Delaney nodded. A thought then struck her. “Speaking of needs, what about medical care? How do your people get the medical care they need?”
He looked at her as if surprised by her question. “We have hospitals.”
She twisted in his arms, the concern in her features evident. “But what about those people living in smaller cities who can’t make it to a hospital? Don’t you think you may want to consider having a clinic just for them?”
Jamal lifted a brow. “In a market?”
She shook her head, smiling. “Not necessarily in the market but adjacent to it. I believe this entire idea has merit as a way to get people out and about in an open marketplace-type setting. But think of how convenient it would be to them. It might prompt more people who need it to seek medical care.”
Jamal nodded, thinking she had a point. He had often approached his father with concerns of the need for more medical facilities. Keeping his people healthy was another way of keeping them safe. He looked down at the plans he had designed. “And where do you suggest this facility be placed?”
Delaney’s smile widened. She was pleased that he had asked her opinion. For the next hour or so they discussed his designs. She had been surprised when he told her that although his master’s degree from Harvard had been in business administration, he had also received a bachelor degree from Oxford in structural engineering.
That night when they retired to his bedroom, he again told her of his intent to not touch her anymore that day. He just wanted to hold her in his arms.
“Why did you change your mind about us?” he asked her quietly, holding her close, loving the feel of her softness next to him.
Delaney knew she could not tell him the truth. She did not want him to know that she had fallen in love with him. There was nothing to gain by doing so. “I took another look at things, Jamal, and decided that I wasn’t getting any younger and it was time I did something about being a virgin.”
He was surprised. Women in his country remained virgins until they married. “You had a problem with being a virgin?”
She heard the censure in his voice. “No, I didn’t have a problem with it, but then I didn’t want to die a virgin, either.”
He took her hand in his, letting his fingers curl around hers and ignoring the sexual rush just touching her invoked. “There were never any plans in your future to marry?”
“Yes, but no time soon. I wanted to establish myself as a doctor before getting serious about anyone.”
Jamal nodded. He then thought of another question that he wanted to ask her. “What about your lingerie?”
She lifted a brow. “My lingerie?”
“Yes.”
“What about them?”
He cleared his throat. “They are the type a woman normally wears to entice a man. Why would you bring such sleeping attire when you had planned to be at this cabin alone?”
Delaney smiled, understanding his question. She enjoyed going shopping for sexy lingerie and feminine undergarments. Her bras and panties were always purchased in matching sets, and she tended to be attracted to bright colors and for the most part shied away from plain-looking white underthings.
“I like looking and feeling sexy, Jamal, even when there’s no one there to notice but me. Whenever I buy lingerie and underthings, I buy what I like for me with no man in mind.”
“Oh.”
“Now I have a question for you, Jamal,” Delaney said softly.
“Yes?”
“Why would you bring all those packs of condoms with you when you had planned to be here alone?”
He grinned sheepishly at her. “I didn’t bring them. I purchased them after I got here.”
“When?” she asked lifting a curious brow.
“The night you and I went to that all-night supermart,” he said, studying her features and wondering how she felt knowing he had planned her seduction even then. He reached out and touched her chin with his finger. “Are you upset?”
“No,” she said as a smile curved her lips. “I’m not upset. I’m glad you did have the good sense to buy them.”
Long after Delaney had fallen asleep, Jamal was still awake. For some reason the thought of another man sleeping with her, holding her in his arms the way he was doing bothered him. It also disturbed him that one day there would be a man in her life who would see her in all those sexy lingerie and underthings that she liked buying for herself.
When he finally dozed off to sleep, his mind was trying to fight the possessiveness he felt for the beautiful woman asleep in his arms.
“I take it that you enjoyed the movie,” Jamal said when he pulled Delaney’s car to a stop in front of the cabin.
She smiled, showing perfect white teeth and very sensuous lips. “What woman wouldn’t enjoy a movie with Denzel Washington in it?”
He searched her face, amazed at the tinge of jealousy he was feeling. “You really like him, don’t you?”
“Of course,” she responded, getting out of the car and walking up the steps to the door. “What woman could resist Denzel?”
Jamal frowned. “And you would go out on a date with him if he were to ask you?”
Delaney stopped walking and turned around. She studied Jamal’s expression, seeing his frown and clenched teeth. As she continued to observe him, she had a sudden flash of insight when something clicked in her brain. He’s jealous! Of all the outrageous…
She inwardly smiled. If that was true it meant, just possibly, that he cared something for her. But then a voice within her taunted, Not necessarily. It could also mean that now that he has slept with you he sees you as a possession he wants to keep and add to the other things he owns.
“Yes, I would go out with him,” she finally answered, and saw the frown on his face deepen. “However, I don’t plan on losing sleep waiting for such a miracle to happen. Besides, I doubt he would ask any woman out on a date since he’s a married man.” She quirked a brow. “Why do you want to know?”
He walked past her and said, “Curious.”
She fell silent as she followed him to the porch. When she had awakened that morning he had already left the bed and was outside practicing his kickboxing. By the time she had made coffee and placed a few Danish rolls in the oven he had come inside. They had enjoyed a pleasant conversation, then he had suggested that they take in a midday matinee at the movie theater.
She knew his intention had been to get her out of the cabin for most of the day so he wouldn’t be tempted to touch her again. He wanted to give her body time to adjust to their making love before they did it again, although she had tried convincing him that her body had adjusted just fine. She sighed deeply. It was time for her to take matters into her own hands.
Jamal’s hands tightened like fists at his sides when he stood aside to let Delaney enter the cabin. He didn’t understand why an irrational stab of envy had consumed him, making him angry, since he was familiar with Western women’s fascination with movie actors and sports figures. But it rubbed him the wrong way to include Delaney in that number.
Closing the door behind them, he watched as she tossed her purse on the sofa. He had admired her outfit the moment she had emerged from the bedroom wearing it. She certainly knew how to dress to show off her attributes to the maximum. The short blue dress stopped way above her knees and showed off her curves and shapely legs. Her high-heeled sandals were sexy enough to drive him to distraction.
Then there was that lush behind of hers that always kept his pulse working overtime. He was just dying to touch it, run his hand all over it. He took a deep, fortifying breath as he let his gaze trace her legs from the tip of her polished toes, past her ankles, beyond her knees and up to her thighs that met the hem of her dress. He couldn’t help but think about what was under that dress. He shook his head. How had he thought he could go a whole day without making love to her again?
“How does soup and a sandwich sound, Jamal?”
Jamal swallowed. His low reserve of willpower
was pitiful. It took every ounce that he had to move his gaze away from her legs and focus on her face. “That sounds good and I’d like to help.”
She smiled. “You’re getting pretty handy in the kitchen. You seem to enjoy being there.”
Jamal’s brows furrowed. Not really, he wanted to say. She was the one who enjoyed being in the kitchen. He merely enjoyed being wherever she was. “Things are not always as they seem to be, Delaney.”
She studied him for a long moment, then turned toward the kitchen. He followed, trying his best not to notice how the soft material of the dress hugged her hips as she walked ahead of him.
“Do you want to chop the veggies for the soup?”
His mind clicked when he heard a sound. He thought he heard her speak but wasn’t sure. “Did you say something?”
She stopped walking and turned around. Her eyes smiled fondly at him as if he was a dim-witted human being. The way he was lusting after her, he was certainly feeling like one. “I asked if you wanted to chop the veggies for the soup I’m making.”
“Oh, sure. Whatever you need me to do. I’m at your disposal.”
“Are you always this generous to the women you sleep with?”
Jamal tensed, not liking her question and wondering how she could ask such a thing. While he was with her he didn’t want to think about other women. “I’m considered a very generous man to a lot of people, Delaney,” he said, holding her gaze, refusing to let her bait him.
She nodded and continued her walk to the kitchen.
Jamal sighed. He knew there was an American saying that…if you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen. He muttered a low curse. He was following the heat right into the kitchen.
Delaney stopped stirring the ingredients she had already put in the pot and glanced over at Jamal. He was standing at the counter slicing vegetables. “How are you doing over there?”
He lifted his head from his task, and his gaze met hers across the room. “I’m just about finished.”
“Good. The vegetables will be ready to go into the pot in a few minutes.”
He swallowed hard. “It smells good. I bet it will taste good, too.”
She gave a casual shrug. “There’s nothing like something smelling good and tasting good,” she said before turning back around.
Jamal was doing his best not to remember how good she smelled and how good she tasted. He also tried not to remember other things. Like the feel of her beneath his hands as he held her hips firmly, lifting her as he had entered her; how her eyes would darken each time he thrust into her, pulled out and thrust into her again. And the sounds of pleasure she made, and how her body would tighten around him, holding him deep inside of her, milking him bone-dry. At least trying to.
Jamal diced mercilessly into a tomato, furious with his lusty thoughts and knowing his control was slipping. Taking a deep breath he gathered the chopped vegetables in a bowl and on unsteady legs slowly made his way across the room to Delaney.
She turned and smiled at him, taking the bowl he offered. “You did a good job,” she said, dumping the chopped vegetables into the steaming pot. “Now all we have to do is wait for another boil and then let things simmer awhile.”
Jamal nodded. He knew all about boiling and simmering. He came damn close to telling her that he was already doing both from the feminine heat she generated. For the past thirty minutes he had tried to distract himself from watching her move about in the kitchen. Every move she made had turned him on. When she had reached up into the cabinets looking for garlic salt, her already short dress had risen, showing more leg and thigh and making sweat pop out on his brow. The sight had been pure temptation.
He took a step closer to her. “So what kind of soup are you making?”
She chuckled good-naturedly. “Vegetable soup.”
The lower part of his body throbbed from the intensity of his need. He forced a smile. “That was simple enough to figure out, so why couldn’t I think of that?”
Delaney placed the lid on the pot, turned the dial to simmer and looked up at him. “Maybe you have your mind on other things.” She stepped away from the stove and walked over to the sink.
He followed her. He should have been expecting this, her being one step ahead of him. He wouldn’t put it past her to have set him up. “So what do you think I have on my mind?” he asked, looking at her intently.
She shrugged and met his gaze squarely. “I’m not a mind reader, Jamal.”
“No,” he said, raking his gaze over her body. “Only because you’re too busy being a seductress.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. Do you think I don’t know what you’ve deliberately been doing to me for the past half hour?”
For a long moment neither said anything as their gazes clashed. Then Delaney asked in a deep, sultry voice, “Well, did it work?”
Jamal took a step closer as he muttered under his breath. He reached out and brought her body tightly against him, letting her feel how well her ploy had succeeded. “What do you think?”
She moaned softly and shifted her stance to spread her legs, wanting the feel of the hard length of him between them. Even through the material of their clothing there was simmering heat. Her eyes were half-closed when she said, “I think you should give your body what it wants and stop trying to play hard to get.”
He lowered his head and licked her lips, slowly, thoroughly. “I was trying to spare you and give your body a chance to adjust.”
Delaney’s breath quickened with the feel of his tongue licking her lips as if he was definitely enjoying the taste. “I don’t want to be spared, and my body doesn’t need to adjust. The only thing it needs is you,” she said quietly, shivering inside as his tongue continued to torment her. “I want to be made love to and satisfied. I want you inside of me, Jamal. Now.”
The only thing Jamal remembered after that was taking her mouth with an intensity that overwhelmed him as he picked her up in his arms. He wanted her now, too. Quickly crossing the room, he set her on the table and pushed up her dress to her waist and lifted her hips to pull her panties completely off.
Like a desperate man he tore at the zipper of his jeans and set himself free just long enough to push her legs apart. Pulling her to him he then entered her. “Oh, yes,” he said, throwing his head back when he felt her heat clutch him, surround him.
“You make me crazy, Delaney,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut and placing a tight hold on her thighs, savoring how she felt. He didn’t want her to move. He just wanted to stand there, between her legs, locked inside of her.
“Don’t move,” he ordered when he felt her body shift. “Just let me feel myself inside of you for a minute. Let me feel how wet you are around me and how tight.” He wondered how a body so wet could hold him so snugly.
He inhaled her scent. It was like an aphrodisiac, making his sexual hunger all the more intense. “Lie back,” he whispered hoarsely, and held on to her hips while she did so. When she was flat on her back on the table he leaned in and pulled her closer to him, going deeper inside of her. He opened his eyes when he felt her thighs quiver and stretch wide to wrap her legs around his waist.
What little control he had left vanished when he leaned down and caught her mouth with his. He closed his eyes and began making love to her with the intensity of a madman, a wolf mating, someone engaging in sex for the last time before facing a firing squad; he was just that greedy, besotted, possessed. He didn’t think he could go another single day without getting some of this. All of it. And for a quick crazy moment he thought of taking her back to Tahran with him—against her will if he had to—just to keep her with him forever.
Forever.
He opened his eyes and muttered an Arabic curse then he mumbled an even worse one in Berber, not believing the path his thoughts had taken. Nothing was forever with him—especially a woman. But as he arched his back to go even deeper inside of Delaney, he knew that with her he had a different mindset. His bo
dy had a mind of its own. It wanted to devour her, every chance it got. Sexual intensity flared throughout his body, and he thought nothing could and would ever compare to this.
And moments later when she screamed out her climax, he sucked in a deep whiff of her scent at the same time that he exploded deep in her feminine core. It was then that he realized he wasn’t wearing a condom. Too late to do anything about it now, since he had no intention of pulling out, and he continued to pour his seed deep within her as his body responded to the pleasure of their lovemaking.
He clenched his teeth as he drove into her hard, wanting to give her everything that was his, everything he had never given another woman. Finally admitting at that moment that what he was sharing with Delaney Westmoreland went beyond appeasing sexual appetites.
She had somehow found a way to erode his resolve and raw emotions. All his defenses were melting away, the dam around his heart had crumbled. When he realized what was happening to him, shock reverberated through his body, only intensifying his climax.
Then another emotion, one stronger, more powerful, ripped through him. Up to now it had been a foreign element, but at that moment he felt it, from the depths of his loins to the center of his heart.
Love.
He loved her.
Chapter 10
The next week flew by as Jamal and Delaney enjoyed the time they were spending together. Jamal was awakened before dawn one morning by the insistent ringing of his cell phone. He automatically reached for it off the nightstand next to the bed, knowing who his caller would be. “Yes, Asalum?”
He felt Delaney stir beside him; her arms were tight around him, and her naked limbs were tangled with his. Last night they’d had dinner outside on the patio, preferring to enjoy the beauty of the moon-kissed lake while they ate. Then later in his bed they had made love all through the night.
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