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The following early evening Iseult looked around at where men were taking down tents, packing up. Lina had already left with Iseult’s baggage, and now she waited for Nadim by his Jeep. For their return to Merkazad, there was no question of how she was travelling. She was with Nadim. As effectively as if she had a sign around her neck that proclaimed, I slept with Nadim and am now his property!
But even that thought couldn’t dampen the ardour in her veins as she saw Nadim in the distance, with his head inclined towards an old and gnarled man who leant on a stick, listening patiently. He’d awoken a hunger within her that she feared might never be quenched.
Even the memory of Lina’s reaction to her arrival back at her own tent early that afternoon couldn’t quench the heat. The teasing, warmly affectionate banter was gone, and Lina had morphed into someone who wouldn’t meet Iseult’s eyes. She’d acted with such an obsequious manner that Iseult had felt a little ill. When she’d asked Lina if something was wrong, Lina had replied evasively that nothing was wrong, but clearly things were different now. Iseult had become part of Nadim’s retinue and therefore had to be treated accordingly.
Even so…Iseult couldn’t feel regret or remorse for the decision she’d taken. She watched Nadim stride towards her, with his cream robes billowing out around him, and felt weak with longing.
As they made the journey back down the mountains and into the Merkazadi plateau again, Nadim spent most of his time on a cellphone, speaking in a dizzying array of languages. One minute French, the next Spanish, back to English, and then something unmistakably Arabic.
Iseult tried to relax and look at the scenery but it was impossible. Her body seemed to be vibrating at a higher frequency, and Nadim would periodically reach for her hand, touching her, seeking her eyes, setting off a chain reaction of heat waves through her body and over her skin.
Nadim had made love to Iseult over and over again, but each time without seeking his own release. He was letting her body get used to the pleasure he could so effortlessly evoke, and even though she’d begged him to take her he’d held back, showing her how pleasure could come in many different ways. It had left her feeling sated and restless all at the same time.
‘What are you thinking of?’
Iseult whirled around, face flushing. She’d been so engrossed that she hadn’t even heard him terminate his conversation. ‘No…nothing…’ she stuttered ineffectually, as she feared what she had been thinking about must be engraved all over her face.
Nadim smiled that seductive, mocking smile and took her hand, taking it to his mouth where he pressed a kiss against her inner palm. Iseult squirmed and blushed and tried to pull her hand away. ‘Don’t…the driver…’
She looked to the front, but the driver was looking resolutely forward. Nadim let her hand go and drawled softly, ‘We’re as good as alone. Asad doesn’t speak English.’
Iseult blushed more. ‘That may be, but he wouldn’t have to speak English to know what’s going on.’
A familiarly autocratic look crossed Nadim’s face, and Iseult cut in before he could speak. ‘I know, I know—you’re the Sheikh and no one questions what you do. But what about me? I have to work—’
‘You don’t have to work any more…’
Iseult’s mouth opened and closed. As much as she hated the thought of gossip, she wasn’t going to hide away either. Fire built in her belly and she rounded fully on Nadim. ‘I am not going to be locked up in that castle like some concubine. I want to keep working with Devil’s Kiss. And I want to help Jamilah in the stables.’
Nadim shrugged, nonchalantly picking a bit of non-existent lint off his regal cuff. ‘I have no problem with you working—as long as you’re in my bed when I want you…’
He came close then, and Iseult saw that his nonchalance was just a thin veneer. She’d angered him again with her outspokenness. ‘You’re my mistress now, Iseult, in my bed until I say so…’
Rebellion quivered in Iseult’s belly. ‘What about me? Don’t I have any say in this?’
He shook his head, and again reality chaffed. No other woman had ever questioned his intentions. ‘Not really, habiba.’
Distracted for a second, Iseult asked, ‘What does that mean? Habiba?’ He’d called her that a few times over the past night.
Nadim’s mouth twisted for a moment. Something dark crossed his face, and then with clear reluctance he said, ‘It means beloved…but it’s just a figure of speech.’ He put a finger under Iseult’s chin, and his voice was hard. ‘I know how your first lover can inspire feelings… Don’t fall in love with me, Iseult. I won’t be responsible for your heart.’
The sharp pain that gripped her chest made her lash out without thinking about what she was saying. ‘I can take care of myself. I wouldn’t be foolish enough to give my heart to someone who didn’t even love his own wife.’
Nadim’s eyes flashed in angry response and his hand tightened on her chin. Immediately Iseult felt contrite. But before she could say anything he just replied, ‘Good. Then we both know where we stand.’
Iseult jerked her chin away from Nadim’s finger, going cold inside at the evidence of his implacable stance. ‘And, anyway, who’s to say you won’t fall in love with me?’
Something about her was so endearingly vulnerable, like a lion cub standing up to a much bigger opponent, that Nadim had to curb his reflex to haul her into him, crush her against his chest and kiss her into oblivion, until they were both going up in flames and it would be the easiest thing in the world to slip out of his robes and open her jeans and pull them down… He cursed the driver just inches away. He might not understand English, but Iseult was right. He already had a damn good idea what was going on. His whole retinue did after he’d carried Iseult into his tent last night like some ancient warrior.
The lack of his usual control made him say starkly now, ‘I won’t fall in love, Iseult. You can be assured of that. Love serves no purpose in my life.’
As she looked at him he could see something much more vulnerable cross over her face, and she said quietly, ‘But you’ll marry again some day…’
‘Yes, of course,’ he dismissed easily with a hand. ‘But this time I’ll make sure that my chosen bride is under no illusions that there will be love.’ His face was no less harsh, but not as closed as he said, ‘The present, Iseult, is all I’m interested in, and you are the present. When we get back to Merkazad you’ll see that Lina will have moved your things to a room closer to mine.’
Iseult’s mouth twisted. ‘Out of the women’s quarters and into the harem?’
Nadim smiled. ‘Something like that.’
