Free The Sheik Who Loved Me by Loreth Anne White

past,” he said.
    She had enough presence of mind not to press him. They sat in uneasy silence, watching the pull of the moon on the ocean, keenly aware of each other’s presence.
    “David,” she said suddenly.
    His eyes shot to hers.
    “I…I want you to know that I’ll do whatever I can to help Kamilah.”
    “Why?” The word came out too terse.
    “Because I feel somehow responsible. I…” She wavered. The light of the moon caught the glisten in her huge green eyes, giving her away. She swallowed. “I don’t know how to explain it but I feel like I have a connection, that I can somehow relate to her…to what she’s been through.”
    David wanted to reach out, to touch her pain, to share his own. Instead he slammed down the doors. “You’ll probably be gone by tomorrow night,” he said brusquely.
    Hurt flashed through her eyes. She turned her face away from him. “Yes,” she said softly. “I hope I will be gone by then.” She got up and left.
    And he let her go.
    He cursed silently in Arabic and swigged back the last of his drink, relishing the angry burn down his throat.

    It took all Sahar’s control not to run. She walked calmly over the terrace and back into the palace. But once inside, she pressed her back hard up against the cool stone wall and scrunched her eyes tight, willing hot tears of frustration away. She was shaky, an absolute mess of conflicting emotions. She knew exactly how David Rashid’s satellite communication system worked. The realization had hit full-blow between her eyes the instant he’d begun to explain it to her. And she’d gone stone-cold. Some remote part of her brain had recognized that how his communications system functioned was somehow vitally important to her. But why?
    She shivered. The more snippets of recollection she got, the more ominous her whole situation seemed. She felt there was something really big she was just not grasping. But the more she tried to grab hold of those elusive feelings, the further it all seemed to retreat into the murky shadows of her mind. It made her feel vulnerable, as if an unidentified enemy prowled in the peripheral darkness of her brain, closing in. And Sahar knew that whoever she was, she hated feeling vulnerable.
    And on top of it all, she was attracted to the man in the most basic way. He stirred things inside her she didn’t want to begin to think about right now. Not when she didn’t know if he was supposed to be an enemy. But even though David Rashid set off every warning bell in her system, an instinctive female part of her wanted to ease his pain, help him connect with his daughter. And she’d tried to do just that. She’d reached out to help. And she’d been burned by rejection.
    Despite Sahar’s best efforts to quash the rising tide of emotions, a sob escaped her. It shuddered up through her body, and the pent-up frustration spilled hot down her cheeks.

    David was furious with himself. He shouldn’t have let her go like that. He jerked off his chair, stormed across the terrace, swung into the dining hall. And froze.
    She was pressed up against the wall, head back, eyes closed, a shimmering trail of tears down her cheeks.
    His throat closed. He’d done this to her.
    “Sahar,” he said, his voice thick.
    Her eyes flared open. She gasped, tried to turn away. He lunged forward and grabbed her arm. She stilled. He reached up, cupped her jaw, turned her slowly to face him. But she wouldn’t look him in the eyes.
    “I…I didn’t want you to see me like this,” she whispered.
    “Oh, God, Sahar, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”
    She pulled loose. “Don’t. It’s nothing. It’s me. I’m just tired. I need sleep. I…I guess I get emotional when I’m tired.” She forced a weak smile. “See, I’m learning something about myself.”
    “Sahar,” he said firmly.
    Those huge green eyes looked into his. Bewitching, mesmerizing eyes, filled with a shimmering ocean of emotion. He felt himself pulled