Red-Hot Desert Docs. Carol Marinelli

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СКАЧАТЬ don’t need you feeling sorry for me, Zahir.’

      ‘I spoke to her last night, before the incident.’

      He had.

      Zahir had thought long and hard about it.

      He had been avoiding Adele for twelve months now and it had got him precisely nowhere.

      He wasn’t used to avoiding anything, yet his feelings for Adele could challenge a lifetime of thinking and centuries of tradition.

      Wasn’t he asking his father to do the same?

      It was time to face things.

      ‘On Monday she will fly home to Mamlakat Almas. A car would collect you at six in the morning and you would meet her at the airport...and you would return to England on a commercial flight two weeks later.’

      Adele frowned.

      ‘You don’t have to worry about a uniform or what to wear, everything will be provided.’

      She turned and looked at him and for the first time since last night she properly smiled. ‘What does that even mean?’

      ‘Just bring what you feel you want to. We are very used to having guests in the palace and accommodating them.’

      ‘Oh.’

      ‘And if you are worried about something, there will be someone who can advise you. It really will be relaxing and you need that. Especially after last night.’

      Excitement started to ooze in, like jam squeezing out a sandwich as you took a bite, but Adele did what she could to rein it in for now as the car pulled up at her flat.

      ‘I will do some studying up on hysterectomies...’

      ‘Adele.’ Zahir smiled. And in her direction too! ‘It’s a holiday. My mother will just need a little encouragement to walk, especially on the plane, and some reassurance, but we both know a private nurse is a touch unnecessary. She is, though, a queen. The second week would be yours to completely enjoy.’

      ‘I want to see the desert,’ Adele admitted.

      ‘I’m sure it will be arranged.’

      There was such energy between them, he knew that she felt it and how confused she must be by his cool treatment of her.

      ‘You should go in,’ he said, as still they sat outside her flat. ‘Get some rest. You didn’t sleep much last night.’

      ‘I had Gladys singing and Phillip snoring.’

      He said nothing, he was too deep in thought.

      It was Adele who broke the silence.

      ‘Thank you, Zahir. I know you didn’t want me there but I really will take care of her.’

      ‘I know you will. You will love my country. It really is magical.’

      ‘I don’t believe in magic,’ Adele said. She had stopped believing in magic and miracles a very long time ago.

      She had prayed so hard for her mother’s recovery, and had later downgraded that plea to just the tiniest sign that her mother knew she was near.

      Zahir looked at her bruise. ‘You need to ice your eye.’

      ‘I will.’

      ‘And use some arnica cream.’

      ‘Okay.’

      For a second there she felt as if he was going to examine it again but though he raised his hand, he changed his mind.

      And then, in that moment, she felt his resistance.

      He hadn’t been about to examine her.

      Experience counted for nothing in this equation, for Adele had none, but she was quite sure then that she had been about to be kissed.

      Maybe it was the knock to her head that was causing irrational thoughts.

      Lack of sleep.

      Too much want.

      She needed to go, she knew, because she wanted to reach over and kiss him, and if she was reading things wrong she would never get over the shame.

      She opened the car door and then, as she started to get out, she realised that she still had her seat belt on.

      There could be no dignified exit, though, when there was a pulse beating between your legs.

      She went to undo her belt.

      He went to do the same.

      For a year he had relied on self-control.

      It was dissolving.

      Zahir looked into the blue eyes he had wanted to explore since the very first day he had seen her.

      She just stared back at him.

      And then she remembered Bella, all beautiful and no doubt waiting in his home.

      ‘How was the theatre?’ she asked in a voice that was oddly high.

      ‘Terrible,’ Zahir said, though he knew what she meant. ‘Bella and I broke up last night.’

      ‘Because?’ Adele asked.

      ‘Because of this.’

      Do what is essential, he had heard in the desert.

      He had interpreted that as avoiding her, that it was essential to resist her. Now, though, it was essential that they kiss.

      For Adele, after such a horrible night, came the sweetest, most unexpected reward.

      The feel of his lips on hers.

      He kissed her softly and was careful of her sore face.

      And as she moaned to the bliss, he slipped in his tongue and she tasted perfection. She discovered all that had been missing and why a kiss had never worked till now.

      It had needed to be his.

      There was silence in her mind and the sensual soothing of his tongue. Her hand went to the back of his head, and she felt that silk hair on her fingers.

      There was utter relief as he kissed her, soon replaced by the yearning for more.

      He kissed her deeper and his hand slid from her waist to the stomach he had touched last night.

      And now there was tenderness as his hand slipped into her T-shirt and her skin was traced by him.

      She knew then the hell he had gone through.

      Trying to be friendly and to treat her as a patient.

      And СКАЧАТЬ