* * *
Laughter rang out, the sound curling around Samira’s heart, making her smile. Adil shrieked with joy as his father threw him up and deftly caught him in strong arms. Water droplets caught the dying light as Tariq shook his head. Samira made herself look away. She’d spent too long furtively ogling his powerful body.
This time at the oasis had been far more confronting than the night of their wedding, when Tariq had come to her bedroom and insisted she kiss him. A week had passed and with each day the tension in her had twisted harder.
Her husband stood thigh-deep in the shallows, his swim shorts clinging to powerfully hewn thighs. The sight of him sent Samira’s blood pressure hurtling into the danger zone.
She’d never been one to gawk at men. But she’d never spent time with a man like Tariq.
Her one and only lover had been handsome and oh-so-charming, wiry rather than muscular. He’d looked better modelling chic designer clothes than out of them. And she’d discovered that his charm was more often for the camera than for her. Yet here was Tariq, even more appealing in the role of doting father and considerate husband than he was in public.
His eye caught hers and a pulse of awareness passed between them, making her heart beat like a drum. One glance and instantly she reacted. It had been like that since the wedding, even though Tariq hadn’t pressed her for more.
Each day, each hour, she waited for him to try persuading her into intimacy, only to be disappointed when he treated her with careful courtesy! After their conversation in the stables she’d expected him to make a move on her, confident of success. Yet he’d let her be. Only the warmth in his gaze and the way his hand lingered when they touched proved it hadn’t all been a dream. She hadn’t imagined his proposition.
Samira tore her gaze away, kneeling and opening her arms to Risay as he splashed through the shallows towards her.
The sight of the brilliant smile on his dear baby face tugged at her heart strings. He and his brother had welcomed her into their world with an uncomplicated enthusiasm that reinforced all her fond hopes.
Silently she vowed she’d repay their generosity with all the love and support they deserved.
Her arms closed around Risay and she snuggled him close. He was wet and cuddly and chuckled as inevitably he reached for her hair.
Samira let him play with the knot at the back of her head. Tiny fingers snagged and pulled. She sighed, acknowledging it was easier to do it herself. With a few swift movements she released her hair. It tumbled down and Risay clapped his hands, sitting with a splash in the shallow water, threading his fingers through her long tresses.
‘What is it with you boys and my hair?’
‘It’s the novelty.’ Tariq’s voice seemed ridiculously deep after his son’s high squeal of pleasure. And it held a husky note that brushed along her nerves like rich velvet. ‘They’ve never seen anything like it.’
Samira looked up to meet his eyes. There it was again, that flash of brilliance that made her catch her breath. She was grateful her hair was loose. It hid the way her nipples swelled against her swimsuit, as if reaching out for his touch. The idea sent discomfort squirming through her.
Yet it was true. Every instinct she possessed urged her to forget her qualms and take what Tariq offered. This honeymoon with him and the twins at the ‘small’ summer palace on the edge of the desert and the mountains had worn down her doubts and her resistance.
They’d spent almost every waking hour together since he’d set aside royal responsibilities for a week and declared this family time.
It had become appallingly difficult, trying to remember exactly why intimacy with Tariq was such a bad idea when he was with her all the time.
‘Sofia, their nanny, has short hair. So do the other staff.’
As he spoke his gaze followed the fall of Samira’s hair. That took his stare down to her waist, then lower to the high-cut edge of her swimsuit and her bare thighs. Immediately fire zinged along her veins, concentrating at the sensitive spot between her legs. She shifted her weight and watched a tiny smile tug at his mouth. As if he knew exactly how she responded.
It wasn’t the first time he’d seemed to know more about her desires than she did herself.
‘Maybe I should get it cut.’ Carefully she extricated Risay’s fingers from her hair and distracted him with a brightly coloured bucket. ‘I’ve been thinking about it for ages.’
‘No!’
Her head swung up at his sharp tone. Tariq was frowning down at her, his game with Adil stopped. What was his problem?
‘People cut their hair all the time, Tariq.’ It was past time she updated her image. Jackson had suggested it more than once when they’d been together and Samira had worried that her reluctance proclaimed her old-fashioned or just plain cowardly. She’d had long hair all her life. But was that any reason to keep it?
‘Please don’t.’
Samira opened her mouth to say something offhand, until she read what was in Tariq’s eyes and her mouth snapped shut. Heat seared her from top to toe and in every crevice and pulse point in between.
It struck her that this was the first time Tariq had asked her for anything.
She was so distracted she barely noticed Sofia bustling along to gather up the boys and take them back inside for dinner. Slowly Samira stood, stretching her toes to counteract the pins and needles in her feet from kneeling so long. Finding any excuse to look away from Tariq.
But he was still there, still watching, when she straightened. Surely he stood closer?
Her breath stalled. It wasn’t just the magnificence of him. Or the fire in his eyes. This was Tariq, the man she’d known and trusted all her life. The man who’d made her dream of a family come true. The man who looked at her and made her feel utterly unlike the sensible, careful woman she’d striven to become.
‘Promise me you won’t cut it.’ Before Samira could work out if that was a request or a command, Tariq reached for her.
He threaded his fingers in her hair, combing slowly from her ear, down past her jaw and throat, hovering for long moments near her breast, then down to where her stomach muscles automatically tensed as he ran out of hair. His hand came to a stop barely grazing the red Lycra at her hip bone.
The hiss of Samira’s indrawn breath was loud in the silence. Her muscles clenched hard in response to his feather-light touch. She ordered herself to step back but her legs weren’t listening.
‘I like it the way it is.’ He lifted a fistful of hair and held it to his face, burying his mouth in the dark locks, closing his eyes as he inhaled, his mighty chest rising as if sucking in her essence.
It was the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced. Every erogenous zone in her body slammed into awareness. Samira’s mouth dried and her breasts tingled anew. Her knees wobbled alarmingly and she shot out a hand, grabbing his elbow. He felt hot and hard and flagrantly male.
Slowly he lifted his eyes and lightning jolted through her as their gazes met and held.
