by Penny Jordan
They were starting to lose altitude as Xander skilfully brought the helicopter down over the escarpment, causing Katrina to hold her breath as they swept in over the high wall and then landed on the purpose-built helicopter pad within the ancient curtilage.
As soon as the blades had stopped rotating, servants seemed to appear from nowhere, hurrying to remove their luggage. But it was Xander himself who helped Katrina down from the helicopter, the cool strength of his hands on her skin making her ache inside with pain and longing and, even worse, remembered pleasure.
Quickly she pulled free of his grip, not wanting to be tortured by her body's memory of him any more than necessary.
Grimly Xander watched her, noting her averted profile and the way she recoiled from him.
He had tried to persuade his half-brother not to insist on this marriage, but he had been overruled. His sister-in-law had told him that she was convinced that Katrina loved him, and that, as much as anything else, had swayed his half-brother's decision. Xander's mouth compressed. Katrina did not love him. She loathed him. She had told him so herself. Pain seized him. When had he first started to love her? That first afternoon in the souk when he had kissed her? Certainly by the time Sulimen had tried to buy her from him he had known that there was no power on earth that would make him give her up. He had tried to pretend it was not love that possessed him, just as he had tried to tell himself that it was only his pride that was badly hurt by the fact that she did not return his feelings. Was he deluding himself in hoping that, out of the compassion she had shown in pleading for mercy towards him, love might grow?
Whether or not she grew to love him, as his brother had reminded him, he had certain responsibilities both towards her and towards his family.
As she walked with Xander from the outer courtyard into the villa courtyard proper, it was impossible for her not to feel awed and a little overwhelmed, Katrina acknowledged as she paused to take in her surroundings. Within the shell of the ancient edifice, a villa of such magical beauty had been created that she could only gaze at it with a lump in her throat.
There was a garden within the ancient walls. Discreet floodlighting revealed elegant waterways and fountains, walkways and arbours, whilst the scent of the flowers filled the night air.
'It's so beautiful,' she couldn't help whispering emotionally.
'My parents designed it together. My mother wanted it to be a perfect blending of east and west.'
His words were sharp and clipped, as though he resented having to speak to her, as though talking to her about his parents somehow contaminated them.
Did he really hate her so much?
Why should he not when he had been forced into a marriage with her that he did not want?
'The villa does not follow the traditional Zurani design,' Xander informed her as he put his hand on the small of her back to urge her forward. 'There are no separate women's and men's quarters.'
His touch caused a thrill of sensual pleasure and aching emotion to shoot through her. She wanted to turn round and beg him to take her fully in his arms, to hold her and kiss her and then to sweep her up and carry her to their bed. It must be the garden that was affecting her like this. She had no logical reason to want him and a hundred not to! But then love wasn't logical, was it? Love? She loved Xander? Really loved him? She trembled as violently as though she was experiencing a dreadful shock—or an unbearable truth!
'What is it? Is it your arm?' Xander demanded, frowning at her as he felt her trembling, but mercifully he had not realised that he himself was the cause of her reaction. 'Are you in pain?'
'No, I am just…tired, that's all.'
'I shall ask Miriam, the villa's housekeeper, to take you straight to your room. Dr Al Hajab has given me some painkillers for you.'
They were inside the villa now, standing in a square hallway furnished with elegant simplicity in a pleasing mixture of Middle Eastern and western pieces of furniture set against pale blue colour-washed walls.
She could smell roses on the air, and everything about her surroundings breathed tranquillity and harmony, Katrina recognised. Inexplicably she felt as though someone had reached out and touched her with gentle lovingness, soothing her raw nerves and smoothing down her frayed emotional edges.
A sense of a weight being lifted from her shoulders stole softly through her.
'Ah, here is Miriam now!' Xander announced as a small and very rotund woman came hurrying excitedly towards them, and greeted Xander by flinging her arms around him. She was addressing him in terms of great affection in a flood of Zuranese spoken so fast Katrina struggled to understand what she was saying.
'Miriam, this is Katrina, my wife.'
Small, dark, shrewd eyes surveyed Katrina consideringly. 'Your mother would have liked her, I think.'
'Please take her to her room, Miriam. She is tired now, so you will have to wait until tomorrow to show her the rest of the villa.'
'A new bride and she is tired?' Miriam exclaimed forthrightly, making Katrina blush vividly.
'She has been injured,' Xander informed her evenly, before turning to Katrina and telling her, 'I shall leave you in Miriam's safe hands. I have some business to attend to, but if there is anything you want, then just tell Miriam and she will arrange it for you.'
Before she could say anything he was leaving, striding across the tiled floor and disappearing into a corridor.
'If you will follow me, please,' Miriam instructed Katrina, leading the way up the sweeping flight of marble stairs, and then across a wide landing to a pair of double doors, which she threw open almost theatrically, indicating that Katrina was to precede her into the room.
When she did, Katrina understood the reason for her small theatrical gesture, for the room she had walked into was unbelievably beautiful. Like the hallway, its walls were subtly colour-washed, this time in a shade somewhere between grey and a soft green that was infinitely relaxing to the senses. Priceless silk rugs warmed the cream marble of the floor, but it was the beautifully simple yet elegant Gustavian furniture that made Katrina gasp in delight. The wood was a slightly darker colour than the walls, the bed linen a cool off-white. The feeling of peace and harmony she had experienced earlier returned to her even more strongly and she had an overwhelming sense of a loving warmth that was not quite a presence and yet still very, very real for her.
'Was this Xander's mother's room?' she asked Miriam quietly.
The housekeeper nodded. 'The Sheikha chose everything for this villa herself. It was her special place, the only place where she could have the Ruler to herself. Do you sense her?'
'Yes,' Katrina acknowledged.
Miriam beamed. 'I knew it! I could tell the moment you walked in that you were the right one for him. I was her maid,' she told Katrina quietly. 'I knew that she was carrying her child even before the Sheikh himself. She could not hide it from me! I was the one she wanted when she went into labour with him… She was so thrilled, so proud, to have given our Ruler a son. And she loved her baby so much! But then she became so very, very ill. She wanted so desperately to live, but it was not meant to be! Poor lady. She will be glad that you have married her son. You are of her own blood, and you love him, as she loved his father.'
It was a statement and not a question. Katrina didn't bother trying to argue.
'Your clothes have already been unpacked. I shall show you the dressing room and the bathroom and then I will leave you to sleep.'
Dutifully Katrina followed her into the dressing room, and then beyond it to a bathroom of such simple elegance that she sighed in mute pleasure. The room was fitted with plain white sanitary ware and the same Gustavian-style furniture as the bedroom and dressing room. There was a huge circular bath, half set into the floor, and beyond it floor-to-ceiling glass windows, which as Miriam demonstrated opened out onto a terrace. Beyond that, she explained, lay the small private garden that had been Xander's mother's personal retreat.
'I shall leave you now. Would you like me
to send up something for you to eat…or drink?'
Tiredly Katrina shook her head. All she wanted was to shower the dust and grime of her journey off her skin and then to curl up in the bliss of her bed.
Xander opened the bedroom door and stood looking at the bed. The moonlight coming in through the patio windows revealed Katrina's sleeping form, her face turned towards him, her hair spread out over the pillow. Walking past her, he made his way silently through the dressing room to the bathroom, stripping off his clothes and turning on the shower.
He should not have allowed his half-brother to force him into this marriage to Katrina, he knew that. His sister-in-law might be firmly convinced that Katrina loved him, but he knew better. She did not love him, not as he wanted and needed her to do, with her heart and her soul as well as with her body. Physically she might have given herself to him, but that did not mean she loved him.
Even under the sting of the shower his body reacted immediately to the memory conjured up by his thoughts. Grimly he fought for self-control, turning the shower to cold and remaining under its icy lash until he was satisfied that he had subdued his physical yearning.
Stepping out of the shower, he reached for a towel and dried himself, and then padded naked back to the bedroom, pausing to look bleakly into Katrina's sleeping face. Her eyelashes made twin dark fans against her moon-pale skin, and she was so deeply asleep that even when he pulled back the bedcovers and got into the large bed, she didn't move.
Moonlight stroked the bare curve of her arm and the soft skin of her throat. He badly wanted to reach out and trace its silvered path, but he knew that if he gave in to that temptation he wouldn't be able to stop himself from taking her in his arms and kissing every delicious inch of her. Just as he had wanted to the first time he had seen her in the souk.
The stark reality of knowing that she did not love him as he did her cut into him with the slicing thrust of a dagger. Resolutely he turned away from her and put as much distance between them as he could.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
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The sound of crockery chinking and the rich smell of fresh coffee brought Katrina out of her sleep. Blinking a little against the dazzle of the morning sunlight, she looked in the direction where the discreet rattle of china was coming from. Beyond the now-open glass doors, which led onto the large terrace, she could see Miriam placing the crockery on a wrought-iron table.
On the point of throwing back the bed covers, she went completely still, her heart pounding heavily as she stared at the tell-tale indentation in the pillow next to her own, unable to drag her shocked glance away from it.
'So you are awake!' Miriam announced cheerfully, the sound of her voice finally breaking the horror of the realisation that she had not slept alone.
'I have instructed the staff to prepare for you the Sheikha's favourite breakfast! I hope you will like it!'
'I'm sure I shall, Miriam.' Katrina thanked her, trying not to feel uncomfortable as the housekeeper picked up her robe from the chair where she had left it.
Fortunately she had gone to bed wearing the newly washed nightdress that she had worn whilst in hospital instead of just sleeping in her skin as she preferred to do. The door to the dressing room suddenly opened and Katrina stiffened as Xander walked in. It was obvious that he had just had a shower. His hair was still damp and she could smell the clean, sharp scent of the soap he had used.
Still holding the robe, Miriam went over to him immediately, smiling broadly at him. Watching the affection with which he returned the older woman's hug, Katrina suffered a small pang of aloneness and exclusion.
'I thought you would like to have your breakfast on the terrace this morning. Katrina will enjoy seeing your mother's garden.' She handed Katrina's robe to Xander, and then, turning back to the bed, she said, 'When you are ready, Katrina, I shall show you the whole of the villa. I hope you will love it as we do, but if there are any changes you wish to make…'
'I am sure there won't be, Miriam,' Katrina reassured her immediately, and was rewarded with an approving smile before the housekeeper left.
As soon as she had gone Katrina ignored the fierce pounding of her heart and looked determinedly at Xander. He was leaning against the wall still holding her robe. 'You didn't tell me that we would be sharing a bedroom.'
Eyeing her thoughtfully, Xander prised his shoulders away from the wall, and her impressionable gaze was immediately attracted by the sensual ripple of male muscles beneath bronzed skin. Her heart was thudding now, her own muscles clenching as a result of the betraying quiver of sensation stirring within her. She couldn't be aroused by the mere sight of him! She must not be!
'I didn't think it was necessary, given the fact that we are a newly married couple. It is normal in marriage, after all, for a husband and wife to share a bedroom and a bed. To have told Miriam that we would be sleeping in separate rooms would have been bound to give rise to unpleasant speculation and gossip.'
'Maybe so, but our marriage is not normal,' Katrina couldn't stop herself from pointing out.
'Not normal?' Xander queried silkily. 'What exactly do you mean by that?'
'I mean that most people marry because…because they love one another and want to be together.'
There was a definite and disturbing pause, at least so far as Katrina and her thudding heartbeat were concerned, before he questioned even more silkily, 'Aren't you omitting one vital ingredient from that recipe? Wouldn't you agree that it is true that most people who marry desire one another physically?' he demanded softly. Katrina could feel her face starting to burn. There was something about the way he was looking at her…
'Physical desire does play a part in marriage,' she managed to agree, hot-faced.
'And you would agree that there has been physical desire between us?'
Why was he doing this to her—forcing her to humiliate herself like this? What was he trying to prove? And to whom? She already knew exactly how she felt about him! 'That…that was a mistake,' she told him. She might know how she felt, but no way did she want him to have access to that knowledge!
'A mistake?' He was walking towards the bed and she could feel herself starting to tremble as small, fiery darts of an emotion that was not the anger or rejection that she should have been feeling shot through her.
'Giving me your virginity was a mistake? When you cried out beneath me you cried out with pleasure.'
'No!' Katrina's response came out as a small moan of sound that was as much a denial of the intent she could read in his gaze as it was of the claim he had made.
'I say, "Yes", and I shall prove to you that I am right,' Xander insisted softly.
'No! What happened that night was just…it meant nothing to me.'
Just as she meant nothing to him, Katrina reminded herself. She couldn't bear the pain of seeing in his eyes that he knew of her foolish feelings, her yearning and longing for him and for his love.
'You are lying and I intend to prove it.'
That speed and sinuous stealth was all desert warrior, Katrina acknowledged helplessly. He had crossed the bedroom floor so quickly and was standing over her, his body blotting out the sunshine without her having the time to take any kind of evasive action.
'Don't you dare touch me!' she told him bravely, but she could see her words were not making any impact on him.
A cruel, mocking smile curled his mouth as he leaned down and whispered silkily, 'But I am going to touch you, and you are going to want me to. You are going to cry out to me to please you, to take you, and to satisfy you.'
He was already manacling her wrists within a steely hard grip, then lifting her flailing hands above her head and keeping them there as he bent lower. She did what she could to reject him, stiffening her entire body and turning her head away from him, willing her lips to stay firmly clamped together.
But it wasn't her lips that received the shockingly slow, sweet, drifting caress of his mouth, but the inner curve of her exposed arm.
&nbs
p; Ripples of pleasure quivered through her arm, building swiftly to a crescendo of sensation that leapt from nerve ending to nerve ending. She could feel the longing tightening her breasts, and causing her nipples to harden into defiant indications of their eagerness to share in the sensual delight he was giving the sensitised flesh of her arm.
She might be wearing a nightdress, but its fragile double layer of gauzy silk did nothing to conceal the effect he was having on her body as her nipples thrust tormentedly against it.
He was still kissing the soft flesh of her arm, but her pleasure had now become an increasingly agonising ache to feel his mouth against other, more needy parts of her body. The lips she had been compressing together so tightly had now parted, and if Xander had cared to look into them he could have seen quite plainly the aroused heat shimmering in her eyes.
She longed to take hold of his dark head and pull it down against her so that she could not just taste his mouth, but also lose herself in the pleasure of the passion. The intensity of her feelings should have shocked her—instead it incited her!
'Are you sure you don't want this?'
The taunting question jerked her back to reality.
'Quite sure,' she hissed at him fiercely. What kind of man was he that he could do something like this?
He was kissing her neck, pinioning her wrists in the firm grip of one of his hands whilst the other slid the straps of her nightgown down off her shoulders. His fingertips whispered against her skin. His lips feathered tormentingly light kisses along the line of her nightdress. A small shudder broke through her self-control, desire and need carrying her swiftly with their fierce current. Her body tensed, quivering like a tightly drawn bow. She heard Xander mutter something. A curse, or a prayer, she couldn't tell which. Then his mouth was on her breast, taking it through the layers of her nightdress as though he needed the feel of her too much to wait. A feverish burst of exultation shot through her, increasing a hundredfold as she felt him tug the fabric of her nightdress lower, exposing her other breast and allowing him to transfer the sensual attention of his lips and tongue to its silky flesh and tightly hot nipple.