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‘Oil and other things. We invest in renewable energy too. We’re even experimenting in generating electricity from the sea.’
‘You’re not content to make your money from oil?’ She’d heard Q’aroum had enough reserves to maintain it as one of the world’s wealthiest states for generations.
‘We’re an island nation, Rosalie. We have a vested interest in combating climate change and rising sea levels. Besides, a man needs a challenge.’
His tone hinted that he wasn’t just talking about power generation. Or maybe it was the sudden wide white grin that slashed across his face as he shot her a look.
She felt the whole impact of his personality focused on her. It was a tangible thing, a potent force. There was a rushing in her ears, like water flooding past, blocking the sound of nearby traffic. The late afternoon sun seemed to dim as she stared back at him, aware of her skin prickling on her neck and her lungs squeezing tight.
She had to be careful with this man. The feelings he evoked were too much. Too potent. Too new. Too tempting.
‘I’ll have you back to your hotel soon.’
She opened her mouth to explain that she wasn’t staying at a hotel and then snapped it shut. Better if he didn’t know she was staying alone in the house Rafiq had organised.
Arik had been a perfect gentleman all afternoon. Yet there was a restlessness about him, an edginess that warned her he wasn’t as easygoing as he seemed. Something simmered behind that relaxed expression. Self-preservation cautioned her against revealing where she was staying.
‘Thanks,’ she said as they approached one of the two hotels on this coastal road. ‘You can drop me here.’
‘I’ll see you to your door.’
Rosalie sucked in a deep breath. ‘I’d rather you didn’t.’ He stopped the car and regarded her through narrowing eyes, his brows rising.
‘You’re not exactly incognito.’ She remembered the excited pleasure with which he’d been greeted wherever they went. ‘So I’d rather go in alone.’ She wondered if he saw through her subterfuge. It was true as far as it went. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself.
‘Very well.’ He inclined his head. ‘We will not court gossip.’ Then he got out and fetched her canvas bag from the back while she fumbled with her seatbelt.
His hand was warm and hard as he helped her out. A tremor shot up her arm at his touch, ripping right through any illusion that she was impervious to him.
‘Thank you for the pleasure of your company, Rosalie.’
He lifted her hand to his lips. Her eyelids flickered as he pressed a kiss there. A jolt of something very like lightning speared through her. The swirl of reaction in her abdomen grew to a spiralling twist of aching emptiness.
It lasted an instant, only that. But it was enough to jolt Rosalie back to her senses.
She tugged back her hand as if stung. That empty yearning feeling was too real, too powerful to be safe.
‘Until tomorrow, then.’ His eyes were fathomless, deep as the night and just as impenetrable.
Rosalie turned away. Tomorrow, if she had any sense, she’d take the first flight out from here.
She was late. Arik narrowed his eyes against the slanting rays of dawn light and stared down the beach.
Had he erred yesterday? Should he have pressed his advantage when he’d read the need so clear in her eyes?
No. He’d given his word he’d respect her wishes. She was nervous, fighting to resist what was between them. As if she could push back the inevitable flood-tide of desire.
He wondered at her naïvety. Their attraction had been instantaneous, so urgent and all-consuming that even he, with his experience, couldn’t ignore it. It was a constant fire in the blood, a gnawing hunger in the pit of his belly. He felt wired, restive and alert. Sleep was elusive, replaced by hours imagining her in his bed. Or naked, almost anywhere: in the window seat of his room, on a silk-covered divan or down here on the fine-grained sand.
The only way out was to assuage this need for mutual satisfaction. His lips curved in a taut smile. Prolonged mutual satisfaction.
Rosalie had much to learn and he would enjoy contributing to her education. Anticipation hummed through him, tightening his groin, his thighs, his hands on the reins. He nudged Layla till she gathered herself into a thudding gallop. The thunder of her hooves teamed with the beat of blood in his ears: heavy, urgent, racing.
They reached the point and there was Rosalie, walking from the next beach. Arik reined in, watching her falter to a stop. Her stance was wary, as if she were in two minds whether to scurry back to the safety of her hotel.
Eventually, as he’d known she would, she resumed her stride towards him. He should be pleased. Triumphant even. He had her now, he knew. Or close enough that, with a little effort, he could have what he wanted from her.
Yet the emotion filling him wasn’t triumph. It was fury. At the unprecedented level of his earlier disappointment. At the unadulterated relief that swept him now, making him for a few moments light-headed.
Since when had he been dependent on any woman? Pleasure, companionship, mutual enjoyment—that was what he sought from the women in his life. But this raw, visceral need that threatened all sense of proportion? That drove him with the force of pure compulsion? This wasn’t right.
He watched her approach, her head up to meet his gaze, a gesture at odds with the defensive way she clutched that bag to her. Arik felt a surge of unexpected protectiveness.
But it was overborne by anger that she should unsettle him so. He was aroused to the edge of pain just watching her. And his indecisiveness as he’d debated ringing her hotel had been uncharacteristic. He was too needy.
Lust had never been like this. It shouldn’t be like this. It had always been a pleasure to be savoured. Now for the first time, desire was a blood-deep craving. As if more was at stake than the pleasure of a woman’s body. As if he felt far more than physical need.
Arik clenched his jaw at the absurd notion, angrier still at that flight of fancy. He urged his mount forward.
Rosalie wished she’d stayed away. What did it matter if her painting remained unfinished? Or if she never saw him again? She knew now that with effort she would paint. And as for her reaction to him…better to ignore that.
Yet like a moth to a candle she was drawn against her will along the beach. With every step she’d known this was dangerous, the sort of impetuous act she’d always avoided.
But then, a demon inner voice taunted, where did playingsafe get you? She’d been perennially sensible, so cautious with men, and look where that had landed her!
She clasped her bag closer, wondering yet again how big a mistake she was making.
Then she saw him, a study in masculine grace and arrogance as he sat his magnificent Arab mount. Instantly she had her answer. Error or not, she couldn’t have stayed away. The rapid-fire tumult of her pulse, the constriction of her lungs, the swirling heat all told the same story. She had to be here. Owed it to herself to discover what it was about this man that spoke to her innermost being, to the self she’d kept hidden for years now. The self that, at nineteen-and-a-half, had been brutally silenced, locked away by the force of grief and hate and despair.
More than three years had passed and suddenly that other Rosalie Winters, the one who’d secretly yearned for fantasy and adventure, was back, slipping under her guard.
She gritted her teeth and resumed walking. Foolish she might be, but she’d never again be the unthinking innocent she’d been at nineteen. She’d learned her lesson well. If she took any chances they’d be on her terms.
Nevertheless, as Arik’s horse plunged close, its hooves lifting high to a resounding rhythm, she couldn’t repress a thrill of mixed trepidation and excitement.
‘I thought you weren’t coming.’ His deep voice held a note of accusation as it rumbled in her ear.
‘I almost didn’t,’ she replied, annoyed as he circled. Man and beast together were awesomely beautiful—as he knew. He probably stayed up there so she could admire him.
That was the sort of man he was, she reminded herself, ignoring yesterday’s revelations. She squashed the fact that he worked hard despite his wealth. Easier to deal with Arik Ben Hassan if she could peg him as a rich playboy.
Yet she followed his every move with hungry attention. He was so vibrantly male, so attractive. Her imagination hadn’t embroidered a single detail. He was devastating.
‘You would have reneged on our bargain?’ His expression was severe, as if no one ever had the temerity to inconvenience him.
Rosalie stepped away, preferring not to dwell on the fact that he could read her so easily. ‘It’s only a temporary arrangement. I wouldn’t have thought you’d mind.’
He swung the mare round to walk beside her. ‘I’d have minded very much,’ he murmured and, despite her best intentions, Rosalie found herself looking up into midnight-dark eyes. Tension pulsed between them, the sizzle of unspoken connection that had no parallel in her experience.
‘Then you should be pleased that I’m here after all.’
For two heartbeats he held her gaze, then the shadows fled. He smiled and something tumbled over in her chest at the zap of magnetism between them.
‘And so I am, Rosalie. Very pleased.’ His voice dropped to a deep sultry murmur that reverberated in her bloodstream, tingled through her body and awakened every nerve-ending.
Why, oh why, hadn’t she stayed away?
Because you’ve never felt so incredibly alive as you do here, with him.
‘You’re not having second thoughts, are you?’ He dismounted to stand beside her on the sand. With only a metre between them the space seemed too intimate.
‘Perhaps. Should I?’
He shook his head and reached out, his fingers closing around hers, hard, warm and strong. It felt so right.
‘No.’ He tugged gently, bringing her closer. She saw herself reflected in his eyes. ‘I will never hurt you. You have my word of honour.’ Her thudding heartbeat echoed the pulse throbbing at the base of his neck. ‘Trust me?’
She hesitated. She had nothing but his words and her instincts to guide her. Yet there was no doubt in her mind.
‘Yes. I trust you, Arik.’
‘Good.’ A spark of emotion flared in his eyes, his hand tightened around hers and a wave of excitement washed over her. His gaze snared hers and her breath crammed in her throat at the intensity of his expression. ‘You know what I want, Rosalie, but that must be your decision.’
She shook her head. ‘But I’ve told you that I won’t—’ Her words ended on a hiss of indrawn breath as he lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of it.
‘Perhaps you may change your mind.’ His mouth moving against her skin was subtly erotic. She stiffened her spine against the need to slump in a wanting heap at his feet.
Now was the time to turn away and make her excuses. She wasn’t sophisticated enough to play these provocative games of seduction. ‘I’m not sure…’
Her words petered out into a sigh as he turned her hand and planted a tender kiss on the centre of her palm. A kiss that sent shockwaves of heat spearing through her. Her knees trembled at the force of them.
‘Nothing is sure,’ Arik murmured, caressing her with his lips as he spoke. ‘Can we not simply enjoy each other’s company for a few days and see where it leads us?’
To perdition, probably. Rosalie sucked a huge breath into her starved lungs, but it wasn’t enough to restore her equilibrium. Not when his hot breath hazed her skin and his lips hovered a bare centimetre from her throbbing pulse.
She tugged her hand free and whipped it behind her back, terrified she might beg him to kiss her there again.
‘You’ll be disappointed.’ She might be desperate for his caresses, but she wasn’t completely foolhardy.
‘Then so be it.’ His smile gave nothing away.
The morning disappeared rapidly once Rosalie focused on her work and not the insidious twist of excitement low in her belly, testament to Arik’s lethal attraction. But now and then, as she looked across the beach, his head would lift, his eyes meet hers and she’d feel the heavy throb of awareness in the crisp morning air.
Too soon the morning was over. Her canvas was taken to Arik’s home. They’d eaten lunch and now they were alone in the opulent marquee that passed for a beach shelter. For all their small talk about art and local sights, Rosalie was acutely conscious of their isolation. The undercurrents eddying in the lengthening silence unnerved her.
She shot him a look, relieved to find that for once his attention was elsewhere. He seemed absorbed in the view of sea and sand, the distant blue shadow of an island.
His profile was arresting, etched with stark, sure lines comprising a whole that was more than handsome. There was intelligence in his high brow, or perhaps that was because she’d learned how perceptive he was. His eyes were piercing, un-settlingly so when they rested on her. His mouth—there was something innately sensual about the curve of his lips—the way it quirked readily into a smile that invited shared laughter. Or pleasure.
Her stomach dipped. He was a man who understood physical pleasure. It was obvious in the way he caressed her hand, the sensuous light in his eyes when he spoke of desire. His look held a promise of gratification. And, if she wanted, he could share that knowledge, that expertise with her. She had only to say the word and Arik would take her to places, to pleasure, so long denied her.
The knowledge was heady, tempting. Frightening.
How could she even consider his proposition?
Because you’re lonely. Because there’s something missing in your life. Because there’s something about this man that overrides a lifetime’s caution and makes you long for the passion you’ve never had.
She looked at him and she felt hot. Her skin prickled as if it no longer fitted. Her lungs couldn’t process enough oxygen. There was a tingling, heavy sensation inside that kept her on edge, an aching sense of emptiness.
Suddenly his eyes were on her. Dark and gleaming with a heat that scorched her skin to a fiery blush. He knew what she felt, she realised in amazement.
He understood.
She read the reflection of her own burgeoning need in the haunted expression of his eyes. In the tic of a pulse at his jaw. Even the compressed line of his mouth mirrored the confused tension pulling her body taut.
His lips curved up in that sexy crooked smile but there was no humour in his gaze this time.
‘You feel it too.’ His voice was low and sure, sending a ripple of reaction through every nerve. ‘You feel what’s between us, don’t you, Rosalie?’
She shook her head in denial. But she couldn’t pull her gaze from his. It was as if some force trapped her.
‘There’s no need to lie,’ he said and there was a glimmer of amusement in his look. ‘You won’t be singed by a bolt of lightning for admitting the truth. There’s nothing shameful about desire between a man and a woman.’
Rosalie’s breath caught high in her throat as his words echoed through her head. Desire.
He was right. That was exactly what she felt. Raw, unadulterated desire for the man before her. She shivered.
‘But I’m not interested in becoming some playmate to keep a rich man from boredom.’ It came out in a rush.
His stare hardened to a laser-bright glitter, keen and cutting. She’d gone too far. His face drew tight with repressed anger, accentuating his aristocratic bone structure. The pulse at his jaw raced to a frenetic beat.
She’d blurted out the first thing that came into her numbed brain. But in this part of the world men called all the shots. Automatically she shrank back, expecting an explosion of outraged fury.
‘You Australians believe in directness, don’t you?’ One dark brow winged up at an arrogant angle. Then he frowned, as if noticing her shuffled withdrawal.
Instantly his expression of stifled fury eased, replaced by a watching stillness.
‘There’s no need to be afraid to express your opinions.’ His voice was calm but there was no mistaking its harsh rasping edge. As if he battled for self-control.
His eyes held hers and she knew he meant it. Relief relaxed her muscles. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, wondering how he’d read her sudden fear. ‘That was insulting.’
‘You should not apologise.’ His words cut across hers. ‘You spoke the truth as you saw it.’
They stared at each other across the narrow space and once more Rosalie could have sworn he understood her confusion and fear. Understood far too much.
‘I regret that you see my interest as cheapening.’ He paused, as if the word left a sour taste. ‘I have always regarded my love affairs as liaisons between equals.’
What could she say? Embarrassment flooded her but she could survive that. She’d survived much worse.
