Carrying the Sheikh's Baby Page 10

  The only dark spot had been Zane, who had sat stiffly and stony-faced throughout their discussion. Cat tried to ignore him. He was obviously annoyed at having to stay overnight, but this interview was providing her with exactly the sort of information that would give her study context and authenticity. The Kholadi had been a closed community, its culture virtually unknown to the outside world. And Kasim was a fascinating and captivating host.

  Even though they weren’t drinking any alcohol, she had become a bit dazed. But the minute she had asked the question about Kasim’s past at the palace, she realised her mistake.

  A tense silence descended, the convivial atmosphere in the tent vanishing as Kasim’s gaze connected with Zane’s over her head.

  Had she said something wrong?

  ‘You don’t have to answer that,’ she said, backtracking. She hadn’t meant to impose on Kasim’s hospitality. She should never have asked him such a personal question.

  But then Kasim’s gaze tracked to hers, and his teeth flashed white in his dark face in the familiar charming smile. The mocking light had reappeared in his eyes. ‘Zane has not told you?’

  ‘Told me what?’ she asked, detecting an edge to his tone that belied the amused expression.

  ‘It’s not relevant to the project, Kasim,’ Zane interrupted them, his voice gruff with warning.

  But Kasim ignored the warning. ‘The answer to your question is a simple one, Dr Smith. I lived in the palace as a boy, because I was the old Sheikh’s bastard son.’

  Kasim was Zane’s brother!

  Cat dropped the pencil, her fingers going numb as she did a double take between Zane and Kasim. It seemed so obvious now, the striking similarities between their features, why Kasim had called him brother when they arrived. It wasn’t some special form of tribal address. They were brothers. Or rather half-brothers.

  Why hadn’t Zane told her when she’d asked? And why did he look so angry now?

  ‘My mother was a Kholadi prostitute. She died giving birth to me,’ Kasim continued as Zane swore softly.

  ‘You’re not putting that in the damn book,’ Zane told her, his voice curt.

  ‘Of course,’ Cat said. ‘I won’t put anything in there that—’

  ‘I am not ashamed of my origins, brother,’ Kasim interrupted her. His wide lips had drawn into a tight line, the relaxed smile gone, as he glared at his brother. For the first time, he looked as tense and annoyed as Zane. ‘Why should you be?’

  ‘Damn it, Kasim, you know that’s not it,’ Zane said as the tension snapped between them.

  Standing up, Zane reached down and helped Cat to her feet. ‘I need to have a conversation with Kasim in private,’ he said, the muscle in his jaw working overtime. ‘It’s time you went to bed.’

  She nodded, feeling hideously responsible for the tension. ‘I’ll go back to the tent.’

  Kasim stood too. ‘There is no need for her to go,’ he said.

  ‘It’s okay, Kasim. I’m exhausted anyway,’ she said, desperately trying to smooth over the argument that seemed to be brewing between the two men... The two brothers. ‘Thank you so much for a marvellous meal. And for your invaluable help with my research.’

  Kasim watched her for a moment, then nodded. He escorted her to the entrance to the tent, making a point of leaving Zane behind them.

  He whispered instructions in Kholadi to a burly man dressed in traditional garb.

  ‘Ajmal will escort you to your sleeping quarters,’ he said before bowing over her hand to kiss her fingers again. ‘It was my great pleasure to meet you, Dr Smith.’ The warmth in his eyes suggested he wasn’t just being polite.

  ‘I’m so sorry if I caused a problem...’ She could see Zane bristling, his stance rigid with annoyance as he stood back, waiting for Kasim to bid her goodbye.

  ‘You are not the cause of this problem,’ Kasim murmured, but the twinkle of amusement had returned to his dark eyes. He bowed again. ‘I must return to my brother before he threatens to kill me for spending too long with his woman.’

  ‘But I’m not...’ Cat began, but Kasim had already left her standing in the doorway to the tent.

  His woman.

  Ajmal led her back through the camp, to the tent she had left earlier, the two handmaidens appeared to help her prepare for bed. She dismissed them, feeling too agitated for company, and donned the exquisite sleeping robe they’d left out for her, which turned out to be completely transparent.

  Thank goodness I’m not sharing a tent with Zane.

  But as she drew the curtains closed around the tent’s bed and lay on the mass of pillows, the events of the evening kept running through her head.

  If only she hadn’t given in to her curiosity and asked that personal question.

  But why had Zane reacted so violently to Kasim’s announcement? Surely he couldn’t be ashamed of being Kasim’s brother? From everything she’d learned about Zane during her time at the palace, he treated his staff and his subjects as equals, not subordinates. He wasn’t a snob. And it was clear there was a bond between the two men. They had greeted each other warmly when she and Zane had arrived.

  She watched the torchlight flicker and glow through the bed’s curtains, the scent of incense drifting on the cooler night air, and tried to still her thoughts. But then her hand strayed to her belly, sliding over the thin silk.

  What if Zane’s baby is growing inside me?

  A heavy weight crushed her lungs, making it hard for her to draw a breath. What would she do? She didn’t know if she could be a mother, and she certainly didn’t want to become one in these circumstances. So why did the possibility not feel like as much of a catastrophe as it should?

  She forced her hand away from her flat stomach.

  Get real, Cat. You’re not pregnant. You’re just tired and out of sorts after the long ride and the extremely tense end to the meal with Kasim.

  Zane and the Kholadi chieftain would thrash out whatever had been bothering them and that would be the end of it. None of it was her business, because she wasn’t Zane’s woman. End of.

  But as she drifted off to sleep Kasim’s words echoed in her head—over and over again—and, unlike yesterday, when the thought of being pregnant with Zane’s child had filled her with raw panic, now all it did was make the sweet spot between her thighs throb, and the hollow, empty space in her stomach glow.

  * * *

  Damn Kasim—the man was an inveterate flirt.

  Zane cursed his half-brother and the loss of temper that had led to an hour-long stand-off between the two of them after Catherine had left them.

  He glanced up at the glittering canopy of starlight above his head, and let out a heavy sigh as he made his way back through the camp. After an hour spent with her pert bottom wedged between his thighs was it any surprise he’d had a major sense of humour failure during Kasim’s charm offensive?

  Catherine had lapped up the attention. But he could hardly blame her for that. The fact he hadn’t been able to tell Kasim, in no uncertain terms, to back the hell off hadn’t helped with his frustration.

  He’d been forced to watch the two of them while he choked down the evening meal, and tried not to give free rein to a jealousy he knew he shouldn’t be feeling. But damn it, the woman had come apart in his arms less than forty-eight hours ago. She might even now be pregnant with his child. Having to watch his half-brother hit on her had been the last straw after a whole hour of feeling each slight shift of her body and not being able to do what he wanted to do.

  Was it any surprise he’d been furious with Kasim?

  Especially as he had no doubt Kasim had known exactly what he was doing. His half-brother was a bastard in more ways than one.

  He checked the knee-jerk thought.

  Kasim’s legitimacy, or lack of it, had never come between them before tonight. Had never been a part of their rela
tionship. He’d made sure of it once his father had relinquished his grip on the throne and he’d finally made peace with the Kholadi, or rather their young chieftain. The boy his father had cast out of the palace without a backward glance when he’d installed Zane as his reluctant heir.

  Neither one of them had had a choice back then, both forced to be part of their father’s machinations. He’d worked long and hard to persuade Kasim they were brothers, that whatever had happened back then had not been his choice. And he’d nearly blown five years of diplomacy to smithereens tonight because of jealousy—over a woman of all things.

  He nodded to the guards on the outside of the tent where he always stayed when visiting the Kholadi.

  The scent of jasmine and lemons filled the air, reminding him of when he’d left Catherine here earlier. He pictured her being bathed and massaged by two of Kasim’s servant girls. The familiar arousal pounded to life in his pants.

  Stop thinking about her, naked and yearning. You ordered her sent to another tent. Precisely because you’re not going to give in to the lust again.

  Not only that, but he’d just spent the last hour insisting to Kasim that Catherine wasn’t his woman. Which had made it even harder to explain away his snarky response when Kasim had revealed their sibling relationship.

  During the evening, he’d dug himself into a hole. And it had taken him over an hour to dig himself out of it again. The fact he’d got the definite impression Kasim had been enjoying baiting him for the last thirty minutes or so—once Zane had convinced him his surly behaviour had nothing to do with Kasim being the son of a prostitute—hadn’t exactly helped him to relax.

  And now he was wound tighter than a damn spring.

  You tell me she is not your woman, brother. And yet you look at her like a starving man.

  The whole evening had been some weird power play on Kasim’s part. He was sure of it—because, despite all the charm and conviviality, the brotherly bonhomie, Zane knew the guy still held a grudge for the appalling way he’d been treated by their father. That Zane didn’t blame him for that though, wasn’t making him feel any less pissed with his half-brother about the way Kasim had used Catherine to get a rise out of him.

  She was inexperienced, wholly unaware of her own charms and she didn’t know she was being played by a serial womaniser to make him jealous. For that transgression alone Zane had been hard-pressed not to punch his half-brother’s lights out. But he’d been forced to sit on his hands all evening, pretending it didn’t matter, forced to disguise the fact that Catherine was his woman. Or had been.

  He crossed to the bathing area to rinse his face and noticed the copper tub was still full of water, probably from Catherine’s bath that afternoon. The scent that had clung to her filled the air.

  His groin throbbed like a sore tooth. And he knew the deep dreamless sleep he needed before the torture of tomorrow’s return journey was likely to elude him.

  Damn Kasim. And damn Catherine for being so alluring without even trying.

  The blood throbbed painfully in his groin, so he stripped off his clothes and stepped into the tub. He gathered a cloth and sluiced his aching body with the cool water. Unfortunately the water wasn’t cold enough to deflate the rampant erection.

  Taking the rigid flesh in hand, he began to pump the hard shaft in fast, efficient strokes—while struggling not to imagine the woman he couldn’t even claim as his servicing him instead.

  * * *

  Cat shivered awake to the sound of movement in the tent. A cooling breeze whispered across her skin, but heat engulfed her body—as if in an erotic dream—as she heard the splash of water and...a muffled grunt.

  Was someone in the tent with her?

  Still groggy with sleep and the myriad erotic memories that had pursued her in dreams, she leaned over on her elbows and drew back the curtain.

  Her gaze drifted to the far corner of the room—and her breathing stopped, squeezed to a standstill in her tortured lungs, as every one of her pulse points thudded in unison.

  I’m still dreaming. I must be.

  The soft shimmer of torchlight caressed Zane’s tall muscular form as he stood in the tub, completely naked, facing her, water glistening on the defined contours of his chest and legs. But instead of bathing himself, he held his iron-hard erection in his fist, his fingers gliding over the solid column in a fast, relentless rhythm.

  Blood powered into Cat’s clitoris, making it swell and ache, and moisture flooded between her thighs.

  He looked magnificent, his skin given a golden glow, the trail of hair across his chest tapering into a line through the bunched muscles of his six-pack and then blooming into a thicket at his groin, where his penis stood, thick and proud.

  She watched him pleasure himself in rough strokes. His body bowed back, the guttural moan rasping deep in her own sex as he reached his peak.

  His breathing deepened, the rigid lines of his body softening.

  She shifted on the bed, trapped in an erotic trance. The fine silk of the sleeping robe slid over her skin like sandpaper, her own body still fraught with arousal. She breathed, mesmerised by the far-too-graphic dream, as Zane picked a cloth up from the water and washed his genitals.

  The splash of water sounded so lifelike, the sensation prickling over her skin felt so vivid, the scent of jasmine incense and woodsmoke smelled so distinct.

  How can this dream be so real? Why don’t I want to wake up?

  But then he dropped the washcloth and swung round to lift one of the linen towels by the tub and the torchlight illuminated his back.

  The erotic dream evaporated as she took in the ragged scars marring the smooth skin.

  Her breath guttered out on a harsh sob of distress, which sounded deafening in the heavy silence.

  Zane jerked round and their gazes locked.

  The erotic tension snapped tight in her abdomen.

  ‘Catherine, what the hell are you doing in my bed?’ he rasped.

  Not a dream. Her mind screamed but still the hunger built like an inferno. The sheer fabric rubbed against her nipples, and she suddenly became far too aware of the sight she must make to him in the transparent robe. All her senses on high alert.

  She scrambled to lift the sheet and cover her nakedness.

  ‘I... This is where Ajmal told me to sleep,’ she managed to get out round the shock thickening her throat.

  The swell of emotion at the sight of his ruined back combined with the deep throbbing in her sex to leave her feeling raw and exposed and far too needy.

  Zane swore, hooking the linen towel around his nakedness. ‘I’m going to murder Kasim.’

  Had Kasim planned this? But why would he do that...?

  ‘He didn’t believe us when we said we weren’t a couple?’ she asked.

  ‘It doesn’t matter what he believed,’ Zane snarled, sounding furious with the Kholadi chieftain. ‘He had no right to treat you with such disrespect.’ Marching across the room, he began to pick up the clothing he must have discarded.

  ‘When I get hold of him, he’s a dead man,’ he said.

  Before she could think better of the impulse, Cat dropped the sheet and scrambled off the bed.

  ‘Zane, don’t.’ She caught his arm, her heart breaking all over again at the sight of those terrible scars.

  Was this the punishment Nazarin had told her about? How could his father have done such a thing? What kind of a man would treat his own child with such brutality?

  ‘You need to let go,’ he rasped, the words burning with intensity and barely controlled passion.

  Cat’s pulse leapt as she released his arm, but the need to soothe the fury tightening his features remained. ‘Please don’t be angry with him. It doesn’t matter.’

  ‘How do you figure that?’ he said, his face tight with temper. ‘He’s insulted you, by placing you in my bed as if y
ou’re a concubine. Damn it, he probably told the servants to give you that robe. Look at it—you’re practically naked. And after I specifically told him more than once that you weren’t here to warm my bed, you were here to research a book.’

  She could feel his gaze through the transparent silk, making her skin prickle and hum with awareness.

  She needed to tell him the truth, however compromising it was. She cleared her throat. Trying to find the words. ‘Maybe he didn’t mean it as an insult.’

  What Kasim had done had clearly compromised her and on one level she did feel insulted. But Zane’s furious defence of her honour was making her feel something else entirely.

  ‘I wouldn’t be so sure,’ Zane snarled.

  ‘And maybe I’m slightly responsible for this,’ she offered.

  His gaze bored into her before he ran his fingers through the short damp strands of his hair and looked away. ‘How the hell could you be to blame for this, Catherine?’ he asked. ‘You’re letting that bastard off the hook far too easily.’

  She swallowed. She could lie to him, end this conversation now—let him leave and blame Kasim for the heat powering through her system—and dispel the brutal feeling of intimacy. But she couldn’t make herself do it.

  If nothing else she needed to be honest about her own desires. She’d convinced herself she’d come on this trip to enhance her research. But the truth was a lot more complicated.

  ‘I still desire you,’ she murmured. ‘Even though I know I shouldn’t.’

  Zane hadn’t said anything, so she forced herself to continue.

  ‘I came on this trip because I wanted to be with you. If Kasim arranged for me to be brought to your bed, maybe he only did it because I wasn’t able to hide how much I still want you.’