Judith McWilliams - The Sheik's Secret

“You don’t still have it, do you?” Hassan asked, shocked at the anger filling him at her faraway expression. He was angry on her behalf, he assured himself. Angry that she had been so badly used. It didn’t matter to him personally. It couldn’t. He’d only known her a few hours.

“Certainly not. I gave it back to him. I have no idea what happened to it.”

The clerk emerged from the back room and set a small tray of rings down in front of them with a flourish.

Kali looked down at them, trying to keep her appreciation of their beauty out of her face. They looked frightfully expensive. But maybe Hassan was looking on the ring as an investment? That was probably it, she decided, feeling fractionally better. While she preferred to invest in stocks and bonds, she knew lots of people bought gold and precious gems as a hedge against inflation.

“What about this one?” Hassan picked up a large, square-cut stone set in yellow gold and handed it to her.

Obediently Kali tried it on, her eyes widening in appreciation at the way the magnificent gem caught the light.

“Do you like it?” Hassan asked.

“It is the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen,” she said, instinctively blurting out the truth.

“We’ll take it,” Hassan said in satisfaction. He’d been right. Emeralds were the perfect choice for Kali.

“Urn, Hassan.” Kali shot him a warning look. Investment or not, they ought to at least ask how much it was before they committed themselves.

“It’s too loose.” She grabbed the first excuse she could think of.

“No problem at all,” the clerk said cheerfully. “I can have it resized within the hour.”

What’s going to be resized is both our bank accounts, Kali thought, but somehow she just couldn’t refuse to accept it. Not with Hassan looking so pleased with himself. But why was he so pleased with himself? She had absolutely no idea, and that bothered her. She’d thought she had a pretty good understanding of both his personality and what motivated him.

But his insistence on buying her a ring seemed completely out of character for him…or else she’d misread his character in the first place. She didn’t find either possibility reassuring.

Uneasily she watched as Hassan followed the clerk over to the counter to pay for their purchases. What other surprises did Hassan have in store for her? The idea both worried and exhilarated her.

Hassan shifted the brightly painted boomerang from his right hand to his left, patted his suit jacket pocket to make sure Kali’s ring was still there and then rapped sharply on her apartment door. Giving her that ring had become very important to him. He wanted her to have a memento of him that had nothing to do with his brother. And tonight, after he told her the truth, he’d insist she keep it.

Kali flung the door open. “You’re early.”

“Traffic was light,” he improvised, suddenly remembering that Karim was perpetually late to everything.

“Come in.” Kali stepped back, when what she wanted to do was put her arms around him and kiss him. To breathe in the cold tang of the outdoors that he brought with him and then to snuggle even closer to savor the scent of his new cologne. A compulsion she was at a total loss to explain. It made no sense that a two-week absence should have intensified her previously tepid sexual curiosity about him to the point where it was in imminent danger of becoming an obsession.

One thing was certain, she thought as she surreptitiously studied him, her newfound fascination was not reciprocated or he would have kissed her when he’d arrived. But maybe he was waiting for a sign from her that she would welcome a kiss? But what if he wasn’t and she gave him a sign. What would he think then?

“Here’s your boomerang.” Hassan handed it to her, giving her hopelessly tangled thoughts a safer direction.

“Thank you. I always wanted a real Australian boomerang. The ones I had as a kid never worked, and I always wondered if it was because I simply didn’t have the knack for throwing them or if it was because they weren’t authentic.

“What are all these figures painted on it?” she asked.

“Aborigine pictographs,” Hassan quoted what Mohammed had told him. “They’re supposed to make game susceptible to it.”

“I see.” Kali glanced speculatively around the living room. If she didn’t throw it very hard, there was just room enough to see if there was any curve in its trajectory.

“You can’t throw that inside.” Hassan correctly interpreted her look.

She gave him an impish grin that inexplicably made him feel ten years old again. But not quite, he realized. Now the feeling had sexual overtones that he hadn’t even been aware had existed at that age.

“Of course I can,” Kali said. “Whether I should or not is entirely another matter.”

He was about to point out the danger of shattering a window on the sixth floor when he remembered that he was supposed to be Karim. His twin certainly would see nothing wrong with playing with a boomerang indoors. In fact, Karim would probably be demanding the first turn.

“I’m not going to throw it hard,” Kali explained as she tested the boomerang’s balance on her fingertips. “I just want to see if it curves.”

To Hassan’s relief, she turned toward the kitchen, away from the windows, and gave it a restrained toss. It flew ten feet straight ahead before dropping like a stone.

“I don’t think boomerangs ever work!” Kali complained “I’ll bet it’s all just a lie put out by the Australian Tourist Board to sell the blasted things.”

“Maybe you simply haven’t said the proper incantations.”

“Incantations?” Kali looked up, her attention caught by the odd note in his voice. “What kind of incantations?”

“Boomerangs are hunting weapons and as such exclusively the property of men. You’re a woman.”

And what a woman, he thought, allowing his gaze to linger on the swell of her breasts beneath her cream silk blouse.

“Maybe what I need is some woman magic to counter the masculine pictographs,” she said, trying to keep the conversation lighthearted, so that if he withdrew from her it wouldn’t embarrass either of them. And if he didn’t withdraw…

She took a deep breath. She might be able to finagle a kiss out of this.

“Woman magic?” Hassan asked.

“Uh-huh, woman magic is a very potent force in all primitive societies.” Kali slowly ran the tip of her tongue over her dry lips as she scrambled for a way to move things out of the realm of spoken language and into that of body language.

Her confidence level soared when she noticed his eyes following her tongue’s movement.

Slowly Kali advanced toward him, drawing pictures in the air with her fingers as she came.

“I am woman. I am all-powerful.” She sing-songed the words, not stopping until she was almost touching him.

To her surprise and delight, Hassan suddenly reached out and pulled her up against him. She landed against his hard chest with a bump that momentarily dislodged rational thought. Automatically she put out her hands to steady herself, grasping his arms. She could feel his hard biceps through the sleek wool material of his gray suit. It was an intriguing combination. Much like Hassan himself was turning out to be.

“Women are many things, but powerful isn’t one of them.” Hassan couldn’t seem to drag his gaze away from her lips. She had the most alluring mouth he’d ever seen.

“You mean this isn’t the time to tell you that I was the best student in my self-defense class at the Y?” Kali tilted her head back, and the movement pushed her breasts into his chest, sending a wave of desire spiraling through her.

“Really?” Hassan’s arms tightened, lifting her off her feet and holding her securely against him. “Try to get free.”

Now why would she want to do a dumb thing like that? Kali wondered, when he felt like the embodiment of every sexual fantasy she’d ever had as well as a few she hadn’t gotten around to yet.

“But it’s woman magic I control,” she murmured, nuzzling her face against his neck. “And woman magic is a little different from brute strength. For example,” she trailed her lips along his jawline and began to nuzzle the skin behind his ear. She could feel his body’s instant response, and it fed her self-confidence.

She took a deep, indulgent breath of the delicious aroma that clung to him, allowing it to fill her lungs. Savoring the sensations unfurling in her, Kali licked the spot she’d been caressing, smiling happily when he gasped.

Emboldened she traced back over his jawline with her lips, exploring the exact texture of his skin. It had a faintly raspy feel to it as if he had a very heavy beard.

Her speculation was cut short as Hassan suddenly turned his head and captured her mouth with his. His lips pressed forcefully against hers, demanding that she open her mouth to his exploration. Instinctively she obeyed, and he shoved his tongue inside with a rough hunger Kali found incredibly sexy.

Reaction poured over her in waves, raising goose bumps on her flesh. Her arms tightened around his shoulders, trying to bind him closer. She hadn’t realized that a simple kiss could feel like this. She could even hear bells.

A monumental sense of loss filled her as Hassan suddenly dropped his arms and stepped back.

Kali gulped in air, struggling to get control of her turbulent emotions. It wasn’t easy. She felt shaken to the very core of her being. Totally unlike herself. And totally unlike the sensible, competent woman Hassan had proposed to. The fear that he might notice her unprecedented reaction and wonder about it was like a shower of cold water on her overheated emotions.

Kali ran her fingers down over the smooth line of her green tweed skirt willing them to stop trembling.

“Here, I almost forgot,” Hassan said.

Kali looked up to find him holding out the engagement ring he’d bought her yesterday.

Kali stared down at the exquisite thing, wondering how anyone could ever forget something so beautiful…even for a moment. The huge emerald seemed to glow as if lit from within.

“It’s even more gorgeous than I remember,” she said, uncertain as to whether she should put it on or let him, as a couple would do in a normal engagement.

But she didn’t want a normal engagement. She’d already tried falling in love, and it had been a complete disaster. Her cool, considered arrangement with Hassan was much better.

She looked up into Hassan’s dark eyes, and her heart skipped a beat. At least it had been cool and considered, she amended. But for some reason, ever since Hassan had gotten back from Australia, he’d been different.

No, she corrected herself as she studied his familiar features. Hassan wasn’t different. What was different was how she was reacting to him. And she had no idea why.

Hassan answered her unspoken question by taking her hand and slipping the ring on her finger.

“A perfect fit,” Hassan announced, wanting to kiss her again. He wanted to see if it felt the same or if his explosive reaction to their earlier kiss had been a fluke. He wanted.some common sense. He choked off his desire with monumental effort. He had absolutely no business kissing her, because tonight he was going to tell her the truth.

But until then he was playing the part of her fiancé and if he didn’t play the part convincingly, he wouldn’t fool her family. And this whole exercise would have been a waste.

Kali watched the emotions flitting across his face, wondering what he was thinking. She didn’t have a clue. Hassan was turning out to be a lot more complicated than she’d originally thought.