Her stomach turned over. She had to have her passport. And the fact that William was prepared to give it to Karim was of no use to her at all, because she knew that he had no intention of allowing her to leave in the morning.
Which was why she had no intention of waiting until morning.
Alexa felt a great weight in her chest. So much depended on the next few hours. If she couldn’t gain possession of her passport, then she couldn’t take the next step and everything would have been for nothing.
Trying to think her way through the dark mists of panic, she tried to look relaxed. ‘That’s fine. Give my passport to Karim.’
One way or another she would just have to find a way of retrieving it.
She just hoped the bodyguard was a heavy sleeper.
The room was dark but she could see the faint outline of his body lying under the covers. He was asleep, thank goodness. She’d been relying on that fact.
Where was he likely to have put her passport?
Seeing his jacket on the back of a chair, she moved towards it with the stealth of a burglar, her bare feet making no sound on the carpet. She reached out a hand, and then gasped with shock as someone caught her from behind, unbalanced her and pushed her down hard onto the bed. Flattened against the mattress and panicking, Alexa fought like an animal in a trap, using all the skills she’d learned to defend herself. She twisted, bit and punched, but as her fist connected with solid muscle she realized desperately that this was a hopelessly uneven contest, and she was going to lose.
No! This wasn’t going to happen to her. Not when she was so close to her final goal. Driven by desperation, she managed to free one leg and kicked hard.
With a grunt of pain, her assailant shifted his body over hers, caught her wrists in a vice-like grip and muttered something in a foreign language.
She recognized the voice. ‘Karim?’
She felt him still, and then he pinned her to the bed with his powerful body and reached out a hand to flick on the light.
Alexa found herself staring into dark pools of anger and went limp with relief. ‘I thought—’
‘You thought what? You were expecting someone else?’ He stared down at her with incredulous disbelief. ‘This is my bedroom.’
‘Yes, I know that.’ The weight of his body made it hard for her to breathe. ‘But I saw the lump in the bed and assumed you were asleep. Then someone grabbed me from behind so I thought it was—’ She broke off, unwilling to betray more than she had to.
‘The lump in the bed was the pillow. I heard you outside the door. I wanted to see who was so keen to enter my bedroom unannounced. What is this, Your Highness—you are now testing me in unarmed combat, or did you have an entirely different reason for visiting me in my bedroom in the middle of the night?’ His meaning was clear enough, and suddenly she was breathlessly aware of the strength in his bare shoulders, of the intimate pressure of his body against hers.
‘I need my passport. That is why I was in your bedroom.’
‘Why would you need your passport at three in the morning? Are you planning a trip?’
She tried to wriggle free, but his weight held her pinned to the mattress. ‘It’s none of your business.’
‘If it involves your passport, then it’s my business.’
Alexa tried a different tack. ‘The Sultan would not want you lying on top of his bride!’
‘Given that I’m apparently just one in a long line of men who have adopted this exact position, I think it’s a little late for that argument to be useful.’ His soft tone was faintly mocking. ‘My job is to escort you safely to him. If you’re intending to vanish in the middle of the night, then your travel plans are of considerable interest to me. Start talking, Your Highness.’
The weight of his body was impossibly distracting, and Alexa suddenly found that she couldn’t say a word. Trapped by his virile strength and the fire in his eyes, she just gazed at him, her body paralyzed by a shockingly powerful explosion of sexual excitement.
And perhaps he detected her feelings, because he shifted slightly above her, his attitude softening from aggressor to seducer.
Alexa pressed her hand to his chest intending to push him away, but her fingertips registered warm, naked flesh. Male body-hair and hard muscle singed her nerve endings, but instead of pushing or even drawing her hand away, her fingers made their own decision and slid upwards, exploring the latent power of his physique with unconscious feminine fascination.
Karim inhaled sharply and growled something that she didn’t understand.
And then they were kissing.
His mouth was demanding and fiercely possessive, and her body ignited like a dry forest in the heat of summer as every single part of her was sucked in by the ferocious heat generated by that kiss.
She felt the hot slide of his tongue against hers, and the erotic intimacy of that connection drained her body of strength and purpose. She forgot what she was doing in his room. She forgot everything as her body was filled with a languorous, dangerous warmth, and his kiss transformed her from a thinking woman to someone only capable of feeling.
Dimly, she registered the hardness of his body against hers and the steady thud of his heartbeat under her clinging fingers.
And then suddenly he dragged his mouth from hers and lifted his head, his breathing uneven and his eyes angry. ‘What do you think you are doing?’
Dizzy and drugged, it took a moment to focus. ‘You kissed me.’’
‘Your hands were on my body.’
Unable to defend herself from the accusation, Alexa lay there in shock, trying to work out what had happened. Kissing Karim had been like stepping into sexual quicksand—one move in the wrong place and she hadn’t been able to free herself. Every subtle movement of his mouth had just drawn her down deeper until she’d drowned, swallowed up by pleasure and sensation.
Why was that?
Had the agonizing loneliness of her situation finally affected her mind? Was she so desperate for human comfort that she was ready to cling to any man who touched her?
‘Please, let me go. I just want my passport.’ Her voice was shaking. How had she allowed herself to become so distracted from her task? The clock was ticking. Every moment that passed made her task more dangerous. ‘Let me leave tonight without you. You will not be blamed.’
Karim studied her face for a moment and then sprang to his feet in a lithe, athletic movement, relieving her of his weight so suddenly that she felt unaccountably bereft.
Ignoring the confusion in her brain and body, Alexa sat up and than gave a gulp of shock she realized that he was completely naked—gloriously, proudly naked, and unashamedly aroused.
She knew she should look away but she couldn’t move. Confronted by her first ever vision of a naked man, her eyes remained
