AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hawk watched Lina disappear into the small bathroom, her hands filled with clothes she’d pulled from the drawer of the cheap dresser that also served as a television stand. The room had a window, but it was too small for even Lina to get through. Though he wasn’t taking any chances.
“Leave the door open,” he ordered.
She didn’t answer, but she also didn’t close the door.
Damn. He almost wanted her to disobey…to argue. So, he could have the pleasure of subduing her? What the hell was the matter with him?
And what was up with her? The Lina he remembered was not this acquiescent. He’d said she hadn’t changed, but the truth was—she had. He didn’t like it, which made no sense.
The fact that she made no attempt to run, or involve her blond boyfriend in trying to get rid of Sebastian was the behavior of a docile woman. His princess was anything but that. Or at least she had been eight years ago.
One thing hadn’t changed in all that time. The reaction of his body to her presence. He’d had a hard-on since she climbed out of the Jeep and it was only getting more urgent as his senses took in the sounds and smells of her showering.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SHE used the same shampoo and body wash she had when they first met. The scents were unmistakable. He could hear the splashes of water as she washed herself and damned if he didn’t want to strip off his own clothes and join her. This was not the way he’d planned to react to her when he agreed to take the missing persons case personally.
Her father was angry and not a little worried at Lina’s disappearance. In an unprecedented move, the king had come to Hawk’s office. His security advisor had accompanied him, but the king had done all the talking, practically begging Hawk to find his daughter.
Seeing another proud man brought to this point had moved Hawk, but he was too honest with himself to pretend that was all that had influenced his decision to come after Lina. He’d never forgotten the weeks he’d spent guarding her. There were still nights he woke up with the scent of her skin a memory so real he reached for her in the bed.
She was never there, and never would be, but he had to be the one to bring her in. To deliver her to her family to marry the Playboy Prince. Okay, so he didn’t understand why King Fahd bin Latif had arranged Lina’s marriage to a sheikh who didn’t seem able to keep his scandals out of the newspaper, but it wasn’t Hawk’s job to judge the actions of his clients.
He’d taken on an ignment and he would see it to completion.
And maybe he’d get the chance to have the conversation she had denied him the last night they saw each other and one attempt he’d made via the phone since.
He owed Lina an apology, maybe even an explanation. If he could go back, he wouldn’t change his actions—at least not that he’d walked away. He’d had no choice. Her place in the royal family of Marwan dictated that reality. However he would have been more honest with her after the first kiss, instead of relying on self-control that had turned out to be weaker than he thought.
He also would have explained that his attraction to her had not been a deception, but the real deal. That even if they couldn’t have a future he would rather part as friends. But he’d been totally disgusted with himself and his failure to control his libido. He’d taken it out on her, being cold and judgmental—he’d had to try and keep control—when he should have been apologizing.
A part of him had realized it then and that had only made it worse.
He found himself doing it again today. He’d been livid watching her kiss that damn water bunny and had expressed his anger in disdain he wasn’t sure he even felt.
He’d taken on a job and he would see it to completion, but was it really such a bad thing for a twenty-first century woman to want to choose her own husband. Even a princess?
The sound of the shower curtain sliding back had Hawk’s head snapping up. He looked through the cracked open door, knowing he would not see anything. Lina would no doubt finish dressing behind the door.
Only he hadn’t taken the vanity mirror into consideration. The open door had stopped it from steaming up and the reflective surface gave a perfect mirror image of Lina drying her delectable little body. He should turn away, he knew he should. But he couldn’t make himself do it.
She was so beautiful. Her honey colored skin glistened with moisture where she had not yet reached with the towel. Droplets of water dripped off the ends of her hair to roll down her generous s, some curving around her beaded s, others rolling right over the tips.
He wanted to go in there and lick those drops of water right off her and had even taken two steps forward before he caught himself. He stood rigid, locking his muscles into immobility and watching with uncontrollable fascination as she continued to dry off. She turned and bent over, exposing her heart shaped backside and the shadow of her most feminine place.
He groaned.
She stilled. “Did you say something, Sebastian?”
“Uh…no.” If he didn’t move, she was going to catch him watching her like an adolescent getting his first peek at a female body.
Gritting his teeth, he shut his eyes and forced himself to turn away and take several steps toward where he knew the bed was. He opened his eyes once he felt the bed against his shin. He sat down and only considered the lack of wisdom in choosing this particular spot once he was already there.
Once she came out of the bathroom, he was not going to toss her onto the bed and ravish her within an inch of her life…or his. He wasn’t.
Lina dressed quickly, but clothing herself acted as no barrier between her and the feelings that Sebastian elicited in her. The shower hadn’t helped, either. The feel of hot water cascading over her body had acted as a catalyst to sensations she had long ago given up on.
This was so incredibly wrong.
She’d dated several men since graduating from college, men worthy of her affection and desire. And felt nothing for any of them.
Then Mr. Sebastian Hawk walks back into her life and within milliseconds she’s reacting to him as if he’d never been away, had never betrayed her.
Sebastian had used her once and she had no intention of falling for him again. But then what she was feeling right now had nothing to do with love. It was one hundred percent physical. It had to be. There was nothing left over from her love for Sebastian. She’d loved a lie anyway. It wasn’t as if anything about the man had been real eight years ago.
And she could keep reminding herself of that important truth, but it wasn’t going to do a darn thing to dampen the fire lit deep inside her. Which just proved that it was entirely carnal in origin. Her emotions knew better than to react to the man’s presence.
Apparently her body wasn’t quite as wise.
She pulled her long hair up into a ponytail. She could barely see the highlights while it was wet, but dry it glinted with blond, red and light brown streaks mixed with her natural black. Her mother hated it. Her aunt loved it and Lina liked it enough to have her roots touched up every six weeks.
Wondering what Sebastian would think of it dry and trying to ignore the traitorous thought, she walked out of the bathroom. He was sitting on the bed, a pained expression on his face.
“You all right?” she asked begrudgingly.
The blank mask she’d learned to hate the night she discovered his duplicity settled over his features. “Fine. You ready to go?”
“Go where exactly?”
“Playing word games with me, Princess?”
“No. I ume you plan to deliver me to my family, but considering the fact that we are twenty-six hundred miles from D.C. and at least a four-hour drive from any sort of municipal airport, I’m uming we’ve got at least one stop between here and there.”
“I didn’t say your family was in the States.”
“You didn’t have to. My father may think I’m incapable of keeping up with world events, but I’m not. Nor am I oblivious. The fact that the king of Marwan and his entourage are currently staying in our nation’s capital is hardly a state secret.” And if he thought he was taking her to Marwan, he was delusional.
“You’re right. Your parents, not to mention your fiancé, are waiting for your arrival in D.C.”
“I ume they are staying at the Embassy?” Her father was fanatical about security and did not trust hotels or even U.S. government provided housing. The Marwan Embassy was large enough to not only house him and the royal entourage, but had several more guest rooms besides all the ordinary facilities for hosting other government dignitaries.
“Yes.”
“So?”
He looked a question at her.
“Where exactly are we going now?”
“You think I should tell you?”
“I get that you fall in with my father’s draconian belief that he should be able to dictate my future as well as who I share it with, but are you so tyrannical that you don’t think you perhaps owe me the most basic of courtesies? Namely telling me where I should expect to spend the night?”
