One Desert Night Read Free

Gina…your incandescent loveliness.’
    ‘No one has said such things to me before.’
    ‘Then the people in your life must be blind…deadened to beauty and grace.’
    She stared wide-eyed as he bent his head towards hers, with no thought of trying to struggle against a tide that now seemed inevitable. Her sadness and frustration with life was completely banished, to be replaced by the most ridiculous hope and longing as his large strong hands settled firmly on either side of her hips. The intimate contact was like a sizzling brand, burning through the thin material of her dress. When Zahir’s mouth descended on hers, his lips were softer that down and more tender and exotic than Gina could have imagined.
    He gentled her as though she were a nervous lamb, or a small bird he didn’t want to scare or overwhelm with his powerful strength. Beneath his mindful gentle exploration a melting heat drowned her insides in a sea of sensuous honey. The dark trimmed hair that covered his chin and the space above his upper lip was far softer that she would have expected. It was a pleasurable sensation like no other. She would never forget it. As his masculine head and scent invaded her blood like a drugging opiate, she sensed her knees tremble violently. It shocked her to realise that she wanted more…
much
more of this potent magic he was delivering.
    ‘You are cold?’ he asked concernedly, his hands still clasped round her hips as his eyes smiled down into hers.
    ‘No, not cold…I’m shaking because I’m nervous, that’s all.’
    ‘I have overwhelmed you…’
    When Zahir would have respectfully withdrawn, Gina reached out to lay her hand over his heart. The fine cotton of his robe was as sensuous to the touch as the most luxurious velvet. Beneath it she sensed muscles that radiated the masculine strength and energy of a trained warrior contract. The instant flaring of his inky-dark pupils easily confirmed just how he felt about her touching him. In a trice his arms came around her waist, and suddenly her trembling body was on shockingly intimate terms with the hard male reality of him.
    Her thoughts careened into an abyss as pure compelling sensation took over.
How could something she’d never even come close to experiencing before suddenly be as essential to her as breathing? If he let her go now she would have to
beg
him to keep holding her. She would risk everything—her pride, her fear, her very
heart.
    Just before his lips claimed hers, the mingling perfumes of jasmine, rose and orange blossom was carried on the air from the flowers that abounded in the garden, heightening moments that would be imprinted on Gina’s mind and heart for an eternity. There was a sense of wildness—a raw, elemental hunger about Zahir’s passionate kiss. The suggestion of bare control thrilled her, echoing as it did her own helpless urgency and gnawing need. As her mouth cleaved to his, their tongues swirling and entwining hotly, it made her cling to him to keep her balance.
    He tore his lips away from hers, his breath ragged, his glance molten. ‘You are leaving tomorrow, and I…’ He shook his head, his expression torn. ‘I do not know how I can bear to let you go.’
    ‘I don’t want to go…but I have to, Zahir.’
    ‘Must we part this way? On my honour, Gina, I have never felt like this with any other woman before… As if…as if she were a part of me that I never even knew I had lost until I saw her.’
    Devouring him with her eyes, Gina felt her heart squeeze with anguish at the mere though of them being separated.
Would people judge her as heartless—as cold and unfeeling—because she preferred to stay here with Zahir instead of going home to see her sick mother?
Right then she didn’t care. How could she when she’d been so bereft of love—of warm, human touch—for too long? Why should she feel guilty and weigh herself down with painful responsibility when his impassioned confession echoed the heartfelt yearning