Free In Bed With a Stranger by India Grey

that.’
    Kit said nothing. It reminded him of the place he’d just left. The place where Lewis’s blood had glistened blackly as it soaked into the sand. There had been no change, the nurse had told him over the phone earlier. They were keeping Lewis sedated to give his body the best chance of healing, so it was impossible to tell what the long-term damage was yet. They’d have a better idea tomorrow.
    Kit pushed sweat-damp hair back from his forehead with a hand that was completely numb, but steady. It was only inside that he was shaking.
    He had woken from one nightmare and walked straight into another, and there was no escaping this one. It was the heat, the punishing sun, the dark eyes looking at him from beneath headscarves and veils. It was the man hauling a fresh sheep’s carcass on his shoulder, the scent of blood filling the narrow alley as he passed. It was the groups of men standing in doorways, watching.
    Watching. For a moment he thought he could hear that voice in his earpiece again.
    Sophie slowed in front of a snake charmer playing a whiny-soundinginstrument to a resolutely impassive cobra. Seeing her looking at him, the snake charmer nudged the basket with his foot. With visible reluctance the snake roused itself, desultorily swaying for a few bars before subsiding again. Sophie gave a shout of laughter.
    ‘Oh, poor snake! She’s about as enthusiastic as a bored nightclub hostess performing for a crowd of ageing businessmen.’
    Kit smiled, pressing the palm of his hand onto the middle of her back.
    ‘You’re burning.’
    ‘I can’t be. You applied the cream very thoroughly …’ She looked up at him with eyes that glittered with mischief.
    ‘Twice, in fact.’ The first time it had got rubbed off all over the sheets when, hopelessly aroused, they’d fallen back onto the bed.
    ‘And how is it fair that I’m burning in factor fifty when you don’t even have cream on?’ she asked huskily.
    He wound a tendril of flame-coloured hair that had escaped from the knot around his finger.
    ‘You’re more sensitive than I am. Come on.’ He pulled her forwards, away from the snake charmer with his steady black stare. ‘Let’s get out of the sun. Preferably by going back to the hotel.’
    Sophie laughed, quickening her pace to keep up with him. ‘No way,’ she said firmly. ‘I want to see more. I love it here.’
    She steered him into one of the souk’s dim alleyways, out of the blowtorch heat of the sun. Adrenaline stung through Kit’s veins as his gaze automatically scanned the street.
    ‘Oh, look—’
    Sophie’s voice reached him as if from a long distance. He turned his head automatically to see what she was pointing out to him, but was aware only of shadowed doorways where a sniper could hide, flat roofs that would provide the perfect position for a gunman to take aim.
    ‘These are beautiful …’
    She had gone over to a stall that was hung with silk clothing and was running her fingers down an olive-green scarf threaded with gold, lifting one corner so that a shaft of sunlight shone through the gossamer fabric. Kit gritted his teeth and rubbed a hand over his eyes, forcing back the blackness.
    What the hell was wrong with him? It was pathetic. He had to get a grip.
    ‘Put it on.’
    His voice was hoarse, his fingers fizzing as he took down the scarf and laid it over her hair. Winding it gently around her neck in the Eastern way, he focused on the shape of her lips and the scent of her skin to stop his mind from wandering back along those dark and twisting pathways. She was here and she was real, and with the scarf around her head she looked oddly demure and very beautiful. Desire kneed him in the groin and a wave of relief and passionate gratitude swept through him. He took her face in his hands and fastened his mouth on hers.
    Kissing her anchored him. His hands, now they were holding her, felt normal again and the darkness in his head was benevolent once more, filled with images