The Sheik and the Slave

He caught up with her and grabbed her arm, swinging her to face him.

“Katharine,” he called her name sternly.

She closed her eyes and willed him to be gone. The pain and betrayal came back raw and fresh and she didn’t want to remember any of it. He looked so sinfully handsome dressed in green, showing off his dark skin and hair. It was so unfair. Why was he back?

“Don’t touch me,” she said. She tried

to jerk away, but he pulled her closer to him. She could smell his masculine, clean scent.

The scent of jasmine clung to her. It triggered the memories of them lying together with nothing between them but jasmine and the hot night when he had taken her for the first time.

Her blue eyes were luminous as he held her beneath a large oak tree.

“Katharine, what is going on here? I have been worried for your safety and I return to London to find you cavorting with your new lover. I should never leave you alone, for your bed gets cold quickly.”

Katharine saw red as he dared to bring up Thomas while he was married with a new child.

“My bed gets cold?” she threw back at him. “That’s rich coming from you! My God, when I think of everything I have sacrificed and what I have been through and you…”

“And I what?” he asked, pulling her into his arms. “And I what, Katharine? I made you a promise. I stood before you and told you I would speak to your father. I had the marriage license. We were to be married.”

He was so angry that she had thrown away all of their love and future for a titled Englishman. Was she that cold and calculating? Had everything been pretend?

“None of that matters now, how could it?” she spoke coldly. How dare he stand before her and speak of the past when he had married an Arab woman and gotten her with child. “Why are you even here? What do you want?”

“To finish what we started, Katharine.”

“There’s nothing to finish. This is over. Go back to Arabia.”

He released his grip on her and boldly raked in her feminine form.

“We’ll see, princess.”

Chapter 26

Katharine watched him walk away and wanted to scream. How dare he touch her and taunt her when she had been neglected and discarded? What an arrogant man! He wanted to finish what? she wondered. Why had he been so cool and collected? Did he want a second wife?

Had he decided that he would exist the way he had been when they first met and that she would eagerly submit to being a second wife? It was unthinkable. She was even more furious with herself for being drawn to him, even now.

His dark eyes weakening her, even now. She wanted him even though he had been with another woman and he had a child. It was disgusting. She was almost shaking with anger and contempt for herself as she made her way home. How did he even know of Thomas? He had casually mentioned “a lover,” though she had said nothing. Then it came to her. Of course.

He could have been the man outside the townhouse in the early morning and the shadow she saw last evening with Thomas. Had Mohammed been following her? For what purpose? It seemed so strange. He had a wife and child in Arabia; what was he doing here? She suddenly thought of her child and realized she must tread carefully.

She did not want to antagonize Mohammed until she discovered his true purpose for coming to London. She would protect her son at all costs.

She decided to tell no one of the encounter.

***

Mohammed ventured back to The George, where he was staying, his mind in turmoil. He had not been expecting Katharine that evening. After his encounter with her and Thomas the day prior, he had vowed to stop following her. Watching another man kiss and touch her had been excruciating.

At first, he had wanted to confront the unknown man and possibly drive a fist into his face. He had also wanted to question Katharine who, before his return, had been lost to them all and missing. He had come to London expecting to be reunited with his dearest and shortly marry her, but instead he had found her in another man’s arms.

He was angry and confused at her cold greeting and barely recognized the warm woman who had given herself to him that hot Arabian night. As he returned to The George and stepped inside it, with its wood floors and oak beams, he thought suddenly of the one question he needed answered above all else. Where was their child?

***

Sarah smoothed her orange silk skirt down as she waited patiently in the sitting room for Katharine to join her. The ladies had been invited by a close friend of Sarah’s to a card party and supper and Katharine had agreed to attend. Edward declined to attend, and Charles was at his club, White’s, so the ladies were to attend alone.