Chapter 9
Amir watched Alexandra’s face bloom with color as he sucked on her fingers and her lips, and he had mercy on her. There would be more time for play soon, but he knew he had to take things relatively slowly until she felt relaxed enough to trust him completely. He was the first to admit, though, that holding off on his desires was an exercise in extreme self-restraint and patience, and he was fairly certain that it was high on the list of tortures for men who were falling in love. He had plans to take her to the oasis a few hours away from the palace, to ride with her, to swim, and to seduce her into his bed for the first time. He could wait a little longer to taste those other lips that he had yet to see, and to feel her body accepting his own.
“I suppose I ought to let you get back to work,” he said, standing and pulling her up with him.
He escorted her out of the tent, and as they walked through the shaded garden, he pointed out the roses that had been special to his mother, who had planted this garden with the help of the royal groundskeeper. The brilliant hues and scents of the flowers always filled him with such peace, and were a beautiful reminder of the woman he had never stopped missing. He knew he wanted the one walking by his side to be the woman to fill the spaces he had not known needed filling, and he would do everything he knew how to do to win her. A sound ahead of them made him look up, and Amina stood there, just inside the open door to the entrance, waiting. Amir felt his hackles rise. He had no idea what she could be doing in his home.
Beside him, he could feel Alexandra stiffen, and he knew what she saw. Amina was a beautiful woman, and the smile that she had plastered across her face was designed to dazzle. He wished he could reassure Alexandra that everything would be all right, but they had reached the door, and Amina was speaking.
“Good afternoon, Prince Amir!” she said, her voice a sultry purr. “Malik told me that you were at lunch. Who is your guest?”
Amir bristled, but hid his irritation. “Princess Amina Mohammed, meet Ms. Alexandra Downing. Alexandra, Princess Amina.”
He chose not to identify Alexandra any further, hoping that this woman he thought he had gotten rid of would take the hint and move on.
“I didn’t know you had house guests, my prince,” she murmured, casting a disinterested eye over Alexandra, and clearly dismissing her.
Amir did not respond, and Alexandra remained silent until they got to the long hallway that led to his father’s suite. Then she turned to him, and said quietly, her face expressionless,
“Thank you for lunch, Prince Amir. It was very kind of you. Please excuse me, now. I must get back to work.” Casting an equally bland glance in Amina’s direction, she added, “Princess!” before turning and walking away.
Amir held on to his rising anger by a thin thread when Amina spoke next.
“Work? What work does the American do for you, my prince?”
Her eyes and tone made the question sound less than innocent. He wasn’t obliged to explain the workings of his household to anyone, least of all the woman he had dismissed from his life a week ago. He gritted his teeth and turned away from her, and instead of replying, he asked as he walked,
“Why are you here, Princess?”
“My father asked me to bring you a personal invitation to our home,” she replied, walking beside him. “We will be hosting an official reception for emissaries from our neighboring nations on Friday evening, and he thought you would like to be a part of the event. We know how you like to be involved in anything to do with the security of our borders.”
Amir saw through the ruse at once. No doubt Sheikh Mustafa was looking to reel him back in by hosting this event, because he knew how seriously Amir took Mubaira’s border and national security. And to send Amina with the invitation was strategic. Doubtless, he hoped that another look at her, in all her beauty and allure, would make Amir at least question his decision to end things between them, and hopefully change his mind.
“I’m sorry. I have a previous engagement, Princess,” he said formally. “I will send my Minister of Defense in my stead. Now, if you will excuse me, I really must get back to work. Please thank Sheikh Mustafa for his thoughtful invitation. Khan will show you out.”
He motioned to the head of his security detail who just happened to be walking out of his office suite at that moment. As the man approached, she looked at him speculatively, with an angry gleam in her eyes.
“Work…what the American is doing here.”
She smiled suddenly, baring her teeth like fangs, and Amir could swear he heard her hiss. Her sly, serpentine stare made a shiver run up his back as she said,
“She is your father’s caregiver. I can see why you might wish to while away an hour for lunch with her. She is pretty enough, and will certainly be entertaining for you.”
Her innuendo was clear this time, and Amir spoke with quiet rage, uncaring that his security chief was standing there, waiting to escort her out.
“Ms. Downing’s position in my household is no concern of yours, Princess. And any suggestion that she is here in any other than an official capacity as caregiver to the Sheikh is insulting to her and offensive to me. If you do not wish to offend me further, you will speak no more of this matter.”
He turned to Khan and said, “Please see to Princess Amina’s smooth departure.”
He turned and walked away, leaving her standing there with fire in her eyes at how summarily he had dismissed her, and no doubt furious that he had spoken to her so plainly in front of his staff. Amina was always very aware of her rank, and hated to be disrespected in any way. He sighed again, knowing he was well rid of her.
He visited Alexandra before bedtime again that evening, and found her nodding off in the chair across from his father’s bed, the tablet hanging loosely from her fingers. He knelt beside her, and slipped the tablet from her grasp, placing it on her lap. She opened her eyes, and when she recognized him, she sat up straight and began to apologize for sleeping on the job.
“Alexandra, stop!” he admonished her gently. “You are here, in his room, so there is nothing to apologize for. Why are you still up? It is way past the time that you normally stay up with him.”
She turned to look at his father, and inhaled deeply. “He had a rough night,” she said. “He was lost in the past, and crying for his Fatima. I could not console him, and he became almost irrational when I tried the usual things. Finally, the music seemed to calm him down enough that I could give him a sedative.”
She stood up and moved away from him to stand over his father, doing a visual check of him. Apparently satisfied, she added, as she walked back to pick up her tablet,
“I just wanted to be sure that he didn’t wake up and not have anyone with him, if he was still lost in his memories.”
Amir escorted her out, watching as she left the door a little bit ajar.
“Why don’t you close the door?” he asked. “You have the earpiece to monitor the room.”
She smiled a little shyly. “I just feel like a door ajar gives me easier access to him in case I need to rush in for any reason.”
Amir followed her into her suite, and watched as she went to check on the little one in the bedroom whose door was also ajar. He smiled. His Alexandra was a bit of a control freak, it seemed, and he supposed it was understandable for a caregiver.
“Is she sound asleep?” he asked when she walked back out to him.
“Yes, she is,” she replied.
An awkward pause followed, and Alexandra broke the silence by announcing that she was going to bed. Amir knew he should leave. It was very late, and he had to be up in a few more hours, as he was going to Dubai on business for a few days and his flight was departing early. But he didn’t want to leave the woman who stood looking quizzically at him, as if she were wondering why he was still there.
“I’ll be gone for a few days, Alexandra,” he told her, taking her hand. “I shall have to keep the picture of you today, your finger in my mouth, in my mind when I miss you.”
She blushed, and dropped her eyes from his. He found her charming and so alluring that he was hard pressed to stop himself from pulling her into his hardening body. Every time her cheeks became suffused with color, his body tightened.
“Will you miss me?”
The color in her cheeks deepened, and he groaned and dragged her up against him, kissing her heated jawline and sipping at her lips.
“If you choose not to tell me, you will have to bear the consequences of your defiance when we meet again,” he said quietly, his breath gusting against her lips as he gave her his ultimatum. And then, because he couldn’t wait a moment more, he kissed her mouth hungrily, and when she returned his kisses, opening up to him and wrapping her arms around his waist, he groaned and pulled her closer, dragging his mouth from hers to whisper,
“I am being as patient as I can be, habibti, but I want to do so much more than kiss your pretty mouth.”
She regarded him solemnly, studying his face as though she wanted to learn everything she could about him, and then reached up and kissed his lips gently.
“I know,” she said, and he growled and kissed her again, pushing her back against the door and pressing himself into her warm curves.
He lost himself in her taste and scent, and as his body hardened, he heard her soft moans telling him that she was right there with him, in need of satisfaction. He felt deep pride in knowing he had made her forget to be cautious, and instead made her trust him enough to share her desire with him.
“I must go, sweet one,” he said, reluctantly pulling his body away from hers at last. “I cannot promise to call you, but if I can, I will.” When she looked puzzled, he said, “I have your cell phone number.”
He pulled her away from the door and opened it, leaning in to kiss her one last time.
“Take care, habibti,” he said, “until I return.”
She looked at him with her heart in her eyes, and he groaned and reached for her again, hauling her up on her tiptoes and ravaging her mouth, her hunger beating at him, waking the beast he was trying so desperately to keep caged.
“Alexandra, sweet one,” he murmured as he pushed her hair behind her ears when he let her up for air, “don’t tempt me. I am only a man, habibti!”
She trembled in his arms, and her hips begged him to feed the hunger he had unleashed. He pressed in against her, and they ground themselves against each other as they kissed, and Amir never wanted to leave the warmth of her arms. But there was a child asleep in the bedroom, and a sick man across the hall. Either of them could wake at any moment, and he refused to have his first time with her be interrupted by her responsibilities. So, although it almost killed him to do so, he pulled her arms, which she had wound around his neck, away from him, and put her away from him.
“Be ready for me when I return,” he said, “and I will give you everything you need. I promise you.” When she nodded, speechless, he smiled and brushed her lips with his thumb. “Goodnight, habibti,” he said, and walked out while he still could.
Her whispered goodnight followed him out of the king’s quarters, back to his own wing where he undressed, took a long cold shower, and slid into his wide bed, alone and aching. He wanted Alexandra more with every hour he spent in her company, and but for Amina’s uninvited appearance earlier, the day had been wonderful. He went over his plans for their weekend away as he drifted off to sleep. Once he was in Dubai, he knew there would most likely be very little time for more than work, though he was determined to find even a moment to call Alexandra, just so that he could hear her voice, and soak in the peace that always seemed to envelop him when she was near.
The meetings and visits he had scheduled for his three days away, orchestrated by an ever-efficient Malik, gave him no time to do more than sleep and eat. By the end of his second night away, he was exhausted and cranky, and he decided a call to his Alexandra after a shower would be just what he needed to relax him. The final meeting of his trip was a crucial one for his country, and after almost a year’s worth of negotiating, he hoped to walk away with a multi-million-dollar deal for building supplies and labor. His was a small country, with still too many men without the means to adequately support their families. This deal would see them hired for infrastructure repairs as well as overseas contracts.
Walking out of his bathroom with a towel around his hips, his hair still wet from his shower, he dropped onto the bed and picked up his cell phone. He would not leave the way open for anyone to listen in on his private conversations with the woman he was falling for. He dialed the number and moved until he was sitting with his back against the headboard. Alexandra picked up on the fourth ring.
“Good evening, my pretty,” he said. “I hope I did not wake you?”
Her voice sounded breathy as she answered him. “No, I was with your father,” she explained.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yes. I was just about to go to bed when you called.”
“Where are you now?” he asked, “and what color are your scrubs tonight?”
She laughed, and the sound wound its way through his ears to lodge itself in his chest, where it spread a welcome warmth that soothed him.
“What’s so funny?” he wanted to know, smiling as though she could see him.
“Have you been paying attention to my uniform colors?”
“I pay attention to everything about you, every time I am with you, habibti,” he told her, and heard her breath hitch.
“Pink,” she said, and it took him a second to realize she was answering his question.
“Send me a picture,” he demanded.
“Are you seriously asking me to send you a selfie?” she asked, incredulous.
“Are you refusing?”
His question was met with silence. Then, after thirty seconds of nothing, when Amir began to think he had lost the connection, his phone buzzed in his hand and he looked down to see a picture of her uniform from the neck down to her waist. The magnificence of her breasts was hidden by the cut of the top. He chuckled at her and said into the phone,
“You know this wasn’t what I wanted to see, Alexandra. You have just added to the total of your punishments.”
He loved it when she laughed at his teasing, and he laughed quietly with her.
“I just wanted to hear your voice, my pretty. I have an early morning meeting, so I’m afraid I’ll have to say goodnight to you now.”
“Wait…it’s not fair that you get to see me, but I don’t get to see you,” she protested.
Amir smiled at her request, and took a picture of his naked torso, knowing, as he sent it, that she would be shocked at his state of undress. He wanted to hear how she would react when it showed on her screen, and the gasp that sounded in his ear sent a shaft of fierce male pride through him.
“You like?” he asked.
“Are you…” She hesitated, and he knew what she wanted to know.
“Am I what, Alexandra?” he prompted her.
“Are you…wearing anything at all?” She sounded faintly scandalized, and Amir chuckled at her discomfort.
“I am wearing a towel,” he told her. “Would you like to see?”
“No! No, thank you.”
Amir laughed at her gently. “When we go for a swim at the oasis this weekend, you will get to see all that and more in the flesh,” he promised her.
She didn’t answer him, as he expected, and he wondered if she was smiling, as he had when he saw her.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night, Alexandra,” he said. “Fully clothed, I promise. Goodnight, sweet one. Sleep well.”
“Goodnight, Amir,” she said, and his body tightened at the sound of his name on her lips.