The surge of her excitement was intense. He ravished her with sensual force. Melting ripples of explosive pleasure seized a hold of her and she cried out at the height of her climax at the strength and wonder of that glorious rush of ecstasy. In the aftermath he dragged her shaking weak body onto the bed with him and held her close, pressing his mouth gently to hers.
‘That was incredible,’ she framed unevenly.
Jasim smiled lazily down at her. ‘It always is with you.’
Releasing her to vault off the bed, he dug into the pocket of his jeans and presented her with a little box.
Propping herself up on one elbow, she opened it to reveal a glittering emerald ring. ‘My goodness…it’s exquisite.’
‘It reminded me of your eyes, aziz.’ Jasim slid it onto her finger. ‘We must make the most of our last week here. I will be very busy when I return.’
She admired her ring. He had dropped his guard, shared his secrets with her. She wanted to tell him she loved him but worried that it might make him feel uncomfortable and her feel something less when he could not return the words. The silence stretched and she curved back into his arms, seeking the warmth and familiarity of him as a reassurance.
On the final day of their honeymoon, Jasim, who had spent odd hours going through his late brother’s papers in his study, filled a box with documents and some rare old leather-bound books that more properly belonged in the palace library. Two helicopters sat outside in readiness for their return to Muscar. One of the pilots was ill and in bed in the staff quarters, but it was not a problem because Jasim was a pilot after training for several years with his country’s air force.
‘I’ll be with you in a couple of hours when we have landed,’ Jasim vowed as Elinor hovered anxiously. ‘Stop looking so worried. I’m qualified to fly fighter jets.’
Elinor nodded agreement and wondered if she was turning into an awful clingy woman who had got too attached and couldn’t bear her husband out of her sight. She boarded her helicopter. Smiling at Sami, who was kicking his feet in excitement in his seat, she did up her belt. As the unwieldy craft rose into the air she saw a hurrying manservant bump into one of the gardeners and drop the box he was carrying.
In the act of striding past to get into the other aircraft, Jasim was quick to notice the photograph that had fallen out of one of the books and he bent to scoop it up. It was a faded picture of his older brother as a young man with a woman in an evening gown. She was blonde and small with a wide sweet smile that had a strong tug of familiarity for him. He reached for the book and pulled out the folded sheet of paper also protruding from its pages. It was a letter. The harsh light of the sun at noon illuminating the still crisp copperplate English script, he began to read and it wasn’t very long before Jasim was being rocked by an appalling sense of guilt…
CHAPTER TEN
‘YOU MUST BE BORED witless after spending a month at the beach, hemmed in by the sea on one side and the desert on the other!’ Laila opined, all smiles and pleasantries as she sauntered into the sitting room where her mother, Mouna, was drinking tea with Elinor.
‘Laila,’ her gentle mother scolded. ‘That was impolite.’
Laila rolled unconcerned eyes. ‘There are no shops at the beach and Englishwomen are said to be very fond of shopping.’
‘But all Englishwomen are not the same,’ Elinor responded as she stretched out a hand to restrain Sami from climbing into a large plant pot. ‘I like fashion but I get bored trailing round shops. I enjoyed the desert as well.’
‘Ninety-nine per cent of women would enjoy the desert with Jasim in tow,’ Laila remarked, lowering her voice to prevent her mother from hearing that sally.
Lifting a drowsy Sami onto her lap, Elinor gave the beautiful brunette a serene smile. ‘You’re probably right. He made a wonderful guide.’
‘I hear you have been invited to open the new hotel and leisure complex and that the King has agreed.’
Rocking Sami, who was tired and getting cross, Elinor concealed her surprise at what was news to her and simply inclined her head to the brunette in acknowledgement. Until Laila appeared, uninvited and looking quite ravishing in a white shift dress that hugged every curve, Elinor had been hoping Jasim would get back. Then, aware that the other woman would linger to take advantage of his presence, she had wished Laila away. Now turning a discreet eye to the watch on her wrist for about the fourth time, Elinor was more concerned that Jasim was so late and wondered what was holding him up.
‘Perhaps you’re about to become the figurehead for our new media-savvy modern monarchy,’ Laila commented, with an envy she could not hide, just as an older man in a business suit knocked on the sitting room door.
‘Your Highness,’ he greeted Elinor, who was still striving to adapt to her new title. ‘The King wants to speak to you.’
Totally taken aback by that announcement, Elinor scrambled to her feet clutching Sami. Zaid, always a step ahead in questions of what was required within the household, had already summoned the baby’s nurse and the young woman hurried in to take charge of the little boy.
On the way to see the King Elinor was a bundle of nerves, for she could not think of anything that Jasim’s father might have to discuss with her and her companion was as unresponsive as a block of wood to her curious questions. Could it be about the opening of the new leisure complex that Laila had mentioned? She would have expected any such request to be passed on to her by Jasim. Almost inevitably she began to wonder if she had done or said something wrong and if his father could be taking advantage of his son’s absence to tell her about it.
The King was sitting in the ornate reception room where he conducted most of his meetings. The instant Elinor laid eyes on his stony face and grey pallor, her heart gave a sick thud inside her and she forgot the protocol she had learned from Jasim and spoke first. ‘What’s happened?’
With his hand he urged her to make use of the chair that had been set beside his. Her legs feeling wobbly, Elinor sank down heavily, her eyes glued to the older man’s deeply troubled face.
‘Jasim has had to make an emergency landing and the rescue services are trying to locate the site as we speak,’ he said in a low fierce voice.
Elinor felt the blood drain from her shattered face and her stomach gave a sick somersault. A horrible jumble of frightening images filled her mind. ‘Did he crash?’ she asked in a wobbly voice.
‘We don’t know—only that the helicopter developed a fault. He is an accomplished pilot. He passed out top of his year from the military school,’ the older man informed her heavily. ‘He will know what to do.’
‘He’ll be all right…he has to be,’ Elinor mumbled shakily, terror threatening her desperate attempt to maintain her composure. Had she been alone, she knew she would have crumbled and sobbed out her fear.