Sheathed in jeans and an open shirt, his bronzed skin shadowed by stubble, his stunning eyes gleaming at her from between lush lashes, Rafiq was a lethally lustrous and rawly masculine presence. Instantly her senses went on high alert, her heart rate increasing and, that quickly, she wanted to slap herself until she wised up. It was one thing to be attracted to the man she had married, quite another to break out in a girlish fever just because she was seeing him for the first time that day.
‘My uncle sends his profuse apologies for dragging me back to Hayad for the day and leaving you alone here.’
‘The fire…was it serious?’
Rafiq nodded grimly. ‘A club popular with our young people. Although there were few deaths, many serious injuries were caused by the panic that broke out once the alarms and the sprinklers went off. I have been dealing with distraught parents and fire officials all day,’ he confided heavily, studying her with appreciation. ‘It is a relief to come back here and find you sitting calmly beneath the trees looking as fresh as a daisy.’
‘But not feeling calm,’ she muttered awkwardly, never able to be comfortable accepting a compliment and cringing because that made her feel as gauche as an adolescent.
‘I understand that Dr Karim needed to attend you this afternoon.’
‘Yes and he’s very charming,’ Izzy responded with a stiff smile. ‘Why is there a resident doctor?’
‘Because you’re here and my uncle is very mindful of your health and keen to ensure that, should there be any kind of emergency, expert care is on hand,’ he admitted. ‘But while the doctor is here, he is also treating the staff and the local Bedouin. He will have a constant procession of patients requesting his attention.’
Izzy relaxed a little more and watched Rafiq take a seat opposite her, the sheer vibrancy of him that close tugging at her with invisible cords.
Rafiq drank in the sight of her, as pretty as a picture, and swiftly looked away again, troubled by the shuttered look in her once clear eyes and her defensive posture. He was responsible for that change in her, he reminded himself broodingly. She no longer trusted him. He had made a huge error with his assumptions and destroyed any faith she had had in him. He had screwed up royally and now he had to redress the damage at the same time as he concentrated on achieving the end goal he wanted.
‘Now, tell me,’ he urged. ‘Are you well?’
His air of gravity made her frown. ‘It was only a bit of sickness, Rafiq, nothing serious, nothing unexpected. Please don’t fuss over me. I’m young, strong and healthy.’
‘I don’t see concern as fussing,’ Rafiq countered. ‘Obviously, I will worry about your well-being. I am keenly aware that what we discussed last night was destructive. Now you don’t trust me. You may even fear that I could be planning to try and take our children from you.’
Izzy turned pale at that suggestion and gooseflesh cooled her arms as fright gripped her. ‘No, I hadn’t got quite that far yet but I don’t want to even hear you say such a thing.’
‘Fears voiced aloud cause less concern than those that remain secret and unspoken,’ Rafiq murmured. ‘I don’t want you worrying about anything at the moment. Stress is bad for you.’
‘Stress is an integral part of being temporarily married to and pregnant by a…a stranger,’ Izzy muttered in an apologetic rush. ‘You don’t feel like a stranger to me. Somehow you never did but how much do I really know about you and what you could, ultimately, be capable of? And where do we go from here?’
Disconcertingly when she least expected it, Rafiq smiled, a flashing charismatic smile that warmed her chilled and anxious body from the inside out. ‘We will work it out, Izzy. I promise you that we will work it out without any harm or hurt to anyone,’ he assured her.
His sheer confidence blasted out at her like a force field, the controlled power of the nature he hid behind a cool, measured facade lacing his stunning dark eyes and flawless masculine features as he studied her.
‘That’s a lovely idea but I don’t think it will prove possible in the long run,’ Izzy countered heavily. ‘We’re going to fight—’
‘We are not going to fight,’ Rafiq sliced in with conviction as she shifted, the hem of her dress lifting to reveal delicate ankles wrapped in impossibly feminine ribbon ties. It was the ribbons that he found sexy, he told himself, unable to imagine any ribbon attached to Izzy’s body that he wouldn’t want to tug loose and untie. Hardening, he shifted position, regretting his tight jeans. ‘I may have been apart from you today but, believe me, I didn’t waste my time. I considered all our options and we have many more than you seem to think.’
‘Options?’ Izzy repeated, her brow furrowing. ‘Like maybe…we separate now before everything gets even more complicated?’
His dense spiky lashes dipped to screen his gaze and he almost swore in frustration at that startling suggestion. ‘That definitely wasn’t one of my options,’ he admitted.
Her attention lingered on his full sensual mouth, framed and accentuated as it was by a blue black shadow of stubble. A hot liquid sensation tugged in her pelvis and she pressed her thighs together, sudden painfully intense hunger gripping her like a dangerous drug. ‘Well, what was…er…your preferred option?’ she prompted, dry-mouthed, so tense that she couldn’t even swallow.
The silence simmered like a haze of heat on a hot day, blurring her surroundings and the clarity of her thoughts but fully centring her attention on him.
‘Easier than yours… I think,’ Rafiq husked, springing upright with that lithe, fluid grace that stabbed her with a longing she could not control.
‘Easier?’ she questioned breathlessly.
Without the smallest warning, Rafiq bent down and scooped her up off the padded sofa into his arms. A startled sound
