She softened. "If Salalah froze over the hotels might not be so popular. Unless he opens a ski resort in the mountains."
Quasar laughed. "I suspect he'd like the way you think." He pulled on to her street and drove up to the front of her house. Then he glanced both ways and drove around to the back entrance. "I can't stand to leave you. I want to spend more time with you."
I want to make love to you. She read the words in his gaze and they echoed in her heart.
Was this part of his charm? A slick gloss over an ulterior motive? Or was Quasar really as smitten with her as she was with him?
"Can I come in, just for a moment?" His soft words scandalized her.
"You've got to be kidding. I promised my father I wouldn't see you again. You've already made me a liar and now you want to trespass in his house?"
"I've been accused of having a different set of morals than most people."
"I don't think that's a good thing." She gathered her bag off the floor. "I have to go."
"Kiss me."
His gaze, hooded, dark and filled with passion, stole her breath and every last ounce of her common sense. Suddenly her lips were on his, kissing him with tenderness. His arms wrapped around her in the cramped space of the car, and his exhilarating male scent filled her senses. The effect he had on her was shocking. Once minute she was normal and sensible, the next...
"I'm desperate to make love to you." He gestured to the house with his head.
"No way. You're crazy."
"Kiss me again, then." He covered her mouth with his before she had a chance to refuse. His hands on her body stirred passion that grew into an ache. He pulled back just enough to look into her eyes. "You know you want to."
"I do, but..." The prospect of making love with Quasar in her own bedroom was terrifying and electrifying at the same time. Her whole body burned to feel his pressed against it. "We'll have to be really quick." Heart pounding, she extricated herself from his embrace and climbed out of the car. She couldn't believe she was about to do this, but apparently that wasn't enough to stop her. It was a crazy foolish risk but somehow that felt right. She'd been tiptoeing quietly through life, putting her own needs and desires last for far too long. Following her instincts felt daring and liberating.
The back door had a key code and she unlocked it and ushered him down the dim hallway past the empty servants' bedrooms. "In here." She ducked into her bedroom and pulled him with her, locking the door behind her. Her familiar bedroom, with its calming lilac walls and floral-patterned bedcover, looked utterly different dominated by the tall and commanding presence of Quasar.
Within seconds they were grabbing at each other's clothes and shucking them off to reveal bare, anxious skin. Dani clutched at him, pressing her chest to his, reveling in the closeness that banished all her doubts about his intentions.
He wanted her. Nothing else.
Quasar kissed her face, her neck, her hands, with worshipful passion. He kissed her thighs, her knees and her ankles. Then, easing her back onto the bed, he licked her sex until she gasped with pleasure.
For an instant she was distracted by the framed picture of her high school class photo, then by the stuffed bear her friend Nala had given her. Things that reminded her there was a real world out there beyond Quasar's intense embrace. Then she forgot again and folded herself into him, watching with joy and impatience as he donned a condom. Welcoming him into her and moving with him on her familiar bedspread, letting sensation and emotion wash over her like a tidal wave she couldn't fight but could only hope to flow with.
They climaxed in a rush of almost unbearable tension and release that made her cry out so loud that Quasar clapped his hand over her mouth and startled her. Eyes gleaming with arousal and amusement, he urged her to be quiet and not give them away.
She watched her own chest rising and falling as if she'd run a marathon. "What have you done to me?"
"Awakened you." He kissed her cheek softly, his eyes closing for just that instant. "You were like the sleeping beauty, sleepwalking through life. Now you're living in the moment."
"Living like a crazy person." The clock on her wall said 3:45 p.m. "My brother Khalid could be home any minute."
"You can tell him I'm the mailman."
She smiled. "He'll know you're not. The real one gives him gum sometimes."
He put on a mock serious expression and pretended to check his pockets even though he was naked. "I don't have gum." He let go of a wistful sigh and stroked a finger along her body. "You're beautiful, and sensual, and affectionate, and I can't get enough of you."
"Sorry to disappoint you yet again but you need to leave right now." Half-playful and half-serious, she pushed him off her and reached for her clothes. It was hard to tug them on. Her whole body was trembling with excitement and something akin to shock.
"What if I won't go?" Sprawled across her single bed, he knitted his hands behind his head and pretended to ease farther onto the mattress. "Then what will you do?"
"That's not funny. I hate bossy men, remember?"
He smiled and rolled up and onto his feet. "I'm not really bossy. I'm just..." He seemed to think about it for a moment.
"You're just trouble." She picked up his pants off the floor and threw them at him. "Get dressed and get out of here." Even while she pretended to scold him, excitement at their escapade rippled through her. They were both healthy, consenting adults. Why couldn't they enjoy each other's company?
Quasar pulled his pants on far more slowly than she liked. She tried to bundle his arms into his shirt to hurry him up, but he ended up grabbing her around the waist and kissing her until she wondered if they'd need a second condom.
Then she heard something and froze. Footsteps in the hallway.
Eight
"It must be Khalid." Her heart was jumping around in her chest.
"Why don't you introduce me?"
Dani motioned for Quasar to be silent. "He probably saw you here last night. He certainly heard you. There's no way we can pretend you're just a friend, even if it wasn't totally inappropriate for me to have a male friend come visit me here alone. We have to get you out of here without him seeing you."
"I'll climb out the window." He looked amused by the idea.
"You can't. It has a grating over it. It's locked from the outside and I don't know where the key is."
"That sounds very dangerous in case of a fire."
She motioned again for him to be quiet. Now was not the time to worry about fire safety. He shrugged his shirt on, quickly buttoned it and examined the window. "Will he come in?" He gestured toward the hallway.
"No. But he might wonder why I haven't come out to say hello. I'll have to pretend I was napping and didn't hear him come in." It was hard to speak quietly enough that the sound wouldn't travel into the hallway. "Maybe you should hide behind the door. I'll go distract him with something in the kitchen, and you can dash out the hallway past the servants' quarters."
"It's lucky you don't have any servants." He tucked in his shirt. "I'll sneak out like an experienced diamond thief."
Dani's heart was in her throat as she opened the door with Quasar hidden behind it. If her brother saw her he'd rat her out for sure. He wasn't mean but he was a Goody Two-shoes. She'd been one at his age, too.
"Khalid? Is that you? I fell asleep!" She hurried down the hallway toward the living room. Her brother often threw his bag down in there and lay on the sofa before he started his homework. "Could you help me get the lid off the new olive jar? I've been trying all afternoon." She had to lure him into the kitchen. It was the only room where you couldn't see into the central hallway. She prayed that Quasar would be patient enough to wait.
"Dani! I'm resting. Give me a minute."
"Oh, come on. I'll make your favorite snack. Anything you want."
"Well, in that case..." He eased off the sofa. She held her breath as he glanced in her direction. The hallway was clearly visible behind her. Then he turned toward the kitchen and she followed him, hoping there was an unopened olive jar somewhere.
"What did I do with it?" She made a big show of clattering around in the pantry, trying to make as much noise as possible while straining her ears to hear if Quasar had made his escape. "Oh, here it is. I don't know why it's so stuck. I even put it under hot water. I couldn't get it open." She glanced over Khalid's shoulder as she handed him the jar.