The Sheikh's Prize(6)

Saffy looked up, clashed with his eyes, experienced a light-headed   sensation that did nothing to collect her wits, and swallowed painfully.   How could he be so gorgeous that she couldn't breathe? Why was it as  if  the world had stopped turning and had flung her off into space? She  was  completely disorientated by his proximity, the very heat she could  feel  filtering from his lean powerful body towards hers even though  their  only connection was the hand resting against her face. 'Zahir?'

He lowered his proud dark head. He's going to kiss me, he's going to   kiss me, a crazily excited voice chanted inside her head and both   anticipation and denial warred inside her. And then he did, firm,   sensual lips circling hers, the pressure steadily deepening even as a   shriek alarm of shock shrilled through her trembling body. He parted her   lips, let his tongue dart between and it felt like the most erotic   caress she had ever experienced because the taste and the flicker of   movement inside her mouth were indescribably sexy. Heat burned in her   pelvis, her nipp**les swelling taut, abrading the cotton covering them.   That intoxicating intense physical reaction was exactly what she had   wanted to feel for a long time but he was the very last man on earth she   wanted to feel it with.

And yet she couldn't will herself to break free while his tongue tangled   with hers, touching, tasting, savouring, a low growl breaking from his   throat while his fingertips stroked her neck where it met her  shoulder.  Unholy pleasure was ricocheting through her treacherous body  as it  awakened to sudden life, hot, damp sensation tingling at her  feminine  core while her brea**sts swelled and ached. Gathering every  atom of her  strength, she pushed her hand forcefully against a wide  muscular  shoulder and broke free. 'No...no, I don't want this!'                       
       
           



       

His gaze filled with sardonic amusement, Zahir studied her hectically   flushed face with satisfaction. 'Liar,' he said thickly. 'You always   liked my mouth on you.'

Saffy felt the rush of heat below her skin and momentarily closed her   eyes while she blocked him out and fought for recovery. He was a demon   kisser. That far, they had worked and the chemistry had misleadingly   suggested a match made in heaven. In that instant, she loathed him for   bringing the past alive again and reminding her of exactly what she   yearned to find in another man's arms. Frustration filled her. Been   there, done that, as he had said, although they hadn't actually done it.   Did he feel cheated? Was that why he had brought her here? Why did he   think that anything would have changed between them? It was not as if  he  knew what she had gone through in search of a cure. Crushing out  that  torrent of curious questions and musings, Saffy concentrated on  the here  and now.

'I want transport to the airport and the film that was confiscated,' she   told him drily, straightening her slender shoulders to stand up to  him.

Zahir viewed her from beneath the cloak of his lush black lashes, dark eyes bright as stars. 'It's not happening.'

'Then what would it take to make it happen?' Saffy prompted, determined   to sort the situation out by taking the practical approach that   generally served her well in difficult situations. 'That missing money   you mentioned? I promise I'll look into that mystery and sort it out as   soon as I get back to London.'

'Don't try to avoid the real issue here-I want you...'

Her mouth ran dry and her skin ran hotter than hot as he lounged back   against the wall beside him and she noticed, really couldn't help   noticing by the close fit of his jeans that he was aroused. She turned   her head away, her tummy flipping even as she recognised the healthy   discovery that the awareness of his arousal no longer made her feel   threatened. 'But we can't always have what we want,' she pointed out   tautly, hanging onto her cool with difficulty. 'And you know that   bringing me here is crazy. Your people would be scandalised by this   set-up.'

'I'm a single man and not a eunuch.'

'You're also intelligent and fair-at least you used to be,' Saffy countered with determination.

'Then you will understand that I seek justice.'

'Because you didn't get either the wedding night or the bride of your   dreams you think you can magically turn the clock back?' Saffy lifted a   fair brow. 'Good luck with that without a time machine.'

'You're staying,' Zahir declared with razor-sharp emphasis. 'And I don't   want the girl you were five years ago. I want the woman you are now.'

'But the woman I am now is living with another man,' Saffy slotted in   curtly, shooting the last bolt in her rejection routine, which she   usually regarded as worth using only at the last ditch but his sheer   persistence was ruffling more than her feathers

'And he shares you with whomever you choose to stray with,' Zahir   retorted, unimpressed, his wide sensual mouth compressing with speaking   derision.

Saffy stiffened as though he had slapped her in the face. Evidently he   had come across the silly stories about her that the tabloids printed   and believed them, actually believed that she slept around whenever she   felt like it. But then she had only to be pictured emerging from a  man's  apartment for the press to assume she was engaged in an affair,  but the  truth was that she had some very good male friends, whom she  visited,  and had learned to treat the reports with amusement, for there  was  really nothing she could do to stop lies about her appearing in  print.  That, she had learnt, was the price of a life lived in the  public eye.

'That is not true. Cameron and I are very close. He's my best friend,'   Saffy admitted, throwing her head high, reluctant to lie to him about   that relationship but happy to take advantage of his ignorance if it   acted as another barrier between them.

'I don't want to be your best friend. I want to be your lover.'

Saffy's lovely face snapped tight and turned pale. 'And we both know how   that panned out five years ago,' she reminded him flatly. 'Let me go,   Zahir. Bringing me here is reckless and illogical.'

Zahir studied her with veiled eyes, a grimly amused smile tugging at the   corners of his handsome male mouth. 'Perhaps that's why it feels so   good.'

Saffy had shot her last reasonable bolt and she was stunned by his indifference. 'You don't know what you're saying.'                       
       
           



       

'I have never been so sure of anything,' he shot back in rebuttal.

The last string of restraint broke free inside Saffy. She had had a very   long, hot and tiring day and now Zahir was plunging her into the   nightmare of her better forgotten past. 'But you can't be serious...you   can't really intend to keep me here against my will!'

'I will do nothing that causes you harm,' Zahir replied stubbornly.

'But keeping me here against my will is causing me harm! What gives you   the idea that you can do this to me?' Saffy lashed back at him, her   temper finally slipping its leash and her voice rising on a shrill note.

'The knowledge that I have achieved it. Your colleagues have been   informed that you have accepted a private invitation to spend another   few days in Maraban. Nobody will be looking for you or concerned that   anything is amiss,' Zahir asserted with satisfaction.

'You can't do this to me!' Saffy erupted, infuriated by his   self-assurance, his evident belief that he had covered all bases. 'And   why? Nothing's going to happen between us. You're wasting your time!'

'No man looking at you could possibly believe that I was wasting my time   in at least trying,' Zahir drawled with husky appreciation, his golden   eyes resting on her delicate profile with possessive heat. 'It is a  risk  I take with pleasure.'

'But I don't!' Saffy slammed back at him in furious rebuttal. 'I didn't   agree to this. Nobody tells me what to do or makes me stay somewhere I   don't want to be and nothing on this earth is capable of persuading me   to get into bed with you again, so you can forget that idea right now!'

'I will call Fadith to take you to your room...' Zahir pressed a button   on the wall with a graceful brown hand, his bold profile set in   uncompromising lines.

In outrage that he wasn't even taking heed of her objections, Saffy   swept up a china vase on a stand and pitched it at him. It fell short   and smashed against the edge of the fire pit to break into a hundred   pieces.