And consequently he dismissed her.
* * *
She turned, and as the drape swished closed behind her it became a boudoir indeed, Gabi thought as she returned to the dimly lit cavern.
She took off her suit and top and then her underwear and there was no feeling of being rushed or concern that she might be disturbed.
Oh, there were no locks or doors but this space was so deeply feminine she just knew it had been assigned to her.
Assigned.
Gabi stepped into the bath. She did not like that word, though she knew that it was the correct one.
This mini desert kingdom was a lover’s hideaway.
But she would not be his lover tonight.
Her anger at being brought here against her will served only to inflame her temper, and her blood was surely a full degree warmer as she could feel its warm passage through her veins and the weight and heat in her breasts and groin.
She wrenched herself from the bath but there were no towels or sheets to drape herself in and Gabi was certainly not going to ask him for one. And she did not put on the oils left out for her, or the rouge for her lips or kohl.
Instead, she ran a silver comb through her hair and still dripping wet she pulled on the robe over her naked body. It was a deep purple and the scooped neckline showed too much cleavage while the velvet clung to her skin. She could deny to herself her desire for Alim, but the reflection in the mirror stated otherwise.
Her eyes were glittering, her cheeks were flushed and it looked as if she had just come.
Or was about to.
Alim was sitting at a low table and watched as Gabi walked out.
The gown clung becomingly to her skin, her hair fell in one long damp coil and was twisted so that it fell over her right shoulder and dripped onto her breast.
‘Oh, you didn’t have to go to all this effort,’ she teased as she took a seat opposite, assuming Violetta had prepared the treats and she simply hadn’t noticed until now.
‘Why wouldn’t I?’
‘I meant,’ Gabi said, her voice a touch shrill, ‘that clearly Violetta has been busy.’
‘I selected the banquet,’ Alim said. He picked up a jewelled flask and poured a clear-looking fluid into her glass. As he did so, a citrus scent coiled up in the air. ‘And Violetta ensured it was all prepared, as best as it could be. However, while you were bathing I took care of the last-minute details.’
Her eye roll told her she did not believe him for a moment.
‘You don’t seem to understand the privacy afforded us here,’ Alim said as he offered her delicacies. ‘A woman is not brought here to work.’
Gabi peeled open the pastry she had selected; it was plump with succulent meat and ripe, pink pomegranate seeds. Gabi understood his words but she would not succumb to seduction. ‘Why? Because you don’t want her to be too tired for sex?’
He smiled that slow smile and she forgot his might, for he was Alim and they could just as easily be in the Grande Lucia, smiling across the foyer.
‘Or too tired for conversation,’ Alim said. ‘Or too tired to lie on a clear night and look at the stars. There are many reasons other than sex to come deep into the desert. Let’s explore them, shall we?’
And Gabi breathed out for he had done it again—just as she’d thought she had scored a point he trumped her.
Sex was the uncomplicated part.
‘It has been a long time since we have spoken,’ Alim said, inviting conversation.
‘I don’t think there’s anything to discuss.’ She gave him a smile then, but it was far from sweet. ‘Apart from the reason I’m here—your wedding!’ And then the bitter smile faded and for a moment she came close to crumbling and she revealed a little of her pain. ‘How cruel you are!’
‘Gabi, you are not here to plan my wedding. I invented that, just so that we could be alone.’
‘Oh, so you ruin my career because you want a conversation...’ She hesitated because the air between them was potent and she knew it was more than conversation they both craved. It was one of the reasons for her defensiveness because even after everything there remained desire. ‘What is Bernadetta going to say when I return home without the contract?’
‘You will think of something.’
She stared at him in anger and her lips twisted. ‘You know how important work is to me.’
‘As I said, I am sure you will think of something. So, how has it been?’ he pushed for her to open up. ‘Work?’
‘Much the same.’ Gabi selected a plump fig but as the questions began her appetite faded and she found that she was playing with her food.
‘Is it still busy?’ he asked, knowing she had just come back from leave.
‘Extremely.’
She wasn’t going to tell him about the baby, Alim realised. He was almost certain the baby must be his but he had to make sure.
‘So what else have you been doing with your time?’
Gabi gave a small mirthless laugh before answering him. ‘You’ve lost any right to ask about my personal life.’
‘Have you met someone?’ he asked. ‘Is that why you are so uncomfortable to be here?’
A piece of fruit had just found its way to her mouth and he watched as she furiously swallowed, such was her haste to respond.
‘I’m uncomfortable to be here because of what you did to me,’ Gabi said, and she knew that tears flashed in her eyes. She wished she had found a more sophisticated answer but the fact was he had landed her in hell that morning. ‘We don’t all leap out of one bed and dive into the next. You hurt me, Alim, badly. I get that you might have been bored that night and just filling in time...’
‘Never.’
‘Don’t!’ Gabi said, and she stood from the table, tired of any attempt at being polite. She was glad, so glad that there were no staff and they were in the middle of the desert because she could say exactly what was on her mind and as loudly as she chose to! ‘You’d had me already, Alim,’ she shouted. ‘I was fully prepared to leave it at that, to walk out the door and go back to being colleagues, yet you offered me a year. And a job. You made it more! And then you took it away. Did it give you a kick?’
‘Gabi...’ He tried to take her arms, to contain her, but she shook him off.
‘And now you decide that you want to see me again. Well, tough, Alim, I don’t want to see you.’ Great thick tears were streaming down her cheeks, and they both knew that she lied.
It was torture not to see him and agony
