“And you can call us,” Zaid added, “if you need anything. Please don’t hesitate.”
Rebecca watched as Zaid carried Calum to his bedroom with Amy to help them get situated. When he came back out, he looked at her. “Just to make it easy, you want to go up to the terrace again?” he asked.
She smiled. “I’d love to.”
Once they reached the rooftop terrace, Zaid took out his phone and called the palace chef. They ordered food and wine, and talked while they waited.
“He’s big,” Zaid said.
Rebecca laughed. “What did you expect? He’s four.”
“Yeah, but I always imagined meeting my son while he was an infant. I never imagined meeting a child of mine after he was already that old.”
She felt a pang of regret. “I’m really sorry,” she told Zaid. “I panicked and didn’t know what to do. You know, what we had back then was great, and I would have loved for it to last, but at the end of the day, the simple fact remained that our lifestyles were not compatible. You’re royalty. You’re the Sheikh for crying out loud. And I’m an activist of sorts. I’m out there every day trying to help people fix problems like oppression and poverty. The two don’t exactly go hand in hand, you know?”
“But they can,” Zaid suggested. “We’ve already seen that here, with you helping to point out what’s wrong in Sharjah so that I can fix it.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that,” she said with a nervous laugh. “And I’m still angry with you for going behind my back and bringing Calum here. He is much too young to be drawn into any of this and Amy…I …” Rebecca couldn’t finish that sentence. “What if something had happened to the plane? Or worse?” She didn’t even want to contemplate what would be worse than a plane crash.
“You’re right. It was thoughtless of me. I apologize.”
The wine arrived just in time to distract them from the conversation.
After the first few sips, Rebecca looked at Zaid, sitting there and staring at his wine as if he were contemplating the meaning of life itself. “You know,” she said, “I did want to visit the resort.”
“Really? That’s surprising,” Zaid commented. “I figured you would have found something wrong with it and why we needed to shut it down.”
Rebecca laughed. “No, in fact, it was the only touristy part of the tour I was looking forward to. I even bought a bikini for it,” she teased.
“Is that so?” he asked. He reached across the table and took her hand. “Well, you can always model it for me later,” he said, playing along.
“Who said I’m not wearing it under my suit?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Are you serious?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
He squeezed her hand. “Come on,” he said quietly, urgently, as he got up from the table.
“What about dinner?” she asked. “Our food hasn’t arrived and we still haven’t talked.”
“They’ll box it and send it down to my quarters. Let’s go hit the pool. We can eat later.”
She felt a rush as he pulled her by her hand down the stairs from the terrace to the palace pool, which was located in a secluded area, almost fully enclosed with rock walls that screened it from any of the palace windows. The pool’s back deck faced the water behind the palace, and no one was out there.
When they reached the pool, Zaid quickly stripped off his robe and left his headpiece on the deck next to the water. He stood naked before her, the contours of his muscles just as she remembered them. She wanted to touch him, to feel him above her again.
She fumbled with the buttons of her shirt until Zaid grabbed it and pulled it over her head, revealing that she was not in fact wearing her bikini underneath. She’d just been teasing.
“Oops,” she said playfully. “I guess I forgot my bikini after all.” She winked as she slid her pants down her legs, revealing red lace panties and snippets of her bare, clean-shaven skin underneath.
She unclasped her white cotton bra and let it drop from her shoulders to show him her small pale breasts and pink nipples. As if her body immediately recognized him, her nipples throbbed in anticipation of him touching her. He grabbed her panties and slid them down her legs, making her shiver. The instant she was naked before him, he wrapped an arm around her waist. She let out a surprised shriek as he jumped into the pool with her.
Surfacing, she sputtered at him but before she could complain, he put his hands around her waist again and drew her against him. She automatically wrapped her legs around his hips letting his powerful legs tread water for the both of them.
Cupping his face with her hands, she kissed him as he began to propel them backwards toward the side of the pool. As they moved, she could feel his erection bobbing between them as it pressed against her.
Reaching shallow water, he planted his feet on the bottom of the pool, leaning against the pool wall. His hands swept up her back, tangling in her short hair as he deepened the kiss.