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‘Does she have far to go?’ she asked, watching the child, and he realised she actually cared. And it shouldn’t matter, but somehow it registered in a place he wasn’t used to going.
‘No,’ he said, his voice sounding as if it had been poured over gravel, even to him. ‘Nothing is far here.’ But he wondered all the same.
‘I like Burguk,’ she said, using napkins to soak up the juice from her hands. ‘I like the people here. I like the children.’
‘I told them they would see you tomorrow,’ he said. ‘At the feast the village is preparing.’
She brushed her jeans off as she stood to collect her things together. ‘In honour of your visit, you mean?’
He shrugged. ‘It has been a good year. It is an occasional custom.’
She shook her head as she collected up her shopping. ‘Who are you?’ she asked. ‘I thought you were just a businessman. But the people here seem to love you.’
‘Who are you?’ he countered. ‘I thought you would spend your time in Burguk idly shopping, but then I find you have wooed the entire village.’
Her smile widened as he offered her his hand and she filled it with the handles of her bags. ‘I shopped, don’t worry.’
* * *
Amber lay on the Sultan’s bed, her body slick with sweat as she panted her way down from the dizzy heights Kadar had taken her to.
Above the bed the constellations had been reproduced so that it seemed as if they were lying under the desert sky, the stars tiny pinpricks of light.
Amber wanted to pinch herself. She’d come to Turkey in the hopes of getting a taste of the country her great-great-great-grandmother had so clearly loved, never expecting that she’d find her own adventure.
Would have pinched herself, if she’d been able to use her hands.
‘Um, I hate to bother you, but...’
Kadar lifted his head from where he’d buried it against her neck when he’d collapsed against her, his brow drawn into a frown that lasted only as long as it took her to tug on her bindings, and his frown disappeared and turned into a smile.
‘You have a problem?’
‘Only if you don’t untie me.’
His smile grew wider and made her toes curl and her mind send an alert to be careful. A playful Kadar was a dangerous beast. A playful Kadar made her wish things that were playful might be more permanent. And that was a dangerous place to be.
‘I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before—the perfect way to keep you out of trouble.’
‘You’ll be in trouble if you don’t untie me.’
‘No sense of humour,’ he joked as he kissed her cheek and reached up to untie her hands. His skin smelt of sweat and sex and hot-blooded man and she breathed him in, wanting to imprint it on her mind so she would never forget.
She rubbed her wrists as she brought her arms down and he captured them in his hand and kissed the insides of her wrists. ‘Does that hurt?’
‘Not really,’ she said, though she’d tugged hard against her restraints, because it was worth a little pain to feel this man between her legs and feel his chest against her breasts and his mouth upon her lips.
A little pain was so worth it.
CHAPTER TEN
THERE WAS A holiday mood in the village the next day and it seemed as if the entire valley was celebrating, all the people of the small villages and towns coming together to celebrate a good year.
They gathered at the local football ground, setting up food stalls and braziers to ward off the chill, a colder night forecast because the snow clouds had scudded away and left the sky clear. Big spits roasted whole sheep turning the air mouth-watering. Amber recognised the man she’d bought the pomegranate juice from the day before and the man who’d sold her the souvenirs, both excited to meet her again and introduce her to their wives and families. And the children who’d shown her around the town brought their parents to meet her. Half the town seemed eager to meet her.
She was charmed by the welcome, and especially by the little girl she’d met the day before who held her hand and stayed by her side when the other children were all running around.
They dined on the spit-roasted lamb with okra and tomatoes and smoky eggplant topped with bright red pomegranate seeds and a dozen other salads besides, plus the best bread Amber had ever eaten, all washed down with apple tea and the local white wine.
And afterwards, as the colour drained from the late afternoon sky, everyone took their seats in the big spectator stand and Kadar was introduced to cheers and he climbed onto a podium and gave a speech she couldn’t understand a word of, but it was clear the speech was a success, because the crowd was all smiles and cheers and applause and she felt good just being part of the celebration.
