He pulled her closer, his arms wrapping around her and bent again, this time, his mouth wasn’t tentative. He didn’t demand, but coaxed her to participate, feeling her shivers as he slowly deepened the kiss, teasing her lips apart and catching her gasp of pleasure in his mouth as his tongue invaded, tasting her sweetness over and over again.
Sidra clung to his arms, her fingers wrapping around his biceps as he pulled her against him, his hand moving down against her back and pressing her against his hard body. She gasped when he deepened the kiss but her mind reveled in the glorious taste of this man who fascinated her so deeply. She wanted to know everything there was to know about him. How he thought, what he did, why he loved horses so much and she especially wanted him to kiss her, to kiss her like this forever. She never wanted him to stop and loved the way he teased and demanded, coaxed and cajoled with his mouth. She’d never experienced such a kiss before. Having endured the sloppy kisses of boys before now, she was enamored of this man’s touch.
As he pulled away, she noticed that his hand was tangled in her hair and his body had hardened in areas that hadn’t been there before. She blushed as she took a step back, leaning slightly against the rock behind her because she knew her legs wouldn’t hold her.
“I scared you,” he said as he watched her look down at her hands which were clasped demurely in front of her.
Sidra looked up, not wanting to appear childish in his eyes. “Not at all,” she lied and bit her lower lip, wondering how she could convince him. “It’s just that I don’t even know your last name or anything about you except that you work with horses and you’re a good rider.”
Rashid didn’t correct her that he worked with horses because he sometimes did exercise the horses when he felt the need. He had an entire stable of horses a t the various houses he owned but that wasn’t his occupation. Better that she think of him as just another guy from the village instead of his real identity.
“Let’s walk,” he said and took her hand, placing it in the crook of his arm in an old-world gentlemanly way. “Tell me about yourself,” he said softly and tried to calm down the raging lust that was surging through his body. She was such a treasure, he wanted to savor her as long as possible. He’d seen the lie in her eyes and knew that she’d never been kissed like that. “What do you do?”
Sidra felt better, feeling on safer ground talking about her occupation. “I’m an interior designer,” she said and answered his questions about her life, then asked him how he knew so much about horses. They walked for about an hour before she realized what time it was. “I’d better get back to Laura. She’s generally up about this time each morning and I don’t really want an interrogation if I’m gone too long.”
He read the hesitation in her eyes and wanted to find the source. “You don’t want her to know you’ve spent time with me.” He said it as a statement but Sidra could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn’t understand.
“It isn’t what you’re thinking.” She bit her lip and turned to face him. “I just don’t want her to know because she would want to ask me questions that I don’t want her to know about. She won’t relent until I tell her details. With you, I don’t want to share those details.” It felt almost dishonest to think of telling Laura about how she felt being with Rashid and how wonderful it was when he kissed her. She wanted to keep this just between the two of them. Not because it felt wrong. But because it felt so wonderfully right.
He reached out and pushed a strand of hair that the wind had dislodged from the rest of her tresses. “You’ve shared these details in the past with this woman about your dates?”
Sidra cringed, but acknowledged that she had shared with her friend. “Yes. We shared everything in school.”
The smile he gave her then was filled with arrogance and Sidra cringed again, knowing she’d revealed too much about how she felt about him.
“I understand.”
Sidra sighed and shook her head. “I don’t think you do, but that’s okay.”
He stepped forward, taking her hand and putting it on his chest where it had been before. “You don’t want to tell her that you’ve kissed me. Because she’ll ask you about the other men you’ve kissed and will want a comparison. A ranking.”
Sidra grimaced at his spot on understanding. “Yes.”
“And you won’t want to tell her that I’m at the top of the ranking.” He smiled smugly down at her.
For some reason, she wanted to wipe that silly smug look off of his face. “Maybe you’re actually at the bottom of the ranking and I don’t want her to know that you’re technique is faulty.”
In response, Rashid leaned over her, his hands on the rock behind her holding him up so he was looming over her. “I wouldn’t want you to be dishonest at this point in our relationship, Sidra,” he said and his lips captured hers in a kiss that took her breath away. He didn’t touch her except with his mouth but as his lips moved over hers, he took possession, her mind scattering as she trembled with the need for more while he ravished her thoroughly.
By the time he lifted his mouth away from her, she was shaking with the need for more, her body trembling while her hands fisted in his shirt.
He looked down at her, his eyes on fire and lit with a need that made her gasp with both fear and the same need. “I’m sorry,” she whispered softly. One hand untangled from his shirt and she placed her hand on his cheek. “That was thoughtless of me and I shouldn’t have teased you like that.”
“Was it only teasing?”
She sighed and her eyelids dropped to cover her shame. “No. And I’m sorry for that as well. I was trying to…”
His finger came up to press against her lips. “I know what you were doing. But please, we have only a short time together. Let’s promise to be honest with each other until you have to leave.”
She looked up at him, swallowing the shame and frustration she was feeling. “Okay.”
His finger moved from her lips across her cheek, lightly tickling her earlobe and getting a shiver in response. “Will you meet me here again tomorrow morning?”
“Yes,” she replied without thinking. She wasn’t even sure how, but she’d get here.
“Good.” He bent down and pressed a gentle kiss against her lips. This was a gentle kiss though. Barely there before he pulled away. “Go now. Before I don’t let you.”