In the Sheikh's Service by Susan Stephens

Author:Susan Stephens [Stephens, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780373139385
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

‘I CAN’T BELIEVE you’re doing this for me,’ Shazim murmured in his usual mocking tone as they reached the entrance of the pavilion.

‘Shazim, I’d do this for an animal.’

His laugh was so free, so uninhibited, that she began to doubt her decision to allow him to stay. Shazim didn’t sound in the least bit tired.

‘I’ll accept your kind offer, on one condition,’ he said, drawing her attention to his shadowed face.

Alarm bells immediately started ringing. ‘Yes? What’s that?’

‘You allow me to check your wounds before you go to bed.’

That seemed reasonable. She could hardly refuse.

‘You were so impatient at the clinic, I’m not happy that I dealt with half of them as thoroughly as I would have liked...’ As Shazim held the tent flap back and she walked past him into the pavilion, she felt like a piece in a game of chess that had just been held in check.

Bathing wounds should not be this pleasurable, she thoughts minutes later, frowning as Shazim’s touch became seductive, rather than strictly therapeutic. ‘Haven’t you attended to that scratch before?’

‘I didn’t have this cream at the clinic,’ he explained. ‘We have special herbal remedies in Q’Aqabi—for just about everything,’ he added with a smile, ‘and there just happened to be some here.’

She watched as he dipped his big hand into a golden casket containing the healing potion. It was hard to believe he could be so gentle, or that she could remain obedient and still for quite so long.

‘You’re smiling?’ he queried.

And she wasn’t about to share the thought. She had sustained quite a few minor injuries during her training, but doubted that any of those big animals had been half as dangerous as Shazim.

‘Better?’ he murmured. Satisfied with his handiwork, he sat back, but as she went to tentatively touch her face he caught hold of her hand and kept it firmly in his grasp. ‘No touching,’ he whispered. ‘Only I am allowed to do that.’

‘Okay,’ she agreed with a shrug. As long as it was only her face he was thinking of touching.

‘You seem nervous, Isla.’

‘Do I?’ Was it so obvious? Intimacy between a man and a woman was so far out of her comfort zone she was surprised she hadn’t jumped off the bed by now, but she had seen tenderness in Shazim’s eyes, and it was hard to be frightened of that.

Was she falling for him?

Certainly not, Isla told herself impatiently. She would never lose sight of the fact that Shazim was the leader of a country, or that she was a vet on a mission to that country.

‘We should call a halt to this,’ she suggested, ‘or I’m going to fall asleep.’

‘No, you’re not,’ Shazim assured her.

Time seemed to stand still. His hands were so soft on her face, and as they moved down to her shoulders, and on her neck, and then her breasts, she didn’t find them threatening at all. Shazim mapped her body so skilfully, so confidently, that she could only receive his touch and wonder why she had put this moment off for so long.

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