“Thank you,” she said again, her head resting against the back of the seat as she watched his profile. She wasn’t sure if it was the wine or the fact that the connection that had been between them since the start had now grown stronger than ever, but she felt an intimacy with him, felt like she could tell him anything and it would be all right. “For sharing your country with me. I love it here. I love the people and the culture and the land. I love everything about Djeva.”
He turned and looked at her then, his dark eyes glimmering in the dim light. She could feel his gaze like a physical caress, making her lips tingle with awareness, before he cursed low and turned back to his window once more. “I am glad to hear you talk of my country this way. My sisters had led me to believe that perhaps you were not in Djeva for the right reasons.”
Laura frowned and straightened. She knew she’d gotten a weird vibe from them the last couple of days, but she hadn’t thought they’d actually talked to Raheem about her. “What did they say?”
“Just that they thought perhaps you were overstepping your boundaries. You see, the local women who sell their handicrafts have long been a cause of Jessenia’s. She felt that you had excluded her from the process and were trying to usurp her position in my project. I told her that was ridiculous and I don’t even recall inviting her to participate in my project, but of course, the others backed her up on this and now they aren’t speaking to me at all.”
“Oh, dear.” Laura placed her hand on his forearm without thinking. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea she wanted to be involved. I’ll definitely get together with her and ask for her help and guidance. I never meant to cause a rift between you and your sisters. If they have championed this cause, I could certainly use their power and influence.”
Raheem snorted. “Don’t be too concerned about my sisters. They can be a fickle bunch and their causes seem to change on a daily basis. And I will say it’s been nice not to have them bending my ear every two seconds with their latest wild ideas.”
The car pulled up to the shores of an enormous lake and the driver opened Laura’s door for her. She stepped out onto the shore then waited while Raheem exited and walked around to where she was standing. He led her down a path and out onto a slim dock over the water. He was right. This place was beautiful. The full moon shone down from the starry sky and glittered off the gentle, lapping waves. In the distance, some lonely bird cawed and Laura shivered despite the warm temperatures. Raheem, ever the gentleman, removed his sport coat and placed it around her shoulders. His warmth and scent surrounded her and made her feel both safe and giddy.
“Thank you for this night, Raheem,” she said, her voice quiet. “It’s really beautiful.”
“Yes, it is,” he said, his gaze locked on her instead of the scenery.
The same sizzling tension she’d felt that day in the scarf shop returned, electrifying her entire being. Raheem, too, seemed caught in the web of desire surrounding them, though she could see in his eyes that he was fighting it.
Yes, you should be fighting it too, her mind said, through the lazy, hazy layers of wine and want. Trouble was, Laura didn’t feel like fighting her attraction to Raheem anymore. In fact, she was exhausted from fighting it. She liked him. A lot. There. She’d admitted it. Taking a cautious step toward him, she leaned closer, her eyes focused on his soft, full lips, remembering the way they’d felt on hers, the hardness of his muscled chest pressed tight to her breasts.
Raheem bent closer to her as well, having apparently lost the battle in his heart, and his lips parted as if he was going to kiss her. Time slowed. A breeze ruffled around them. The sound of wings flapping nearby distracted Laura and her foot slipped on the slats of the dock, causing her to tip backwards and…
“Oh no!” Laura reached out for Raheem, but it was too late, the dock shifted beneath her and before she could save herself, she toppled off the wooden slats and into the lake below.
“Laura!” Raheem’s alarmed cry echoed in her ears just before the water closed over her head. “Laura, hang on! I’m coming in for you!”
There was a loud splash nearby, then warm arms surrounded her, pulling her close.
Raheem had rescued her. Raheem had saved her.
Exhaustion and shock coupled together to cause non-stop shudders to run through her body, and Laura finally gave in to the riptide pulling her under. She remembered blinking up at his gorgeous dripping wet face, then darkness overtook her.
12
Raheem was in a panic by the time they got back to the palace. He held Laura’s shivering form in his arms and carried her inside, refusing to let her go as he barked orders at the startled servants. “Run a warm bath in her suite! Get her fresh dry clothes.”
He passed the foyer and down the hall, ignoring the startled faces and questions of his nosy sisters. It was their fault his Laura had tumbled into the lake tonight. No, they hadn’t been there physically, but it was because of the doubts they’d put into his mind that he’d pushed Laura away in the first place. If he’d just spent more time with her as he’d planned, gotten to know her as he’d longed to, not put such distance between them, then his kiss tonight wouldn’t have been such a shock and she wouldn’t have been startled on the dock.
Laura’s eyes fluttered open, but she was still shivering all over and her cheeks had taken on a slight grayish pallor. Outside her doors, he asked one of the servants to contact the royal physician and ask him to stop by Laura’s suite to check her out and make sure there was no serious damage to her person.
Inside, he ordered the rest of the staff from her rooms, then closed and locked the doors behind them. He needed to see for himself that she was all right. He didn’t want to leave her in anyone’s hands but his own. Unseeing, Raheem took her into the now steam-filled bathroom and shut that door too. After shutting off the water, he striped Laura then placed her into the tub, hoping the warm water would help revive her. Thankfully, once she was submerged, she stirred, her lovely green eyes flickering open and locking on him, though her shivering continued. He knelt at the huge sunken tub’s edge, the shiny white tiles beneath him digging into his knees, but Raheem couldn’t care less about his own discomfort at that point. His Laura’s wellbeing was all that mattered.
“I-I’m s-so c-cold,” she said, her teeth chattering. “W-why a-am I s-so c-cold?”
He brushed the damp hair off her forehead, flashing her what he hoped was his most reassuring smile. “You fell into the lake, habibi. Don’t you remember?”
She frowned up at him, her auburn brows drawing together and he felt a rush of unbidden affection along with a nearly overwhelming urge to kiss those fine lines on her forehead away. “I remember standing on the dock and you l-leaning in t-to k-kiss me and then…” She blinked up at him, her cheeks coloring to a pretty pink at last. “Oh. You were going to kiss me again.”
Her eyes dropped to his mouth, and damn if he didn’t feel that heated look straight to his groin. Raheem couldn’t help himself as he bent over the rim of the tub to complete the kiss that should’ve happened on that moonlit dock. But before he could taste her honeyed lips again, a loud pounding sounded on the outer door to the suite. The doctor.
Cursing, he squeezed his eyes shut and laughed. Seemed he and Laura were forever doomed to never consummate this passion between them. He shook his head and pushed to his feet. “That would be the physician, here to make sure you didn’t injure yourself when you fell. Stay and enjoy your bath. I will let the doctor in and will see you when you are done, habibi.”
“What does that mean?” she asked softly as he walked out of the bathroom.
“Habibi?” Raheem asked, leaning back inside. “Darling.”
Laura blushed again and it took every ounce of willpower he possessed not to strip bare himself and climb into the warm tub with her and show her exactly how much he cared. Instead, he cleared his throat and mumbled something about the doctor on his way from her rooms.