by Romancing the Crown Series (13-in-1 bundle) (v1. 0) (lit)
They reached the river too soon, but instead of stopping they turned and rode along the edge of the river. Elena slowed Smokestack, and Hassan did the same to Lightning.
Their pace significantly slowed, Elena looked at him and smiled. "Well, he hasn't thrown you yet."
"He will not throw me," Hassan said indignantly. He rode bareback, with nothing more than a simple bit in the horse's mouth and the reins held loosely in his hands.
Elena shook her head. Sun shone down on her face, a slight breeze ruffled her hair. And something deep inside Hassan shifted. Something dangerous he quickly pushed down deep and denied.
They rode a while longer, hard and then easy, over hills and along the banks of the river. During their ride they saw no one, not a single soul.
Finally, Elena turned her gray toward a towering oak tree that was perched atop one of the small hills that rolled across her property. There she dismounted, stretched for a moment, and took from her saddle bags the lunch Wilson's wife May had prepared.
She spread a thin blanket over the ground and sat, opening first one insulated bag and then the other, taking out small paper plates, sandwiches, fruit and canned sodas the insulated bags had kept chilled. Leaving the animals to graze, Hassan sat on the blanket with her and took the soda she offered.
"I can see why you come here as often as you do," he said softly. "It's very nice."
She nodded and handed him a plate with a sandwich on it. "I don't know how I got by so long without this place to come to on the weekends. Some days, when I'm driving in, I feel my heart rate slowing down as I get close. For a long time, I forgot that there was a world outside Rahman Oil." Something on her face tensed, as if that memory was a painful one.
"The world is a big and wondrous place, Elena," he said, his voice low. "Sometimes we get caught up in one, small aspect of life to the exclusion of everything else. But that doesn't mean the rest of the world stops."
She grinned, and took the opportunity to change the subject. "You've seen a lot of this big and wondrous world, haven't you? You've traveled, done exciting things, been to exciting places."
"Yes."
"Evangeline, Texas, must be pretty tame, compared to some of the places you've been."
"I wouldn't say that." No, his time here had not been tame, and he had a feeling things were going to heat up considerably before he departed.
"After all that traveling, why did you decide to get back into the refinery business?" she asked, settling down to pick at her own sandwich. "It must be very dull, after the life you've led."
"What do you know about the life I've led?" he asked lightly.
"What I read," she confessed, eyes on her plate. "Mountain climbing, racing sailboats, dating unnaturally thin women with fake.. .assets."
"All true," he said.
"So why give that up to get into the refinery business? It's not like you need to earn a living."
He tried to turn the tables on her. "Why are you CEO of Rahman Oil? Your father has money. He could support you, or find you a husband who would support you, or..."
"Ack!" she said, tossing her sandwich aside. "This is the twenty-first century, Hassan. I don't need anyone to support me."
"Why not?" he asked calmly.
"Because I'm perfectly capable of supporting myself." She got that look, the one he had come to expect when she was getting ready to argue. Stern and controlled, she set her eyes on him. "I don't want to sit back and let someone else take care of me. That's...not who I am."
He nodded. "I understand. At least, I think I do. It's true, I wandered the world for a while. I looked for ways to have fun, experience life in ways I had not known in Tamir, and most of all I looked for ways to distance myself from my family."
She shook her head. "I don't understand that. If I had a family like the one you told me about, I would never want to distance myself."
He grinned at her. "It took me a while to come to that same conclusion. My father and I fought so often, that strained part of our relationship became everything to me. It was all I saw. But every time I came home, I discovered something I had missed. A warmth I couldn't find anywhere else. A...a belonging that did not exist elsewhere." How could he tell her that he felt a sense of that belonging here?
Ah, he suspected it wasn't Texas that gave him that warm sense of belonging. It was her. It was Elena.
The truth struck him then, in a way it had not before. Elena was his, in a way no other woman ever had been or would be. When this was over—when the Brothers were caught, the prince was found, and he no longer had to spy on Rahman Oil—he would be back. For her. When she knew the truth, would she have him?
Elena finished her lunch, packed up the trash, and moved to the edge of the blanket to lie on her stomach, head resting on her hands as she gazed down on the river. She took deep breaths, and as she watched the flowing water a peacefulness mellowed her already beautiful face. He had never known that kind of peace. It seemed he had been searching for something all his life. Perhaps this was it. His destiny. His home.
After watching for a few minutes he lay down beside Elena, casting his eyes over the water as she did. There was something mesmerizing about the sun sparkling on gently flowing water. There was a cadence to the nature here, a rhythm that slowed his heart and made everything but this moment seem insignificant.
Dappled sunlight covered them both, soft and eerie. The horses grazed nearby. Wildflowers in a dozen colors grew on the grassy hill and along the river bank. And Hassan kept his eyes on Elena, as he moved his face toward hers.
One quick kiss, that's all he needed. No, he thought as he descended upon her, he needed more. He needed everything. But for now, a single kiss would have to be enough.
Elena turned her head to meet his advance, closing her eyes as his mouth touched hers. Holding her breath as he kissed her gently. His heart pounded, his body responded quickly, and when the time for one quick kiss had come and gone, still he kissed her.
Elena's lips parted, her body shifted slightly toward his. Her hand, trembling and uncertain, rested against his side.
Lips parted and touching lightly, their tongues danced. Lightning coursed through his body. Had he thought one kiss would be enough? He wanted Elena with every fiber of his being, in deep, hidden places he had not known existed.
But he couldn't have her. Not now. Not yet. He took his mouth from hers, slowly, reluctantly, and she allowed him to back away. The light in her eyes almost drew him back in, but he resisted the urge and moved his gaze to the river again. Elena sighed and did the same.
* * *
They rode the perimeter of her property and came back to the river. Clouds had gradually moved in, turning the bright sunny day a little gray, but no less fine. Elena cast a quick glance at Hassan. The man rode like he'd been born on horseback, and he commanded Lightning in a way no one else had been able to do.
Hassan in western wear, seated on the black stallion, was a breathtaking sight. Elena allowed herself to stare, as he looked across the river. The lines of Hassan's face were masculine and perfectly proportioned, mesmerizing in an unexpected way. Black hair framed that face, the waving strands softening the harsh lines just a little, but not too much. He held himself like a man whose body was in perfect condition, strong and in control, always. That strength was as much a part of him as his piercing black eyes.
She was going to have to stop letting him kiss her, that was certain. She wasn't a teenager! Her hormones weren't supposed to rage out of control because a handsome man kissed her. She wasn't supposed to melt, forget who she was, and fantasize about much more than a kiss.
Hassan turned his head and laid his eyes on her, his gaze penetrating and deep. He too thought of more than a kiss, she could see the truth in those eyes. And yet he had been the one to stop the kiss. He hadn't made an improper advance, he hadn't done anything more than kiss her and then back away. Three times. Three times he had kissed her and then retreated. Because he didn't want to mix busi
ness with pleasure? Too late for that concern. Because he knew he wouldn't be here long? She knew that, and it didn't stop her mind from wandering.
Maybe he didn't find her as fascinating as she found him. Maybe that look she thought she saw in his eyes was as much fantasy as the turn her mind had taken when he'd kissed her. She wasn't at all like the women he usually associated with. She had a brain, and while her figure might not be eye-popping, it was real.
She made herself take a good, long look at the man whose kisses made her think ridiculous thoughts. He was a sheik, a prince of the royal family of Tamir. He took his pleasures with women from around the world, but when it came time to get serious.. .he would marry a Tamiri woman, someone who had been carefully chosen for him. She knew how that world worked, and there was no room for her in it.
She wasn't a proper Tamiri woman suited for a prince, and she didn't casually sleep around. That left no room for her in Hassan's life, nothing beyond the unexpected friendship they had found and forged.
While she contemplated this uncomfortable realization, the sky darkened. She turned toward the house and muttered a curse. A wall of black clouds approached, moving fast.
"We'd better get back," she said. Hassan followed her worried gaze, and agreed with a nod of his head.
They raced toward the stables and the house, but they were not fast enough to beat the rain. The storm met them halfway to the stables. Soft rain fell upon them, at first, then a stinging, harder rain that made them lower their heads. By the time they saw the waiting ranch house ahead, they were caught in a downpour.
Wilson waited for them at the stables. Elena and Hassan dismounted and handed over the reins.
"May left some stew in the slow cooker," Wilson said as he took charge of the horses. "And biscuits on the stove. All you have to do is pop them in the oven for ten or fifteen minutes and you'll be set."
"Thanks," Elena said, then she turned and ran toward the rear entrance to the house. She was already soaked to the skin, and still she ran. It shouldn't feel good to get caught in the downpour, but it did. Before she reached the back door she stopped. Closing her eyes, she lifted her face to the rain and let it pour down on her. Warm, hard rain pelted her body.
Hassan came up behind her and, with his arm around her waist, picked her up and carried her toward the door.
"Hey," she protested. "What are you..." Her question was interrupted by a clap of thunder. Not too close, but close enough. "Never mind," she said as Hassan threw open the back door and set her on her feet in the mud room.
He closed the door behind him, and they both started by removing their boots. The mud room contained the washer and dryer, as well as a big sink. If Hassan hadn't been present, she would have taken off her clothes right there and stuffed them in the washing machine. But he was present, very present, so she left her boots in the mud room and padded through the kitchen to the main room of the house and beyond to the bathroom off the hallway where three bedrooms were located.
She grabbed two fat towels from the linen closet and tossed one to Hassan, who stood in the hallway bootless and dripping wet. Smiling, she ran her own towel over her face and hair, and then her arms. She had plenty of ranch clothes in the chest of drawers in her bedroom, but she had nothing that would fit Hassan. Wilson wouldn't be any help, since he was shorter than Elena and didn't weigh much more. Nothing he owned would come close to fitting Hassan.
She stepped out of the bathroom and with her hand motioned him in. "Take off those wet clothes, wrap yourself in a towel, and throw your clothes into the hall. I'll put them in the dryer. Won't take but a few minutes."
He began to unbutton his shirt, and Elena closed the bathroom door, shutting out the tempting view.
In her room, she quickly shed her wet clothes and dried off with the towel. She grabbed underwear, a pair of dry jeans, and an Oklahoma State T-shirt from the chest of drawers. She ran a comb through her tangled wet hair, and stepped back into the hallway. It was late afternoon, a time when there should have been plenty of sun to illuminate the house, but the clouds from the storm made the light dim. She flicked on the hallway light and knocked on the bathroom door. "Toss your wet clothes..." At that moment the light in the hallway went out, and the house was caught in a dead silence. No tick of the clock in the living room, no hum of the old refrigerator. "Into the hall," she finished softly.
The bathroom door opened and Hassan, wearing a towel wrapped around his waist and nothing else, stepped into the hallway. "The bathroom light went out."
"They all went out," she explained. She saw that he had hung his wet clothes over the shower curtain. That would have to do, for now. "It happens all the time, when it storms out this way."
"I'm sure the electricity will be restored soon," he said sensibly.
"Last time it took them twelve hours to get the power back on. We're kinda last priority." His bare chest was practically in her face. His long legs and bare feet were almost as distracting. "I have a robe I think will fit you," she said, spinning around and heading for her bedroom. He followed, staying close behind but stopping in her bedroom doorway and waiting there while she rummaged in the closet until she found what she was looking for.
"Here," she said, turning around with the garment clutched in her hand. "Wear this."
"No," Hassan said softly as she reached him.
Her eyes snapped up to his face. "No?"
"It's pink," he said, sounding truly horrified. "And there are ruffles."
Elena studied the feminine garment for a moment. "I don't usually wear pink, but Kitty gave me this for Christmas a couple of years ago."
"I don't care where that robe came from, Elena, I will not wear it. Besides," he shrugged his shoulders, "I am not cold."
The pink robe was the only thing she had that might possibly fit him. The towel would not do. It simply didn't cover enough.
"Wait a minute," she said, spinning around and tossing the robe onto her bed. She opened the bottom drawer and reaching to the bottom to find the only oversized T-shirt she owned, a black T with the Rahman Oil logo in teal. It was faded and had been washed until it was soft and a little misshapen. She tossed the T-shirt toward the doorway. "Wear this and..." She searched the room for something. Anything. "This," she said snapping up the blanket that had been folded and placed across the foot of her bed.
Hassan pulled the T-shirt over his head. It was much too big on her—she slept in it on overly warm nights —but it was a little snug on Hassan. Those shoulders...
"How am I supposed to wear this?" he asked, holding the blanket aloft.
"Just wrap it around your waist, I guess," she said. "I'll, uh, leave you to get situated and go fix us a couple of bowls of stew before it gets too cool."
Hassan stepped aside to allow her to pass, but he didn't step far enough aside. Her arm brushed his, and a tingle worked its way through her body.
"Just this once," she muttered as she walked toward the kitchen. "Just this once, can't the electricity come right back on?"
The room remained dark, the refrigerator silent, as she grumbled and grabbed two bowls from the kitchen cabinet.
Chapter 8
The rain came down so hard it seemed to pound on the roof with a vengeance. Thunder shook the little house, the flashes of lightning that accompanied the thunder lighting the room at irregular intervals.
Elena stood before the window and watched the lightning streak across the sky, hugging herself as she studied the storm. "I don't suppose we should try to drive in this," she said softly.
"No," Hassan agreed, watching her as intently as she watched the storm. He felt ridiculous, in a T-shirt that hugged his torso and the blanket he wore like a long skirt. Elena knew they could not leave the house in this storm, and yet she was obviously anxious to get away. The attraction they both felt simmered in the air, crackling like the lightning.
He had built a fire in the stone fireplace, and except for the occasional flashes of lightning that shot through the r
oom, it was the low flame from the fire that provided the majority of their light. There were candles, too— a dozen fat candles Elena had lit and set about the large room, as if the flickering flames might make this intense storm and awkward situation somehow better. Saner. Safer.
What Hassan wanted to do was to walk up behind Elena, wrap his arms around her, and lower his mouth to her neck. What he needed to do was take this opportunity to learn more about the Rahman Oil refinery. More than once his eyes had been drawn to the computer on a desk on the far side of the room. If only the electricity would come back on, before they left. He'd like to have a few minutes with that computer. Perhaps it only contained an e-mail system and a few games. But then again.. .perhaps she hid secrets here that she did not dare to leave on her computer at work or at home.
"Come away from the window," he said, taking a seat on the couch before the fire. "I'm sure the storm will end shortly. My clothes will surely be dry by then, or at least dry enough to wear. Neither of us has to be anywhere tonight. We can make the trip back to Evangeline at any hour."
Reluctantly, Elena moved away from the window. "The storm doesn't look like it'll be dying down any time soon," she said as she approached the couch. "If it's raining this hard we wouldn't be able to see the road, and the two-lane road that leads to the highway has deep ditches on either side. We, uh, might be stuck here for the night."
He could think of much worse situations to be in, much more unpleasant company to be stranded with.
Firelight flickered across Elena's beautiful face as she sat. Not beside him, as he had hoped, but in a rocking chair near the dying fire. She rocked once, and then smiled. "Sorry about the outfit."
"No need to apologize." He was actually rather glad that Elena didn't have spare men's clothing laying about her ranch house. It didn't mean she had never brought a man here before, only that there was no special man in her life. "We haven't discussed merger plans in several days," he said, trying to sound businesslike in spite of his attire. "Perhaps this would be a good opportunity."