The Sheik's Reluctant Lover Page 0,3

were. He’d been about to touch her, his hand reaching out, his fingers so close to her cheek that she’d almost felt his fingers against her skin even now. She took a deep breath and stepped around Rais, moving on unsteady feet towards the kitchen. “Well…thank you for stopping by…”

“You’re father invited me for dinner,” he interrupted, amused that she was trying to get rid of him. Interesting, he thought to himself. She was nervous, he realized. Nervous about being near him. He’d been around women enough to know that her trembling meant she was just as interested in him. That and the way she’d looked into his eyes, the soft blush that had bloomed on her cheeks when she’d first seen him.

His grown up Rachel was showing all the signs and he had a hard time hiding the reaction his body was having to her attraction for him. He wanted to take her into his arms and kiss her, feel her against him and show her that everything would be okay, that she didn’t need to be nervous around him. But her father’s interruption slowed him down, gave him time to step back and enjoy this delicious tension between the two of them.

“He invited you for dinner?” she asked. She looked over at her father, wondering why he would do something like that. If he knew how she felt, why had he cornered her like this?

But how could he have avoided issuing the initiation? If Rais had shown up unexpectedly, Rachel knew there was no way her father could avoid inviting Rais in for a meal. It wasn’t just that Rais was her father’s employer. They were friends who respected each other. Rachel knew that they often dined together when she wasn’t here, talking about the horses and the farm, not to mention playing chess together often when Rais wasn’t entertaining the elite of Washington and Virginia society at the main house.

She sat down at the table, taking her napkin and placing it over her lap. Her mind just couldn’t wrap itself around the fact that her father, the man who knew how she felt about Rais, had even conspired with her to avoid him so assiduously for the past six years, had violated her trust like this and invited the enemy to dinner.

Rais and John discussed the various horses in the stables over dinner while Rachel pushed the food around on her plate, too nervous to actually eat anything. The tiny table barely had enough room for two people so adding a third person, and especially one as large as Rais, made the confines beyond cozy. She kept shifting her legs, trying to avoid touching his, but he would just move his legs right back so that they were touching again. It was frustrating and her stomach clenched each time she felt his leg or his thigh against hers. She pretended like it didn’t matter, but by the end of the meal, she was jumpy and irritated with herself for letting things get like this.

“You two go on out to the family room and I’ll clean up,” her father said, picking up the plates and heading towards the sink.

“No way,” she said adamantly. “Dad, you cooked dinner so I’ll clean up. It’s obvious that you and Rais have lots to talk about so I’ll do the dishes,” she countered, starting to take the dishes out of his hands but he just pulled them out of her reach and shook his head.

He couldn’t look at her as cleared the table, chuckling softly at her feeble attempt. “We’ve been talking all through dinner. You two go out there and catch up and I’ll just finish the dishes in here.”

Again? Why was her father doing this to her? “I’d better be heading back to town,” she said instead.

“But you haven’t even seen the beauties,” her father countered, looking over his shoulder at her with a worried expression. “Besides, I thought you were staying overnight. Didn’t you bring your bag with a change of clothes? If not, you know there are plenty of clothes still here for you. Rais, how about if you take her out to the stables see them? They’re yours anyway.” He turned back to Rachel with a huge grin on his face. “You’re going to love these guys, Rachel. I’ve never seen anything quite like them in my life, and that’s saying a lot.”

Rachel knew he was discussing some new horses Rais had recently purchased, but the very