Date with a Surgeon Prince

It was his voice, she decided as she helped herself to rice then added a scoop of the meat dish, before putting a little tomato salad on her plate and taking a piece of bread. His voice sneaked inside her skin and played havoc with her nerves, but when she’d finished her selection and looked across at him, his eyes, intent on her again, caused even more havoc.

Totally distracted now, she picked up her glass of juice and took too big a gulp.

At least half choking to death brought her back to her senses. Marni finished coughing and, flushed with embarrassment, bent her head to tackle her meal.

Fortunately, Gaz seemed to sense her total disarray and took over the conversation, talking about the hospital, built within the last two years, and with the charge of looking after not only local children but those from nearby countries that did not have the facilities this hospital had.

‘We have a big oncology department, keeping children here during their treatment so they don’t have to travel to and fro. With those children, we try to make sure they have someone from their family travel with them—sometimes, it seems, the entire family.’

His rueful smile at this confession undid all the good concentrating on her food had done for Marni, mainly because it softened his face and somehow turned him from the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on to a real, caring human being.

All you’re wanting is an affair, not to fall in love, she reminded herself.

But at least hospital talk got them through the meal and when they’d finished, Marni sat back in her chair.

‘Thank you, that was utterly delicious. Wonderful. Perhaps I could pay the bill as thanks to you for introducing me to this place? Is that allowed in Ablezia?’

She offered what she knew must be a pathetic smile, but now they’d finished eating she had no idea how to get away—which she needed to do—or what was the polite thing to do next.

Say goodbye and leave?

Wait for him to see her back down to the ground floor?

And if he offered to walk her back to the quarters—through the gardens and lemon orchard, the scented air, the moonlight…

It was too soon even to think about what might happen and the man had already said he had no time.

‘You definitely will not pay when I invited you to dinner,’ Gaz was saying as she ran these increasingly panicked thoughts through her head. ‘It is taken care of but, come, you must see the desert from outside, where you can really appreciate its beauty.’

He rose and came to stand beside her, drawing out her chair, which meant his entire body was far too close to hers when she stood up.

Turning to face him, this time with thanks for the courtesy of the chair thing, brought her even closer—to lips that twitched just slightly with a smile, and eyes that not only reflected the smile but held a glint of laughter.

The wretch knows the effect he’s having on me, Marni realised, and found a little anger stirring in the mess of emotions flooding through her body.

Good!

Anger was good—not argumentative anger but something to hold onto. The man was a born flirt and though he obviously couldn’t help being the sexiest man alive, he didn’t need to use it to snare unwary females.

Wasn’t wanting to be snared one of the reasons she’d come here?

Marni ignored the query and allowed Gaz to lead her out of the restaurant and along another corridor that led to a balcony overlooking the desert—the magic sea of black and silver.

She sniffed the air, then breathed it in more deeply.

‘It’s strange,’ she said, turning to her companion, her reaction to him almost forgotten as she considered the puzzle the desert air presented. ‘I know the sea is just over there, but there’s no smell of salt in the air, no smell of the spices escaping from the restaurant or the lemon blossom that I know is out in the gardens down below us. No smell at all, really.’

He smiled again—a genuine smile this time, not a teasing one—but this one made Marni’s heart flutter.

‘The desert is a great cleanser. Over the centuries much blood has been spilled on the sands, and civilisations have risen and collapsed, their ruins buried by the sand. For people like me, with Bedouin blood, the desert is as necessary as water, for it is where we replenish our souls.’

He was serious, the words so graphically beautiful Marni could only shake her head.

And smile.

A small smile but a genuine one.

A smile that for some reason prompted him to inch a little closer and bend his head, dropping the lightest of kisses on her parted lips.

Had she started, so that he put his hands on her shoulders to steady her?

Marni had no idea, too lost in the feel of his lips on hers to think straight.

So when he started talking again, she missed the first bit, catching up as he said, ‘You are like a wraith from the stories of my childhood, a beautiful silver-haired, blueeyed, pale-limbed being sent to tempt men away from their duties.’

She was still catching up when he kissed her again.

Properly this time so she melted against him, parted her lips to his demanding tongue, and kissed him back, setting free all the frustration of the lust infection in that one kiss.

It burned through her body in such unfamiliar ways she knew she’d never been properly kissed before—or maybe had never responded properly—which might explain—

It sent heat spearing downwards, more heat shimmering along her nerves, tightening her stomach but melting her bones.

Her head spun and her senses came alive to the smoothness of his lips, the taste of spice on his tongue, the faint perfume that might be aftershave—even the texture of his shirt, a nubby cotton, pressed against the light cotton tunic top she wore, was sending flaring awareness through her nipples.

A kiss could do all this…

Gaz eased away, shaken that he’d been so lost to propriety as to be kissing this woman, even more shaken by the way she’d reacted to the kiss and the effect it had had on him. Heat, desire, a hardening, thickening, burning need….

For one crazy moment he considered taking things further, dallying with the nurse called Marni, seeing where it went.

Certainly beyond dallying, he knew that much.

Al’ana! Where is your brain? his head demanded. Yes, I thought so! it added as if he’d answered.

He looked at the flushed face in front of him, glimpsed the nipples peaked beneath the fine cotton tunic, the glow of desire in her eyes.

Yes, it would definitely have gone further than dalliance…

‘I had no right to do that. I have no time. None! No time at all!’ He spoke abruptly—too abruptly—the words harshly urgent because he was denying his desires and angry with himself for—

For kissing her?

No, he couldn’t regret that.

Angry at the impossible situation.

This time when he turned to lead her back inside, he didn’t touch her elbow and guide her steps but stayed resolutely apart from the seductive siren who’d appeared, not from the sky but in full theatre garb, then jumped like a kangaroo right inside his skin…

Obviously married, Marni told herself. Serves you right, kissing on what wasn’t even a first date.

But she was too shaken by the kiss to care what the sensible part of her brain was telling her. Too shaken to think, let alone speak.

Standing silently beside Gaz in the lift, the foot of space between them was more like a million miles.

Back in the foyer, he spoke to one of the young porters who seemed to abound in the place.

‘Aziz will see you back to the residence,’ Gaz told her, then he nodded once and was gone, seeming to disappear like the wraith he’d called her.

Aziz was beckoning her towards the door so she followed, deciding she must be right about his marital status if the man she’d kissed didn’t want to be seen walking her through the gardens.

So she was well rid of him.

Wasn’t she?

Of course she was!

The gardens were as beautiful as ever, the scent of lemon blossom heavy in the air, but the magic was dimmed by her memory of the kiss, and now that embarrassment over her reaction was creeping in, she was beginning to worry about the future.

She was a professional. Of course she could work in Theatre with Gaz without revealing how he affected her. Not that he didn’t know, given her response, but at least she didn’t have to be revealing just how hard and fast she’d fallen for the man.

Lust, her head reminded her, and sadly she agreed.

For all the good it was going to do her when he’d made it obvious he wasn’t available!

She sighed into the night air. It was all too complicated!

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.