Castles of Sand by Anne Mather

Author:Anne Mather [Mather, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4603-4760-7
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

“YOU shouldn’t be here,’ she exclaimed resentfully, gathering the two sides of her dress together and wrapping her arms about herself almost protectively. ‘Wh-where’s Nuzab? I want to take a bath. If—if you have something to say to me, couldn’t it wait until later?’

Alain moved into the room, and as he did so the light from above illuminated the hard lines of his face beneath the kaffiyeh. The marks her nails had made were only faintly visible now, and could easily have been excused as the results of using too sharp a razor, but the remembrance of their last interview could not be so easily erased.

‘No,’ he said heavily now, ‘it cannot wait, Ashley. I am dining with my father this evening, and I came here at this time to speak with you before the demands of business supersede all else. I shall not have time to speak with you later.’

‘Then speak to me tomorrow,’ she retorted, moving her shoulders dismissingly. ‘I’m hot and I’m tired, Alain, and quite honestly, I can think of nothing we have to say to one another that couldn’t wait—’

‘Can you not?’ he grated, stepping into her path when she would have brushed past him, and gripping her arm with an iron hold. ‘But then you do not call the tune here, Ashley—I do, and it is I who shall decide when we have speech, do you understand?’

Ashley refused to be intimidated, even though his fingers were digging into her flesh. It was not all that difficult when she had so many other sensations to combat, not least her awareness of his brooding magnetism, accentuated by the nearness of his body. She could imagine so well the brown-skinned limbs beneath his loose robe, the sinewed hardness of his chest, the flatness of his stomach, the muscled length of his legs. She could remember those legs covering hers, his body pressing hers down into the softness of a mattress, and the pulsing thrust of his possession…

Her breathing quickened, but her expression never changed. He should not see that he was hurting her, she determined, forcing all other thoughts away, and waited mutely for him to continue.

‘Where have you been?’ he enquired, with controlled emphasis, and she managed to answer him with equal self-possession.

‘Your mother invited me to go driving with her,’ she replied, holding up her head, and his expression hardened at the challenge in her eyes.

‘I meant—where did she take you?’ he persisted, making no move to release her, and the encroaching numbness of her arm caused Ashley to speak more recklessly.

‘Don’t you know?’ she exclaimed. ‘Didn’t Muhammed tell you? I’m sure he could have done. He seems to know everything around here.’

‘I am asking you,’ declared Alain coldly, and Ashley’s control snapped.

‘Is this why you’re here?’ she demanded. ‘To find out what I’ve been doing in your absence? Are these the important questions that couldn’t wait until tomorrow?’

‘Ashley!’

‘Well—’ She paid no heed to his warning admonition. ‘Why have you come here? To taunt

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