CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE — A SERIALIZED NOVEL

Pride and Audacity — Part 18

A stranger — a secret agreement — a changed destiny

“He was the last man on earth she wanted, but she was the only woman on earth he’d have…From the skyscrapers of New York City to the ancient sands of Ahalamin, two untamed hearts war for supremacy…”

She exited the tent behind Rashid and followed in his wake. With each step, she measured her disintegrating resolve, not a pleasant thought process since it forced her to put things in their proper perspective. This place…this man…could be nothing more than an exotic detour on her way back to where she belonged. As much as Rashid touched her heart, and she was willing to admit he did, those things couldn’t override her good sense. Never once had he acknowledged her achievements or personal goals. The fact she had important responsibilities to complete had never crossed his mind. His cultural heritage and power had molded his perspective so thoroughly that, aside from her physical appeal, he simply couldn’t see her.

A noisy disturbance stopped Rashid’s progress and her worrisome thoughts. A small group gathered before the entrance to one of the tents. Some of the individuals murmured and seemed at odds with one another. She stepped slightly to the side of Rashid to see what was happening.

A lone man stood at the tent’s entrance with his arms tightly folded across his chest. In the evening’s dim light she could just make out the look of anger and contempt hardening his features. Stiff-necked and apparently unrelenting, he was doing a good job of ignoring the sobbing woman at his feet. The murmuring sank to silence and only the woman’s deep sobs shattered the peaceful night.

The painful sound rent Victoria’s heart. Surely, the man had not abused the fragile woman. The possibility impelled Victoria to step forward. A barrier slashed across her path. Rashid’s outstretched arm lay against her breasts, stopping her forward movement. He pushed just enough to make her back up. Victoria opened her mouth to tell him what he could do with a broken arm when a collective gasp splintered the air.

The woman had leaned forward and was resting her forehead on the man’s booted foot. Victoria had no idea what was taking place. One thing for sure, though, the pitiful drama in the sand was not to her liking. Why did Rashid not do something?

Finally, after what seemed an agonizing length of time, the man uttered a short command, then abruptly turned and entered his tent. The change in the woman’s demeanor was instant and startling. She rose to her feet, smiled at someone in the crowd, and then entered the tent behind the disagreeable jerk.

Rashid briefly touched her arm and indicated by the tilt of his head he was moving on. Some distance from the troubling scene he stopped in a secluded area and turned to face her.

“You will not enjoy the evening while your mind ponders what you have just witnessed. Ask the question I know is on your mind.”

Victoria jumped on the opportunity to speak. “What was that all about? I haven’t seen anything like that before.”

“When a wife commits a serious offense against her husband, an offense resulting in his rejection of her, she has one of two choices. She can take her case before the tribal elders or she can humble herself and offer public contrition, as you have just witnessed. Such an action restores her husband’s honor and is a plea for his forgiveness. If he tells her to rise, she is forgiven and her position as his wife is restored.”

“What happens if he doesn’t ask her to rise?”

“Then his dismissal of her is final. She is divorced. It is an ancient custom which is still legally binding.”

“Then they’re going to be okay? I mean…he forgave her, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do men ever…you know…do they ever publicly ask for forgiveness?”

“No.”

“Doesn’t such a fact seem a little out of balance to you?’

“I have never considered it a question of balance. Simply an ancient way that has worked for thousands of years. I see no need to examine what is not broken.”

“No, I guess you wouldn’t. You’re not the one on your knees.”

“I did not bring this up as a matter of debate. I simply did not want you troubling your mind for the rest of the evening. Now let’s proceed.” Rashid turned around and continued forward, cutting off the dialogue he had opened.

She glared at his rigid back and made herself a promise. One day, she would have the last word. In addition, if words could kill, she would make sure she had a few weapons of mass destruction in her verbal arsenal.

Despite the evening’s disastrous beginning, Victoria did indeed enjoy her social outing. Like the other wives, she sat a little behind and to the left of her husband, who introduced her to the assemblage as a whole and acted as her interpreter. One man introduced himself as the one whose feet she had fired a bullet between. By the heat moving up her face, she knew she must be blushing as she offered her apologies. The man assured her he would count it an honor to lose both his feet for such a courageous defender of the kingdom and its Prince. That sounded like a firm endorsement to her and went a long way in salvaging her pride.

The inky-black midnight sky covered the camp as they left the dinner gathering. A temperate breeze rustled through the palm fronds along their path. Rashid remained silent as he took the lead, negotiating the darkness and choosing the trail leading toward their favorite spot by the Moon pool. The secluded niche lay hidden by curtains of oleanders and cypress trees over which the night shadows hung like draperies.

He removed his robe and head covering, spreading the robe on the warm sand. Victoria’s heart somersaulted as strong hands molded her cheeks and then slid under the sides of her head covering, slipping the cloth from her head and freeing a mass of honey-blonde hair. Taking the tip of one long strand, he brushed the silken ends across her lips, and then, very slowly, he slid its softness across his own. Her stomach clenched. He let the strand slip through his fingers and reached for her hand. Lifting her fingers to his mouth, he brushed them over his full, warm lips. Parting them slightly, he moistened her fingertips with his warm tongue. Her sense of touch increased a hundred times, making her fingers sensual receptors. She couldn’t drag her eyes from his. He smiled, and she knew he watched her soul shatter when he placed her damp fingers across her own lips.

“Your eyes are as revealing as the blue sky they resemble. They burn and blaze with desire, and then, at your bidding, they cool…only to blaze again at my touch.”

Victoria could no longer hold his gaze. The desire he spoke of not only burned in her eyes; it threatened her very existence. She was lost and afraid. Dropping her gaze to the ground, she sought to hide her floundering emotions.

Rashid slid his hand around her throat and lifted her chin. “Never hide from me.”

Her eyes followed a path up the straining muscles of his throat, over the jutting hardness of his chin, past the flaming temptation of his mouth, to the savage passion in eyes.

“You are mine in every way but one. Come to me willingly. End this torment.”

She wanted to step into the promise of his arms, to free the woman beating at her heart. Too many years chained to playing a role, being anything but herself, held her back. Her whole life teetered on a foundation no stronger than the grains of sand under her feet. This man would bring her world down and, in the end, leave her with nothing. He wanted her, but he didn’t love her.

“Remove your robe.”

“Wha…What?” She stepped back.

“Your reluctance is evident,” he said, as controlled impatience deepened his tone. “While I do not like the fact that you deny us both, I have given you my word. I will wait for your willing response.”

The irritation in his words couldn’t be masked. He was a man not used to waiting, especially for a woman’s consent. “Even though you deny me the pleasure of your body, I claim the right to sit and enjoy the night with my wife. Remove your robe.”

She took off her robe and he spread it on the ground beside his. Gently he drew her down to the makeshift pallet. Positioning himself behind her, he drew her back between his spread legs to rest against his chest. Wrapping her in his arms did not seem to satisfy his need to touch. His legs lifted and his strong thighs tightened against her hips.

“This is a magic place. Do you not agree?”

His sultry voice stirred against her hair. With his hands moving deliberately up and down her arms, as if memorizing their pattern, it was impossible to conceive that any man or place could be more enchanted.

“Yes, this is a wonderful place…a touch of fairy dust come to life. Did you grow up here?”

“Beginning at the age of six, I was sent here to live with these tribes for three months each year. My father believed a man of privilege could never understand a people whose mind and heart he did not know. It was difficult at first, but I soon came to love these people and desert life.”

“What about your family, your parents, brothers, and sisters?”

“My mother is French and after the death of my father, she returned to Paris where she still lives today. I was fifteen at the time. As the new ruler of Ahalamin, I chose to stay and assume the responsibility left to me.”

“That must have been hard.”

“I suppose. Not being the firstborn son, I was not groomed for leadership. My older brother, Raziz, died in the same explosion which killed my father. He was twenty-one and would have made a great leader.”

“Explosion?” Victoria tensed.

“A malfunction in the electrical system of my father’s plane.”

Victoria relaxed more heavily against his chest.“I lost my mother when I was twelve. Although I had my father, I was still lonely. Things must have been worse for you with no family around.”

“It would have been if not for Califar. By birth, he is my cousin. He was trained by my father to be First Regent for my brother. Ten years older than I, he has been my family, counselor, and jailer at times. I was not always as reasonable as I am now.”

“Hard to believe.” Victoria smiled to herself. “Why have you not married before now? I can’t believe there are not endless numbers of women attracted to your…reasonableness.”

“There have been women in my life, but none whose fears or rejection I would tolerate. Certainly, none with whom I would spend my nights with just conversation between us.” Rashid’s fingers entwined with hers. “Never has there been a woman with whom I would sit in the sand.”

“What do you mean?”

“A man needs a woman who is elemental to him.”

Victoria’s heart grasped for his meaning. “In what way do you see me as elemental?”

“A man needs air to breathe, his heart to beat, and one woman who is more basic to his life than either of those two.”

Like a tsunami, his words first sucked away every tenuous thread of resistance, then wave after wave of unbearable longing washed over her, breaking through a barrier she could no longer defend. She wanted this night. Wanted the memory of this man to treasure for all the years she would be without him. “Rashid?”

“Yes?”

“I…I want.” She didn’t know how to ask for what she wanted. Vulnerable beyond bearing, she struggled to get the words past her lips. “I…want.”

Rashid shifted her until she knelt between his legs facing him. Framing her face with his hands, he looked searchingly into her eyes. She didn’t hide, didn’t blink. She let him read what she couldn’t voice.

“I want everything, Victoria, all of you. If you say yes, I will make you mine in every way. No more denial of what is between us, no more resistance. Is this what you want?”

Unable any longer to deny the truth, she nodded her acceptance. To this moment, to this man, she wanted to give everything. And, she wanted to take. She wanted everything he offered, if only for one night.

He stood and drew her to her feet. “Tell me what you want.”

“I…I want you to take me…”

Before she could finish, Rashid yanked up his robe and wrapped it around her, leaving hers in the sand. Then sweeping her into his arms, he strode single-mindedly toward his tent. She’d unleashed a storm. The evidence was in his neglect to cover her completely. She knew the blonde curls flowing over his arm as he carried her past two night guards never entered his passion-filled mind. She buried her face in his shoulder and trembled. The force of his desire thrilled her and put a lacy edge of fearful anticipation on her desperate need of him.

Victoria sat close to the rim of the bed; her fingers twisted into the bedsheet. Early morning light slipped through the ventilation space at the top of the tent and bathed her in crimson and violet hues. The same shafts of light streaked across the bed and wantonly caressed the bare expanse of Rashid’s shoulders and back.

He lay facing her on his stomach. His head rested on an arm that doubled for the pillow he’d swept from the bed. A sweet memory softened her worried brow. Concerning her nap-time maneuvers, he’d called her a traveler. If that were true, then he was an aggressive colonizer, claiming every inch of the bed for himself. The covers he’d pulled over them earlier still covered him to the waist.

She sensed the heat creeping up her neck and face as she thought about his complete lack of inhibitions in the night, and his patience in coaching her into a realm of sensual delight so beautiful, its memory forced tears to her eyes. She’d thought herself a sophisticated woman knowledgeable in romance, love, and sex. After all, she’d grown up in New York City, where the ‘sex-sells’ advertising theory displayed on every taxi, bus, building, billboard, and bench removed any young girl's naivete. As she looked at the mouth-watering male form sprawled in front of her, she knew none of those concepts even came close to the mindless ecstasy he had given her.

Rashid stirred and she held her breath. She didn’t want to be caught ogling him. He was already much too convinced of his ability to turn-her-on at will. A fact he had proven more than once in the hours before dawn. His searching hand slid across the sheet in her direction and his fingers curled around her ankle. She flinched at the sound of his sleepy voice.

“You are cold. Come here and let me warm you.”

Victoria was cold. The numbing decision she’d made in the early dawn hours chilled her to the core. She would never regret the night shared with this man, but she needed to end this fairy tale. She desperately missed her children and the sanity of her sixty hour-a-week job. She was a working woman with responsibilities, not a princess. Women in the real world didn’t live happily ever after with the prince.

“I think we should talk,” she said firmly.

Rashid slowly turned to his back, his smoky eyes focusing on her. “What is wrong? Why are you dressed so early?”

“You said we were leaving here today.”

“Yes. But not for a few more hours.”

She lowered her eyes. it was too easy to get lost in his intimate gaze. “Rashid, I don’t know how to say this except straightforwardly. Last night was beautiful beyond anything I could have imagined. But this place, us, it’s all a fantasy.” She knew she had his attention when he rose up on one elbow and the drowsiness in his eyes gave way to piercing concentration.

“A bride’s first days with her husband should be beautiful. There is no fantasy here. Our joining was very real. You are the wife of my body as well as my soul.”

She studied his lean, darkly-tanned face as her heart broke because of the words she was about to speak. “But I shouldn’t be. I have a life!”

Rashid moved like lightning, lifting and sliding her across his thighs until she sat in the middle of his lap. “What is this nonsense?”

She pushed at his chest. “I want to go home. I have a life. I have people I care about. You can’t just take over a person’s life because you want them. You have no right.”

“Right? You are my wife…that gives me the right…a right you sealed yourself in my arms. I will hear no more of this.”

She struggled in earnest as those same arms tightened, lifting her to the raw possession of his mouth. She fought both herself and him. He didn’t relent. In anger and despair, she tried every way to free herself from his arms but nothing weakened his strength. He let her expend her energy and then laid her down. He enticed her back into his sensual world with soul-shattering gentleness. With each touch, she offered him more, her inflamed desire for completion matching his. He had told her this was inevitable…her need of him…and with each caress, he proved his words true.

“Open your eyes.” His large hand tilted her face upward.

She shuddered but did as he asked. His expression revealed a man torn between passion and anger. He allowed her to take the full weight of his body, not caring if he crushed the breath from her.

“Your body lifts itself to mine. You want me more than you want your next breath. This is where you belong; this is where you will stay. Before another hour passes, you will beg me never to release you…this I swear.”

Before she could speak, he claimed her mouth with raging fervor. She’d wanted to know how far he’d let her go and now she knew. The gentle, sensual lover of the early hours was gone. In his place was a man whose uncensored passion branded her as his. Somewhere in the midst of the tempest, she fulfilled his oath.

To be continued…

If you’re enjoying Victoria and Rashid’s story, please consider recommending it to your friends and sharing it on social media. ~ I thank you, Lynda

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