Desert Rogues Part 2 (77 page)

Later that evening Kiley excused herself and walked toward the champagne fountain. As she reached for a glass, she felt someone come up behind her.

“Kiley? What are you doing here?”

She picked up the glass, then turned and saw Eric next to her.

The last time she'd spoken with him, she'd caught him in bed with another woman. Her first thought was to wonder how she could have been so stupid where he was concerned. Her second was to wish she'd stayed with Rafiq rather than getting something to drink.

“I'm attending the fund-raiser,” she said quietly, turning to where Rafiq still stood in conversation with a business associate. “I'm surprised you're not still in Hawaii.”

Eric shook his head. “I couldn't stop thinking about you. About us.”

“How unfortunate for you.”

She started to leave, but he put his hand on her arm. “Wait. You have to listen.”

She stared at his hand on her bare skin and waited to feel something. They'd been engaged for three years—there had to be some emotion left.

But there wasn't. Not about Eric, anyway. All she felt was a strong need to return to Rafiq.

Which said what about her? That she hadn't loved Eric? That he'd become a habit? Was it possible? But as much as she searched her heart, she couldn't seem to find anything stronger than bruised pride and anger at being played for a fool.

“I'm talking to you,” Eric snapped.

She blinked as she realized he
had
been saying something.

“I guess I'm not interested in listening,” she said, and pulled free of his touch.

“Are you with him now?” he asked, pointing at Rafiq.

“Yes.”

Eric's eyes narrowed. “I always knew there was something going on between the two of you. Dammit, Kiley, you lied to me.”

“I did no such thing. Until Monday morning, he was simply my boss. Of course, all that has changed now.”

She had the satisfaction of watching Eric go pale. “You can't be sleeping with him.”

“Really? Why not?”

“You're nothing like his other women.”

“I suppose that's true, but I'm okay with that.”

Eric swore under his breath. “I treated you like a porcelain doll.”

“Oh, is that what you call it? From my perspective, you were a lying bastard who cheated on me regularly. It's not my idea of respect or affection.”

“We had something great together,” he told her.

“That would be my line to you.” She took a step back. “You could have had me, Eric, and you blew it completely. Now it's over. Ironically, I'm grateful. A few days away from you have shown me there was a whole lot less to our relationship than I realized.” She turned to leave.

He stepped next to her. “Rafiq doesn't give a damn about you. He's just using you for sex.”

“Perhaps that has happened in the past, but in this case, you're wrong. He's not using me for sex. I'm using him.”

She thought Eric was going to faint. The color fled his face and his breathing stopped. “You can't be. You were saving yourself for marriage.”

“You're right, and look what it got me. Now if you'll excuse me, I must return to my lover.”

With that she walked away.

Kiley sipped from her champagne glass and tried not to grin too broadly. But it was hard to act calm when she wanted to race to Rafiq's side and give him a high-five.

She'd faced Eric and had walked away the winner. He hadn't intimidated her or made her feel bad. She'd said what she'd wanted to and then she'd left. It was a huge victory and she felt like celebrating.

But as she approached their table, she saw Rafiq was no longer speaking with an oil executive from Bahania. Instead he was engaged in a very intense conversation with a beautiful woman.

She was petite and perfectly dressed in dark red. A little older than Rafiq, perhaps, but only by a few years.

Kiley stopped and watched them for a few seconds, then headed for the restroom. Her excitement at her victory over Eric faded and in its place was a low pain in her stomach.

She wasn't crazy enough to worry about every conversation Rafiq had with a woman. But there had been something different this time. An intimacy. They knew each other and had for a long time. There was a past between them.

He had demanded fidelity and had promised the same in return. Had he meant it? Were all men incapable of being faithful, or did she simply bring out that trait in the ones she knew?

T
hey left the hotel shortly after midnight. Rafiq never liked to stay to the end, and Kiley had seemed pleased when he'd suggested leaving. He wondered at the reasons. Sometime after dinner she'd gotten quiet.

Now, in the silence of the car, he prepared himself to find out what was wrong. In the way of most women, she would at first say nothing. He would be forced to ask again and again until she finally told him. It was a flaw in the female psyche—an inability to state the problem the first time asked.

Often Rafiq simply didn't bother. The pain wasn't worth the reward. But in this case he wanted to know what troubled Kiley and, if possible, fix it.

“You are very quiet,” he said. “Did something happen tonight to upset you?”

Was it Eric? She'd told him about her conversation with the other man. At the time he would have sworn she felt nothing for her ex-fiancé, but perhaps she was remembering what could have been.

He didn't like that, but there was little he could do to stop her from missing Eric. Reminding her of what the other man had done to her seemed cruel. He knew Kiley was sensible enough to recover eventually, but selfishly, he wanted her attention now.

“I saw you talking with someone,” she said. “A woman. Petite. Beautiful. I told myself it was probably nothing, but the conversation seemed…intimate.”

It took him a moment to realize what she was talking about. Had she actually answered his question without prompting? He was so surprised, he nearly missed the point of her words.

“Are you concerned there is a woman from my past who may come between us?” he asked.

“Sort of.”

Her honesty surprised him. He recalled the evening and searched for someone who fit her description. There had been no ex-lovers there. No one who could have made Kiley uncomfortable. His conversations had been with business associates and their wives.

Except for one woman.

“Was she a few years older and wearing a red dress?”

Kiley glanced at him. “That would be the one. You know her. You have a past with her. I understand that it's very likely that you'll run into women you've known. I'm not saying you can't be friends with them, but we have an agreement that we'll both be faithful. As you can imagine, I'm a little touchy on the subject. I need to know you'll keep your end of the deal.”

Under any other circumstances, he would have laughed, but he was aware of how difficult it had been for her to speak her mind.

“I assure you, I will never be unfaithful to you. I do not give my word capriciously, and once given, it bonds me to the death.”

He glanced at her and saw her eyes widen.

“Wow,” she murmured. “Okay, then. I guess I have to believe you.”

“Even if you did not, I can assure you that the woman I spoke with earlier will never be a threat to you.”

“A bad breakup?”

“Not in the way you mean. She is my mother.”

He enjoyed the sharp intake of breath, then Kiley's stunned silence. They arrived at her apartment before she could gather her thoughts.

After parking, he escorted her inside and waited while she turned on the lights.

“Would you like something to drink?” she asked. “I have wine in the refrigerator.”

“I'll get it,” he told her, and made his way into her small kitchen.

Signs of her were everywhere. In the brightly colored curtains at the window, in the stack of books on the kitchen table and the cartoon mug in the sink. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out the bottle of white wine. As he did he noticed a clear plastic container with several chocolate-dipped strawberries and smiled. Did she plan to seduce him later? He must remember to make it easy for her to do so.

When he returned to the living room, she'd kicked off her high heels. He took off his jacket, then settled next to her on the sofa and opened the bottle of wine.

“Tell me about your mother,” she said quietly. “If she's here and your father is happily married in Lucia-Serrat, I'm guessing they divorced?”

“They never married.” He handed her a glass of wine, touched it with his, then leaned back in the sofa. “Many years ago, she was an actress. She came to the island to film a movie. My father was young, just seventeen and he fell madly in love with her. Or he wanted to sleep with her. At seventeen they can be the same thing. I'm not sure what she felt about him—she never said. I know they had an affair, and I was the result.”

Kiley sipped her wine and put the glass on the coffee table. She reached up and unfastened her earrings. “It could have been romantic. Young love, an impetuous relationship that results in a baby.”

“It wasn't. My father was too young to marry and
his
father disapproved. My mother pushed hard to be a princess, but when that didn't happen, she agreed to a cash settlement.”

Kiley paused in the act of undoing her necklace and looked properly outraged. “Money? She took money for her baby. She let herself be
paid?
”

“On the condition that she leave me behind and not have anything to do with me until I came of age.”

“That's horrible.” Her blue eyes darkened with compassion. “Rafiq, you must have been crushed.”

“I was an infant and unaware of the circumstances.” He shrugged. “I was raised by several attentive nurses and nannies. I wanted for very little.”

“I don't believe that.” She slipped the jewelry into his coat pocket. “Don't forget you have those. I can't believe she left you. Her child. I can't imagine any mother doing that.”

Her combination of practicality and compassion delighted him. She was as he had imagined—without pretense. He could gaze into her eyes and see directly into her soul.

She leaned close and touched his face. “What she did was very wrong and I'll never forgive her.”

“I'm sure she'll be disappointed.”

Kiley smiled. “You know what I mean.” Her smile faded. “Are you close now?”

“Not at all. We speak. I have lunch with her once or twice a year. She likes me to come to parties so she can show me off. Sometimes I agree to her request.”

He had no opinion of his mother one way or the other. She had made her choice long ago. He had grown up without her and couldn't imagine a world in which she mattered to him.

“What of Eric?” he asked, capturing Kiley's hand in his and kissing the tips of her fingers. “You spoke?”

She nodded. “Not for long. Did you see us?”

“Yes. He was angry.”

“I guess.” She ducked her head. “When he said you were going to take advantage of me, I informed him that it was the other way around. I was using you for sex.”

Rafiq laughed. “Good for you.”

She looked at him. “I didn't feel anything. I tried, but there was nothing. A little anger that he was such a jerk and I'm still embarrassed by what I saw when he was doing it with that other woman, but that's it. Shouldn't I be really upset by now? Shouldn't it all matter? What if I didn't love him?”

“Then not getting married is for the best.”

“I know, but what does it say about me that I didn't realize I'd fallen out of love with him?”

“Sometimes we can't see what's right in front of us. You escaped. Be grateful.”

“Oh, I am. He's the last man I would ever want to be with. What a loser.”

Rafiq had grown tired of speaking of another man. He lightly licked her palm, then asked, “What are you wearing under your dress?”

The question stunned Kiley but didn't embarrass her. She recognized the light of passion flaring in Rafiq's eyes and couldn't wait to get close to the fire.

“A strapless bra and panties.”

Nothing about his expression changed, but she felt the tension in his body. Her own answered with a slight quiver. He stood and held out his hand.

“Dance with me,” he said.

She allowed him to pull her to her feet. There wasn't any music, but somehow that didn't seem necessary. The evening was perfect—something out of a movie, and she was the star.

He pulled her into his arms. She snuggled close and relaxed into the slow, swaying movements. She was aware of the night, the shadows in the corner, and the quiet. Her senses captured every detail of the moment—the scent of his body, the heat growing between them, the smooth fabric of his shirt, the way his cheek brushed against her temple. She wanted with an intensity that surprised her. He would be her first time, but somehow that thought no longer made her nervous. She welcomed his touch and his instruction.

He kissed her shoulder, then her neck. She turned her head so their mouths could meet. His firm lips pressed against her own. She parted for him, wanting him to take her, to tempt her until she was willing to do anything.

He swept inside and she tasted the wine and the man. As they kissed, she felt his hands on her back. They moved up and down stroking her from shoulder to hip. The rhythmic movement both lulled and aroused. When he tugged at her zipper, she knew he meant to undress her.

Anticipation swept through her. She was eager for the next lesson, eager to discover everything. Rafiq drew back and looked into her eyes.

“When you were with Eric,” he said quietly, “did he ever make you climax?”

Talk about a mood breaker, Kiley thought as she blushed, then reached for the front of her dress to keep it from slipping. She cleared her throat, then murmured, “Not really.”

Rafiq smiled. “I wanted to be sure.”

“Yes, well, now you are.”

He cupped her face in his hands. “I want to please you tonight. I want to show you the pleasure locked in your body. Will you allow me that?”

The intensity of his gaze took her breath away. His words made her want to follow him to the ends of the earth. Speaking seemed impossible, so she nodded.

He dropped his hands to hers and slowly drew them down to her sides. Gravity took over and her dress dropped to the floor.

She stood there, practically naked and painfully exposed. Time passed, and he didn't speak, didn't react at all. Just when she was about to duck for cover, he groaned low in his throat, bent down and gathered her in his arms, holding her against him.

“I want you,” he said in a low growl. “All of you. I want to touch you and taste you and claim you.” He stared at her, his expression possessive. “You will be mine.”

The proclamation thrilled her, as much as his physically sweeping her off her feet. No one had ever been interested enough to want to claim her before. She wasn't exactly sure what he meant, but she was willing to go along with whatever he had in mind.

Rafiq made his way into her bedroom and gently placed her on the bed. Before she could worry about what to do next, he pulled her close and began to kiss her.

Long, slow, deep kisses. Kisses that left her breathless and shaken and touched her soul. She clung to him, holding on to hard muscles, straining to get closer, even as he moved his hands over her bare back.

She liked the feel of him touching her skin. He explored the length of her spine, then cupped her hip before moving to the top of her bare thigh. Goose bumps erupted.

He shifted her so that she stretched out on her back, with him looming over her. His lips turned up slightly, as if he were about to smile. She brushed her thumb against his mouth.

“You're very beautiful,” he murmured. “Your skin is soft.” He rested his hand on her belly. “I want you to relax and enjoy what I do to you. Tonight is just for play, so you can get used to me being close to you.”

She wasn't exactly sure what he meant, although she was fairly certain he meant they weren't going all the way. She had a moment of disappointment, then he began to unbutton his shirt and she found herself distracted by his broad chest.

She put her hands on him and explored the contours, the way flesh molded muscle and how those muscles tensed when she lightly brushed over them. He bent down and kissed her. She parted for him, even as she slid her hands around to stroke his back.

He explored her mouth with his tongue, then slipped away before she'd had all she wanted. But as his destination seemed just as interesting as kissing, she decided not to protest.

Even as her eyes fluttered closed, she felt him move down her neck, then the hollow between her breasts. He licked her there, then nibbled on the sensitive skin by the edge of her bra. He moved his hand from her stomach around to her side. She shifted slightly so he could reach behind her and unfasten the hooks.

Her breath caught in anticipation as he pulled away the bra. A puff of warm air was her only warning, then his mouth claimed her right breast in an openmouthed kiss that made her body clench and her hands reach for him.

She touched his shoulders, his back, then buried her fingers in his dark hair.

“Yes,” she breathed.