Pursued by the Desert Prince(6)

He saw the deepening of her color and the swirl of speculation behind  her gaze. The way she swallowed and licked her lips. Her nipples rose  against the light silk of her top and filmy jacket.

He smiled with anticipation.

"That's rather overconfident, isn't it?" she said snippily.

"Don't act surprised, Angelique." He flicked his gaze down to the  breasts that had flattened against his chest, the pelvis that had  pressed into the thrust of his. "We're very well matched and both  intrigued to see where this could go. If you're so eager you don't want  to go to dinner first, we can progress to that discovery right here and  now. Provided you remove your necklace first."

Her chin was not so narrow as to be pointed, but not so round as to be  girlish. It was as perfect as the rest of her. She set it into a  stubborn angle and said, "Punishment it is."

She marched past him to the door.

"Maurice," she said as she swung the door open. "A card, please. I'll be  dining with the prince later. Would you be kind enough to send someone  to scout the restaurant of his choosing?"         

     



 

She relayed the card to Kasim as he came up behind her. If he wished to  be so forward, her glare spat at him, he could suffer the wrath of her  celebrité.

He wasn't scared. His worst family secret had been painstakingly-and  yes, agonizingly-buried. Reports that he had affairs with beautiful  women only aided that particular cause.

"Your men can call that number with the details," Angelique said.

He pocketed the card thoughtfully. "I'll pick you up at seven."

"No need. My security will deliver me."

"So cautious." He felt the seeds of irritation forming. Perhaps he  didn't care about the notoriety she provoked, but the triple-A level of  security could become tiresome. "It's a test?" he guessed. If the  arrangements for a simple dinner were too much for him, he was not  prepared for the rest of the way she lived, she seemed to be conveying.

"It's my reality," she said with a flat smile.



He annoyed me.

That was the only reason Angelique had agreed to dinner.

Or so she told herself.

And repeated to Trella, when her sister rang through on the tablet before she'd got round to calling Henri.

"What's going on with you?" Trella demanded with a troubled frown. "I'm  feeling... I don't know. Restless. Keyed up. Henri texted that your blip  was a false alarm, but was it more serious?"

She and her sister didn't keep much from one another. There was no point. They read each other too well.

Not that they were psychic. Angelique never feared Trella could peer  into her private moments, but they had an uncanny connection. Despite  whatever distance might separate them, they were eerily aware of the  other's emotional temperature. They knew if the other was happy or sad,  angry or scared.

It was one of the reasons Angelique was encouraged to believe Trella was  actually getting better this time. The Sauveterres were all paranoid to  a point, but for Trella, terror had become her constant companion and a  very debilitating one. She didn't want to fall apart with anxiety  attacks, but for years they had struck without mercy and Angelique had  always been aware when they did. It hadn't helped her own sensitive  nature one little bit.

Living a cloistered life had leveled out the worst of Trella's episodes,  but now she was trying to overcome her fear of being in public so she  could go to Sadiq's wedding. It wasn't so much fear of actually being  around people or in the public eye that held her back, but fear that any  change in her routine would trigger fresh attacks. So it was proving to  be a "two steps forward, one back" process, but she was getting there.

Angelique was just as worried that anything could cause Trella to  backslide, so she was very firm in stating, "Today was me being an  idiot. That's all."

She didn't go into detail about the kiss, but gave Trella a good laugh describing the scene as Kasim set off her panic button.

"He said it would be a treat to have dinner with him. I'll show him a treat," she muttered.

"It's been a long time since you went on a date. Even longer since it  was someone you were genuinely attracted to," Trella noted.

There went any attempt at disguising from her sister how deeply Kasim affected her.

"I don't know why I am! He's not my usual type at all."

"You don't have a type. You go out with men who make you feel guilty if you turn them down, or sorry for them."

"Well, there's no feeling sorry for this one. He's..." Indescribable.  She was reacting to him from a completely different place than she'd  ever experienced. He didn't pluck her heartstrings as Trella suggested,  or tweak her conscience. It was a way deeper reaction than that. He drew  her to him.

And made her feel too transparent just thinking about him. She quickly  mentioned she still owed Henri a call, but lingered to ask Trella, "Have  you noticed... Is something going on with Henri and Cinnia?"

Trella tilted her head in consideration. "He hasn't said anything to me, but now that you say it..."

Henri didn't peep a word about anything unless he wanted it known, but  if he did confide a secret, it was to Trella first. They were all close,  but they each had their own special relationship with each other. It  went all the way back to the day Angelique and Trella were born. Their  twin brothers had been allowed to name their sisters and it had created a  sense of responsibility in each boy for "his" baby sister.

Ownership, Trella and Angelique had often called it in a mutter to each  other. Half the time the boys acted like their sisters were kittens  picked up from the animal shelter, but it was a dynamic that had colored  their entire lives. They all loved each other equally, but when it had  come to holding a sister's hand or pushing her on a swing, they had  naturally divided into Henri and Trella, Ramon and Angelique. Oldest  with youngest, middle with middle.         

     



 

Which wasn't to say that Henri was any less protective of Angelique than  he was of Trella, or that Ramon was more. Trella's kidnapping had sent  the boys' instincts off the scale. Their father's death six years later,  when the men were barely twenty-one, had added yet another layer to  their self-imposed yokes of responsibility.

Thus both men would insist on an explanation for today's false alarm.

Angelique hung up on her sister and placed the call to both brothers at once, opening with, "I can't talk long. I have a date."

Their identical faces stared back at her, Henri in the London flat that  he often shared with Cinnia, Ramon in the corporate office in Madrid.  They both gave her their full attention, but Henri's expression was  marginally more severe, Ramon's a shade amused.

"Do you really expect us to believe the looking at your necklace' story?" Ramon asked.

"Do you really want a different one?" she challenged.

"Soyez prudent, Gili," Henri said. "He doesn't keep his women long and  he has publicly stated that his father will choose his bride-a  traditional virgin from Zhamair, no doubt. I wouldn't recommend a  romance."

"Hear that, Ramon? Don't get your hopes up."

No smile out of Henri. He really was a grump these days. Angelique  scanned behind him for Cinnia. She usually dipped into the screen for at  least a quick hello.

"I have to go to Beijing for a week, but I'll be back in Paris after that. You can explain properly then," Henri stated.

Good luck, she thought, suppressing a snort, and took note of how  permanent that sounded. Back in Paris after that. Henri usually divided  his time between Paris and London with occasional popovers to New York  and Montreal. More often than not he said "we," meaning him and his  companion of two years, Cinnia.

Ramon only introduced his lovers to the family if they happened to bump  into each other at a public event. Women were a catch and release sport  for him and he was forever on the run anyway, covering Spain, Portugal  and all of South America for Sauveterre International. The men were  actively working on acquisitions in Asia and Australia, but as Ramon  sometimes joked, "We're only one person."

"Trella told me not to bring her tomorrow," Ramon said abruptly, dark brows pulling into a frown. "Did she tell you that?"

"What? No!" Angelique was taken aback. "I just spoke to her. She said,  See you tomorrow.' We're going to finish Hasna's gown and start packing  everything." Had she blocked her sister from airing some misgivings,  too focused on herself and her date with Kasim?

"No, I mean she said she wants to travel to Paris alone. With guards, of  course, but she doesn't want me to come with her." Ramon scratched his  eyebrow. "It started because I said I was heading to Rio right after and  that I had to be there until Sadiq's wedding. She said I shouldn't have  to double back and she would go to Paris alone."

"Go with her anyway," Henri ordered. "I'll change my schedule and come get her, if you don't have time. Where is Mama?"