Taming the Sheik

by Carol Grace

  “You had me worried,” he said, staring at her with disbelief. It all seemed like a bad dream—her being lost and hurt. His worst fears were almost realized. “I thought you might have been swept out to sea or…or attacked. Thank God I found you. What happened?”

  “I went for a walk on the beach. I wasn’t thinking about where I was going and suddenly it was dark. I decided to run back and I tripped over something. I think it was drift-wood. I tried to walk, but I couldn’t. My ankle just wouldn’t work. I dragged myself for a while then I gave up. It’s this ankle,” she said, stretching her leg out in front of her. “I think I sprained it.”

  “Let me see.” Very gently he removed her shoe and sock and held her foot in his hand. “That doesn’t look good,” he said, observing the huge reddened lump on her ankle. He took off her other sock and shoe to compare her ankles.

  “Look,” he said. “It’s huge. You need to see a doctor. Just to make sure nothing’s broken.”

  “Not now,” she said. “I don’t want to go anywhere.” She leaned back against the pillows and closed her eyes.

  “Of course you won’t go anywhere,” he said. “We’ll get someone to come here.”

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine in the morning,” she assured him. “Anyway, doctors don’t make house calls anymore.”

  “You let me worry about that. In the meantime we follow the first aid instructions—Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.” First he turned the thermostat up to high. Then he found two extra pillows from the closet and put them under her ankle. Scooping some ice from the ice bucket on the table, he wrapped it in a towel from the bathroom and pressed it gently but firmly against her ankle.

  “How’s that?” he asked watching her anxiously from her bedside.

  Anne nodded gratefully. Her ankle was cold, but the rest of her was gradually warming up. She couldn’t believe he’d rescued her just as she’d dreamed he would. Just when she was about to give up. She didn’t think she was going to die. She just thought she’d be there all night, half-buried in sand until someone stumbled across her the next day. That she was here, with Rafik, being cared for so expertly, seemed like a miracle.

  “How did you know where I was?” she asked.

  “I didn’t. I just knew you weren’t in your cabin or anywhere else I looked. One person said they’d seen someone on the beach. I thought it might be you. I had no other choice but to look there. Which reminds me that I should call your friends. I went to their cabin looking for you.”

  “You could have gone to dinner or just…just forgotten about me.” Her voice trembled as she said the last few words. If he had, she’d still be there, lost, alone, hurt, frightened… “I can’t believe you came out looking for me.”

  “What did you think I’d do? There’s no way I could forget about you.”

  She managed a weak smile. She didn’t know how to thank him so she didn’t even try. When she felt better, she would. But now she had another question.

  “How do you know how to do…” She waved her hand in the direction of the pillows, the ice and her ankle, “…this.”

  “Just common sense,” he said modestly. But he wasn’t through yet. Another trip to the bathroom and he came back with a glass of water and two aspirins. “For the pain and the swelling.”

  She swallowed the pills and finished the glass of water.

  “You must be hungry,” he said. “I’ll order us some food and something hot to drink.”

  “The kitchen might be closed by now.” She had no idea what time it was, and it seemed almost too much of an effort to even look at her watch.

  “Don’t worry.”

  Her eyes drifted shut for a few moments. She heard Rafik speaking quietly into his cell phone, but her tired brain made no sense of what he was saying. All she knew was that she had the sense that he had everything under control. She’d never felt so cared for, so safe as she did with him. Of course ordering dinner or finding a doctor who’d make house calls were easier when you had plenty of money. But money had nothing to do with him rescuing her on the beach. That took fortitude and strength and caring enough to make the effort.

  She didn’t know anyone else who would have come out in the dark looking for her on the off chance she might be out there. She told herself it wasn’t just for her. She thought he was the kind of man who’d do it for anyone who needed rescuing. She was ashamed to think of how she’d wished he’d go home today. If he had, where would she be right now? She feared she’d still be out there on the sand.

  She watched him behind heavy-lidded eyes as he pulled a chair next to the bed. Watched him shut the curtains, heard him running water in the bathroom. She doubted he’d find a doctor at any price, but he did. The physician was young and capable and looked nothing like any doctor she’d ever seen. Instead of a white coat he was in jeans and a jacket. He said he’d been on a friend’s boat in the harbor when he’d been paged. He was new to the practice and got the worst call schedule—Saturday nights and Sundays. He seemed to be relieved to see she only suffered from a sprained ankle. He said Saturday-night emergencies were often gunshot wounds or motorcycle accidents.

  “Your wife is going to have to stay off her ankle for a week or so,” he told Rafik. Anne felt herself blushing furiously. Fortunately, no one was looking at her face. No one corrected him. She opened her mouth to tell him they weren’t married, but it didn’t seem to be worth the trouble. Both the doctor and Rafik were focused on her ankle.

  “Tomorrow it will look even worse than it does today,” the doctor continued. “But that’s part of the healing process.” He talked about getting a tensor bandage, about ice and elevation. He told her she could hobble to the bathroom but otherwise to stay right there in bed. She tried to tell him this was not her room, that she couldn’t stay there in Rafik’s bed, she’d already been there and done that—to disastrous results, but somehow the words just wouldn’t come. Before he left, Rafik told the doctor to send him the bill. This time she was able to speak up and tell him she had health insurance, but he was already at the door and didn’t appear to hear her.

  After he’d gone, she told Rafik the doctor didn’t understand the situation… “For some reason he thought we were married.”

  “I can’t really blame him, can you?” Rafik asked. “Here we are in the same cabin.”

  “Yes, here we are.”

  “I notice you didn’t correct him,” Rafik said.

  “Neither did you,” she said. “In any case, I certainly intend to go back to my cabin.”

  “And disobey the doctor’s orders?” he asked incredulously. “I’m afraid I can’t permit that.”

  “I think he was being overly cautious,” she said. “I can’t spend the night here. I have to go back.”

  “You can’t walk, that’s for certain and I’m afraid I can’t carry you there tonight. I think I might have strained my back out there on the beach.”

  “Oh, no. This is my fault. You should have told the doctor.”

  “I’ll be fine in the morning,” he assured her. “Now just relax. The food will be along any minute.” He shoved the small table next to the bed and sure enough, the food arrived, carried by a uniformed delivery man. He brought in covered dishes and stacked them on the table. He brought plates and silverware and glasses.

  While Anne watched dumbfounded, he uncovered the dishes, served soup in wide bowls, then wished them “Bon appetit!” and left promising to return the next morning for the dishes.

  “It smells wonderful,” Anne said. Until that moment she hadn’t realized how hungry she was. “Where did he come from? How did you arrange this?”

  “Very simple. I just made a few calls. Many restaurants deliver, you know.”

  “No, I didn’t know,” she said. The idea of ordering food to be delivered from a restaurant was totally unknown to her. Not only must it be prohibitively expensive, under normal circumstances, there was no need. She told herself these were not normal circumstances. Dining with a sheik
in his bed. Having him wrap her ankle, call a doctor, order food, prop the pillows on her lap and set her soup there, all that was most abnormal. And very luxurious. Almost worth spraining an ankle for. But not quite. Sipping a delicious broth made her almost forget about her ankle. Or the consequences.

  “This is wonderful,” she said. She would worry about her ankle later.

  “Not bad,” he agreed. He sat down next to the bed so he could eat next to her and serve her food. “How are you feeling?”

  “Much better,” she said. “I’d almost forgotten about my ankle. The pills must be kicking in. That and the hot food.” And you, she wanted to say. She felt surrounded by the warmth of his presence, by his soothing voice and his calm capability. He gave her the sense that things would be all right. That all her problems could be solved. Rafik had a way of making her feel she was in good hands. She’d never felt so cared for. Was it only last night she’d been thinking how rich and spoiled he was? He might be rich, of course he was rich, but he was also the most thoughtful man she’d ever known.

  Who else would have gone looking for her and when he found her hurt his own back by carrying her what seemed like miles across the beach? No one. And now he was doing everything for her as if she meant something to him. Maybe he felt he owed her a debt for pretending to be his fiancée. But he didn’t. It had served them both equally. But now it was time for the charade to be over. She must tell him that. Not yet. Not while he was spooning some sauce onto her dinner plate around the lamb chops and rice pilaf and creamed spinach.

  She ate slowly, savoring every bite.

  “I’m proud of you,” he said when she finally set her fork down. “You cleaned your plate, so you can have dessert.”

  “Dessert?” she asked, lying back against the pillow and closing her eyes. “All this and heaven, too.”

  “You’re easy to please,” he said.

  She opened her eyes and met his gaze. “I’ve never had dinner in bed before.”

  “I understand there are many other things you’ve never done in bed before,” he said. Then he caught himself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up again. You made your position quite clear last night.”

  “Rafik…”

  “I understand,” he said, “and I respect your morals. Now let’s see what they’ve brought for dessert.”

  The dessert was a combination of many small things. A tiny chocolate mousse, an apple dumpling with caramel sauce, one perfect slice of tiramisu. She couldn’t imagine what such a dinner must have cost him. She had a bite of each along with coffee. He smiled proudly at her as if she’d done something wonderful by eating so much, then he removed the dishes and put the table back next to the window. She knew she should insist on returning to her cabin, but she sensed he’d resist, and that he’d win. She wanted to ask him where he’d sleep, but she was afraid to hear him say he’d sleep in the chair.

  Next he ran a hot bath for her, helped her hobble into the bathroom, supplied her with one of his clean shirts and left her alone in the bathroom. She could hear the muted sounds of the television set in the background as she propped her ankle on the rim of the tub and felt the hot water seep into her body.

  Getting in and out of the tub without bumping her ankle was a difficult process and seemed to take ages. She knew then she couldn’t go any farther than his bed tonight no matter how wrong it was. No matter how many people knew about it. Wrapping his well-pressed cotton shirt around her was almost like being enveloped in his arms with his masculine scent surrounding her.

  Rafik turned when he heard the bathroom door open. Anne came out in a cloud of steam, her red-gold hair in a damp tangle. Wearing his shirt, which grazed her knees, she was delectable. He took a deep breath to try to rid himself of the lecherous thoughts that rushed at him like the tides out there on the beach.

  He had arranged the blankets so she could lie under them and still have her foot elevated.

  “What about you?” she asked, drawing the sheet up to her chin.

  “Don’t worry about me,” he assured her. “I’m not tired. I’ll be fine in the chair.”

  “The chair?” she said. “Not with your back. The muscles will tighten up and you’ll get worse.”

  His back. He’d forgotten he’d made up that story. There was nothing wrong with his back, but he certainly didn’t want to sit up all night. Still…

  “There’s plenty of room in the bed for both of us,” she said.

  He’d imagined her saying those very words, so when she actually did, he wasn’t sure he’d heard her right until she patted the area next to her pillow. He had to admit the king-sized bed looked big enough for two people even if they weren’t engaged, married or in love. Since neither of them fell into any of those categories there was nothing to worry about, was there? Of course he had to admit he lusted after Anne’s body, and he thought she felt an attraction to him. But given her moral standards, he wasn’t going to do anything about his lust problem except try to ignore it.

  Being in bed with her might not be the best way to ignore it. But right now he was too tired to protest. So he shrugged casually, though he felt anything but casual, and went to take a shower. By the time he got out, she was asleep. The memories of that first night came flooding back. At the time he’d thought she looked beautiful with her hair spread out on the pillow. Now she was even lovelier. But then, he’d thought that before. Once at the gala ball, then in her garden. Come to think of it, each time he saw her he was convinced she was more beautiful than the last time.

  Very carefully, so as not to wake her, he crawled into his side of the bed. Instead of looking at her, he deliberately faced the wall. He didn’t dare even glance her way. It was bad enough to smell the soap she’d used, the sweet smell of her skin and her hair. Bad enough to imagine touching her soft skin, holding her in his arms all night. He forced his eyes closed, but the images continued. He saw her on the beach, a crumpled form and he shuddered to think what would have happened if he hadn’t found her. But he had. She was safe and sound in his bed. What would it be like if she were there every night? If he could make love to her every night?

  He shifted his body and told himself to stop dreaming. There was no way Anne would ever be in his bed again, and most certainly she would never make love with him unless he married her. Married her. That’s what his parents thought was going to happen. They thought he’d actually found the woman of his dreams. Maybe he had. But there was no way he was getting married. Of course Anne was special. But so was his last fiancée. Or so he’d thought. His parents had been just as crazy about her as they were about Anne. Just as certain he’d made the right choice. Of course it wasn’t his choice at all, it was theirs.

  It was only by luck he’d discovered the true nature of his fiancée before they got married. Marriage was forever. If and when he ever got married, he intended to stay married. It was better not to take a chance and ruin his life. Tomorrow he and Anne would decide how best to end this engagement. He was sure she’d be more than happy to see it end. It hadn’t been easy for her to live a lie any more than it had for him. With this decision made, he finally fell asleep.

  When Anne awoke Rafik was already up and dressed. She thought he’d slept next to her in bed, but she couldn’t tell. Not by any indentation in the pillow or by the expression on his face. He’d already been out to get some flaky croissants and coffee for them when she woke up. “You’re going to spoil me,” she said as he spread a towel across a pillow and put it in her lap so she could eat in bed.

  “I’m trying,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s possible.”

  “The doctor was right,” Anne said after she’d finished her coffee and examined her ankle. “It looks even worse today.” It was swollen and discolored. She sat there looking at it in dismay.

  When her friend Jean came to see how she was, she threw a blanket over her leg.

  “It’s nothing,” Anne said. “Just a sprain. But it looks awful.”

  “What
a shame,” Jean said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “You’ll miss the brunch this morning and the closing remarks. I suppose you’ll be heading back to town soon?”

  Anne looked at Rafik and he nodded. He asked Anne for the key to her cabin and went to pick up her belongings.

  “When Rafik called us last night to say he’d found you I was so relieved. And so was he. He was so worried about you. I’d say frantic, but that wasn’t it. He was just determined to find you.”

  “I…I can’t believe he did find me. I was lying there in the sand thinking I’d be spending the night there…feeling stupid for going off like that by myself.”

  “It’s been quite a weekend for you,” Jean said.

  Anne couldn’t have agreed more. If Jean only knew the half of it. This weekend, she’d almost been seduced. She’d turned down an offer from a man she was wildly attracted to. She’d faced hypothermia and an injury last night on the beach. She’d been rescued and now she had a new perspective on Rafik. He was not the arrogant, spoiled, rich man she once thought. Instead he was kind and caring. He was extremely confident, but he had a right to be. He was the kind of man a woman would be lucky to have for a fiancé. But he wasn’t hers. He never would be, no matter how much his parents wanted it. No matter how much she wanted it.

  Chapter Nine

  On the ride home Anne was as comfortable as Rafik could make her. He’d moved the passenger seat back so she could recline and elevate her foot. They talked about everything and nothing as he drove along the two-lane scenic highway. No mention was made of their so-called engagement, though it was on Anne’s mind, and she was sure it wasn’t far from Rafik’s either. Somehow, sometime, something was going to have to happen.

  That something was the cancellation of their engagement. She couldn’t bring herself to mention it. It was so nice just to sit there and watch the green fields on one side and the ocean on the other and not think about the problems on the horizon. She enjoyed Rafik’s conversation. She’d never realized he knew so much about so many things. About the tides and the weather and the crops that grew in the farms alongside of the road.