she wasn’t going to. Whatever happened she would always be glad that she’d met Rafiq, that her initiation to sex had been so wonderful, that here on this magical island east of Zanzibar she’d found something rare and precious, something she wasn’t going to let fear forbid her.
‘Perhaps,’ she said solemnly, those swift kisses still tingling through her bloodstream. ‘But how do you know I’ll have the same self-control?’
‘I rather hope you don’t.’ The deep voice was amused and tender. ‘But not today; I have a council meeting that will take all day. So relax.’
* * *
He didn’t come home until after she’d gone to bed, but he’d rung twice, and at the sound of his voice she’d melted. Rafiq. Always and for ever Rafiq, she thought later, lying in bed alone and watching the stars drift slowly across the velvet sky as she remembered the previous night. Eventually she slid into sleep, and into turbulent dreams.
Several hours later Rafiq asked abruptly, ‘Where is M’selle Sinclair?’
‘She went up to her room shortly after she had dinner, sir.’
‘Thank you.’ He strode up the staircase, slowing a little when the passage forked to go to Lexie’s room.
Damn, he wanted her! After that moment’s hesitation, he went on past. In his own room he swore beneath his breath when he saw the red light blinking on the communication device that connected him to the head of security.
‘Yes?’ he barked into it.
‘Sorry, sir, but there’s just been an attempted robbery in the strongroom at the citadel. It looks like an inside job on the fire-diamond vaults.’
Rafiq’s head came up. Harshly he ordered, ‘Go on.’
He listened keenly as she concisely laid out the evening’s events. ‘A man armed with the correct passwords infiltrated the citadel and got as far as the vaults before the alarms finally picked up his presence.’
Mind racing, Rafiq demanded, ‘Where is he?’
Chagrined, she admitted, ‘He gave us the slip in the old town.’
So he was a local. No outsider would be able to navigate the narrow alleys of the original town.
Mme Fanchette confirmed this. ‘We’ve got a good shot of him on tape. He’s a petty thief—been in trouble since he was a kid, and he’s now deep in hock over gambling debts.’ She paused. ‘The man he owes has been seen talking to Gastano.’
Rafiq digested that. ‘Have the passwords been changed?’
‘As we speak.’
‘But if we don’t know who the traitor in the household is, we’ll have to assume that he—or she—will also be told of the changes.’ His frown deepening, Rafiq thought rapidly before commanding, ‘I want the watch on Gastano reinforced; he’s wily and he’s ruthless. And step up the security at the castle as well as the citadel.’
‘You think M’selle Sinclair is in danger?’
‘Possibly.’
Driven by a need to know that Lexie was safe, Rafiq strode down the hall towards her room. Once he was sure of that, he’d set a guard at her door. Although he’d chosen her room to make sure she couldn’t escape, the sheer walls on the seaward side would also make it impossible for anyone to reach her that way.
But if Felipe Gastano had suborned someone in the household to get those passwords, he could have access to someone in the castle as well.
Rafiq opened the door quietly. The room was in darkness, although the shutters were still open. He could see the stars through the tall windows, and hear the muted thunder of the sea on the reef.
And something else—a soft weeping that lifted the hairs on the back of his neck.
Get out of here, he told himself, angry because he knew he wasn’t going to abandon her to such distress.
His voice woke Lexie from a nightmare of loss and disillusion, of frantic fear and terror. She reached blindly for him, feeling the side of the bed sink as he sat down on it, and then the safe haven of his arms closed around her.
Stroking her hair, he murmured, ‘Hush, hush, it’s all right, Lexie. It’s just a nightmare, just a bad dream, and you’re awake now.’
‘You were gone,’ she sobbed. ‘I couldn’t find you—they wouldn’t let me go—but I knew you were dead…’
‘I am very much alive.’ His confident voice eased the horror that still gripped her. He picked up her hand and held it against his heart. ‘Feel that? It’s my pulse, and it’s not going to stop for many years yet.’
Brokenly, mouth against his throat, she said, ‘Oh, thank God. Thank God…’
And she reached up and kissed him, relief making her bold.
When he pulled away, she whispered, ‘No. Oh, please.’ And his mouth hardened on hers and she knew it was going to be all right.
They made love with a rapacity that should have shocked her, and then slowly, gently, with a sweet tenderness that made her heart sing and weep at the same time.
When he eased away from her, she clung openly.
Rafiq laughed, a sexy sound that sent more shivers of delight through her. ‘So valiant now,’ he teased, and ran a light, infinitely provocative finger from the hollow at the base of her throat to the dimple of her navel.
Lashes drooping over her eyes, she savoured the rills of anticipation from that light, unsatisfying touch. She looked up into a face that hardened subtly, the autocratic framework exposed by tanned skin.
I love you so much, she thought achingly.
She kissed along his jaw, lips tingling at the slight friction of his beard while heat began to build again in the pit of her stomach.
‘Yes,’ he said deeply. ‘You like that. So do I.’
His seeking hand cupped the soft mound of her femininity, then two fingers slid into the moist recess and she arched against the intimate caress, her breath coming rapidly between her lips, the heat transmuted into a wildly erotic complex of sensations.
But this wasn’t what she wanted—a quick release.
No, she wanted him to remember her, to never be able to walk into this room again without her face coming to him, and her voice echoing in his ears.
Emboldened, she pushed at his shoulders. ‘Lie down,’ she said, and bent her head and kissed him, using that slight leverage to ease him back.
She felt his mouth curve beneath hers, and then he obeyed, settling onto the sheets, heavy-lidded eyes smouldering.
Long and lean and golden, he sprawled across the bed beneath her, the smooth definition of relaxed muscles beneath his sleek skin belying the power she knew he commanded, the blazing male potency that called
