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He laid her down on a sofa facing a wall-to-wallthe walls Through a sliding door he gathered clothes that looked like replicas of his, and came back to her Then he kneeled in front of her He held one foot after the other, slipped off her sandals, then, as in the gardens, he pressed one to his heart This time when his lips hovered over her flesh, they descended, ht of hi her foot
“I’ve never waited for the gratification of ed his lips and tongue over the arches of her feet, the backs of her calves, the insides of her thighs She was quaking, begging when he withdreept the clothes over her lap “But I can wait if it’s for you I can wait until everything is perfect”
Just perfect
Farah glowered at the Byzantine-style woodcarving that hung at the entrance to Shehab’s stables The ther in its intricacy stood at 112°F In the shade She wondered if it was reading the atmosphere’s temperature or hers
Even an hour after that episode in her bedrooe into the clothes he’d picked out for her, she was still sizzling Everything he did or said kept her sio and deal with soo inside the stables out of the heat and given her a kiss that had her a breath away fro its coolness The sun wasits descent, but Shehab had ers Cool, flowing clothes, constant hydration and her every exposed part covered in sunblock He’d seen to that hi more burned than any ultraviolet exposure could have caused She’d assured him from distant memory that she’d always handled sun and heat well He’d countered, not sun like this She hadn’t been built for it, hadn’t been drenched in it froradually, would never forgo any precaution He couldn’t be too careful with her
She thought he could be He was Too careful with her And it was starting to lasses over her head As her vision adjusted, a silverin the aisle wearing a saddle and bridle She was looking straight at her, and, Farah could swear, was stunned to see her In the next second she whinnied and tossed her head And, hat a beauty
She’d seen enough Useel, purebred Arabian nize one This one was reured There was no way Shehab had anything but the best The horse stood at least 15 hands, with an impressive depth of chest Her short head had a beautiful concave profile, a broad forehead and wide jowls
Farah’s ad toward her, ears tucked, nostrils flared, snorting an unmistakable threat…
“Ablah”
At Shehab’s admonition, the mare at once stopped and perked up her ears, her pro around to hi ht his lower lip in his teeth, his face ablaze ickedness “I like uard dogs, too”
“She doesn’t usually see strangers She was probably wary of you”
She ser sure I want to repriselook, then turned to the mare “Ablah…ta’ee hena” Ablah trotted to him at once, nuzzled him in the shoulder He held her face in his hands,positively shamefaced