Unexpectedly Expecting the Sheik's Baby - Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,20

of time zone changes and exhaustion.

“I will teach you how to shoot,” he explained.

Cassy’s mouth fell open. She wondered if he was making fun of her. But the serious expression told her that he wasn’t. “Why would you offer to teach me how to shoot a gun?” she asked, her tone softening. No man had ever offered to help her before. Well, except her father. He’d been her main champion, her cheerleader, and the shoulder she’d cried on when the vicious taunts became too much.

Why would he, this powerful, intimidating, and most-likely horrendously busy man, offer to teach her anything? Much less teach her how to shoot moments after she’d just threatened to shoot him? A threat she was ashamed of now. Violence was never the answer and she shouldn’t have even thought it, much less said it out loud.

What was it about this man that continuously threw her off guard? Most men were too busy trying to get her into bed. None had ever offered to help her with anything.

Granted, something about him told her that he wasn’t the same as the men in her past. She couldn’t quite define it, but he was…different. Definitely more powerful, but that wasn’t exactly what was bothering her so profoundly.

Of course, his physical appearance was dramatically different from all the men she’d known. In her experience, men like Nasir were portrayed as killers, bad boys. But even so, as she watched him across the table as he conversed with someone who had brought him a report, there was something different about him. It was definitely the aura of power that surrounded him. But more than that. There was a harshness that he wore, almost like a protective barrier. Or maybe she was just romanticizing his persona in order to protect herself.

When the aide disappeared, he looked up as he sipped his coffee. “Did you have a good flight?” he asked.

A servant appeared with a silver coffee urn and poured her a cup of coffee. Cassy waited impatiently until they were alone again, not bothering to answer his question. She doubted he cared one way or another. And besides, she’d slept almost the entire trip. She remembered the takeoff and landing. Other than that, the flight was a blur.

“Why would you offer to teach me how to shoot?” she repeated.

Nasir looked at the lovely woman over the rim of his coffee cup, trying to understand her. She was a beautiful woman with a figure that could be extraordinary, if she would just eliminate that horrendous sports bra that she’d put back on instead of the pretty lace bra he’d suggested.

And why was she so skeptical of his offer? It wasn’t just the offer to teach her how to shoot a weapon. He suspected that there was a much deeper question running through her subconscious.

He considered the various ways he could answer and reassure her. Nasir could tell her the truth, that she would need to know how to defend herself in the event that she needed to protect herself. In the time since he’d left her in the guest bedroom, he’d decided that he wanted Cassandra to be his wife, but he knew she wasn’t ready to hear that. Besides, he didn’t want to worry her. Not at this stage.

He wasn’t going to explain that to her though. He didn’t want his Cassy to be concerned about her safety.

Besides, he would protect his woman.

That didn’t mean she shouldn’t learn basic self-defense. Furthermore, from the background check his security team had done, he knew that she’d spent a great deal of time studying to become a lawyer and not enough time learning to be a woman.

So he went with a partial truth. “Because it would give me pleasure to teach you,” he finally told her, thinking he sincerely would enjoy teaching her, seeing the joy of success in her pretty eyes. “We will start lessons after lunch. What would you like to eat?”

Cassy had no idea what was going on. Everything he said, she felt like there was a double meaning. But since she refused to let him get under her skin, she wasn’t going to let him bother her. “I’ll just have coffee,” she told him. “And if you could bring me my bag, I can start working on the transfer of property for you. I understand that you’re trying to sell this house?”

He shook his head. “We will do business later. Lunch first since you cannot function sufficiently on a cup of