The Sheikh's Pregnant Wife - Leslie North Page 0,6

light. “What do you think of the villa?”

“Oh, it’s perfect,” gushed Kara. “I loved the city from the first time I visited. All of it’s wonderful. The villa and Mennah itself.”

It only seemed natural to keep asking questions. “What do you like about the city?”

Kara paused to think. “The architecture and the marketplace are standouts from that first visit, but for me it comes down to the people.” She shook her head, her eyes wrinkling with a smile. “It’s not like the capital city. Things move at a slower pace here. But it still manages to feel alive.”

“Agreed,” Yaseen said firmly. Kara looked over at him, a spark in her eye. “I came here as a boy.” No need to show her how excited he was that she loved Mennah. It didn’t even make sense to him why her approval meant so much, but in this moment, it did. “It was one of the few places we were allowed to be ourselves. Not nearly so many prying eyes here. And I think the people in town truly loved my great-aunt, and not only because she was a member of the royal family.”

“Why did you stop coming back?”

“Life. Duties.” He shrugged. Why had he stopped coming back? It wasn’t as if he couldn’t spare the time for a visit once or twice a year.

He stopped midstride at a fork in the path.

“Which way?” Kara asked.

“There’s actually something this way I wanted to show you.” He’d just now made up his mind to take her there. “Come with me.”

She followed him down that branch until they came upon a wide clearing. In the center, rising up from a covering of grass, rose—

“Ruins!” said Kara, her voice hushed but still excited.

“Ruins,” he repeated, but she was already gone, walking forward with light steps. It struck Yaseen that the way she moved had changed. Her hips swayed from side to side to accommodate her growing belly. He hung back at the edge of the clearing and watched as she settled into photographer mode. She wielded her camera with the same confidence she’d had dancing that night at the club, and again a week later, when she’d welcomed him at their first business meeting at her office. It hadn’t mattered that they’d had an intense fling not seven days prior. She still commanded the attention of everyone in the room without revealing a thing.

“I’ve never seen someone so happy about some crumbling ruins.”

Kara looked up from her camera screen. “It’s gorgeous here.”

“I think you’re gorgeous.”

He watched the shock widen her eyes and color come to her cheeks. Soft footfalls behind him alerted him to the close presence of the guard unit. They’d hung back, but now they were very nearly in the clearing with them.

“Is that so?”

“More than ever.” He went to her and put a hand on the small of her back. There—that felt right. When she was in his arms. In his hands. It was ridiculous, how hard he’d tried to forget the feeling of her. It was one thing to touch her through the blue sundress, but Yaseen’s blood thundered in his veins at the memory of her moving against him. It had been a long time, but the memory was fresh and new and hot. “I wouldn’t want you to miss this part of the ruins, either.” He led her around behind the most intact of the ancient structure’s walls. They were completely hidden from the guard—for another moment or two.

“There’s nothing back here,” Kara whispered. This was the same anticipation he’d felt that night in the club, when she’d hooked a hand in the collar of his shirt and pulled him in close. They had been surrounded by people, bodies in motion, but the world had come to a halt when he was an inch away from her lips. Kara had given him that—the chance to move away, the chance to pretend he didn’t want to kiss her.

He wanted to kiss her now.

And he had wanted to kiss her again, after the two of them had sworn it was a little fling—nothing they could sustain, not with their jobs and duties and the prying eyes of the city. He had burned hot under his clothes when he sat in the meeting with Community Connections. He had burned hot in his soul when he saw her name on his daily schedule. He’d sat in that meeting pretending he didn’t long to press kisses down the side of her neck.

Every day since,