He stared at her intently. 'And you don't want that?'

She flinched. 'No, I don't want that.'

'But I want you. Only you … '

It  was as his mother had told her, Beth thought helplessly; she could  be  as strong as she liked, but the invisible bond between the ruler of   Q'Adar and the Liverpool shop girl would never break. Closing her eyes,   she inhaled sharply, and when Khal reached for her and slowly pulled  her  towards him she didn't resist. She was strong enough for most  things,  but not for this. As heat rose up inside her he backed her oh,  so slowly  towards the door. She was sure her legs would crumple beneath  her  before they reached it, and when they did she gasped with relief,   hearing Khal slip the lock. He started kissing her, gently, tenderly,  on  the brow and on the eyes, and on the lips and on her neck, keeping  her  moving all the time, backing her towards the desk until she felt  the  smooth wood pressing against the top of her legs.

The desktop was  at the perfect height. Grasping the lapels of his  jacket, she pushed it  from his shoulders. As it fell to the floor she  reached for the buckle  on his belt, and unfastened it. Loosening his  tie, she freed the buttons  at the neck of his shirt, excited even more  by the sight of the  familiar smooth, bronze skin with its shading of  dark hair. Moving on,  she released the catch on his pants and undid the  zip. That was the  signal for Khal to drag her to him and kiss her with  a savage intensity  that matched her own. When he released her she  tugged his trousers down  and wriggled free of her briefs. He nudged his  way between her thighs  before they even hit the floor. She felt him  grow bigger, harder, in her  hands.

'How much of me do you want?'

'All of you,' she commanded hoarsely, throwing back her head. 'I want all of you,' she gasped as Khal plunged deep.

It  was so much more pleasure than she remembered. It was amazing. She   screamed out, not caring who might hear her. And once wasn't enough.   Once wasn't nearly enough. She moved fiercely while Khal worked his   hips, just as she wanted him to, until finally she slumped exhausted in   his arms. 'You don't need me?' he said.

She didn't answer.

They  took a long, warm shower in the small private bathroom, but even  there  they couldn't keep away from each other. She was frantic for him,  like a  man without water in the desert who had found a well. With  Khal's arms  braced against the tiled walls, and her legs locked around  his waist,  their shower had turned cold without them realising it, and  she was  trembling with exhaustion again by the time Khal lowered her to  the  ground.