“I see.” Heidi hesitated. “Your father must have loved her very much.”
“She was his entire world, or so I’ve heard.” He squeezed her hand. “My father is the kind of man who loves with his whole heart, but he loved only once.”
Heidi didn’t know what to say to that. She wanted to ask if it was a family trait—if he, Jamal, was the same way. Did he love only once, and was that one great love Yasmin? Heidi didn’t want it to be so. If it was, she labored in vain because Jamal wouldn’t have any of his heart left over to give her. She was beginning to worry that friendship and passion weren’t going to be enough for her—but was she going to get a choice in the matter?
“What are you thinking?” he asked unexpectedly.
“About your late wife,” she said truthfully, although she was not going to tell him anything specific. Then she remembered she was supposed to be ignorant about Jamal’s past. “I mean I, ah, read in an article that you were married before.”
“Yasmin is off-limits to you, young lady.” He gently squeezed her fingers.
“Why?” Didn’t he want to talk about his great love? “
Because it’s only polite,” he said. “Your past is off-limits to me, as well. I doubt you are the kind of woman to kiss and tell, right?”
“Of course,” Heidi said easily, even as she wondered if that was true. After all, she didn’t have any kissing to tell about, except for his, so she hadn’t actually been tested.
“So you won’t tell me about all your dozens of lovers?” he asked, his voice teasing.
“Dozens is a slight exaggeration.”
“So it’s less than fifty?”
Fifty? Heidi laughed. “Definitely less than fifty.”
“Less than twenty?”
“Of course.”
He studied her, his dark eyes appraising. “I want to guess less than ten, but you’re so beautiful. Men must be a problem for you wherever you go.”
Oh, yeah, right. She practically had to step over them just to get to her car, she thought humorously. “You would be surprised,” was all she said, however.
Wait a minute. Had he just said she was beautiful? Beautiful? For real? And she barely thought of herself as pretty. Did he mean it? If only she knew a way to ask.
“Still,” he said, standing, then pulling her to her feet. “You’re here now…in my power, so to speak. I have a sudden desire to make sure you never get away.”
He was making it impossible for her to breathe. Really. Her throat was all tight, as was her chest, and if her heart beat any faster, it was going to self-propel itself out of her body.
She couldn’t think of a single thing to say in response, so she allowed him to pull her close. He wrapped his arms around her. She knew exactly what was going to happen next and found that she couldn’t wait. She desperately wanted him to kiss her the way he had before. All hot and passionate with tongues brushing and hands exploring.
Now, standing so close to him, staring up into his dark eyes and handsome face, she couldn’t imagine why on earth she’d been afraid of being intimate with a man. Jamal made her want to find out everything and do it over and over until they got it right.
“Now what are you thinking?” he asked as he leaned close and brushed his mouth against hers.
“Nothing important,” she murmured, then brazenly licked his lower lip.
He shuddered at her touch, which made her shudder in return.
“It must be important,” he said as he nibbled on her jaw. “You were blushing.”
“No. I never blush. It’s the lighting in here.”
“Liar.” His voice was low and seductive. “But if you don’t want to tell me what you were thinking, maybe you’d like to hear what I’m thinking.”
She shivered again, but this time as much from apprehension as anticipation. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Jamal could shock her in forty-seven different ways if he tried. The trick was going to be for her to act blasé, because she was, after all, the experienced-mistress type. At least Honey was.
He trailed soft, damp kisses down her neck and followed the curve of her top until he reached her exposed cle**age. Once there, he dipped his tongue into the valley between her br**sts.
Her breath caught and her knees nearly gave way. She clung to him, praying he would never stop.
“Do you want to know?” he asked.
“Huh?”
He laughed—a satisfied male laugh. “Do you want to know what I’m thinking.”
“Oh, ah, sure.”
Right now she would agree to anything as long as he kept touching her, she thought hazily, her head lolling back so that he could easily reach all of her throat.
“I have a fantasy,” he admitted. “I’ve had it for years and not once have I ever had it fulfilled.”
That got her attention. Heidi straightened and stared at him. “Never?”
“No.” His dark gaze met hers. “It’s probably going to sound a little silly to someone as sophisticated as you.”
“I doubt that,” she said honestly. “Tell me.”
She wanted to hear any fantasy he’d had for years—especially one that hadn’t been fulfilled by Yasmin.
He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “I would love to see you do the Dance of the Seven Veils for me.”
She blinked. “Dance of the Seven Veils? Like in the movies?”