'Keep calm,' he gritted down at her. 'When I give the word, lose your shoes and run.'
He was going to make a lunge for them and try to break the ring so she could have a small chance to escape. 'No,' she protested, and clutched tightly at his jacket sleeve. 'Don't do it. They might hurt you if you do!'
'Just go, Leona!' he ground back at her, then, with no more warning than that, he was pulling away, and almost in the same movement he threw himself at the two men closest
It was then that all hell broke loose. While Leona stood there frozen in horror watching all three men topple to the ground in a huddle, the rest of the ring leapt into action. Fear for her life sent a surge of adrenaline rushing through her blood. Dry-mouthed, stark-eyed, she was just about to do as Ethan had told her and run, when she heard a hard voice rasp out a command in Arabic. In a state of raw panic she swung round in its direction, expecting someone to be almost upon her, only to find to her confusion that the ring of men had completely bypassed her, leaving her standing here alone with only one other man.
It was at that point that she truly stopped functioning- heart, lungs, her ability to hear what was happening to Ethan-all connections to her brain simply closed down to leave only her eyes in full, wretched focus.
Tall and dark, whip-cord lean, he possessed an aura about him that warned of great physical power lurking beneath the dark robes he was wearing. His skin was the colour of sun-ripened olives, his eyes as black as a midnight sky, and his mouth she saw was thin, straight and utterly unsmiling.
'Hassan.' She breathed his name into the darkness.
The curt bow he offered her came directly from an excess of noble arrogance built into his ancient genes. 'As you see,' Sheikh Hassan smoothly confirmed.
CHAPTER TWO
A bubble of hysteria ballooned in her throat. 'But-why?' she choked in strangled confusion.
Hassan was not given the opportunity to answer before another fracas broke out somewhere behind her. Ethan ground her name out. It was followed by some thuds and scuffles. As she turned on a protesting gasp to go to him, someone else spoke with a grating urgency and Hassan caught her wrist, long brown fingers closing round fleshless skin and bone, to hold her firmly in place.
'Call them off!' she cried out shrilly.
'Be silent,' he returned in a voice like ice.
It shocked her, really shocked her, because never in their years together had he ever used that tone on her. Turning her head, she stared at him in pained astonishment, but Hassan wasn't even looking at her. His attention was fixed on a spot near the gates. With a snap of his fingers his men began scattering like bats on the wing, taking a frighteningly silent Ethan with them.
'Where are they going with him?' Leona demanded anxiously.
Hassan didn't answer. Another man came to stand directly behind her and, glancing up, she found herself gazing into yet another familiar face.
'Rafiq,' she murmured, but that was all she managed to say before Hassan was reclaiming her attention by snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her towards him. Her breasts made contact with solid muscle; her thighs suddenly burned like fire as they felt the unyielding power in his. Her eyes leapt up to clash with his eyes. It was like tumbling into oblivion. He looked so very angry, yet so very-
'Shh,' he cautioned. 'It is absolutely imperative that you do exactly as I say. For there is a car coming down the causeway and we cannot afford to have any witnesses."
'Witnesses to what?' she asked in bewilderment.
There was a pause, a smile that was not quite a smile because it was too cold, too calculating, too-
'Your abduction,' he smoothly informed her.
Standing there in his arms, feeling trapped by a word that sounded totally alien falling from those lips she'd thought she knew so well, Leona released a constricted gasp then was totally silenced.
Car headlights suddenly swung in their direction. Rafiq moved and the next thing that she knew a shroud of black muslin was being thrown over her head. For a split second she couldn't believe what was actually happening! Then Hassan released his grasp so the muslin could unfurl right down to her ankles: she was being shrouded in an abaya.
Never had she ever been forced to wear such a garment! 'Oh, how could you?' she wrenched out, already trying to drag the abaya off again.
Strong arms firmly subdued her efforts. 'Now, you have two choices here, my darling.' Hassan's grim voice sounded close to her ear. 'You can either come quietly, of your own volition, or Rafiq and I will ensure that you do so-understand?'
Understand? Oh, yes, Leona thought painfully, she understood fully that she was being recovered like a lost piece of property! 'I'll never forgive you for this,' she breathed thickly.
His response was to wedge her between himself and Rafiq and then begin hustling her quickly forward. Feeling hot, trapped and blinded by the abaya, she had no idea where they were taking her.
Her frightened gasp brought Hassan's hand to cup her elbow. 'Be calm.' he said quietly. 'I am here.'
His reassurance was no assurance to Leona as he began urging her to walk ahead of him. The ground beneath her feet gave way to something much less substantial. Through the thin soles of her shoes she could feel a ridged metal surface, and received a cold sense of some dark space yawning beneath it.
'What is this?' she questioned shakily.
"The gangway to my yacht,' Hassan replied.
His yacht, she repeated, and thought of the huge dark vessel squatting in the darkness. 'New toy, Hassan?' she hit out deridingly.
'I knew you would be enchanted,' he returned. 'Watch your step!' he cautioned sharply when the open toe of her flimsy shoe caught on one of the metal ridges.
But she couldn't watch her step because the wretched abaya was in the way! So she tripped, tried to right herself, felt the slender heel of her shoe twist out from beneath her. Instinct made her put out a hand in a bid to save herself. But once again the abaya was in the way and, as she tried to grapple with it, the long loose veil of muslin tangled around her ankles and she lurched drunkenly forward. The sheer impetus of the lurch lost Hassan his guiding grip on her arm. As the sound of her own stifled cry mingled with the roughness of his, Leona knew she hadn't a hope of saving herself. In the few split seconds it all took to happen, she had a horrible vision of deep dark water between the boat and the harbour wall waiting to suck her down, with the wretched abaya acting as her burial shroud.
Then hard hands were gripping her waist and roughly righting her; next she was being scooped up and crushed hard against a familiar chest. She curled into that chest like a vulnerable child and began shaking all over while she listened to Hassan cursing and swearing beneath his breath as he carried her, and Rafiq answering with soothing tones from somewhere ahead.
Onto the yacht, across the deck, Leona could hear doors being flung wide as they approached. By the time Hassan decided that it was safe to set her down on her own feet again, reaction was beginning to set in.
Shock and fright changed to a blistering fury the moment her feet hit the floor. Breaking free, she spun away from him, then began dragging the abaya off over her head with angry, shaking fingers. Light replaced darkness, sweet cool air replaced suffocating heat. Tossing the garment to the floor, she swung round to face her two abductors with her green eyes flashing and the rest of her shimmering with an incandescent rage.
Both Hassan and Rafiq stood framed by a glossy wood doorway, studying her with differing expressions. Both wore long black tunics beneath dark blue cloaks cinched in at the waist with wide black sashes. Dark blue gutrahs framed their lean dark faces. One neatly bearded, the other clean-shaven and sleek. Both held themselves with an indolent arrogance that was a challenge as they waited to receive her first furious volley.
Her heart flipped over and tumbled to her stomach, her feeling of an impossible-to-fight admiration for these two people, only helping to infuriate her all the more. For who were they-what were they-that they believed they had the right to treat her like this?
She began to walk towards them. Her hair had escaped from its twist and was now tumbling like fire over her shoulders, and somewhere along the way she had lost her shawl and shoes. Without the help of her shoes, the two men towered over her, indomitable and proud, dark brown eyes offering no hint of apology.
Her gaze fixed itself somewhere between them, her hands closed into two tightly clenched fists at her side. The air actually stung with an electric charge of anticipation. 'I demand to see Ethan,' she stated very coldly.
It was clearly the last thing either was expecting her to say. Rafiq stiffened, Hassan looked as if she could not have insulted him more if she'd tried.
His eyes narrowed, his mouth grew thin, his handsome sleek features hardened into polished rock. Beneath the dark robes, Leona saw his wide chest expand and remain that way as, with a sharp flick of a hand, he sent Rafiq sweeping out of the room.