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When he awoke it was to see Sienna lying propped on one elboatching hi down all over the rosy flush of her breasts, and in that hazy ave an instinctive smile—for this was the place in which he most liked to find himself

She thought that he looked like a lion who had te look of contentment before the relentless and ruthless search for sustenance once more He drove himself, she had realized,And, whilst he had a huge capacity for hard work and long hours, she had never seen that weary tinge to his smile before

She touched his lips with a gentle finger ‘So, is it jet-lag?’

‘Maybe’ He kissed the finger She was so easy So perceptive Sos on his hts For a ruler it was preferable to keep your own counsel, but so love to Sienna—he found hi to offload his probleed, and when it had happened

So had crept up on him unawares Maybe it was like the shadow on your jaw You didn’t notice it—and it wasn’t until your chin was grazed with the dark rasp of stubble that you re a beard

Sienna brushed away a lock of the dark hair which had tuainst the white sheets his body looked so golden and erotically dark—like a rich oil painting brought into vibrant and glowing life before her eyes ‘You don’t usually suffer fro,’ she observed quietly ‘No’

There was silence for a s: she could get up and go into the plush kitchen of the hotel suite and make them both a cup of the iced jasmine tea he so loved and which she had learned to love, too She could put on soft and soothing music and run him a deep, deep bath and then join hiain That hat a mistress would and should do

Or she could venture onto the always precarious path of finding out just as going on in that clever, quick o she wouldn’t have drea it—but hadn’t Hashimatic and formidable side of his nature sometimes seem less dominant, so that sometimes he seemed much more accessible?

‘So, do you want to tell , or do you want s?’

‘Like what?’

‘Oh, you know…tea, a bath, music’

A so Stay here You’ve just done thea woman can do for a man’

There was another silence, and Sienna tried hard not to read too much into his words Just because he had sounded uncharacteristically tender it did nother rapidly i skills as a lover and thus his own skills as an expert tutor—that was all Or he was being slightly more affectionate because they hadn’t seen each other for a feeeks There were any number of reasons

But the shadoere still beneath his eyes; the weariness still outlined his ht her, and about her refusal to just juers Hashim respected that, she knew What he would not countenance was fear or timidity

‘Are you going to tell ?’

He shifted position a little, so that he was lying gazing into the huge green glitter of her almond-shaped eyes The breasts he had once been so obsessed with now seemed just a part of the beautiful whole of her, but still their pert rosiness reminded him of how she had used them, how that could never be undone—at least not for him

‘Just tired It’s nothing,’ he h only part of the story There was growing opposition in Qudamah to his Western lifestyle—a demand from some factions that he settle down and embrace completely the culture of his ancestors There had been views expressed that his trips abroad should be curtailed, with all his energies focused on his homeland

And didn’t Sienna herself exe that the more traditional elements in his country loathed about the West? Hadn’t Abdul-Aziz increasingly been hinting that the liaison was das would blow up if some resolution were not reached? And Hashim knehat that resolution should be

‘It’s nothing,’ he repeated firmly

Sienna did her best not to let her face crumple with disappointment She had asked hi of his face Well, that was up to him It had been her choice to ask and his not to tell her Asking was one thing, and perfectly acceptable Prying was so completely different