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Strangely, he did, Karim admitted—today, at least. Yesterday he’d had a very different opinion of her. But yesterday he’d been angry, tense, too much to think of and collecting Nabil’s errant bride being one more thing he didn’t want on his shoulders. His father’s heart problems and the suspicion that they had been brought on by the stress of the loss of his eldest son and heir had been the last straw. He couldn’t get away from the fact that if he had refused to give in to Razi’s demand that he have no security detail, his brother might still be here.
Today he felt differently. And it wasn’t just because she had come back when she’d said. This new, calmer, dignified Clementina was a very different prospect from the wild, defiant creature who had opened the door to him yesterday and had sneaked out of the house at the first opportunity.
But some instinct had made him give her the twenty-four hours she had asked for. The tracking device had shown that she was at Lilac Close. A few discreet enquiries had revealed that she was friends with the family who lived there. Who were holding a birthday party for their young son. He’d decided to give her the chance and wait.
He was surprisingly glad that he had. And when the door had opened and she’d walked in something had changed inside him. Something unexpected and unsettling. Something he didn’t want to take out and face. Not when he had to get this mission completed and one princess delivered to her prospective bridegroom, putting his father’s mind at rest on this at least.
He’d already been delayed twenty-four hours too long. It was time they were on the road and heading out of here.
There was no chance of that, Karim realised only a very short time later. He’d already had doubts when he went outside again. Yet more snow had piled up around Clementina’s car. The wheels were half hidden under the drifting snow, the path to the road had been obliterated, and the garden was a white-out. The vehicle was going to be very little use in these conditions. It was lucky he had his four-wheel drive in the yard at the back of the house. If he could only get it on to the road.
But the little car’s engine refused to start. Every time he turned the key in the ignition there was a dreadful grating, rasping noise that sounded as if the elderly car was breathing its last. It choked and spluttered—and died with a shudder. One that made him curse and slam his hands down on the steering wheel in exasperation.
‘Is there a problem?’ Clementina had come out of the house and was leaning down to the window, frowning in concern.
‘You could say that.’ Once more he tried turning the key. There wasn’t even a groan from the engine. ‘This car isn’t going anywhere today—tonight,’ he amended, glaring up at the darkening sky.
‘Perhaps if I steered and you pushed...’
‘We could try.’
‘OK then.’ She made a move to hurry out of the way of the opening car door. ‘Let me into the driver’s seat and I’ll... Oh!’
The sentence broke off on a sharp cry of distress as she stepped on a patch of ice hidden under the snow. With a yelp, she fought to stay upright, one leg going one way, the other heading in the opposite direction. Her foot twisted under her, throwing her completely off balance and she fell headlong, landing heavily in a deep snowdrift.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘KARIM!’
Her cry of distress was too high, too shocked, to be anything but genuine, setting his nerves on edge and pushing him out of the car as fast as his reflexes would allow.
‘Clementina...’
She was struggling to get up, slipped a little and then collapsed again on a small moan.
‘What hurts?’ Because it was obvious that something did.
‘My ankle...’
She was biting her lip hard and only by diverting his attention to the right ankle she had indicated with a wave did he stop himself from pressing his fingers against her mouth to stop the damaging action.
‘I fell over on it—twisted it...’
There was nothing to see. Nothing, that was, except the temptation of soft pale flesh, delicate bones, the base of a long slender leg... He ran his hands over the skin of her ankle, pressed gently. Fought against the burn of response that flashed up his nerves as he did so.
‘Can you stand?’
He knew his tone was rough and abrupt; didn’t need the reproachful look she cast at him. Reproach that melted into defiance as her chin came up and her mouth firmed.
‘I can try.’
Stubbornly, she ignored the hand he held out to her, relying instead on supporting herself on the car’s bumper as she hauled herself up. Then, just as she stood upright, she gave another gasping cry as she tried to put her weight on the injured limb.
‘OK...’
He caught her before she fell, swung her off the ground and up into his arms.
‘Let’s get you inside.’
He sensed her rebellion, the tensing of her body, but then, clearly recognising that she wasn’t going to manage this on her own, she made herself relax against him. He was grateful for the need to watch his step on the icy path, the fight against the whirling snow as he hurried inside. It distracted him from the feel of her, warm and soft against him. The perfume of her skin rose up, tantalising his senses, and the softness of her hair was like silk against his cheek.
Karim didn’t know if he was relieved or sorry when he made it inside the house, shouldering his way along the narrow hall and into the living room. He laid her down on the settee, not caring if the haste of his movements, the abruptness of his actions made it seem as if he was glad to be relieved of the burden of her weight. He was relieved, but not because her weight was too much for him to carry. He’d managed much heavier weights over much longer distances before now. But nothing he’d ever carried before had made his heart beat so fast, his breath tangle in his throat so that he was breathing as hard as if he’d run a marathon.
‘I’ll take your boot off.’
It was a good thing that there wasn’t a visible pulse in her ankle, Clemmie reflected as she watched Karim’s dark silky head bend over her foot, unlacing and easing the boot from her foot. If there was then he would be sure to see the effect his closeness was having on her, the way that her heartbeat responded to the touch of his hands, the warmth of his breath on her skin. It made her insides twist, her nerves tangle.
This was the first time that she’d seen all that strength and power used in a very different way. A gentle, caring, helpful way. In the moment that he’d picked her up she had felt as if a shield had come round her, blocking off the cold blast of the snowstorm, protecting her from it. And being held against the warmth and strength of his chest had felt like being enclosed in the strongest, most wonderful hug ever, with the heavy regular beat of his heart just under her cheek.
Then she had felt nothing but warmth, but now she felt alternately burningly hot and then shiveringly cold, as if she was in the grip of some delirious fever. The heat in her blood was raw and primitive, a visceral feeling that clawed at her, fraying away her sense of self, leaving her feeling out of control and wildly adrift. She had never felt this way before and it shocked and disturbed her, making her pull away from Karim’s grip as she sat up hastily, wanting to escape from it.
‘I’ll do that,’ she snapped, hiding her real feelings behind a mask of indignation.
She wanted to move as far from Karim as possible, but in the same moment that she twisted away she felt surprisingly lost and bereft, needing the warm protection of his body—needing so much more.
‘I can manage...’
Unfastening the boot, pulling it from her foot was no problem at all but she made herself focus on it as if it was a struggle, rather than face the real struggle that was going on inside her. Her heart was thudding unevenly, her breath ragged and uneven.
‘Are you all right?’
He’d heard the way she was breathing, put the wrong sort of interpretation on it. But that was the way she wanted him to interpret it, wasn’t it?
‘I’m fine.’
Even in her own ears it didn’t sound convincing, no matter how emphatic she made it, so she put on a hiss of discomfort as she pulled the boot from her foot and tossed it to the floor.
‘I might have sprained this—it’s swollen.’
No, that had been a mistake, as it brought him back to her, those long, square-tipped fingers touching her ankle lightly, testing, stroking...
More! The word burned inside her head and she almost choked trying to swallow it down. I want more than this.
‘I think...’
Another mistake. Just speaking had brought his head up, made his gaze lock with hers. She could see the black thickness of his lashes in absurd detail, find a tiny reflected replica of herself in the depths of those amazing eyes. His skin smelt of musk and lemon, making her head spin as she inhaled when she breathed.
‘You think?’ Something had put that note of huskiness into his voice. The fullness of his mouth had a faint sheen where he had moistened it lightly with his tongue. Had he felt as dry-throated, found it as hard to swallow as she had?
