bedside-table drawer and a brochure for the watch greeted me. I picked it up and started reading.
This ultrasonic mosquito repellent repels mosquitos and other pests by emitting a high-frequency sound too high for humans to hear . . .
I scanned the words on the page until I came to the tiny print at the bottom, so small that I had to lean in to read it.
Warning: The ultrasonic waves might also affect other animals, including bats, birds, small reptiles, dogs and cats.
Waaaiiiit . . . I put the pamphlet down and stared at the watch. Was this the reason animals hated me? It was my watch, and not me? The thought made the tiniest flicker of a smile grace my lips. I would have to try my theory out in the morning. I closed this drawer and opened the one beneath it. There were two things in it.
The first was a book that looked like it had been read a million times over. I picked it up. The cover was torn and barely clinging onto the spine. The pages were brown with age and the corners were soft and bent. I turned it over again and stared at the cover. I flicked my bedside lamp on and the full picture came into view.
A Windsor and Swoon Royal Romance.
A woman lying tussled in red and gold sheets in a Bedouin tent in the middle of the desert, a man with a big, bare chest and long, flowing black hair cradling her with big, bulging, masculine arms.
Heat of the Desert, Heart of the Sheik.
Why would I have this next to my bed, and why would I have read it so many times? I opened the front cover and read the blurb.
When intrepid archaeologist Amanda Stone goes fossil hunting in the Arabian Desert, little does she know that a sandstorm will change the course of her life. The last thing Sheik Khalifa needs is to be forced to rescue a damsel in distress and have her stay at his Desert Palace oasis. But when the two are trapped inside by the sandstorm, a storm of another kind rages inside both of them, as they succumb to lust and love in each other’s arms.
I held the book in my hands and it fell open at the place that looked like it had been read the most. My eyes drifted over the pages and instinctively honed in on a specific part, as if they’d gone there a million times before.
The sand raged and beat against the glass, almost drowning out the sound of her thumping heart as he leaned in and pulled her into his smooth, muscular arms. His hot masculinity was like an intoxicating drug to her, and she felt dizzy in his arms. His smell set her skin ablaze and a fire now burned deep in her sensual, hot core. He gripped her leg with his long fingers and moisture blossomed between her legs. She ached for him. She needed him in a way that she had never needed a man before. His hand moved up her leg, sending shock waves into her pulsating center, where the need blazed out of control like the wild storm itself. And then, she let out a cry of ecstasy as his fingers sought out her innermost, womanly sanctuary. The place that no man had ever been, until now. He slipped inside her and she embraced him with her hot slickness, wrapping around him tightly as her muscles contracted in pure, unabated pleasure.
“Oh my God!” I slammed the book shut and threw it into the drawer. What the hell would I be doing with that, and why was there a single lipstick in the drawer next to it? I opened the lipstick; it was bright pink.
That was so unlike the me I’d been introduced to so far. I raised the lipstick to my lips. It looked strange, like it wasn’t real. I turned it over in my hands to examine it further and a button on the underside caught my attention, so I pressed it.
“Oh my God!” I jumped in shock as the lipstick began to shake and vibrate so wildly that it dropped out my hands and hit the floor. It began moving across the floor as if it were alive. What the hell?
And then I gasped when I realized what this was. I watched in horror as the thing crawled across the floor, making a terrible noise as it vibrated against the hard tiles. I