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Midnight approached.
The veil was a triumph of erotica by the time Gaia finished arranging it to emphasise and enhance Amanda’s curves. Amanda had never thought of herself as a femme fatale but she certainly began to see what had induced King Solomon to dally with the Queen of Sheba. There was a definite art to looking and feeling sensual and seductive.
The midnight blue cloak was carefully lowered over her shoulders so as not to disarrange the effect of the veil. Her hair was gathered back and hidden by the hood which formed a shadowy frame for her face. Amanda practised undoing the fastening at her throat so she could open it in one fluid movement.
I’m ready, she told herself. As ready as I’ll ever be.
She took several deep breaths.
Her nerves were playing havoc with her stomach. Her nipples had tightened into hard little buds. Her thighs were aquiver. She was sure her blood had turned to water.
The clock ticked on.
Near midnight her escort arrived to take her to the sheikh. Her attendants’ well wishes rang hollowly in her ears. Gaia accompanied her to the door that led out of the harem. ‘My princess...my queen...’ she whispered, a last benediction that Amanda desperately hoped was prophetic.
With her heart pounding a painful yearning for everything to turn out right, Amanda stepped out of the harem and moved towards her fateful encounter with Xa Shiraq.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE doors softly closed behind her. Amanda stood in a circle of light cast by two wall-lamps. The rest of the room receded into darkness. She was spotlit as she had been in their original meeting at the Oasis Hotel in Fisa. It made her feel like a rabbit trapped in the headlights of a car with nowhere to escape.
Where was he?
Music was playing. Soft, romantic music.
In front of her was a magnificent room thickly carpeted in royal blue, with rich furnishings in the same colour combined with white and gold...deeply cushioned sofas in velvet and silk brocade, beautifully grained marble tables, exotic lamps, gold urns holding luxurious plants, exquisite vases from which trailed arrangements of tiny white flowers.
Xabian jasmine.
The scent was unmistakable, stirring Amanda’s senses, arousing a tingle of anticipation, soothing her fears. Her pulse quickened. Surely it meant he wanted her to be excited. Or was he teasing her with what could have been?
At the far end of the room was a row of high, graceful arches. Beyond them was total darkness.
‘Do you call that a veil?’
The mocking question had a cutting edge to it that sliced into Amanda’s assurance in her appearance. So much for an air of mystery!
Her trembling hands went to the fastening at her throat. With the one fluid motion she had practised, the cloak parted. She pushed back the hood then tossed the long coverall from her shoulders. Her hair dropped like a waterfall of spun silk, caressing the bare skin around her collarbones. She held her hands apart as if in supplication.
‘Do you want other men to see me like this?’ she asked softly.
She heard the voluble intake of his breath.
Her gaze swung to the source of the sound. His tall, lithe body was framed in the last arch on the right-hand side of the room. He was clothed in a pure white robe and headdress, the black and gold coiled ‘iqal circling his head like a crown. He looked every inch the formidable ruler of Xabia.
Amanda took a few steps away from the circlet of light to merge with her own shadows. It suddenly seemed important to meet him on equal terms, person to person, regardless of dress and position.
His black eyes were hidden but Amanda could feel them riveted on her, burning with intensity.
‘If the beauty of your mind reflected the beauty of your body I would love you for an eternity.’ There was a curl of contempt in his voice as he tried to vanquish the feelings she was arousing in him.
Amanda knew he was affected, deeply affected by her. But he didn’t believe in her, she thought despairingly. Not in her words, her love, her need for him.
He gave a derisive laugh. ‘Perhaps it was appropriate that you came wrapped in darkness...a phantom of the night. It hides what is best not seen.’
He was trying to negate what he felt, wish it into nonexistence. Amanda knew she had to reach out to him before he set himself irrevocably on a path that would turn him away from her forever.
‘I’m as human as you are,’ she said quietly. ‘You know it. You’ve felt it. I didn’t come here because you ordered me to. I came because I wanted to. I wanted to be with a man who has aroused passions in me that can never be forgotten. I wanted to...’
