He heard her sharp intake of breath as he moved his hand from her back to her stomach, moving upwards to cup those incredible breasts that he remembered in his mind, he growled, “It’s me you want, isn’t it? Forget that bastard and come back to me. I can make you feel this better than any man ever could. Just say the word, Sidra.”
His words, spoken with a deep, husky growl, penetrated her mind and she pulled back slightly, looking up at him and wondering what was wrong. She was breathing heavily, wanting so much to just move back against him but then she remembered what was wrong. The woman! The three weeks! She’d been such a fool to believe him, to have waited for him!
She stepped back and was relieved when he released her. She took several steps away from him, holding onto the conference room table to keep herself from falling onto the floor because of her wobbly knees. “Leave me alone,” she whispered. “You can’t do this to me again. I won’t let you,” she finally got out then bit her lip to keep herself from sobbing out the pain and anguish she’d felt at his betrayal and absence.
“Can’t do what to you?” he snapped back. “Make you react to my touch? Make you shiver with need?”
“Stop it!” she almost shouted back at him. “Just leave me alone!”
He moved closer to her but didn’t touch her. Leaning down so he could see into her eyes, he watched as she tried to shrink away from him and it only made him angrier. “I wish I could but we both know that’s not an option.”
She was more furious than she’d ever been in her life and she was trapped on a plane with a man she didn’t understand. “Let’s just stick to the project, okay?”
Rashid looked like he wanted to argue but after fighting with himself for a moment, he nodded his head curtly. “You eat while you talk though. You’ve lost too much weight and you look dead on your feet.”
She slapped the files she’d brought onto the conference room table and kept herself from rolling her eyes. “You can’t make me eat, Rashid.” She pulled out the plans he’d left at her office the previous day and started rolling them out as she said, “or am I supposed to refer to you as ‘Your Highness’ as well as all your other minions?”
He spun around and glared at her. “If you do I’ll turn you over my knee and spank you.”
She looked up at him, all the hurt and despair showing through in her eyes as she said, “I thought you were just a horse trainer.” She said the words softly but he heard her and some of the anger left him.
He sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair, his shoulders still tense, but looking suddenly defeated. “It was nice to be thought of that way for a few days. You don’t know what it’s like to be bowed to all your life. When we met, you didn’t do any of the normal things women do around me and I liked it.”
She sank gratefully into an empty chair and tried to steady her shaking hands. “You mean they didn’t cater to your every whim?”
He smiled seductively and shook his head. “I believe I remember you catering to several of my whims,” he replied.
Sidra blushed and looked away, focusing instead on the plans and refusing to reply to his comment. She’d more than catered to him, she remembered. She’d begged and pleaded that third day for him to end their torment. And that was after she’d done some tormenting of her own, following his instructions even if some of those instructions had been non-verbal. She was embarrassed now by how uninhibited she’d been with him and wanted to wipe those mornings from her mind. “I thought you might like to switch the sitting area in here around so that the light coming in through these windows could be more useful.” She was referring to the living area of his private quarters, her finger pointing to the largest area and praying he would take the hint that she couldn’t talk about their intimate time together any more.
Rashid considered pulling her back to the previous conversation, but he looked down at her shaking fingers and quivering chin and gave her a bit of space. He wanted this woman and he wasn’t giving up on her, but he could tell that she was pulling from the bottom of her capacity to cope right at the moment. He didn’t want to destroy her. But he wouldn’t let her walk away.
“Start in the bedroom,” he commanded and pointed to the opposite side of the plans. “What are your ideas for this room?” he asked and took a seat on the other side of the conference room table so he could watch her. He couldn’t give a damn about redecorating his private quarters. The whole idea was just an excuse to get her on his own turf and understand what had happened that last day.
Sidra’s heart sank at the reference to his bedroom. She didn’t want to discuss the private areas where this man slept, where he probably took the women in his life, maybe even had enjoyed a love affair or two. How many women had shared his bed? Had he felt anything for them?
With shaking fingers, she pulled out the ideas she and Debra had discussed for his bedroom and stammered through several of the ideas, explaining the advantages. He was very considerate as they talked, asking her opinion, why she would do one thing versus another and suggesting very few alterations. He even asked her what her favorite color was and told her to use that for the basis of the design.
She looked up at him, confused by his response. “Are you sure you want a yellow bedroom? We could use a darker shade, more gold than yellow…”
“Show me that color chart again?”
She pulled it back out from underneath several of the plans she’d drawn up with Debra the previous night and handed it to him. “Would you mind if I grabbed something to eat now? We’ve made some good progress.”
He instantly looked up at her and shook his head. “Please, fill a plate with anything you’d like.
While he examined the options, she walked over to the food. The breakfast dishes had been taken away at some point and replaced with snacks and delicious cheese with savory crackers and olives. It was lunch time and she was actually famished. Apparently work really had helped her settle her stomach. And keeping off of subjects that produced anxiety definitely helped.
If she could just stay out of his arms, she might get through this project with her heart intact and her pride only somewhat in tatters.
She took a fork and tried to be polite about the food, but she was just too hungry. She was focusing on the strawberries, savoring their tart sweetness when she felt something strange and opened her eyes. Rashid was sitting back in his chair, no longer reviewing the plans but simply staring at her with open amusement.