Sheikh's Temptation

Sheikh's Temptation
ALEXANDRA SELLERS

One night of electrifying, primitive lovemaking with Sheikh Arash Khosravi and Lana Holding had never let another man touch her. Separated by circumstance, she despaired of seeing him again. But their reunion proved bittersweet. For pride and pain had made her strong sheikh ruthless and as cold as the blizzard they were stranded in….Arash had risked his fortune to save his beloved country. And so he could promise gentle Lana no future. But solitude with the breathtaking beauty was too tempting for his noble resistance. Surrendering to the woman who was his torment, his delight, he vowed to have her forever. Could he keep her when he had nothing to offer…but himself?

“I Have Nothing To Offer You But Sexual Pleasure.

“Take that, one last time, and then let us forget,” Arash said.

“After tonight, never again?” Lana asked.

His jaw clenched, his eyes closed, she saw his fingers unwrap one by one from the bowl of his goblet, as though taking all his concentration.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked. “I think it’s a tradition amongst your ancestors, isn’t it, when a woman has pleased you, to grant her some boon?”

His eyes flashed purple fire. “If there is anything I have that you could wish for, I give it to you.”

“You grant me whatever I ask without waiting to hear what it is?”

His head went up and she saw the shadow of a long line of proud sheikhs behind his shoulder, men whose pride had expressed itself in generosity.

“Ask your boon,” commanded Sheikh Khosravi.

She took a deep, trembling breath. “I ask you to marry me.”

Dear Reader,

In keeping with the celebration of Silhouette’s 20

anniversary in 2000, what better way to enjoy the new century’s first Valentine’s Day than to read six passionate, powerful, provocative love stories from Silhouette Desire!

Beloved author Dixie Browning returns to Desire’s MAN OF THE MONTH promotion with A Bride for Jackson Powers, also the launch title for the series THE PASSIONATE POWERS. Enjoy this gem about a single dad who becomes stranded with a beautiful widow who’s his exact opposite.

Get ready to be seduced when Alexandra Sellers offers you another sheikh hero from her SONS OF THE DESERT miniseries with Sheikh’s Temptation. Maureen Child’s popular series BACHELOR BATTALION continues with The Daddy Salute—a marine turns helpless when he must take care of his baby, and he asks the heroine for help.

Kate Little brings you a keeper with Husband for Keeps, in which the heroine needs an in-name-only husband in order to hold on to her ranch. A fabulously sexy doctor returns to the woman he could never forget in The Magnificent M.D. by Carol Grace. And exciting newcomer Sheri WhiteFeather offers another irresistible Native American hero in Jesse Hawk: Brave Father.

We hope you will indulge yourself this Valentine’s Day with all six of these passionate romances, only from Silhouette Desire!

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

Sheikh’s Temptation

Alexandra Sellers

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To the last weekend at Langton Lodge

and those who share the memory

ALEXANDRA SELLERS,

Canadian born and raised, first came to London as a drama student. She lives near Hampstead Heath with her husband, Nick. They share housekeeping with Monsieur, a beautiful tabby, who came in through the window one day and announced that he was staying.

Alexandra loves the people, languages, religions and history of Central Asia and the Middle East. She has studied Hebrew and Farsi (Persian) and is currently working on Arabic. She is the author of over twenty-five novels and a cat language textbook.

What she would miss most on a desert island is shared laughter.

Readers can write to Alexandra at P.O. Box 9449, London NW3 2WH, U.K.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

One

Winter was taking a last swipe at the mountains. A strong wind had started to blow soon after lunch, and within an hour the beautiful spring weather had developed claws. Now, wearing the anorak and jeans that had been perfectly comfortable this morning, Lana Holding was shivering, and probably it would get worse.

Static screeched in her ear again. “Nothing,” she reported briefly, turning down the volume on the CB mike and tossing it through the truck window onto the passenger seat. She leaned against the truck and looked down at where Arash was tightening the wheelnuts, his left leg bent, his right leg extended awkwardly away from his body.