“Sometimes the things we hold onto the tightest are the things we most need to set free.”
Carter sighed. “Yeah.”
“It sort of makes sense. The lifestyle you lead. Always moving around and blowing through women. You can’t get hurt if you never get attached.”
“And I can’t hurt them if they never get too close.”
“It’s a protective mechanism. We all do it to some extent. I’ve been doing it the last year myself. In the back of my mind, I knew what I was going to eventually have to do, and I started pushing people away. My friends, the little family I have left…I didn’t want them to judge me when the time came.”
Somehow, Carter reigned in Fouad, and we came to a stop. He managed to swing one leg over the camel and turned so we were facing each other completely. Pushing a lock of hair behind my ear, he said, “I won’t judge you, Perky. Not ever. I give you my word.”
His eyes were filled with sincerity. I truly believed he meant it.
“And I’m here for you if you want to talk about Lucy. Anytime, anywhere. Even when this trip is over.” My heart squeezed thinking it wasn’t long now, the end of the road was coming near.
Carter kissed my forehead and then wrapped me in a tight embrace. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
Apparently, Fouad decided we were done with our little heart to heart. He started walking again, forcing Carter to swing back around and face forward. For the rest of the ride, I kept my arms wrapped around him from behind and did what I’d done since the first time I followed this man—held on tight.
“YEAH, WELL, THERE’S A FIRST time for everything.” Carter was talking on the phone when I walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel after my shower. We’d spent the entire day alternating between sitting outside in the desert, eating traditional Arabic meals, and listening to Carter’s friend Amari tell stories of the changes in Dubai over the last twenty years. In between, we snuck in snuggle time in our room. Now the sun had set, and I’d just scrubbed an inch of sand from my scalp. “Give me fifteen, and let me talk to my woman.” Carter hung up and tossed his phone on the bed.
“Your woman?” I looked over my shoulder to the right and then to the left and teased, “You have a woman you own around here somewhere?”
Even though he was standing on the other side of the room, the way Carter was looking at me made my body warm. The towels weren’t very long, and my smallish breasts were pushed up and popping out the top. “I’d like to own you. You keep standing there much longer in that little rinky-dink towel, and you’re going to feel how much you own me in about two seconds.”
I hid my blush by burying my head in my suitcase searching for some clean clothes to change into. “Who was that on the phone you were talking to?”
He walked up behind me and kissed my bare shoulder. “A pilot friend. He asked me to cover a flight for him tomorrow morning. He’s here in Dubai and has a rapid turn trip.”
“Is he sick or something?”
Carter ran his nose along my neck, his warm breath sending goosebumps down my skin, most of which was already exposed.
“Cold?” The smile in his voice was unmistakable. He knew the affect he had on me.
I ignored him. “Are you going to take his flight?”
“That depends.”
“Oh what?”
“If you’re up for another adventure.”
I turned, and he didn’t back up. “You want me to go with you?”
“I’m only taking it if you go with me. If you want to stay here for another two days, I’m fine with that, too.”
“Where do you go in two days?”
Carter’s eyes looked back and forth between mine. “Home. I have five down days after this. I fly from here back to the states and then pick up a connection as a passenger to get back home to Florida.”
Wow. Our little trip really is coming to an end. The thought made me sick to my stomach. Carter must have sensed what I was thinking. He tipped my chin up so our eyes met. “Let’s not go there yet. Stay with me. Whether it’s here or on another adventure, we still have time. I don’t want this to end yet either. Stay in the moment with me, Kendall.”
“Where would we go?”
He smiled, and it was all I could do not to drop my towel in response. “That’s a surprise.”
“Give me a hint.”
Carter scratched his chin for a minute. “Okay. If you want to continue our little adventure, you’ll give me the green light, but you might wind up getting stopped at the red light along the way.”
“What the heck is that supposed to mean? I said a hint, not a riddle.”