Forcing her mind away from the man who disturbed her equilibrium, Lexi checked the strings of her halter-neck bikini were securely tied. The silver bikini had been a crazy impulse buy after she had dropped Kadir at the marina. The three tiny triangles of material revealed more of her body than she was comfortable with, and the bikini was not as practical to swim in as the navy one-piece she usually wore. Cursing her stupidity, she struck out through the cool water and swam twenty lengths of the pool, hoping that strenuous exercise would ease the restless ache in her limbs.
She surfaced after completing the final length and shook her wet hair back from her face.
‘You look like a water nymph.’
The husky drawl caused her heart to collide with her ribcage and she sucked in a swift breath as she looked up and saw Kadir sprawled on a sun lounger. His bow tie was undone, and so were several of his shirt buttons, affording Lexi a glimpse of his naked chest covered in whorls of black hairs. The night’s growth of dark stubble shading his jaw accentuated his lethal sensuality. She had no idea how long he had been watching her. He moved with the silent stealth of a jungle cat, she thought irritably.
She arched her brows. ‘Have you met many nymphs? I would have thought that you’d have your hands full with real women, without concerning yourself with mythological ones.’
He laughed softly and the sound sent a curl of heat through Lexi. ‘What a delightful picture you paint. I can visualise myself with my hands full of women.’
One woman, if he was truthful, Kadir mused. He had been on his way to bed, and had stepped onto the rooftop patio for some much needed fresh air after the fug of cloying perfume and cigar smoke that had filled Boris Denisov’s yacht. But the sight of Lexi wearing a sexy bikini, with her long blonde hair streaming down her back, had made him forget that he was tired after many hours of negotiations, during which he had persuaded the Russian oligarch to invest in a business venture worth billions of pounds to Zenhab’s economy.
Kadir let his gaze drift over Lexi’s slender body and her high, firm breasts, and the slow burn of desire that had simmered in his gut since he had first set eyes on her grew hotter and more intense. For the past week, she had driven him mad with her frosty attitude and sharp, often sarcastic, wit, her lack of deference for his royal status. Oh, she was polite, but he had a sense that she had judged him and found him wanting, and Kadir was finding it increasingly hard to resist the challenge in her cool blue gaze.
‘I trust your business meeting was successful?’ she murmured. ‘By the way, you have lipstick on your collar.’
‘The night was very satisfactory.’ Kadir tucked his hands behind his head, thinking of the agreement he’d got from Boris to build a luxury hotel complex which would attract tourists to Zenhab.
Lexi pursed her lips. Had he had sex with the strumpet who had left a scarlet imprint of her lips on his white shirt? Maybe he’d had more than one woman last night. Probably—knowing his reputation. Acid burned in her stomach and she told herself she must have swallowed some of the chlorine in the pool. Kadir was lying back on the lounger, watching her through half-closed eyes. He looked indolent and beautiful and Lexi had never been more aware of a man in her life. Why him—a man she did not even like, let alone respect?
‘I wonder what the Zenhabian people think of their Sultan who, as far as I can tell, spends more time partying and living up to his playboy reputation than trying to improve the lives of many of the population who live in poverty?’ she said tartly. ‘I’ve heard that your father devoted his life to establishing peace and security in the kingdom, but clearly you don’t share his sense of duty.’
‘What do you know about my country, and why do you care about my people?’ Kadir demanded, stung by her comments. Duty and the desire to ensure long-term stability in Zenhab had made him agree to an arranged marriage with a girl who his weasel of an uncle had chosen for him, he thought bitterly. Lexi had overstepped the mark this time.
He was tempted to point out that many of the best business deals were made through networking and at social events. More deals were arranged over drinks at a bar than around a boardroom table. But he could imagine the response he would get if he told Miss Prim and Proper that he had been hard at work at last night’s party.
‘I’ve been reading about the history of Zenhab,’ Lexi told him. ‘After all, I am going to be living and working in the kingdom for a few months.’
‘You would do well to remember that I am your employer,’ Kadir said curtly, ‘and I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself.’
‘I’ll try to remember that, Your Highness.’ Lexi did not recognise the devil inside who seemed hell-bent on antagonising Kadir. She could tell she had angered him. His lazy smile had disappeared and the sensual gleam in his chocolate-brown eyes had been replaced with a hard stare that riled her, even though she acknowledged that she’d had no right to criticise him.
‘While we are on the subject of your employment, I have a special assignment for you.’ Kadir got to his feet and walked to the edge of the pool, meaning that Lexi had to tilt her head to look at his face. ‘Later today you will fly us to Lake Como in Italy, to the home of a good friend of mine, Conte Luca De Rossi. Luca is hosting a business dinner and an American entrepreneur who I am hoping to do business with will be there.’ Kadir hesitated for a nanosecond. ‘I want you to be my companion for the evening.’
Lexi stared at him. ‘I know nothing about business.’
‘You don’t have to know anything.’ Again he paused and, to Lexi’s surprise, he appeared almost awkward. ‘I need you to be my date.’
‘Your date?’ Her eyebrows almost disappeared beneath her hairline.
‘It’s not difficult to understand,’ Kadir said impatiently.
‘Excuse me, but it is when I bet that any of the women you met last night would be gagging to be your date. Why is it important for you to take a partner to the dinner, anyway?’
He exhaled heavily. ‘The American businessman, Chuck Weinberg, is bringing his nineteen-year-old daughter. I met Danielle a few months ago when I visited Chuck’s home in Texas.’ Kadir grimaced. ‘Danielle is a very determined young woman who is used to getting what she wants...and she made it clear that she wants me. To be frank, I want to concentrate on discussing my business proposition with Chuck without having to fend off his daughter.’
‘Yes, I can see how annoying that would be,’ Lexi said in a cool tone that failed to disguise her boiling anger. She gave in to the childish impulse and splashed water over Kadir’s designer suit, before she dived beneath the water and swam to the far end of the pool.
He had a nerve! She was so furious that she could feel her heart jumping up and down in her chest. Why was she so stupid? Lexi’s anger was partly directed at herself. For a moment, when Kadir had asked her to be his date, she’d thought it was a serious invitation and he genuinely wanted her to accompany him to the dinner party.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him stride into the penthouse. She had conveniently forgotten that he’d said he wanted her to carry out an assignment. Now she knew that he wanted her to be his paid escort. She rested her arms on the side of the pool and stared over the rooftops at the sea in the distance. The bright sparkle of the sun on the waves made her eyes water—at least that was what she told herself. With an impatient gesture she dashed her hand over her damp eyelashes.
Her birth mother had been an escort. It sounds classier than call girl, Cathy had told Lexi when she had spoken about how she had been drawn into prostitution to fund her drug habit.
Lost in her thoughts, Lexi gave a startled cry when a muscular arm curled around her waist and she was half lifted out of the water as Kadir turned her round to face him.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ he growled. ‘I made a simple request...’
‘You asked me to pretend to be your mistress. I don’t call that a simple request; I call that a darned cheek!’ With her face mere inches from his naked bronzed chest, Lexi
numbly realised that while he had been inside the apartment he had changed into his swimming shorts.
Her heart kicked into life as she jerked her eyes back to his face to find him watching her intently. She licked her dry lips and his dark gaze focused on the tip of her tongue. The cool water lapped her hot breasts and she felt her nipples harden to taut peaks that chafed against her clingy bikini bra. She was standing with her back against the wall of the pool and Kadir placed his arms on either side of her body, caging her in.
‘Nowhere in my contract does it state that one of my duties is to masquerade as your mistress to protect you from the clutches of women who want to climb into your bed,’ she said fiercely. ‘I don’t want to pretend to be your dinner date and I doubt I could convince anyone that we have an intimate relationship.’
‘Intimate,’ Kadir murmured, his voice suddenly as sensual as molten syrup. ‘I like the way that sounds. Don’t underestimate yourself, Lexi. I’m sure you could be a very convincing mistress.’
Too late, Lexi recognised the danger she was in. ‘Take your hands off me.’ In a distant corner of her mind she knew she sounded like a Victorian maiden. What had happened to her military training? she asked herself impatiently. She brought her knee up swiftly between Kadir’s legs, but he was quicker and trapped her leg between his thighs. Tension thrummed between them and the only sound was her own quickened breathing.
Deep down, Lexi acknowledged that she had been goading him since he’d arrived at the pool; since the moment she’d first met him, if she was honest. Now, as he lowered his head his eyes reflected the challenge in hers.
‘It’s not my hands you need to worry about,’ he drawled. And then he brought his mouth down on hers and the world exploded.
He was merciless, taking advantage of her cry of protest to thrust his tongue between her lips and explore her with mind-blowing eroticism. Lexi had never been kissed like that in her life, hadn’t known that a kiss could be so hot and dark and shockingly wicked. Any idea she’d had of trying to resist him was swept away by his shimmering sexual hunger. He crushed her mouth beneath his and demanded everything: her soul, her secret fantasies, her total capitulation to his mastery. She had dared to challenge him with her cool blue eyes and Kadir would show her that the desert king never refused a challenge.
Lexi’s body burned with an intensity of need that made a mockery of her belief that she did not have a high sex drive. She had assumed that she was not a particularly sensual person and, although she was not a virgin, her previous sexual experiences had left her with a vague sense of disappointment and bemusement that sonnets had been written about something frankly so mundane.
Everything she thought she knew about herself was shattered by the white-hot desire that ripped through her. Kadir was not touching her body, only her mouth, as he crushed her lips beneath his and deepened the kiss, and Lexi sank into darkness and heat and danger. Compelled by an instinct as old as womankind, she pushed her hips forward, urgently seeking contact with his pelvis.
He should not have started this. The realisation drummed a warning in Kadir’s brain. What had begun as a lesson designed to show Lexi that he was in command was rapidly becoming a test of his will power. She was so responsive, so hungry, meeting his demands with demands of her own and with a boldness that he should have expected from the strong woman he knew her to be. But he could not take what he so desperately wanted. He should not have made the ice maiden melt and he could not allow himself to burn in her fire. The temptation to sink into her yielding softness and rest his thighs on hers nearly broke his resolve.
Who would know if he enjoyed one last fling before he returned to Zenhab and the life of duty that awaited him?
He would know, Kadir thought grimly. He heard his father’s voice inside his head. To cheat others requires you to cheat yourself first, and who can respect a cheat?
He wrenched his mouth from Lexi’s, feeling ashamed of his weakness and his inability to resist her. She had responded to him, he reminded himself. He was not solely to blame. But the best way he could ensure that the situation never happened again was to fire up her hot temper.
‘Remember, when we are sitting at the dinner table tonight with Luca and his guests, I’ll be remembering how your tongue felt inside my mouth. Remember that I know your secret, Lexi.’
‘What secret?’ Lexi dragged oxygen into her lungs and forced her lips, stinging from Kadir’s kiss, to form the question.
Kadir deliberately dropped his gaze to her pebble-hard nipples jutting provocatively through her bikini top and his satisfied smile made Lexi’s skin prickle with shame. ‘We both know I could have you. Did you buy your tiny bikini and imagine me untying the straps that hold it together? Perhaps I should take you here and now, and at the dinner party there will be no need for you to pretend that you are my mistress?’
Heat blazed on her cheeks. ‘I don’t have to listen to this. I certainly don’t have to put up with being mauled by my employer. I resign,’ Lexi told him furiously.
‘You would walk away from the best-paid job you are likely to find because your pride has taken a knock? I didn’t have you down as a coward, Lexi. I thought you had more guts.’
‘I am not a coward.’
He shrugged. ‘There is also the matter of a financial penalty if you break your contract.’
She had signed a contract which had made her a member of the royal staff, and she would owe him three months’ salary if she left before completing six months’ service. Lexi knew she could not afford to take on any more debt. ‘A few thousand pounds is nothing to you,’ she said bitterly.
She dragged her eyes from his exquisitely chiselled features and stared at his hands gripping the edge of the pool on either side of her. She had accused him of mauling her, but he had not actually touched her body. The knowledge that he had set her on fire simply with a kiss compounded her humiliation.
Kadir’s knuckles were white, and Lexi had the strange sense that he was holding on to the edge of the pool as if his life depended on it. The muscles of his forearms and shoulders were bunched as if he was under intolerable tension and he was breathing hard, his big chest rising and falling jerkily, matching the frantic rhythm of her own heartbeat. She looked into his eyes, expecting to see mockery, but the hard brilliance in his gaze revealed a hunger that shocked her. The realisation that this was not a game to him scared her as much as it excited her.
‘Release me from my contract. Let me go before this gets out of hand,’ she pleaded in a low, shaken voice.
Logic told Kadir she was right. Taking Lexi to Zenhab would be madness now that he had tasted her. What had started out as a challenge—to melt her ice—had changed irrevocably now that he had discovered her heat and softness and incandescent sensuality.
But the fact remained that he wanted to employ a female helicopter pilot to fly his intended bride around Zenhab. His desire for Lexi was an inconvenience that he would have to deal with, Kadir told himself firmly. His life was mapped out and the path he must take had been plotted by his uncle Jamal. For stability in Zenhab, and for the promise he’d made to his father, he would marry the bride who had been chosen for him.
‘We will leave for Italy at two o’clock,’ he said abruptly, dropping his arms to his sides, his fists clenched as if he couldn’t trust himself not to reach for Lexi’s slender body and pull her into the heat of him, the need that burned bright and fierce in his gut.
In a dignified silence that somehow simmered with fury, she climbed the steps leading out of the pool, water streaming from her limbs and her long white-gold hair. Kadir watched her walk into the penthouse and cursed savagely before he ducked beneath the surface of the pool and powered through the water.
Lexi did not look round, did not even stop to snatch up her towel as she ran inside and almost collided with Kadir’s manservant. Walif—as she had come to expect—did not speak to her, but she sensed his disapproval and, when she hurried into her bedroom and glanced in the mirro
r, the sight of her swollen lips, reddened from Kadir’s kiss, brought a flush to her face and strengthened her resolve to keep her relationship with the Sultan of Zenhab on strictly professional lines from now on.
CHAPTER SIX
HIS LAST NIGHT of freedom!
It was not quite as dramatic as that, Kadir acknowledged, the corners of his mouth lifting in a wry smile of self-derision. A royal wedding would take months to arrange, and technically he was free until he led his new bride into his private bedchamber and they were alone for the first time.
But this evening would be his last in Europe for many months, until after his wedding to Haleema had taken place. What better place to be than at Conte Luca De Rossi’s breathtaking villa on the shores of Lake Como?
Kadir was grateful to his old school friend for arranging the dinner party and inviting Chuck Weinberg. The American businessman had seemed enthusiastic about investing in the developing telecommunications industry in Zenhab during initial discussions that had taken place in Texas. Tonight, Kadir planned to utilise all his persuasive skills to hopefully secure a deal that would bring his desert kingdom fully into the twenty-first century.
There was only one problem—and she was making a beeline for him across the magnificent entrance hall of the Villa De Rossi. Danielle Weinberg had big hair, a big smile and big breasts that Kadir, who had a certain amount of hands-on experience of the female anatomy, was certain owed more to a cosmetic surgeon’s skill than to genetics.
‘Kadeer, I’ve been looking all over for you.’
She reminded Kadir of an over-enthusiastic puppy. As he gently but firmly unlocked Danielle’s hands from around his neck, he was struck by the thought that his future bride was a similar age to the young American. His jaw clenched. In Zenhab a life of duty awaited him, but tonight he was determined to enjoy his last few hours of freedom.
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