‘Are you so bored on our date that you are checking your phone? I don’t think that’s a good sign.’
‘Did your mother tell you about my date with Paul?’ Adele laughed. ‘Well, I’m actually checking for reception.’
There was none.
And her phone didn’t tell her the time either.
‘There are no clocks...’
‘We go by the sun and the stars,’ Zahir explained. ‘The main reason for coming here is to get away from all things modern. I agree with my father on that point. Here is for introspection and to seek guidance. It is a haven from the modern world.’
‘It’s actually quite freeing,’ Adele admitted.
It was and she told him why.
‘You know, I always have this knot of dread—what if I miss a call and it’s about my mother? The first thing I do is check my phone, yet while I’ve been here...’ she shook her head unsure she could explain, ‘...it doesn’t matter.’
‘Tell me.’
‘Well, I’ve always put off having a holiday. I convinced myself I’d panic all the time in case something happened and I couldn’t get to her.’
‘You know, if there was any change then I would get you straight home.’
‘I know.’ Adele nodded. ‘But, rather than panicking, I’ve found...’ She didn’t know how best to explain it. ‘I’m ten hours away at best. It’s actually nice to know if something happens I won’t have to deal with it. I now understand why people kept suggesting that I take a proper break.’
‘Good for you.’
‘Anything could happen,’ Adele said, ‘and we wouldn’t know.’
And then she met his eyes and they told him that anything could happen and she wouldn’t mind at all.
She wandered around. There was the royal suite with cascades of crimson silk and on one wall a red velvet curtain. Above the bed was a velvet rope.
‘I doubt that summons breakfast,’ Adele said.
‘It doesn’t.’
‘Does that ring in the harem?’
‘It does,’ Zahir said.
She was tempted to pull it just to see some sultry beauty come through the curtain.
Adele did so and Zahir smiled and put her out of her misery. ‘The harem was disbanded before my parents married. I believe it was a condition she insisted upon when she attended the selection ceremony.’
And she remembered Leila tapping at her ruby and telling Adele that she had made demands of her own.
Now she understood the demands Leila had made had not been about keeping her in splendour.
‘Good for her.’ Adele smiled.
And she thought of Fatiq, who really loved his wife. She just wished she could help there, but knew that there was nothing she could do.
A maid served them some tea and pastries and they sat on cushions. They were alone, finally alone, and she never wanted it to end. ‘When do we have to go back?’
‘When we choose to,’ Zahir said. ‘Would you like to go riding? It will be sunset soon. I can have them prepare a gentle horse.’
‘That sounds amazing.’
It was.
They went on a slow walk along the dunes and a huge orange sun turned the sands and the sky to molten gold. The colours meant it was like being in the middle of a furnace, yet with the setting sun a soft wind circled them.
The sky darkened and the first stars started to appear as the air cooled. Adele wanted more of the desert.
She wanted more of Zahir.
‘Will Leila know...’ Adele asked ‘...if we stay here tonight?’
‘The staff are discreet. It might eventually filter back but you will be long gone by then. But I think she will understand when I tell her I have feelings for you. Deep ones.’ He was honest. ‘I can barely get my father to agree to an X-ray machine, I very much doubt he would allow you to be my bride.’
‘I could never leave my mother.’
‘I know,’ Zahir said. ‘So for now all we have is this time.’
‘For now?’
‘I told you, I have asked the desert for a solution.’
Which didn’t seem a lot to hang hope on, Adele thought.
Perhaps she’d sighed because Zahir looked at her and smiled.
They arrived back at the oasis and when she’d thought there could be no more surprises she watched the steam rise from the hot waters as it hit the cold night air.
‘Do you want to go in?’ Zahir asked.
Often, too often, Adele had wondered how it might happen—a kiss that grew out of hand, as had been the case on the plane, or he might sneak her to join him in the royal suite. Never had she envisaged the absolutely certain, almost calm way he dismounted and held out his hand to help her down.
And she knew this was it.
They had withheld and resisted but finally they were alone and there was nothing now that could stop them.
Though there was one thing perhaps, Adele thought as he lifted her down and for a slow, sensual moment her body slid over his.
If Adele told him this was her first time, she knew Zahir might well reconsider.
And she didn’t want that.
He held her against him and she could feel that muscular body and the roughness of his robe.
‘You’re sure?’ he checked.
‘Very.’
He turned her around and undid the zipper of her robe and it slipped to the ground.
A nearly full moon lit them and Adele could feel his eyes on her as she took off her underwear.
‘It’s cold,’ Adele said.
‘Then get into the warm water.’
The water came up to her shoulders and she stood and watched Zahir undress.
First he removed the scabbard that held his sword and dropped it to the ground, and then he disrobed and removed the leather straps from his feet. And then as he stood and she saw that magnificent body fully naked he strode with purpose to the waterside. She wondered if perhaps she ought to tell him.
No.
She lay on her back in the water and gave him full view of her body, and as he stared down she parted her legs and she felt her stomach tighten as he stared.
It was too late to be shy, she decided, and she would never regret this magical night in the desert.
He joined her in the water and Adele stood. They faced each other for a moment and then he reached over and she slid through the water to the demand of his hands.
The air was cold above the water but their kiss was warm and deep and his beard was rough and sexy.
His hands were over her skin, feeling her breasts, cupping them, and then teasing her nipples. Then down to her waist and then to her buttocks. All this as her arms wrapped around his neck. His mouth was so beautiful and she explored it. The steam had made their faces damp and their mouths slid easily.
She could feel him nudging at her stomach and one hand moved from his neck just to hold him again.
He lifted her so that her legs wrapped around his waist and she could feel the nudge of him at her centre and held him there. It made her kiss him harder as his hand slid to her sex and he felt her warm and slick.
And then they stopped kissing and she stared deep into his eyes, and they were back to their first meeting.
Somehow they had known even then that they were meant to be.
Their kiss was deep and her body pliant. Her arms were loose enough around his neck that he could guide her.
He positioned himself, one hand at the base of her spine and the other around himself so he could take her fast and deep, and she now stared into his eyes.
No kissing.
Just watching and waiting for him.
Yet he did not slide inside her easily, as he had planned to.
&n
bsp; Adele made throaty noise at the bliss of intimate pain.
And Zahir realised that this was her first time as he seared into her, and though she moaned in pain she ground down in acceptance.
She was tight and the pleasure for him was intense. He felt her mouth bite his shoulder and he held her hips and thrust in hard. He knew from her moans that she gladly suffered an erotic mix of pain and bliss.
He was not gentle, he was rough, delivering the pleasure that made her thighs shake and her calves ache as they gripped him.
Her cold mouth came up to his and her tense lips were on his as he took her ever more deeply.
He angled himself and she stiffened at the new sensations he aroused and then she moaned because he stroked her inside so exquisitely.
They were surrounded by stars; they were there when she looked up and they were reflected on the water as she rested her head on his shoulder as he took her faster. They were bathing in the sky, that was how it felt; they were two stars locked now in eternal orbit.
Adele felt the swell and the hot rush of him deep inside and he moved her as she pulsed around him.
They were sweating in the cold air and heat below and she took every drop he delivered and then he stilled her with his hands and they kissed until she again rested her head on his shoulder.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ he asked, still inside her.
‘You might have said no.’
Zahir shook his head. ‘Never.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘I HEAR ABOUT you going out on dates?’
They were back in the tent, lying on the opulent bed and still wet from the hot water. She could see the bruise her teeth had made on his shoulder and she felt sore but sated.
‘Yes, I’ve had many first dates.’ Adele smiled.
He didn’t ask about her being on the Pill and she remembered telling him that she was when she’d been hit.
She knew she had missed taking a couple of them. When she had stayed overnight at the hospital and possibly the day after that she hadn’t taken it.
There was no point saying anything yet, though.
There wasn’t exactly a glut of pharmacies in Mamlakat Almas.
She would deal with that later.
Adele had everything she wanted in this moment and many more times throughout the night.
She came to his hand and he came to her mouth.
They spent the night making love rather than waste a moment sleeping. Together they made up for lost time.
But all too soon morning started to creep in.
Zahir pulled back a drape and he dressed in his robe and left the tent as Adele lay there, watching the stars disappear and the day invading in a glorious riot of yellows and pinks.
‘We’ll leave soon,’ he said when he returned from wherever he had been.
She didn’t want to leave.
She had never felt more at peace than here in the desert.
‘Are you looking forward to going home tomorrow?’ Zahir asked.
‘I’m...’ Adele couldn’t answer. She wanted to see that her mother was okay but she wasn’t looking forward to it as such. And she wanted to sort out where she lived. She loved her career but just couldn’t quite envisage Zahir not being there.
No, she couldn’t answer honestly because the truth was that she wanted to be here, sharing his bed.
He saved her from lying with a kiss but she could hear the maids setting up for breakfast in the lounge and she pulled back.
‘Where did you go?’ Adele asked.
‘To visit my brother’s grave. I always do when I am here. I finally spoke with my mother about all that happened.’
‘That’s good.’
‘I can see now that she had pre-eclampsia,’ Zahir said.
‘I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you.’
‘No, I respect that you didn’t,’ Zahir said. ‘I know that you think my father must be mad but...’
‘It must be so difficult for him,’ Adele broke in.
Her response surprised Zahir but Adele had given it a lot of thought. ‘The one time your mother stepped outside tradition he lost his son.’
He thought about that as Adele went to bathe.
She came back pink and dressed in a silver robe and neither wanted to leave, so they lingered over breakfast.
She drank a lovely infusion of hot lemon and mint and they ate sweet cakes and he saw that she was holding back tears.
‘It isn’t over,’ he said. ‘We have tonight. You will be in my bed back at the palace.’
She shook her head.
‘The staff aren’t going to say anything. They are good people and we will be discreet. My parents won’t find out for ages and I am fully prepared for that.’
It wasn’t that so much that troubled her.
It was the next day when she went home.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
FOR LEILA THE hope that a weekend break might help her marriage soon faded.
And being away from home had been more tiring than she had anticipated.
In the morning, unable to face another day and night smiling and being gracious, she asked Fatiq to make their excuses and to fly them home.
‘That is impolite,’ Fatiq told her.
‘I don’t care,’ she said.
Leila was through with being polite.
Fatiq had strode into the palace, not best pleased.
‘Inform Zahir that I am back.’
And Bashir knew, because whispers had swirled through the palace, that Zahir was not here and neither was Adele.
Neither was the pilot who had taken them into the desert yesterday afternoon.
‘I believe that Zahir is out,’ Bashir said.
‘Where is he?’ Fatiq demanded.
Bashir did not answer.
Leila certainly did not need to know where their son was—he was a man after all.
‘I am going to have some tea and then lie down,’ she said. ‘Bashir, would you have Samina disturb Adele and ask her to come and see me.’
Leila had the most terrible headache and it had been a strained time away with Fatiq.
‘Of course,’ Bashir said.
Oh, they delayed and played for time, and by the time the Queen had taken some morning tea and was slowly climbing the stairs, Samina came to her with the answer.
‘Your Highness, Adele is not in her wing.’
‘Where is...?’
And the Queen stopped herself from asking the question when she saw the conflict in Samina’s eyes.
‘Actually, don’t trouble Adele.’ She knew. ‘I gave her the weekend off.’
‘Where is the nurse?’ Fatiq was coming up the stairs behind his wife.
‘She likes to walk on the beach,’ Bashir said.
Poor Bashir did his best too.
But the King was no fool. He climbed the stairs right up to the turret and looked out at the splendid view and then came back down.
‘Where is the Crown Prince?’ Fatiq asked. ‘He needs to be informed that I am back.’
Bashir was sweating and Samina’s eyes were wide as he answered the King.
‘I believe that Zahir has gone to the desert abode.’
‘Fetch Queen Leila’s nurse,’ the King said in a voice that had even the little hummingbird hovering at the fountain falter.
Oh, Leila would not be getting her lie-down!
‘You are dismissed for now,’ she said to Bashir, rather than have him answer that Adele too was at the desert abode, and she followed her husband back down and into his office.
‘He took her to the desert!’ an enraged Fatiq said to his wife as soon as they were alone.
‘Adele
always said that she wanted to see it. Perhaps he is giving her a tour. There might have been a sandstorm.’
The King gave a derisive snort, which told Leila what he thought of that. ‘The palace staff are embarrassed. Thanks to your nurse—’
‘My nurse,’ Leila interrupted, ‘saved me from embarrassment.’
She was angry too but she was also conflicted.
Zahir always kept to the rules.
Now, were it Dakan who was home she might have been better prepared for such goings-on.
But Zahir?
A short while later there was the sound of the helicopter and they stood at the window and watched it descend.
Leila watched the helicopter land on the lawn and saw Zahir and Adele disembark.
They were relaxed and laughing and there had been no sandstorm, neither had this been an innocent tour.
They were lovers, she could see that it was so, and so too could Fatiq.
And then Zahir must have seen the royal jet for he stilled and put a protective arm around Adele.
The King sucked in his breath at the public display of affection.
Leila watched as Adele startled and turned as if to run.
‘My parents are here,’ Zahir told her.
‘They can’t find out.’
He looked up at the office window.
They already have.’ He took charge immediately. ‘Come. We will go in by my private entrance and I shall take you this morning to the airport myself. You don’t have to face them.’
Adele had never even set foot in his wing.
And now she sat on his bed with her head in her hands and she felt mortified.
‘Can you say we got stranded, or that we slept apart...?’
‘I’m not going to lie, Adele,’ Zahir said. ‘My only regret about what went on is that it now makes things difficult for you.’
‘And impossible for us,’ she said.
‘Not necessarily.’
‘Somehow I don’t think there’s going to be a solution here,’ she said, and it was a jibe at the faith he had that things would turn around.
But he remained calm.
‘Adele, it is better they know. Not yet, of course, but in the long run it is better than doing and saying nothing and marrying a neighbouring princess simply to appease him. I am not going to apologise for last night.’
Seduced by the Sheikh Surgeon Page 11