Sleeping with the Sheikh: The Sheikh's Bidding / Delaney's Desert Sheikh / Desert Warrior

“They plan on traveling the country.”

“You will miss her terribly,” he said, a simple statement of fact.

“Of course I will. So will Chance. But we’ll manage,” she said, although she wasn’t sure how. Yet somehow she had always managed the losses in her life, only this time she would feel truly abandoned, especially after Sam left.

“Perhaps you would like me to turn your thoughts to more pleasant things,” he said, as if he had somehow tuned in to her mind. Before she could prepare, he tugged her back down against him, amazed to find he was already aroused. And she was more than willing to forget all the sadness, all the tough times to come, in his welcoming arms.

“You’re not going to tickle me, are you?” she asked with mock exasperation.

“Not in the way you might imagine, but I’m certain I will find some means to make you feel better.”

When he nuzzled her neck, she said, “A good prince is hard to find,” feeling lightheaded and lighthearted in his arms. “Or maybe it is the other way around.”

“Perhaps we should find out.”

Once again Andi’s clothes ended up on the nearby grass. And in very little time, Sam had her clinging and gasping and praising his skill.

Too much, she thought as he guided her back to a paradise of his own making. Too little.

Never enough.

Sam stood over Andrea and watched her while she continued to sleep completely unaware he was keeping vigil. He’d been up for hours, had already tended to the horses since he had decided to allow her the luxury of spending extra time in bed. After last night she deserved the added rest.

Silently he admonished himself for his weakness. Scolded himself for not feeling as guilty as he should after making love to her well into the early hours of the morning. Yet he had no regrets except one—their time together was limited.

Seating himself on the edge of the bed, he continued to observe Andrea lying on her belly, still beautifully naked and his to behold a few moments longer. He recalled each and every detail of the night before, unearthed all the feelings for her that should be buried with the past. Yet they were not, nor would they ever be even if miles once again separated him from her.

He glanced at his watch and noted the time. Now nearing 10:00 a.m., he thought it best to wake her or, no doubt, suffer her wrath. Moving closer, he traced his finger down the curve of her spine and onto her buttock. She stirred a little and a sleepy sigh escaped her lips. But he couldn’t discern if her eyes had opened, since her hair covered her face in a tangled disarray to match the twisted sheets.

She finally lifted her head, pushed her hair back and regarded him over one shoulder. “What time is it?”

“Time for you to be up and about, I’m afraid.”

She rolled onto her back without concern for her nudity. Sam, on the other hand, was very concerned, considering what she was doing to him at that moment. What she had been doing to him since the day of his return.

After glancing at the clock, she sat up with a start. “My gosh, I’ve wasted most of the day.”

“You needed your sleep.”

Blessedly she smiled. “I guess so, considering I was up most of the night, thanks to you.”

He leaned and kissed her softly on the lips. “No. Many thanks to you.”

She stretched and draped her arms around his neck. “I think I used parts of my body that I haven’t used in years.”

“Then you are in pain?”

“Nice pain. Very nice.”

Unable to help himself, he kissed her throat and couldn’t resist kissing her breasts. “Perhaps I should do something to alleviate that pain.”

“Sorry. We don’t have time for that now,” she said, then bolted out of the bed, leaving Sam alone to deal with his own discomfort and the emotional wall she had seemed to raise.

After slipping on her robe, she faced him. “I have to put Sunny through some more ground work if I’m going to have her saddled by the end of the month.”

Just as well, he decided. If he had his way, they would stay in bed all day without regard for their responsibilities. How easy that would be, now that he had rediscovered the pleasure of making love with Andrea. But he could not disregard what he had to do, not only today but also in a matter of weeks, as much as he would like to forget what awaited him at home. “Riley is in the barn. He’s agreed to assist me in making it more serviceable.”

She grabbed a brush from the dresser and ran it through her hair with a vengeance. “I can’t afford to pay Riley.”

“I will see to that.”

Tossing the brush aside, she simply said, “Fine, I’m heading to the shower,” then left through the door.

Sam was shocked she had not protested his financial offer. Perhaps she was finally beginning to see that his money could only aid in her future and that of their son’s.

When he again returned to the stable a few moments later, he discovered that Riley had almost finished removing the old bedding from the first stall in preparation to replace the rubber matting beneath.

Riley looked up and leaned against his shovel, then stroked his too-long mustache. “Andi still sawin’ logs?”

Sam frowned. “She is awake at the moment.”

He chuckled and scooped another shovelful of bedding into the wheelbarrow. “I forget you don’t always understand the language. Guess it’s because I remember the way it used to be when Paul was still around. You were more loose back then. Relaxed. Even the way you talked.”

That was before he had carried the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders. “I have been away for a long time.”

An uncomfortable silence hung between them until Riley spoke again. “Did Andi tell you about me and Tess deciding to get hitched?”

“Yes. Last night. Congratulations to you both.”

“Tess told me you’re about to do the same come end of the summer.”

“It has been arranged.”

“That’s a strange way of putting it.”

Sam saw it exactly as it was, an arrangement. No emotional ties. No vows of love. “I prefer you not speak of this to Andrea until I have a chance to inform her.”

Riley lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “That’s your business, I guess, but I’m thinkin’ she deserves to know.” He appeared to go back to work, but before Sam could leave to gather more wood to brace the stalls, Riley stopped his departure. “You know, Andi’s dad was a good friend of mine.”

Sam paused and faced the open stall once more. “I remember.” He wondered where the conversation might be leading, yet he suspected it would come in the form of a lecture.

“I think he would’ve liked you a lot.”

Sam had not bargained for that presumption. “It is my understanding he was a very good man.”

“The best. And he thought the sun rose and set in Andi. Now, I’m not saying he didn’t love the boy because he did. But Paulie was more like his mother than Bob—into book learning and that sort of thing.” Riley smiled. “Andi was just like her dad, and the apple of his eye. According to him, she could do no wrong.”

Sam greatly related to that. “She is a good woman.”