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‘For God’s sake, woman, are you trying to kill yourself?’ Without taking his angry eyes from her face he jerked his head in the direction of the drop.
She frowned in bewilderment at his stressed exclamation.
‘The drop is two hundred feet.’ He spaced the words, enunciating them slowly through his lips.
Her expression cleared. ‘Oh, I’m fine with heights.’
His chiselled jaw clenched. ‘Well, I am not fine with scraping up pieces of your stupid—’ He bit back any further remarks and shook his dark head, his big hands sliding downwards from her shoulders to her upper arms. He seemed at the point of jerking her towards him when instead he stepped backwards, releasing the breath that had clearly been trapped in his chest in a deep sigh.
Relieved there was a barrier of air between them, she might have been able to clear the whirling fog of emotions in her head if he hadn’t continued to stare at her with daunting disapproval, mingled with something else she couldn’t quite name.
The something else made her heart rate escalate, throwing the stressed organ against her ribcage as her eyes went to his mouth, remembering his kiss as she swallowed to relieve the contraction in her dry throat.
She didn’t have a clue how long they stayed there, a frozen tableau, before he finally broke the silence, though not with a kiss this time.
‘You scared me witless...this place—’
‘It’s beautiful.’
You’re beautiful, she thought, unable to stop staring at his face.
He nodded. ‘Yes, but it is also dangerous.’
So were the currents she could feel shimmering like silken ribbons in the air between them.
‘My ancestors used to bring their enemies here and push them to their deaths...’
She gave a shudder at the image his words created in her head.
‘When I was a boy I used to be fascinated by the gruesome stories in the way that small boys are always fascinated by gruesome anything. On my twelfth birthday, my brother said he had a present for me...he brought me here...’ His head turned towards the ledge. ‘By that time I was as tall as Khalid, but two of his friends were waiting. They held me over the edge and threatened to drop me...they wanted me to say my mother was a slut... I wouldn’t, so they held me there until I passed out from fear.’
She hadn’t felt dizzy standing at the edge but the furious reaction she felt in response to his matter-of-fact recounting of the story of bullying rose up in her now, so strong that her head spun. ‘Oh, that’s so terrible...wicked...no wonder you are scared of this place!’ she exclaimed.
‘I’m not scared of this place.’
‘It’s fine if you are,’ she soothed, taking his hand as she began to back away from the stone opening.
It took him a moment to realise the astonishing truth: she was looking after him... With a twisted half-smile he allowed her to drag him away until she stood with her back to the wall and he was facing her a few feet away from the opening.
‘Is that better?’
‘I’m really not afraid of heights—my father cured me. Somehow, he heard about what had happened. I never questioned how, I just accepted his omnipotence.’ There was a wistful edge to his soft laugh. ‘Anyway, he brought me here and told me to look over the edge.’
She looked up at him, eyes wide with shock and indignation.
‘That was brutal!’
She couldn’t believe it when he shook his head in denial of her condemnation. He actually smiled, and the poignant quality of the motion made her ache with sadness.
‘I refused point-blank and so he brought a stone out from his pocket. It was large, smooth and black.’ He extended his hand, rubbing his thumb across his palm as though he was seeing it, feeling it there.
‘A stone?’
‘He gave it to me and told me that it was very valuable, he explained that it had magical qualities, that the person who carried it would never fall. He said it had been given to him by a famous climber who had conquered Everest.’
Abby’s shoulders relaxed as she smiled. ‘You believed him.’ She was taken by the story and the image in her head of Zain as a little boy.
‘I was still afraid of the drop, but yes, I believed him and actually more than that I didn’t want to disappoint him. So every day we met here and each day I looked over the edge with a little less fear than the previous day. After a week of coming here, only to have my father not show up, I got bored and curious so I took the stone from my pocket and climbed up onto the ledge. Did I mention I was a rather curious child? I wondered what would happen if I dropped it...so I did.
