As she searched, her eyes collided with Rashid’s and she wasn’t sure, but was that surprise in his eyes?
She didn’t dare look but hurried towards the exit, uncaring about anyone else. She ducked her head to hide the tears of humiliation and just concentrated on walking forward, finding her escape so she could lick her wounds in the privacy of her own apartment.
She was almost at the exit when her arm was grabbed and she was spun around. When she regained her balance, she was staring at the middle of a massive chest covered in a silk-like cotton and an Italian red, silk tie.
“Where the hell have you been?” Rashid demanded. “And who the hell is the guy you just left?”
Sidra looked up into those crystal blue eyes, eyes she’d fantasized about for so many nights she didn’t even want to think about it. “None of your damn business!” she snapped and tried to pull her arm out of his grip but he didn’t release her. “Let me go!”
“Not on your life!” He stepped closer and looked down at her. “So you just go from man to man, testing the waters now? Was he better than I was? How long has he lasted? Longer than our little trysts?”
She couldn’t believe that he was saying things like that. “Are you kidding me? You’re the one who had an emergency! Was it just your way of getting out of an awkward goodbye? Or did you have another woman to shag that was more entertaining?”
Rashid looked down at the woman he’d been trying to find for the past two weeks. He’d been called back to his country to resolve a potentially armed dispute in one of the northern territories and by the time he’d rounded up the illegal renegades and ensured their prosecution, he’d gone back to find Sidra, only to find that she was nowhere to be found. Even the friend she’d been visiting was out of the country. It had taken his security team all this time to track her down in Washington, D.C. and now that he’d found her, he was livid to see her flirting with some other man and in a hotel no less!
“Ironic coming from a woman who didn’t bother to leave a forwarding address, or any sort of information on how I could reach you. I thought it was because your friend was out of the country on an assignment, but perhaps you’d given her instructions to keep that information away from me?”
She was shaking with her anger. “Don’t you dare! Laura had very specific instructions to give you my contact information but now I’m glad she wasn’t able to! You’re a two timing jerk. Did you already have her on the side before you went on your ‘emergency’?” she asked snidely, referring to the woman standing behind Rashid, calmly pretending that this altercation wasn’t happening in the middle of one of the best hotels in Washington, D.C.
Rashid glanced behind him and saw both his personal assistant, Yvette who was glancing through his blackberry for his next meeting and then the man who had been watching the whole scene, the one who had been sitting next to the woman who hadn’t left his mind for the past three weeks. It made his blood boil to think of such an ass touching what he considered to be his. She might be ready to move on, but she’d given herself to him and he damn well wasn’t finished. Not by a long shot!
“Let’s get out of the lobby,” he commanded and pulled her along towards the elevators.
She couldn’t believe his gall! How could he think she would just blindly follow him wherever he demanded she go? “I’m not going anywhere with you!” Sidra whispered under her breath and pulled back, flinching when his grip hurt her arm just above the elbow.
Rashid turned back and glared down at her. “We are not having this discussion in public, Sidra. Come with me where we can discuss this in private.”
She was so angry at his accusations and his betrayal that she saw red. “There’s nothing to discuss! We had a nice fling,” she said through clenched teeth, hating the words and wishing he would stop her from saying them, that he would tell her that it had been more than a fling to him. She wanted him to contradict her, to tell her that she meant something more than just a morning shag beside the stream. But his eyes were furious and she could tell by his expression that he had no intention of contradicting her.
She took a deep breath, burying the hurt so she could at least get out of here and hide away, recover from these new wounds he’d just inflicted upon her. “Let’s just move on. Let go of my arm or I’ll make a scene right here. I don’t know if your boss is nearby but I have no qualms about embarrassing everyone around if you don’t let go of me immediately.”
Sidra was lying completely. She’d hate it if she was noticed by anyone from her firm and there was the very real possibility that one of her clients might be in the area since this hotel was very upscale and the theatres were close by. Anyone could be stopping by before or after a performance and she didn’t want to be noticed by someone and her behavior brought to her firm’s attention.
The blond woman walked up to him and said something low and in a foreign language. Rashid glared at her and she quickly backed up, but he sighed and released her arm. “This is not over, Sidra. Bank on it!”
With that, he turned around and walked swiftly through the large lobby away from her towards the elevators.
Sidra watched him go with a pained look. She tried hard to follow him, to see him for as long as possible, but there was a large group of men in dark suits who were also heading in that direction and she lost him in that crowd. She wondered why there were so many people heading in the same direction all of a sudden, but it was none of her business. When he disappeared behind a sea of black suits, she took a deep breath and turned to leave the hotel herself. She had to get out of here as quickly as possible.
Tom walked up to her right then and put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?” he asked gently.
Sidra jumped, initially thinking that Rashid had somehow come back but when she looked at the hand, it wasn’t tanned and strong, but pale, with much less strength in the fingers and forearm. She looked up and realized that it was her date for the night and instantly relaxed. She pasted a smile on her face, trying to reassure Tom who had been nothing but a gentleman for the night. “I’m fine. I apologize for that scene. It was unconscionable.”
“No problem. Do you know who that was?” he asked, looking towards the elevators with awe.
Sidra glanced in the same direction just in time to see Rashid step into the elevators and glare back at her. “I know exactly who he is. He’s an absolute jerk who should be shot!”