* * *
I know what I’m doing, Millie intoned silently as the security guard who had accompanied her on board the Sapphire retreated and the door closed behind him with a soft click, leaving her on a deserted deck with only his most regal majesty, Sheikh Khalid of Khalifa, for company. Security had improved over the years, she’d noticed as she’d passed through the ship. The party that she and her mother had attended had been a free-for-all, but tonight a good mix of people, who could enjoy themselves without getting drunk, were hosted and protected, rather than guarded, by the Sheikh’s most excellent staff. But that didn’t make her soften towards him. She would settle for nothing less than the truth. He could forget the edited version. Learning what had really happened that night was the only reason she was back here.
The only reason?
‘Welcome,’ he said.
As his husky and seductive tone took a leisurely stroll across her senses, she told herself firmly that Sheikh Khalid was nothing like his brother, and she was safe. Sheikh Khalid had let her mother down, but had saved Millie. Would he save her again by filling in those gaps that had lashed her with guilt for eight long years?
She was here in search of the truth, but also, Millie silently admitted as she raised her face to his, because she couldn’t stay away. There was something between them that wouldn’t allow her to. The Sapphire was in dock. Sheikh Khalid was close, and, as many times as she told herself that she couldn’t miss this opportunity, it was far, far more than that. She couldn’t breathe easy. She couldn’t think straight. She couldn’t function properly. Only when she knew everything would they part and go their separate ways.
And was that all it was?
That was all it could be, she told herself as his dark, all-seeing eyes drilled down into hers. What else could it be? Arousal, sadness, guilt and anger collided inside her, making her long and loathe, and feel a type of passion she had never experienced before. They had no future together. That was the bottom line. Even if she could get past her simmering suspicion that he could have done more to save her mother, they were worlds apart, with an unbridgeable gulf between them.
But as the Sheikh’s confidence and sexual energy enveloped her in erotic heat, she became more confused than ever. He was so big, so brazenly masculine; in every way, he was different, and on a completely different scale from other men. She trembled with awareness of his brute strength. Sheikh Khalid had no need of royal robes to stamp him with the majesty of power. His authority was unparalleled. And there was a part of her, a reckless part, that wanted nothing more than to battle with him.
Go head to head, at least, she reasoned. That was why she was here, after all.
‘We’ll talk inside,’ he said, leading the way into the shadows of his apartment on board the Sapphire.
She had started to follow, but for some reason stepped back instead of forward, and managed to trip over a cleat sticking up from the deck. His reflexes were lightning fast. Whirling around as she yelped and stumbled, he yanked her hard against his chest.
‘Steady,’ he murmured as their bodies collided.
It was a few moments before he released her, and she was in no hurry to move away. ‘What do you really want?’ he asked, staring deep into her eyes. ‘What do you want of me, Millie Dillinger?’
Her only thought was, You. And the truth shocked her. She had been fighting her attraction to him since the moment they met again, Millie realised now, but this was something more, so much more. The worst of it was, he gave a smile as if he knew.
Freeing herself, she pulled away. At best he must think her gauche, and at worst he might think her her mother’s daughter. Even in the middle of these two poles apart was a world of ‘you’re wasting the best chance you ever had to clear your mother’s name’.
‘I don’t know what happened that night,’ she said, feeling she must say something. ‘But I can tell you this. My mother wasn’t weak, she was desperate, and vulnerable, and your brother took advantage of that.’
‘We need to talk,’ the Sheikh told her in a calm, unthreatening voice.
‘Too much has been brushed under the carpet,’ she continued as soon as they were inside.
They were in a lovely room, she registered vaguely; it might have been called a snug in a cosy, suburban home, and was the first real sign that the imposing figure towering over her relaxed occasionally. Enough to tell her the truth? That remained to be seen.
‘You seem so sure that things have been hidden from you,’ he said, indicating that she should sit on one of the two facing sofas.
She remained standing. ‘Wouldn’t you?’
‘Maybe you’re overthinking things,’ he suggested, staring down. ‘And maybe you’re not telling me all of the truth.’
Something flickered in his eyes, suggesting she’d hit the mark.
‘And maybe I’m trying to protect you,’ he countered softly.
‘Perhaps that’s what you’d like me to think.’
‘You’re beautiful.’
As he murmured this, she drew her head back and gave him one of her looks. ‘I came here for a serious discussion.’
Which was true, but a thrill of excitement still ripped through her as the Sheikh’s hard mouth tugged in the faintest of smiles. ‘I’m being absolutely serious,’ he assured her at the same mesmerising low volume.
There was a scar that cut down the side of his cheek to his mouth, she noticed now. His stubble usually covered it, but he must have shaved quite recently for the party. Or for her? The party, Millie told herself firmly as she progressed the thought; everyone had some sort of scar, it was just that some hid them better than others.
‘We have all evening to talk,’ he said with an easy shrug.
Talk, when she was drowning in testosterone?
Millie could have stepped away when he reached out to find the clip in her hair and release it, but she didn’t, and long, silken skeins fell tumbling to her waist.
‘Beautiful,’ he whispered again as he tossed the clip aside. He combed his fingers through her hair, soothing and exciting her in turn, but she tossed her head, as if pleasure were a sin. ‘Guilt?’ he asked. ‘Why, when you’ve no reason to feel guilty? Desire is a natural human emotion—’
‘That I can resist,’ she assured him as she stepped away.
He laughed softly and saw her hesitation. ‘You have the same spirit I loved eight years ago.’
‘Spirit prompted by my desperate concern for my mother,’ she reminded him. ‘You promised to go back on board and save her.’
‘I did all I could,’ he said steadily. Her voice was shaking with emotion. Too much had been bottled up inside Millie for too long. He could imagine the child growing to be a woman, and never once losing control, because if she did the grief would break her. He wanted to comfort her and make love to her all at one and the same time, but his self-control would not allow it.
