Steamy Cairo Nights by Nicki Pascarella

Author:Nicki Pascarella [Pascarella, Nicki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Erotic Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2022-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Tia

Travel websites didn’t accurately depict the enormity and majestic power of the Red Pyramid. The wind whipped the sand about, creating a dream-like blur to the panorama, adding to the structure’s mystical feel.

The line of tourists that made their way along the walkway, then up a steep staircase leading to the entrance resembled miniature Lilliputians.

“Can we go inside?” Tia asked.

The desert howl drowned out Mikeal’s response, but his nod indicated agreement.

She popped onto her toes and pointed at a camel in a colorful saddle resplendent with pompoms.

Mikeal laughed and called into her ear, “For your firstborn child and your life savings, you can sit on the camel and have a photo taken.” He took his phone from his pocket. “For a kiss, I will take your picture with the camel in the background.”

More of his photos! She playfully hit his shoulder.

“Let me rephrase,” he said. “I would like to take your picture.”

Why would he want a picture of her unless it was to hang it on his wall of silly-American-dancers-who-come-to-Cairo-thinking-they-can-make-it photos?

Pep talk number two million—you’re being ridiculous, Tia Livingston. A man would not take a woman he intended to repeatedly humiliate to meet his grandmother. She let her scarf slide down to expose her face and smiled.

“Another?” Mikeal called.

As he focused the lens on her, she struck a cheeky showgirl pose.

After a few shots, he ran to her side and slid beside her for a selfie.

Following their million photos, they joined the crowd, climbed the stairwell, bent low to enter, then navigated the cramped space.

“You aren’t claustrophobic, are you?” Mikeal asked.

“No.” Thank goodness, because if she had been, she’d have hyperventilated in the tight quarters.

As they climbed farther into the bowels of the marvelous structure, a foul stench overwhelmed her. She covered her nose. “What’s that?” Could someone have exported ripe garbage from a New York City heatwave?

Mikael’s handsome face contorted into a horrible grimace. “Bat urine.”

“Eww.”

“Double eww,” Mikeal said. “And this is why locals call it the Bat Pyramid.”

They traversed long corridors of tan-and-gray walls beneath red ceilings.

While studying the interesting juxtaposition of colors, Tia tripped over an unexpected step.

Mikeal caught and steadied her. “Are you okay?”

She was more than okay. Even though they were in a dark, rank tunnel full of people, she pecked him on the cheek.

His breath hitched.

“I owed you a kiss,” she said.

“For the camel photo?”

She leaned close to whisper. “Yes. And for this perfect afternoon.”

****

It had only been a couple of hours, but Mikeal’s grandmother greeted them as if they had been gone for a year. She fixed them another meal of homemade falafel and mint yogurt dip. For dessert, she served warm cups of bread baked with pistachios, coconut flakes, raisins, milk, and cinnamon.

She smiled from ear to ear as Mikeal ate two portions.

Tia didn’t require persuasion to finish every drop of her Om Ali.

Mikeal shared their photos as Tia described them to their attentive audience of one.

Tia practiced her Egyptian, and Jidu practiced her English.

Amber specks glimmered in Mikeal’s brown eyes when he laughed.

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