Free Sheikh's Castaway by Alexandra Sellers Page B

him!” Then his strong handsbegan to pull the line with slow careful pressure, drawing the struggling fish closer and closer, playing it a little, and then inexorably drawing it in again.
    Their differences were forgotten as they worked together on the urgent task of bringing in tonight’s dinner, and when the fish had been captured, they smiled at each other involuntarily, forgetting their conflict for the moment.
    â€œI could almost eat it raw!” she cried.
    â€œYou might have to.”
    The raft was being carried at an angle away from the sandy part of the beach towards the rocks. Bari jumped out, landed in waist-deep water and, waving her to stay aboard, dragged the painter over his shoulder. His arm and back muscles rippled as he guided the little raft into the long shadow of a rugged outcrop of black rock that thrust up out of the smooth white sand, the sea splashing gently against it.
    Noor watched in helpless fascination as he strode up the sloping beach, the water level dropping to reveal his slim waist, his muscled hips, strong thighs. The white cloth of his shalwar, stained dark by the water, clung to him, outlining every rippling fold of well-toned muscle. The inside of her own thighs unexpectedly melted at the sudden sense-memory of the firmness of his body against her in those pleasure-drugged minutes when her legs had clung to him and he moved inside her.
    It had been painful and an utter delight all at once, as her body now insistently reminded her. The slap of the waves against the raft, its gentle rise and fall, the erotic swelling that lifted the raft and let it sink, all conspired to bring back her first experience of that primal motion, that fundamental rhythm underlying all creation.
    Though she hadn’t achieved the peak under the thrust of his body, the pain of lost virginity hadn’t stopped her hunger for him, for more, more, more. His mouth and his hands had been what sent her over the edge into swooping pleasure, but it wasn’t mouth and hands she remembered now. It was him deep inside her, pushing her towards some magical truth that had eluded her then but still magnetically beckoned and promised. The mere touch of him had given her a deep satisfaction, even without the soaring pleasure, and it was that which, to her horror, she was suddenly yearning and aching for.
    The completion. The sense of connection at the deepest level. The oneness of it.
    He was despising you all the time, Noor reminded herself fiercely. It was an act to trick you. He was prostituting himself for his grandfather’s money.
    The life raft ran aground, and she climbed out of it with a slight stagger. The waves bubbled and frothed against her shins, warm and inviting.
    â€œWe must carry it ashore. Take that side,” Bari commanded, as if he expected to be obeyed, and Noor just couldn’t think of a way to rebel that wouldn’t end with her having to obey. When they had carried the raft above the high-tide mark and into the lee of the rock, he nodded approvingly, as if to a child.
    â€œVery good.”
    He searched inside for the flashlight, and Noor turned away from the sight of him to watch the sun set underneath a perfect spectrum of colours: blood-red at the horizon, then glowing orange, golden yellow, soft green blending to blue, then through deeper and deeper blues to indigo and finally, overhead, to dark amethyst.
    Underneath the sky the water reflected the sparkling,deep velvet blackness, the surface glowing with dancing touches of red and gold.
    â€œPrincess!” The voice broke in to her reverie and she looked up to see the mocking grin she so hated.
    â€œI thought so!” Bari said, grinning. “But there’s no princess on this island, Princess. The title’s temporarily suspended. Everybody pulls their own weight here.”
    Noor glared at him. “I was just watching the sunset for a moment!” She didn’t add, as a way of keeping my eyes off