The Sheik's Mysterious Mistress (Friends Forever) (3 page)

When her shaking settled down and he felt her arms loosen slightly, he looked down at her, but didn’t release her. He knew that he should probably step back and give her space, but she just smelled too dam good! Not to mention the way she curled into him and he didn’t want to give that feeling up.

“What happened?” he asked softly.

Dana almost told him. He was so strong and so competent, surely he could keep her safe. But at the last moment, she remembered the others whose entire career it was to keep people like her safe. They were dead now and she’d barely escaped. She simply couldn’t tell him what had happened for fear that he could be hurt as well.

“I saw a spider,” she said lamely and pushed her cell phone into her pocket so he wouldn’t guess that it had been a phone call.

Hassan stared at her, knowing she was lying but not sure why. “A spider?” he asked gently. “You are that terrified of spiders?” He sat down on the desk behind him so his eyes were at her level. She was achingly lovely even with no color in her skin and her lips being bitten painfully. He reached up and touched her lip gently where she’d been biting them a moment ago. “You really want me to believe that you react that strongly to a spider?”

She took a deep, shaking breath and looked away, hating lying to him. “I’m sorry, that was very silly of me. Arachnophobia isn’t pleasant.”

He thought about challenging her claim, but knew that she was too stubborn. Whatever had caused this kind of fear had come through on the cell phone she was now hiding in the pocket of her slacks. “Okay,” he sighed and stood up, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t see the spider around here any longer, but if another one comes around, don’t confront it,” he said earnestly, hoping she would get the message that he didn’t care if it was a spider or something much more malicious, he would help her. “Call me for help and I will fix this, no matter how big or ugly the spider.”

Dana nodded and crossed her arms over her stomach protectively. Otherwise, she was likely to throw herself into his arm and sob out the whole horrific story and beg him to take care of the situation. She thought she was safe here, had thought she’d gotten far enough away that they couldn’t find her. But now they had her cell phone and she’d confirmed her identity by answering it without a thought, giving them her location.

“Thank you. I’ll make sure to call you.”

He walked away then. He was too tempted to pull her into his arms and kiss her until she was delirious enough to tell him what was bothering her. He shook his head as if that could actually happen. She seemed a bit too logical for any man to be able to make her delirious. He tossed the papers onto his desk and ran a hand through his hair. Something was wrong and he wanted to protect her but he didn’t understand the problem. It drove him crazy to not know.

Picking up his phone, he dialed his head of security. “A call just came in to Dana Miller’s cell phone. Find out who it came from and let me know,” he ordered.

Dana enjoyed the morning sun on her face and rolled over on her bed, luxuriating in the fact that she could do so. It had been a painfully hard week but today was Sunday and she didn’t have to work. She was going to relax today and pretend that the calls hadn’t happened, that the man at the other end of the phone a few days ago hadn’t really found her and that she was a completely free and normal person who finally had day off and was loving the unexpected liberty.

Deep inside, she accepted that she truly loved her new job. And her feelings for her boss were a wee bit inappropriate.

She snuggled under the covers and groaned. Okay, they were more than a wee bit inappropriate. She was fascinated by the man. Now that she sat in on meetings with him, she understood both the power he wielded as well as the enormous responsibility he had for his people and this country. And it was a responsibility he took very seriously.

He was fair, but wouldn’t let other countries take advantage of his people and he worked extremely hard to make sure Odar’s growth continued and his goals were met. She might be exhausted from the work schedule, but every time she felt tired, she looked over at Hassan and knew that he worked even harder than she did and had much longer hours. She arrived early each morning for work and left late, but no matter what time she got to her desk, he was already sitting at his own and there were several notes on her desk with instructions, which meant he’d been up earlier than she was, and had most likely worked later than her the previous night.

There were many social events coming up next week so she hoped he would take some time to relax and enjoy the events. The man worked much too hard, she thought and pushed the pillows behind her back.

She’d heard him laugh twice this week. And that sound had been so wonderful, it had made her stomach quiver with excitement and her heart had melted slightly. She was definitely getting too emotionally involved and would have to work to keep things in perspective. This was a sheik, a ruler who had a great deal of responsibility and didn’t need her puppy love to get in the way of his daily routines.

Ever since that day when he’d held her in his arms, she’d wondered what it would be like to be held by him in different ways. Inappropriate ways. Her heart raced as she pictured Hassan slowly undressing her and making love to her. She wished she had permission to touch his muscular body and explore….stop it! This was getting completely out of hand, she told herself sternly. She was his executive assistant, nothing more!

Her new cell phone rang and she picked it up, glancing once more at the phone number. She sighed and bit her lower lip, worrying about the fact that whoever was on that phone number had called her cell phone about ten times over the past several days. This wasn’t someone who just kept dialing the wrong phone number. Or was she being silly? Could someone just keep on trying the number? The message that answered was a computer and not her own voice so if they were calling erroneously, they’d never know they might be reaching the wrong person.

The call went to voice mail again and she pushed the issue aside. No one knew where she was right at the moment so she was being silly to think that someone had tracked her down so far away.

Just in case, she made one call to her instructor, a man she’d engaged to help her learn an essential skill for someone in her situation, and arranged to meet him for a lesson this afternoon.

By evening, she was exhausted, but in a different way. The week had created a mental exhaustion but this was physical. And every muscle in her body ached from overuse, some of which she hadn’t ever used before. In fact, she hadn’t even known some of these muscles existed, she thought as she slid her sore body into the tiny tub of her apartment bathroom, sighing with happiness as the heat seeped into her muscles, relaxing and evaporating some of the pain. Or at least pushing it to the side.

Her instructor had taken her through several new moves which could help in an attack. She’d made him go over the moves again and again until she’d perfected them and could do any of them until she had them exactly on target and would hopefully become instinctive.

Two years ago, she never would have considered learning hand to hand combat or defensive techniques. But now it was an essential part of her life, something she honed each day and she also made sure she was aware of what was going on around her.

She hoped never to have to use any of the moves, but the phone calls were making her wary. Maybe she wasn’t as safe here as she’d thought? Perhaps she should move on?

Was she just being silly? Could her job at the palace keep her out of the hands of the people she was trying avoid or was she just putting herself into a more dangerous situation? She was several thousands of miles away from home, away from the incident that had put her life in danger. She just needed to relax and let herself enjoy life once again.

Three days later, she was walking through the market, feeling excited and free since Hassan had a dinner meeting with a group of diplomats tonight so he’d sent her home early. Early meant she was gone by dinner time and was now strolling through the market, picking up the various fruits and vegetables for sale. She had no idea what she wanted to make for dinner tonight, but she was going to chop and slice and dice and cook and her whole apartment would smell delicious. She loved cooking but since her promotion, she’d been at the palace until way after dinner, sometimes arguing with Hassan about one policy or another and debating her opinion against his own. The first time she’d done that, she’d been horrified that she’d been so forward as to express her opinion to Hassan. But he’d told her to take a seat and expound. So she had. And he’d argued right back and she had lost track of time, enjoying the arguing with him too much.

But tonight, she was alone and she refused to become depressed about that situation. She couldn’t believe that she was actually sad that she wasn’t at work, slaving away for the man. The dichotomy of being excited about cooking but sad that she wasn’t working made no sense. She should be exultant that she had the night off and could do whatever she wanted to do.

She picked up more vegetables, thinking of a rice and chicken dish her mother had taught her so many years ago might be a good idea. The market might not have some of the spices though. She bit her lip in concentration, trying to consider alternatives that would be more available in this part of the world.

She was picking up apples from a fruit vendor, putting some of them into a sack when something to the side of her made her glance right. But when she didn’t see anything, she shrugged and moved to gather pears and persimmons.

Again, there was a strange movement, but when she looked, nothing was there.

Was she being paranoid? She looked around, scanning the crowd and trying to see something that didn’t fit.

Dana knew when her instincts were warning her about something and right now, her gut was telling her to….

She didn’t have time to finish that thought since two men approached her from opposite sides. Thankfully, she had been training for just such an event and didn’t hesitate. At the last moment, just as one of them reached out intending to swing at her, she ducked, then swung up with her arm in perfect form, catching one with her elbow just under the rib cage and the other man she smacked with her fist into his nose. Both men roared backwards, obviously unprepared for her to react like that. As she looked around, she realized that one had a bloody nose and the other was clenching his oversized gut. And both were furious with her.

She didn’t wait around for introductions but swung her leg out, tripping one man and forcing him sideways. The other had enough time to realize what she was doing and jumped at the last second. So Dana spun around and kicked with all her might, throwing him off balance. And then, without compassion, she kicked upwards, aiming for and hitting a man’s most sensitive area. The big man doubled over in pain which gave her enough time to focus on the other man who was now getting up from his tumble of moments before.

They glared at each other, both assessing the other’s next move. Dana knew that it was never good to wait. With one hand, she reached out and grabbed the apples that were in the basket behind her. As missiles, they were ineffective. As distractions, they were perfect. The man was too busy dodging the apples to attack, which gave Dana the ability to get into position. With his bleeding nose still gushing, she aimed one more apple at his head which caused both his hands to go up, protecting his face. That gave her just enough time and she swung around for momentum, slamming her elbow into his kidney with as much strength as possible.

With both men doubled over in pain, she turned and was shocked to see a crowd of people standing there staring at her. No time to wait around and explain, she dug into her purse and put some money on the vendor’s table, then dashed out of the market as fast as she could.

When she reached her car, she slammed it into gear and headed for the palace, trying to calm down enough to get through security. By the time she reached the gates, she was able to at least present a calm façade even though her heart was racing overtime.

As she parked her car in the normal spot, she looked over at her passenger seat and had to laugh. She’d at least gotten through the marketplace with her groceries!

Biting her lip, she looked at the employee entrance and tried to figure out what she could do. She was here, inside the palace gates so she was safe at least for the moment. The men obviously didn’t know where she lived since they’d attacked her in the busy market instead of at her apartment so that was a plus. She’d just have to be extra careful about getting to and from work for a while until she could figure out what to do and where to go next. She’d have to give notice to Hassan, she thought and her heart cried out against that plan. She couldn’t imagine going the rest of her life without seeing his stern expression or hear his chuckle when someone said something funny or ridiculous. Even if that comment was from her because he disagreed with her politics. She didn’t mind his amusement since every once in a while she was able to change his mind.

He would never admit that she’d done so though. She took a deep, shaky breath and focused on her current problem, pushing Hassan and his humor out of the way so she could figure out her next move.

Even though she didn’t want to, leaving really was her only option. She had to do it regardless of her feelings for the man himself. He already had enough danger in his life, he didn’t need her problems added onto them. Besides, she was fully capable of hiding from those men and she couldn’t hide in the palace forever. Pretty soon, they were going to find out where she lived. If it meant running for the rest of her life, at least she’d be alive to run. It wasn’t much, but things could be worse. At least this way, she’d have a chance to see the world and experience more adventures. However much she loved the desert and the brutal beauty of it, the amazing life that scurried throughout the desolate sands, it was time to move on.