CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The journey back to Qabiyah was a stark contrast with their nighttime trek to his encampment.
As Ahmed held Gemma close to him this time, the mere touch of her body triggered an ache and longing in him.
The whole journey felt utterly different than two nights ago. He did not want her to leave. He'd been shocked at the suddenness of her decision this morning. He still could hardly believe it.
But it was true.
Perhaps this whole sudden attraction had been doomed from the beginning.
He made sure she reached her rental car. He'd offered to arrange for his limo to take her home to Qazhar city, but she'd been firm with him. She wanted to drive back on her own.
He'd watched her get into the car and drive off along the dusty desert track. As he'd watched her go, he'd felt the same burning disappointment he'd felt back at the encampment.
How had this all fallen apart so quickly? Last night, they'd shared a passion that had moved them both. She'd made him feel things he'd never thought possible. And he had been sure she had felt exactly the same way as he did.
But, he'd obviously been wrong. It hadn't been the first time he'd misjudged Gemma.
Would it turn out to be the last?
Once she had left Qabiyah, Ahmed went into the village and found his driver, who had been waiting for him since Ahmed had decided to gamble and pursue Gemma to Qabiyah.
He instructed his driver to take him immediately back to the city.
As Ahmed sat in the back seat of the limo, gazing out the window, the desert landscape no longer seemed so glorious to him. In fact, it seemed positively barren, now that Gemma was gone.
He wondered what she was planning back in the city. Perhaps, once she'd posted an account of her escapade in the desert, everything would return to normal. It would all seem so exotic, so exciting to her hordes of followers.
Ahmed wondered how she would describe her experience. How she would exploit it for her own benefit. Because, he suspected that somehow, she might do that.
There was also the chance that once Rashid had heard about where she had been, he would be eager to take some advantage of it, for himself.
That thought made Ahmed grit his teeth, tighten his jaw and peer darkly out through the limo window.
He would not let that happen. His time with Gemma at the encampment had been too special for it to be made into something trivial, mere entertainment for others.
No.
Ahmed was sure that Gemma would resist such a move by Rashid. In fact, he was almost sure she wouldn't tell anyone. Not even her social media followers.
Would that be the ultimate test of the bond they'd forged between each other? Whether Gemma would keep her experience with Ahmed private?
Because if she did, that just might be a signal for him.
A second chance for him.
If she did keep it all between herself and him, if she refused to share it with the outside world, might that mean she'd changed her mind? That she did really want him?
Time could be a great healer. It could wash away all doubt. It might give Gemma the chance to reflect on what she had just cast aside.
Because, hadn't she just pushed Ahmed firmly away. Just like she'd done on almost every occasion.
Except, of course, last night. She hadn't kept him at bay then. In fact, it had been quite the opposite. She'd scarcely been able to let him go. Especially after her first peak had been reached.
He thought of the way she'd embraced him, held him, kissed him.
She belonged in his arms. Destiny had brought her to him and he wouldn't be denied the chance to follow that fate all the way to its end.
Their love-making had been so intense, so incredible that he hadn't even considered the possibility that Gemma would turn her back on him. Not in the way she'd done.
Not with such suddenness.
He wondered what had driven her to that. He refused to believe she considered what had passed between them as nothing more than a temporary encounter. One that could be forgotten like a one night stand.
Fate had something very special in store for them both. He could feel it in his bones.
And he was sure she felt the same way, even if, right now, she didn't know it. He could understand her being thrown off balance. His own world had been turned upside down, so he wasn't surprised that she'd felt like that this morning.
Maybe she'd acted too hastily.
But, he'd had to respect her choice. He always would respect her choices, however inconvenient he found them.
Even as he thought that, Ahmed knew what he was really trying to convince himself of.
And what was that?
It was simple, really.
He wasn't going to let Gemma go. She had come into his life and he was not going to lose her.
The storm around the tent last night had felt like his heart was feeling right now. Gemma had been like a whirlwind sweeping into his life.
His love for her was a force of nature which had taken possession of him.
And he wasn't about to give that up.
Not without a fight.
He knew what he had to do, and he could not wait to get back to the city.
"YOU'RE BACK!" NATALIE SCREAMED DOWN the phone at Gemma.
Gemma sat back on the sofa in her apartment and pictured Natalie's expression. She could just see the excited look on her friend's face.
"Where did you go?" Natalie asked breathlessly. "I was so worried about you."
"You didn't have to worry about me, Natalie. Everything was fine. I just needed some time to myself."
"Yourself? You mean, you weren't with someone?"
Gemma smiled. "Well. I was on my own for most of the time," she admitted. "But I'm not saying anything more, for now," she said over the sound of Natalie's screaming from the other end of the line.
"It was him, wasn't it?" Natalie demanded to know.
"I made a promise, Natalie. And I'm not ready to break it."
"What do you mean?"
"Just what I say. I have some thinking to do," Gemma explained.
Natalie made a sound that told Gemma her friend was now intrigued. But she wouldn't give Natalie any more details.
Not until she'd made the decision which she'd been mulling over during the drive back to the city.
That decision might possibly be life-changing. She smiled wryly. As if what had happened up there, in the desert, hadn't been life changing enough, she told herself.
"I see you haven't posted online anything since you got back," Natalie said.
"I'm still thinking about what I want to tell everyone."
Natalie snorted. "You do know you're driving me nuts with all this mystery, don't you," she exclaimed. "And everyone is still talking about you and..." Natalie paused a moment, then added, "the other person," Natalie said, avoiding any mention of Ahmed.
Gemma was relieved that Natalie hadn't mentioned Ahmed by name. That would have opened another line of questioning, and she definitely didn't want to go down that route.
Not until she'd made sense of everything.
"I'm not trying to drive you or anybody else crazy," Gemma replied. She thought for a moment. "I've been doing enough of that to myself recently," she muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" her friend asked.
"Nothing," Gemma replied. "Forget I said it."
"Sounds like you've got stuff to think about. Like, serious stuff?"
Gemma nodded. "You could say that. I thought by going away for a while, I'd make things easier for myself. Instead, I seem to have made things more complicated."
Natalie sighed heavily. "I'm going to hang up any minute," she stated. "Any more of this teasing of yours, and I'll have to go online myself and tell everyone you're back." Natalie paused dramatically. "But behaving very strangely," she drawled.
Gemma knew Natalie was probably only joking. Natalie wouldn't do anything like that. They'd been the best of friends for too long for that to happen.
"I'm sorry, Nat," Gemma said. "Just give me a little time."
"Okay," Natalie agreed.
Gemma felt relief when she heard her best friend agree to keeping her secret for just a little while longer.
"I just wanted you to know I'm safe," Gemma said. "You know I love you," she added.
Natalie paused and Gemma was sure she could hear a little snuffling sound at the other end of the phone.
"And I love you too, Gemma," Natalie replied, her voice cracking slightly.
"I gotta go," Gemma announced.
"Call me later, okay," Natalie said.
And that was that, Gemma told herself. The first person she'd wanted to speak to since coming back had been Natalie. And she'd done it. She didn't want Natalie worrying any more.
Gemma peered at the screen of her phone. She scrolled through both of her main social media accounts. Things had quietened down a little since she'd been gone.
Well, at least that was one thing to be grateful for, she told herself.
Still, there were plenty of desperate messages demanding to know how long her "social media holiday" was going to last. It seemed as if going dark online, as she'd done for two whole days, was enough to drive some people crazy.
There were lots of photos of Ahmed. They'd been dug up by some of her more enterprising followers. Many of the images had been tagged with messages that varied from the funny to the downright crude.
It seemed as if Ahmed had made quite an impression while she was gone. Even when he had been isolated in the desert with her, life had carried on.
Gemma wondered how Ahmed would react to all the extra attention.
Probably he'd take it all in his stride, she thought. It would take more than a few online comments to ruffle his feathers.
Some of the photos of Ahmed had been taken at receptions and events over the last few years. As she scrolled through them, she could see the changes in his appearance. How he'd developed and grown more mature.
A few years ago, he'd still retained a youthful, almost immature quality. But now, there was nothing immature about the man with whom she'd shared a bed only hours before.
No.
Ahmed was all man, in every possible way.
She glanced at the more recent photos, admiring his gorgeous good looks, his winning smile, his sheer unadulterated sexiness. Just looking at the pictures reminded her of how she'd felt lying with him, alongside him.
Beneath him.
She sighed and stretched back on the sofa. She groaned and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what on earth she was going to do.
During the entire trip across the desert with him, coming back to Qabiyah, she'd felt the way he'd held her. It hadn't been like the way he'd held her close on their first horse ride together.
No. This time it had felt as if Ahmed did not want to let her go. That if she went away, something vital would have been taken out of his life.
Once again, she asked herself how it could be that such a sudden attraction could have developed between them.
Was it only the beginning? Or was it the end?
As she'd driven her car along the straight highway, back toward Qazhar city, Gemma had tried to understand what had compelled her to run from him the way she'd done.
Had it just been fear of the future? Or had it just been her habitual reluctance to be involved with anyone?
But surely that couldn't apply to the man she had just given herself to, could it? In being with Ahmed in the most intimate way possible, she had assured herself of one thing, above all else.
She would never be the same again.
With or without Ahmed.
She felt a tightness in her chest and a familiar unease settle in her belly.
And wasn't that what this was all about?
That simple choice.
Was she going to go forward with him?
Or without him.
She took her phone and went to one of her social media pages. The one she used to type in her hourly, sometimes more frequent, messages to her followers.
The empty box stared back at her. She stared at the number next to it. The one that told her how many million followers she had.
They were waiting.
She thought of what she'd said to Ahmed. The promise she'd given him. The one about respecting his privacy.
It would be so easy just to type a few words in that empty box and announce to the world that she had just spent the most incredible night of her life with the world's sexiest man.
If she wanted she could have made it sound so superficial, so trivial. Almost as if it didn't really matter that much.
And she knew that if she made that announcement they would all go wild. There would be a frenzy.
And it would all center around Ahmed.
Never mind her life, she thought. Ahmed's life would be turned upside down.
He deserved better than that.
Now that she knew him, now that he knew her so intimately, she knew she could not do such a thing.
What they'd shared up at the encampment was too important, too special for that.
Up there, this morning, she'd acted impulsively. Almost in a panic when she'd realized what had happened. The connection they'd made together was special. Something she'd never thought she'd find in her life, let alone so rapidly.
Maybe there was something else for her and Ahmed to explore, she told herself.
In admitting that to herself, she knew she was setting herself up for a whole lot of complications. Maybe things would work out. In her heart, she believed there was a chance.
But would they work out?
In her heart, she knew the answer to that question.
She looked at the screen of her cell phone.
There was only one message she wanted to post there. And it would be one that respected Ahmed's wishes for privacy as well here own desire to send a signal.
To the anonymous people she'd never even met.
But, more importantly, to the man who'd changed everything for her.
She typed into the empty box and breathed out a satisfied sigh.
HELLO. I'M HERE
She sat back and smiled, wondering if he would see the message. If he would understand what she was saying.
The answer came thirty minutes later, when she heard a soft knock at her door.