Читать книгу The Sheikh's Bride - Sophie Weston - Страница 9

THERE was no furniture to bump into.

First, Amer arrived in designer jeans and a loose jacket that was the last word in careless chic and made Leo feel seriously overdressed. Then, he announced that they were going out of Cairo. To Leo’s increasing trepidation, this involved a short trip in a private helicopter.

‘Where are we?’ she said, when the helicopter set down and its ailerons stopped turning.

The airstrip was abnormally deserted. In her experience Egyptian airports heaved like anthills.

But her horribly hip companion just smiled.

The briefest ride in an open Jeep took them to a dark landing stage. The stars, like a watchmaker’s store of diamond chips, blinked at the water. Silent as a snake, the river gleamed back. There was a warm breeze off the water, like the breath of a huge, sleepy animal.

Leo was not cold; but she shivered.

‘Where are we?’

‘Seventy miles up river from Cairo,’ Amer told her coolly.

‘Seventy—’ Leo broke off, in shock. ‘Why?’

‘I wanted to give you a picnic by moonlight,’ Amer said in soulful tones. He added, more practically, ‘You can’t do proper moonlight in the middle of a city.’

Leo looked at him in the deepest suspicion. Standing as they were in the headlights of the Jeep it was difficult to tell but she was almost certain he was laughing at her.

The dark harem pants wafted in the breeze. Her gold jacket felt garish under the stars and ridiculously out of place. She felt as clumsily conspicuous as she used to do at agonizing teenage parties.

‘Why would you want to take me on a moonlit picnic?’ she muttered resentfully. ‘You know I thought I was signing up for dinner in a restaurant. Look at me.’

Amer was supervising the removal of a large picnic basket from the jeep. He turned his head at that. He looked her up and down. In the jeep’s headlights, Leo somehow felt as if she were on display. She huddled the jacket round her in pure instinct.

‘Do you want to go back?’ he asked.

It should have been a courteous enquiry. It was not. It was a challenge. On the point of demanding just that, Leo stopped, disconcerted.

After a day of shocks, was this one so terrible, after all? At least it promised a new experience. Who knows, she might actually enjoy it. And she did not have to bother about an early night, for once. She did not have to get up in the small hours to meet an incoming flight. She would never have to again.

‘I suppose, now we’re here…’ she said at last.

Amer raised his eyebrows. It was hardly enthusiastic.

‘Shall we call it an experiment then? For both of us.’ He sounded rueful.

The driver took the picnic basket down the slope to a wooden jetty. Amer held out a hand to help Leo. The bank was steep. He went first.

She took his hand and scrambled down the dusty path unsteadily. His arm felt like rock, as she swayed and stumbled. It also felt electric, as if just by holding on to him, Leo plugged herself in to some powerhouse of energy. She held her breath and did her best to ignore the tingle that his touch sent through her.

Amer seemed unaware of it. Leo did not know whether that was more of a relief or an irritant. How could the man have this effect on her and not know it? But if he did know it what would he do about it?

‘Blast,’ she said, exasperated.

He looked back at her. ‘What was that?’

Hurriedly she disguised it. ‘I turned my ankle over.’

She began limping heavily. Amer came back a couple of steps and put a supporting arm round her, hoisting her with her own petard. It felt like fire.

‘Thank you,’ said Leo between her teeth.

On the jetty Leo stopped dead.

‘It’s a dhow,’ she exclaimed, half delighted, half alarmed.

The little boat did not look stable. She swayed gently against her mooring rope. There was an oil lamp on the prow; no other light but the stars.

Leo edged forward gingerly. And mother warned me not to bump into the furniture, she thought. With my luck I could have the whole boat over.

A sailor greeted them politely before taking the picnic basket on board. Amer turned and gave a few crisp instructions in Arabic to the driver.

Leo peered at the dark interior of the boat. She thought she could see cushions. They seemed a long way down.

The driver vaulted into the Jeep and gunned the engine. Amer turned back and took in Leo’s wariness.

‘Are you going to tell me you’re seasick?’ he said, amused.

Leo cast him an harassed look. Nothing was going to serve her but the truth, she realised.

‘I am not the best co-ordinated person in the world,’ she announced defiantly. ‘I was just trying to work out how to get into this thing.’

The jeep roared off. It left behind the starlit dark and the soft slap of the river against the jetty. And the man, now no more than a dark shadow against shadows. It was a warm night. But in the sudden quiet, Leo shivered.

‘That’s easy,’ Amer said softly.

He picked her up.

‘Careful,’ gasped Leo, clutching him round the neck.

She could feel the ripple of private laughter under her hands. Amer held her high against his chest and stepped down into the boat.

She was right. There were cushions everywhere. Amer sank gracefully into them. He seemed, thought Leo, to hold on to her for far longer that was necessary. She inhaled the new aroma of expensive laundry and man’s skin, all mixed with some elusive cologne that was hardly there and yet which she knew she would never forget.

None of the semidetached men in her life had made her feel like this. Was it because he was, as her mother had called him, a seriously sexy article? Would any woman have felt her pulses race in this situation? Or was it only Leo? Had her cool temperament and shaky experience led her to over-react to an embrace that was not an embrace at all? Somewhere deep inside there was still a clumsy sixteen-year-old who had hung around at the edge of the room at parties, marooned in her own self-consciousness. Had someone found the route to reach her at last?

If so, Leo was far from grateful. She disentangled herself, not without difficulty, and sat up. She pulled her jacket straight and smoothed her hair.