Page 19 of The Sheikh's English Bride

I'm glad we understand each other,' said Xavier

CHAPTER SIX

'I think there must have been some kind of mistake!' declared Laura, as she looked around the room with a mixture of anger, fear and unquestionable excitement.

'Mistake?' echoed Xavier innocently as two servants put down the last of their bags 'And what kind of mistake would that be, cherie?'

'Sharing a suite' she declared 'With you'

She was glaring at him as if he was devil himself, and Xavier allowed a feeling of brief contentment to wash over him How much easier to allow his thoughts to be dominated by the familiar friction of sexual tension rather than wondering about the wisdom of having come here on such a strange quest

'Well, it isn't exactly sharing, is it, ? We have one sitting room in common — surely you can deal with that for a few nights?' He raised his black brows in mocking query 'Did you never share with members of the opposite sex when you were a law student?'

'That's different'

'How is it different, Laura?'

'Playing the innocent doesn't suit you, Xavier,' she said 'Are you behind this?'

'Behind what?'

'The fact that we're going to be virtually living on top of one another!'

His dark, sensual face now assumed an expression of faint perplexity 'You think that the possibility of my being the Sheikh's illegitimate son means that I have been able to wield control, perhaps even from France? What did you imagine, Laura — that I somehow managed to acquire a direct line to Zahir and demand that he put us in close proximity?'

'So you didn't have anything to do with it? Was that a yes or a no?'

Ah, oui — she was clever, he would give her that Or maybe it was her lawyer's training, seeing straight through his elaborately bluffed response and realising that he hadn't actually answered her question

Is it such a bad arrangement?' he questioned, gesturing around the cool, shaded room, with its stone floors and priceless silk rugs in faded jewel colours There was a glorious bureau, inlaid with many different gleaming woods, and on it stood a vase of sweetly scented roses It is a beautiful room — in fact, it is so large that it could easily be divided into three rooms And what is there to complain about when we have been given separate bedrooms?'

'Except that there aren't any keys in the locks, are there?' she pointed out And he still hadn't answered her question

'Really? I hadn't got around to checking that'

He raised his dark brows and gave an arrogant laugh 'Do you think that a locked door would keep me out if I really wanted to get into your bedroom?'

Laura's heart missed a beat 'You don't mean you'd break the door down? she questioned in a faint voice.

'Why? Is that one of your abiding fantasies?'

'No'

'What I meant,' he murmured, noting the automatic way her pupils had dilated and feeling an answering stir of desire, 'was that if I wished it, then you would turn the key and let me in '

'Are you crazy?' She stared at him 'Do you live in the kind of world where women just fall in with your every whim?'

Their eyes met 'Pretty much '

Laura shook her head 'You treat women like sexual objects,' she complained

'Which they are'

'I can't believe you said that'

'Because it is true,' he mused, enjoying the verbal sparing fonts rarity value as much as for a distraction 'Your objection is in the wording — and all the associations which have grown up around it When a man looks at a beautiful woman he thinks of sex — but it works both ways Women think the same way about men — if only they would have the courage to admit it' He slanted her a shamelessly provocative look from beneath his thick black lashes 'You were thinking about just that on the plane today'

For once Laura was momentarily speechless The trouble was that she couldn't fault his logic, his cleverness with words He would have made a good lawyer himself, she thought reluctantly 'Well, maybe I'll ask Malik to change my room '

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