Another silence filled the space between them and he found himself almost dreading her answer. Because he hadn’t realized quite how much he wanted her to say yes until now.
The silence stretched tight. Then Lily let out a soft breath. “All right, Sheikh. I’ll come with you.”
* * *
Lily kept her gaze firmly out of the window as Isma’il drove them along the rocky, desert road that led to the dunes, conscious of the fact that for the first time they were completely alone together. He’d refused to allow a couple of his security team to accompany them, so it was just him and her in the four wheel drive.
Him and her, and the crackling tension that filled up the space inside the car.
Without the distraction of the meeting or other people around, it felt suffocating, the weight of the confessions of the night before lying heavy between them.
She still didn’t know why she’d accepted his invitation. She’d been interested to see the dunes, but the way he’d left her no option but to accompany him to do so had angered her. She wasn’t a victim, but he was certainly treating her like one.
You are not alone . . .
Lily gripped on tight to the handle above the window, staring hard out into the blinding heat of the desert.
Last night, he’d offered her a piece of himself and despite what she’d told him about not wanting to trade stories and what she told herself about not letting him get to her, she had to admit she’d liked that he’d given her something in return. And it had further ignited her curiosity about him. A dangerous prospect. Being curious about him only served to heighten her awareness of him. An awareness on every level, including physical.
Lily held the handle tighter, trying not to notice the way he gripped the steering wheel in long, strong fingers. Or how he’d rolled up the sleeves of the white cotton shirt he wore, revealing lean, powerful forearms, the white in stark contrast to his bronze skin. Or how the way he sat revealed the tension in his shoulders; the lines around his mouth and the distant look in his blue eyes also telling a story.
Something about this trip was making him tense.
Lily focused her attention out the window, questions circling her brain, fighting the urge ask to ask him what was bothering him.
No, she should not have accepted his invitation. Should have insisted that one of the tribesmen take her. Should have ignored this fascination she had with him.
When I was fifteen my father beat me . . .
She didn’t want to know. She didn’t.
“You want to ask me something?” he said at last, breaking the tense silence.
“Not especially,” she lied, keeping her gaze out the window, trying not to betray her shock of how easily he’d seemed to pick up on her discomfort. “I suppose I was hoping for camels rather than a car. Being in the desert, etcetera.”
Isma’il lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t take his attention from the road in front of them. “Please. I am not a complete cliché.”
“No. If you were a complete cliché you’d be wearing your robes.”
He wasn’t today. Today, he wore a white cotton shirt much like her own, and grey utility trousers. But somehow, the more familiar clothes did not make him any less dangerous. Or settle the seething, shivering tension that made her feel like she was in the car alone with a very powerful, very dangerous animal.
“You are tense,” he said abruptly. “Are you all right?”
She shifted in her seat. “I’m fine.”
His dark head moved and she could almost feel the brush of that intense blue gaze like a touch. “You are not fine.”
“Neither are you.”
That seemed to shut him up. He shifted his attention back out the windscreen.
Silence built, thick and heavy.
“Tell me about your gold medal win,” he said, breaking it.
It wasn’t the subject she would have picked, her win spoiled as it was by memories of Dan. “Why? Is this part of your getting to know one another plan?”
“If you like.”
She didn’t want to talk about it, but answering him was better than sitting there suffocating in the tense silence. “What do you want to know?”
“What did it feel like? The moment you won?”
“I didn’t realize I had at first. When you’re in the water, everything fades away. It’s just you swimming your guts out as hard as you can, as fast as you can. Nothing else matters. I remember being surprised when my hand hit the wall and I realized the race was over. Then, I looked around and saw everyone cheering. And it was me they were cheering for.”
“That must have been an incredible moment.”
Unexpectedly, she felt her throat close at the memory. The triumph of it. Standing on the dais, her parents cheering from the stands as the medal was hung around her neck. Her father’s proud face. And Dan’s—