by Laura Martin
Before Emma could ask what was bothering him, one of the bandits started to groan as he came round from unconsciousness.
Gently Sebastian brushed a kiss against her lips and stood, motioning for Emma to stay where she was.
Emma nearly complied. She didn’t want to spend any more time in the company of the bandits than she had to, but equally she knew she had to face them, to show them they hadn’t broken her spirit. Slowly she stood, her injured ankle protesting and the scrapes on her legs stinging as the material of her trousers brushed against them. Carefully she picked her way towards the men, making sure she remained out of reach all the time.
Sebastian shot her a concerned look, but didn’t insist she move away. He must have sensed she needed to confront them.
Two out of four of the men were now conscious. They were the two bandits Sebastian had attacked first. They had got away relatively lightly, both just receiving punches to the head to incapacitate them. The third man lay still on the ground. He was still breathing but his lips had already begun to swell and both his eyes blacken from the punches Sebastian had rained down on him. The chief bandit was breathing evenly but hadn’t woken yet.
‘What are we going to do with them?’ Emma asked.
The two conscious bandits looked at Sebastian for the answer, wanting to know their fate.
‘We should just leave them here to die,’ Sebastian said.
Emma frowned, knowing she couldn’t have that on her conscience.
‘They would have done much worse to us.’
She waited for Sebastian to continue.
‘But maybe we should give them a sporting chance.’
‘Please have mercy,’ one of the conscious men said in stilted English. ‘I have a family, children.’
Emma wondered if it was true or whether the bandit was merely saying it to try and save his skin.
As Sebastian contemplated what to do with the men the chief bandit began to stir, and a minute later the final man regained consciousness. Initially both men strained against their bonds but it was to no avail.
‘Where is Miss Knight’s scroll?’ Sebastian asked once all four men were completely awake.
At first it looked as though the chief bandit might refuse to answer, but after a few seconds he must have seen how pointless it would be to put up any kind of futile resistance.
‘In the pocket of my robe.’
Cautiously Sebastian bent down and plucked the scroll from the bandit’s robe. He handed it back to Emma. She ran her fingers over the familiar grooves in the papyrus and smiled weakly at Sebastian. She just wanted this to be over with.
‘Let my companions go,’ the chief bandit said after a few minutes of silence. ‘They have families, people who rely on them.’
Sebastian didn’t move. ‘And they were quite happy to abduct, rape and kill Miss Knight. Having a family is not a saving grace.’
Emma watched as the three men stared resolutely at the ground.
‘Answer all my questions honestly and I will think about letting them go,’ Sebastian said.
The chief bandit nodded.
‘Who else knows you are here?’
‘My brother, Hanif. He urged me not to come on this mission.’
‘Anyone else?’
The bandit shook his head.
‘I wanted to restore our family honour, to take back what had been so wrongfully stolen from us.’
Sebastian looked at him coldly. ‘And hurting an innocent woman helps to restore your family’s honour?’ he asked, shaking his head.
Before the bandit had a chance to answer Emma stepped forward.
‘How did you know I had the scroll?’
The question had been bugging her since she’d first set eyes on the bandit in her room at the Fitzgeralds’. She hadn’t advertised the fact she carried a scroll that held the secret of the location of a long-lost tomb.
‘I was just a child when the scroll was lost to your father. But I vowed one day to get it back, to restore our family’s honour. For years it was out of my reach, but I kept my ears open. When I heard your name, the fact that you’d arrived in Cairo, I knew you must have the scroll with you. And why else would you hire someone like Mr Oakfield to take you out into the desert?’
‘Tell me your names,’ Sebastian demanded, ‘and I’ll know if you lie.’
After a few seconds of debate the chief bandit recited four names. They were long Arabic names, but Emma could see Sebastian had memorised them easily.
‘What will you do to us?’ the chief bandit asked, no hint of fear in his voice, just resignation.
Sebastian ignored the question and Emma watched as he silently went to work retying the knots that secured the bandits. By the time he was finished they all had their hands tied behind their backs and were secured to one another via a rope around the neck. It meant they would be able to walk along in a line, one behind the other.
Slowly Sebastian went along the line and gave each bandit a long drink of water from the water skin.
‘Enjoy,’ he said. ‘This is the last water you’ll have for a while.’
‘Please,’ one of the bandits said in heavily accented English. ‘Have mercy.’
‘I am,’ Sebastian said with a stony expression. ‘This is much more than you deserve.’
Emma realised what he was planning. He would let the bandits go, but he was going to make them suffer for what they had planned to do to her.
Sebastian then pointed in the direction that they’d come. ‘Walk for two days in that direction and you’ll reach a small village called Behpe. I’m sure they will release you there.’
‘We will never survive for two days without water.’
Sebastian gave them a hard look. ‘I have been in the desert for three days without water before and I’m still here. And honestly if you don’t survive, it won’t cause me any sleepless nights. Now go before I change my mind.’
Still they didn’t move.
Sebastian quickly recited all their names and gave each man a stony look.
‘I’d get moving if I were you. And remember if I ever hear that you’ve caused any trouble, if you so much as hurt an insect and it gets back to my ears, I’ll inform the authorities and you’ll all spend the rest of your lives behind bars or worse.’
This seemed to galvanise the four men into action. Slowly they started to move, glancing to where their horses were tethered, knowing there was no way Sebastian would give the beasts to them for their journey.
‘Will they survive?’ Emma asked. She hated them for what they had planned to do to her and Sebastian, but she didn’t want their deaths on her conscience.
Sebastian nodded. ‘Behpe is only just over ten hours’ walk from here. They’ll be parched when they arrive, but they’ll survive.’
They both watched as the four men became smaller and smaller as they moved farther away. When they were mere silhouettes on the horizon Sebastian turned to Emma and looked her over with concern.
‘Will you recover?’ he asked.
Emma nodded. Her legs hurt and her ankle ached and she’d been more scared than she’d ever been in her life, but she would survive.
‘Thank you for saving me,’ she whispered quietly.
Sebastian smiled as if her words amused him.
‘I thought I was going to lose you,’ he said eventually. Emma heard the catch in his voice and saw the look of pain on his face.
‘But you didn’t,’ she said, moving closer to him.
‘I didn’t.’
Silently he raised his hand and began to trace the contours of her face with his fingers. With a groan he pulled her towards him and kissed her deeply. She felt his arms hold her tightly against his body and felt the pent-up energy radiating from him.
&n
bsp; Slowly they broke off their kiss and Sebastian spent a minute just looking at her. Then, unexpectedly, he scooped her up into his arms and strode to where he’d placed the blanket earlier. Gently he laid her on her back and Emma felt a thrill of anticipation as he positioned his body over hers.
In the light from the dying sun Emma could see an urgency about him she’d never witnessed before. He looked as though he wanted to savour every memory because it might be his last. Then he lowered his lips to hers and she forgot everything else.
He kissed her gently at first, as though he thought he might injure her, but she could feel the desire breaking through and soon his kiss was all-consuming. Emma writhed underneath him as he ran his hands over her body and she felt her hips buck up to meet his.
Suddenly he stopped and pulled away and Emma felt empty and alone without the weight of his body on top of hers.
‘Your legs,’ he rasped.
She glanced down at her legs, wondering what he meant.
Gently he began to remove her ripped trousers, peeling them from her body and inspecting what was underneath.
‘Your poor beautiful legs,’ Sebastian murmured.
Emma glanced down. She’d never thought of her legs as beautiful before.
The grazes on her knees and lower legs were already beginning to scab over and the stinging had much improved, but they looked dreadful.
Sebastian held each leg up in the air and inspected it. Emma couldn’t help but giggle.
‘Satisfactory?’ she asked, trying to keep a straight face.
‘I should have killed them for what they did to you.’
‘It’s just a few scrapes,’ Emma said soothingly. ‘I’ll heal within a few days and it’ll be like it never happened.’
Sebastian grimaced and Emma knew she had to stop the thoughts that were running through his head. He was blaming himself for what had happened. Even though he’d been the one to save her.
Gently she reached up and laced her fingers around his neck and pulled him back down with her. Sebastian resisted at first, then groaned and surrendered. He peppered kisses along the angle of her jaw and down her neck and soon Emma was writhing with pleasure and all her injuries were completely forgotten.
Wordlessly Sebastian pulled away, just long enough to lift her chemise and underwear from her body. He looked at her for a minute and Emma just lay there, basking in his attention. She knew she should feel shy or bashful, but Sebastian made her proud of her body. He made her want to strip off in front of him and encourage his perusal of her curves.
Silently she reached up and cupped his face with her hand, wanting to memorise every detail of his face. For a few seconds they looked deep into each other’s eyes and then his lips were back on hers.
This time there was an urgency about his kiss, as if he’d remembered he’d nearly lost her and was trying to banish that memory. Emma knew she was also trying to forget, to replace the awful events from the day with images only of Sebastian.
She reached up and started tugging at the waistband of his trousers, wanting to feel his skin against hers. Frantically Sebastian pulled his shirt over his head and pushed his trousers off and finally there was nothing between them but the warm desert air.
Sebastian paused for a second, poised above her, as if savouring the moment, then he lowered his body on top of hers.
Emma gasped when he entered her. Unlike the last time they’d made love there was no gentle start, but with one thrust Sebastian was completely inside her. Emma felt full and safe and completed. She grabbed hold of him as he tried to pull out and held him still for a few seconds longer, enjoying the sensation of being one with Sebastian. Then her desire got the better of her and her hips started to buck. Her body met each and every thrust and they seemed to move as one. Sebastian kissed her as he thrust into her and muffled Emma’s moans of pleasure.
After only a minute Emma felt the pleasure building up inside her and knew she was about to climax. As the waves of pleasure washed over her she felt her muscles clench, but still Sebastian continued to thrust. Then it was his turn, and she felt him explode inside her with a soft groan.
Gently he rolled off her and pulled her body to him. Emma couldn’t help but smile. Despite what they’d been through it was the perfect finish to the day. Their lovemaking might not have been the slow, unhurried perusal of each other’s bodies that they’d enjoyed the previous night, but it had been exactly what they’d both needed. And now she was in Sebastian’s arms and the world felt right again.
Emma must have slept, although she couldn’t remember her eyes growing heavy or her body beginning to relax. When she awoke the sun was just starting to rise over the horizon. She felt warm and safe and happy and realised that was mainly because Sebastian was still sleeping behind her with his arm looped around her body. Contentedly she nestled into him and enjoyed the moment.
After a few minutes Sebastian began to stir and Emma turned to face him.
‘Good morning,’ she said, planting a kiss gently on his lips.
Sebastian frowned and glanced around him, as if trying to piece together the events from the night before.
Slowly he sat up and stretched, causing the blanket he’d placed over them as they slept to fall down a little.
Emma saw his gaze travel down to her breasts and she smiled, edging in closer.
Sebastian coughed and quickly reached for his clothes.
‘We’d better pack up the camp,’ he said, his voice gruff.
Emma nodded, trying to hide her disappointment. She knew he was right, now wasn’t the time to be amorous, but she didn’t like how uncomfortable he seemed. Surely after all that had happened he knew she loved him. And she was pretty sure he loved her as well. He hadn’t said as much, but there was no mistaking the way he looked at her and how fiercely he’d fought to protect her. Surely she couldn’t be wrong?
Reluctantly Emma pulled on her clothes, wincing as the fabric of her trousers brushed against first her injured ankle and then the grazes on her legs. They both dressed in silence and Emma self-consciously ran a hand through her hair before turning back to face Sebastian.
She could see the longing in his eyes and knew he wanted nothing more than to walk over and take her in his arms, but something was holding him back.
Emma wanted to reach out to him, find out what was wrong, but she was afraid what the answer might be. After spending another night in his arms she knew she had weaved a fantasy life with Sebastian at its centre, and if she had to find out that wasn’t going to happen she didn’t know how she would cope.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Seb saw the way Emma was looking at him but he knew he couldn’t cope with her questions right now. So instead he busied himself packing up the camp and readying them for their journey to Luxor.
‘I’m not turning back,’ Emma said suddenly, ‘if that’s your plan.’
Of course it was his plan. After everything she’d been through Emma was mad if she thought Seb would let her continue on this trek through the desert following a scroll that might still turn out to be a fake.
‘We need to get you to a doctor.’
Emma snorted. ‘I’ve got a few grazes. I’m sure I’ll live.’
‘They could become infected.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘I’m not turning back now, otherwise this would have all been for nothing.’
Seb studied her for a few seconds, saw the serious expression on her face and knew he wouldn’t get her to change her mind. He could just fling her over his shoulder and carry her back to Luxor, but after her treatment of the last few days he doubted she would go without a fight.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
‘We should reach the spot on the scroll by nightfall. If we haven’t found anything by dusk tomorrow we turn ba
ck.’
Emma’s face split into a huge grin and for a second Seb thought she might throw herself into his arms. Then she tensed slightly and instead backed away a step or two.
Silently Seb finished loading the horses. He helped Emma onto Wadjet then tied the bandits’ horses in a line together and secured them to his horse before mounting.
For a while they rode in silence. Seb could see Emma flicking glances his way every few seconds, obviously trying to figure out why he was acting so coldly towards her. He didn’t want to, in fact he hated himself a little for what he was putting her through, but it was probably for the best.
Seb knew after making love to Emma twice he would have to marry her. Part of him was filled with joy and happiness at the thought. He loved Emma. He’d realised it when he’d seen her fall to her knees behind the bandit’s horse and he’d felt part of his heart die with worry. He loved her and he would marry her, but that didn’t mean they could have a future together.
Seb knew he would have to send her away. He could send her back to England as his wife. It would break his heart to do it, but it was better than the alternative. It was better than her staying with him and one day being on the receiving end of one of his rages.
The night before, when the bandit had ripped Emma’s shirt off, he’d seen red. He hadn’t been in control of his body or his actions. His instincts had taken over and he’d sprung. And he knew if Emma hadn’t been there, telling him to stop, he would have killed that man. It made him feel sick inside. What scared him even more was how little control he’d had over his body.
He shook his head. There was no way he could ever risk Emma being in that situation. Sending her away would break his heart, but at least she would be safe from him.
He glanced over at her, looking at her profile and the blank expression on her face, and he knew she would survive. She was strong and brave, and, although she probably wouldn’t understand his reasons, she would be all right in the end. She might hate him for sending her away, but she was a survivor, and eventually she would find her own happiness. It would just be Seb who was left in a never-ending cycle of self-hatred and guilt.