The Sheikh's Convenient Bride

The room, the world, everything but the woman in his arms, spun away. Caz whispered her name, slid his hands into the glorious mass of autumn curls that was her hair. He tilted her head back, exposed the long line of her throat to his kisses.

She moaned as he nipped her flesh with his teeth, then soothed the tiny wound with his tongue, and when he sought her mouth again she moved against him, a shift of her hips so that her pelvis thrust against his straining erection.

Caz groaned, slid his knee between hers and cupped her bottom. She made a wild little sound that sent a fierce surge of pleasure coursing through his blood.

He could have her now, and reality be damned.

“Please,” she whispered against his mouth, “please…”

He put his hands under her sweatshirt and finally felt her naked skin against his questing palms. Felt the velvet-softness of her breasts, the delicate pearling of her nipples. He danced the tips of his fingers across that sweetly ruched flesh and she moaned.

There was a roaring in his ears. Now, it said, now…

But it was only the incessant ringing of the telephone.

They sprang part and stared at each other, her eyes wide with astonishment, his breathing ragged, and then his cell phone rang again and he swore viciously as he tore it from his pocket and put it to his ear.

“What?” he barked.

It was Hakim, calling about the orders Caz had given for their departure the next morning.

The words meant nothing. All he could think about was what had just happened, what would have happened if not for this call. He’d have made love to a woman he hardly knew, barely trusted…

He could read the same shocked realization in her face. It was drained of color except for two bright spots of crimson high on her cheeks and the soft pink of her mouth, swollen from the passion of his kisses. He wanted to say something reassuring, but what could a man say to a woman he’d almost ravished?

He liked women, liked the pleasures of mutual seduction. The teasing conversation. The brush of hands. The glances that said more than words, all of it leading to an inevitable culmination.

What he’d just shared with this woman wasn’t that at all. They’d come together without any of the niceties of seduction. All that had mattered was the swift, hot rush of passion, the primitive need to taste, touch, possess.

He saw Megan’s throat constrict as she swallowed. Then she turned her back to him and wrapped her arms around herself.

Was she trembling?

Hakim was still talking, droning on and on about the minuscule details of tomorrow’s agenda. Reports to review, memos to dictate, all the things Caz had asked to be reminded of before the flight home but right now, he didn’t give a damn for any of it.

All he could think about was what had happened. What would happen, if he went through with his plan to take Megan with him. She was a distraction he couldn’t afford…but even now, with the scent of her still in his nostrils, he managed to summon enough reason to know he couldn’t afford to leave her behind, either. Not if his plans for his country were to succeed.

There was only one solution, he thought, and interrupted his aide in midsentence.

“A change of plans, Hakim. Mr. Fox won’t be going with us tomorrow. You will send a car for Miss O’Connell, instead.”

“You are taking the woman with you, Sheikh Qasim?”

The tone in Hakim’s voice made Caz narrow his eyes. “I am.”

“But a woman…”

“You will pick her up at seven.”

“My lord. Surely you do not intend to—’

“Hakim. Surely you do not intend to question me.” Caz spoke harshly. It was deliberate. No one questioned his orders. That was more than tradition; it was the law. It would change someday—it had to, if Suliyam were to flourish in these new times—but his aide’s reaction to learning that Megan would return with them was only a small taste of what lay ahead. It had to be stopped, and quickly. “I gave you an order. You will obey it.”

A beat of silence. A clearing of the throat. Then, at last, acquiescence. “Yes, my lord.”

“There are things you will do before morning,” Caz said, and enumerated them.

“I will see to everything.”