The Mistress Bride

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS getting late. Almost too late to bother going anywhere now. Yet Evie stood staring out at London's twinkling night skyline without any outward signs of irritation. After all, there was nothing particularly unusual in her lover keeping her waiting like this; he did it all the time-duty being the altar at which he worshipped, usually at the expense of everything else in his life. And that included his woman. Beautiful though she might be, special though he might insist she was to him, Evie knew she would always have to take second place to what was really important in his life. So, like some priceless piece of life-size porcelain draped in sensual blood-red silk, she stood there in front of the drawing-room window in his very luxurious penthouse apartment and waited. She waited for her man as she had been waiting for the last forty-five minutes now, calmly, patiently.

Or so it might seem, for it wasn't in her nature to show what she was really feeling-a habit drummed into her by a very strict upbringing.

But only fools took that calmness at its serene-faced value.

Sheikh Raschid Al Kadah was nobody's fool, but he wasn't here to note the tell-tale signs to Evie's real mood. And the one person who was attempting to keep her company rarely lifted his eyes high enough to read those signs.

He stood by the white marble fireplace with his hands quietly folded across his robed front and his tongue wisely silent, all attempts at polite conversation abandoned long ago, when apologetically late had become unforgivably late.

He caught her taking a quick glance at her slender gold wristwatch, though. 'I am certain he cannot be many more minutes, Miss Delahaye,' Asim assured her with that quietly soothing diplomatic voice of his. 'Some things are, I am afraid, unavoidable, and a telephone call from his revered father is most definitely one of those things.'

Or a call from New York, Paris or Rome, Evie silently tagged on. The Al Kadah business interests were far-flung and varied. The fact that Raschid, as his father's only son, now shouldered the burden for most of those interests since the old man's minor heart attack last year meant that Evie was seeing less and less of Raschid, her position in the pecking order being as low as it was.

A sigh whispered from her. The kind of sigh she would normally only allow herself when she was sure she was alone. But tonight was different. Tonight she was fretting over a very worrying problem of her own, and she could have done without the added aggravation of a long wait like this when she had, in truth, had to force herself into coming here at all tonight.

Because she knew that Raschid was not going to like what she had to tell him. In fact, she could positively say that he was going to hate it.

Oh, hell, Evie thought heavily, and was just in the process of lifting a decidedly shaky hand to cover the throbbing ache that was taking place behind her eyes when a door at the far end of the room suddenly opened.

The raised hand paused then snapped downwards to form a small fist at her side, her body tensing fractionally as she felt the full stinging impact of Raschid' s sharp golden gaze lancing into her slender spine.

A taut silence prevailed as Sheikh Raschid Al Kadah paused in the doorway to his own sumptuous cream and gold living room while sharp shrewd eyes quickly assessed the mood of the room's two occupants. The arrow-straight set of Evie's spine was, to him, eloquent, his servant's clear relief at his arrival profound.

Grimacing slightly in acknowledgement of both, Raschid dismissed the other man with a silent gesture of his head. But the look in Asim's dark eyes spoke volumes as he walked towards him. 'You are in deep trouble, Sheikh,' those wise old eyes told him. 'The lady is not happy.' Asim left them alone with a rather sardonic bow of respect.

Which left only Evie, who was taking her time in turning to face him-a message in itself that he completely misread because he was expecting to see anger, so anger was what he saw in the slow, stiff movement of her body.

Yet, despite her expected irritation and his own weary mood after having just had to endure one of the worst telephone conversations of his entire life with his father, despite the lateness of the hour, and everything else that seemed to be conspiring against him in an effort to turn his complicated life into absolute turmoil, despite all of that, when their eyes actually met down the length of the beautiful white and gold room there was a single sweet moment when everything came to a delicious standstill for both of them. Evie because she was being assailed by that hot, tight burst of sexual awakening that was always her first response to this man. And Raschid because his own response to Evie was no different at all.

The air between them began to pulse, Raschid's eyes darkening with a very possessive sense of pleasure as he stood taking in the shattering impact of Evie's beauty, framed as it was by the darkness outside his apartment window.

So tall, those glittering eyes measured. So incredibly slender yet so beautifully rounded in all the right places. The whole person so inherently sensual to this man who knew every inch of her as intimately as he knew himself. Skin he knew was as smooth as satin seemed to shine like a pearl against the draping of wine-red silk. Her wonderful hair shone like a coronet of pure gold that had been sleekly contained to frame the most delicately perfect face he had ever seen in his life. Perfect bone structure, perfect nose, perfectly seductive heart-shaped mouth-and those wonderful cold-cut lavender-blue eyes that, even in anger, could not quite disguise what was happening to her as she stood there gazing back at her opposite in every way.

For where her skin was pale his was dark, as dark as lovingly cared for wood that had been honed and planed and carefully polished to create the most exotically beautiful male structure Evie had ever set eyes upon. And if she was tall then he was taller, wider, stronger, tougher. His hair was a smooth, slick, uncompromising black, cut to perfection to make the best of his lethally attractive face-a face with a superbly sculpted long thin nose, acutely defined sensual mouth-and eyes like liquid gold that easily countered cold-cut lavender-blue by seeming to induce her to dive right in. Opposites-complete and utter opposites. One as English as afternoon tea, the other as Arabian as a Bedouin warrior.

Two years they had been together -two years - and the very air between them could still crackle with that hot, tight sizzle of a fierce sexual awakening that was as strong now as it had been when it began.

But then, it had had to be, or the relationship would not have survived the disapproving rumblings across two very proud cultures.

'My apologies.' Raschid spoke at last and, like the eyes, his voice was so golden it slid over the senses like warm dark honey. 'I have just this moment returned from my embassy.'

Which accounted for his eastern attire, Evie assumed as she ran her cool eyes over the long straight white tunic he was wearing beneath a dark blue, loosely flowing top robe. Though he had delayed long enough to remove his headgear, she noted as she watched a small grimace touch the moulded shape of his mouth at her continuing silence.

'You're angry with me.' Dryly he stated the obvious. 'No,' Evie countered. 'Bored.'

'Ah,' he drawled. 'In one of those moods, are we?' Stepping further into the room, he closed the door. 'What would you like me to do?' he enquired, ever so politely. 'Grovel at your beautiful feet?'

Which was his own unique brand of sarcasm, Evie made rueful note. Quite deliberately she took the words at their face value.

'Right now, I would much rather you feed me,' she replied. 'I haven't eaten since breakfast this morning, and it is now ... ' she paused to glance at her watch ' ... almost nine 0' clock.'

'So, you do want me to grovel,' he assumed from all of that, not in the least bit fooled by her cold manner.