Ким Лоренс – Innocent in the Desert: The Sheikh's Impatient Virgin / The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin / The Desert Lord's Bride (страница 16)
It wasn’t until a few minutes later, when she was standing outside in the corridor with a ring on her finger and Karim totally ignoring her while he conversed in a mixture of French and Arabic to Tariq, that she realised she wasn’t going to wake up. This was real; she was married.
She had woken from a dream and found herself in the middle of a nightmare. The calm that had supported her vaporised and icy panic slid in to fill the space it left. It clogged her throat and filled her churning stomach.
What had she done?
‘Go with Tariq.’
Eva bit her trembling lip and tilted her face to his; the man she had married looked remote and stern.
‘But … you …?’
‘I need to be with Amira.’ Mentally, Eva realized, he already was; he was looking right through her.
‘Can I do anything … help …?’
Eva swallowed, trying hard not to show how much the rejection hurt. Her response was, she knew, irrational, but she had no control over it.
‘I just thought …’
‘If you want to help go with Tariq. He will take care of you.’ He nodded once more in her direction and strode away.
Eva watched the tall, elegant figure until he vanished from view. She turned her head and caught an expression of sympathy on the face of the man beside her.
The idea that she was an object of pity for members of Karim’s household filled her with horror. She immediately pinned on a cheery smile.
‘So what next?’
‘I will escort you to—’
Unable to maintain the pretence of listening, Eva, her voice tense, cut across him. ‘Is she very ill?’
There was a pause before Tariq, looking uncomfortable at being directly addressed, responded, ‘Yes, she is.’
‘And he … Prince Karim … he has spent a lot of time here?’
‘He has barely left her side.’
‘And that is where he is now?’
‘The doctors have been trying some experimental treatment. They will be able to tell the Prince today if it is working.’ He stopped and looked as though he regretted revealing so much, then, bowing his head, he gestured for her to precede him. ‘If you would come this way, the Prince has asked me to—’
Eva began to move, then stopped. ‘He’s alone—I mean, there’s no family or anything with him?’
‘No, he is alone.’
Eva narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘No.’ Smiling with a confidence she was not feeling—she was not in the habit of blindly following her instinct—she turned to face the tall, forbidding figure beside her.
She might be a wife in name only, but the thought of Karim facing what could be bad news … the
It was totally irrational, but she felt she
‘Sorry, Princess, I don’t quite understand …’
‘No.’
A wary light appeared in Tariq’s dark eyes.
‘The Prince has asked you to keep me out of his hair.’ She arched a brow. ‘Am I right?’
Tariq, looking nonplussed by the comment, let his arm fall back to his side. ‘The Prince is anxious that you are comfortable, that you have what you wish.’
‘I wish to see him.’ He might not want to see me.
‘I’m afraid that that will not—’
‘Look, I’m not sure what your job description covers, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include manhandling a royal princess, and that’s the only way you’re moving me from here.’
She held her breath, not totally sure what she’d do if he called her bluff.
She thought she saw the glimmer of a smile in his eyes as he inclined his head and said, ‘This way.’
The room that Tariq showed her to was on the top floor. He spoke to the two men who stood outside and they bowed and stepped aside.
She gave them a smile as she walked past, thinking,
On the threshold she paused uncertainly, bracing herself for Karim’s reaction when he saw her.
He didn’t react because he didn’t see her. Her glance moved from the tiny waxy-faced figure in the bed, so slight that her arm seemed too fragile to hold all the tubes that protruded from it, to the tall man standing by the window looking blindly out at the city below.
She saw the moisture on his cheeks and empathy so acute it hurt swelled in her chest.
Her heart aching for his grief, she moved towards him, her hand outstretched. ‘I’m so sorry, Karim.’
At the sound of her voice he turned his head. ‘Eva?’
She saw then that it was not grief and pain that shone in his eyes, but joy and relief.
Her hand fell away self-consciously. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude but—’
‘It is working,’ he said, his eyes on the figure in the bed. ‘She’s going to be all right.’
The expression on his face as he looked at his daughter brought a lump to her throat. ‘I’m so glad, Karim,’ she said softly.
‘You’re here?’ he said as if just registering her presence.
Feeling like an intruder, she absently rubbed her fingers across the ring on her left hand and nodded. ‘I just thought I might be able to do something to help, but I can see—’
‘You want to help?’ he said, his voice low and gravelly.
Unable to read his expression as he advanced with panther-like grace towards her, Eva shook her head. ‘It was just a thought.’
He stopped just in front of her. The tension she could feel rolling off him in waves made her senses spin. His deep-set eyes glittered as he looked down at her. ‘You can help.’
‘I …’
He hooked a finger under her chin, growling, ‘Don’t talk.’ And brought his mouth down hard on hers.
Her shocked gasp was lost in his mouth as her lips parted under the sensuous pressure. She had not known a kiss could be like this: raw, possessive, passionate and hungry. Molten heat seared her nerve endings as she melted into him with a sigh and kissed him back, sliding her fingers deep into his hair and groaning at the first stabbing intrusion of his tongue inside her mouth.
When he finally lifted his head they were both breathing hard. ‘Oh!’ She sighed, unpeeling her arms from his neck as he placed her back on her feet.
‘Indeed!’
‘Did that help?’ she whispered, staring at him with starry stunned eyes. She could still taste him in her mouth.
The voice in her head warned she was wildly overreacting to a kiss that had obviously been an outward release of his tension, but she couldn’t help it.
If that was him using her, she couldn’t wait for him to do it again.
‘It hurt.’ Dragging his mouth from hers had been one of the hardest things he had ever done. ‘It hurt to stop …’ he clarified in response to her bewildered expression.
‘Oh!’
He studied her flushed face. ‘You look like a girl who has never been kissed before.’