Read Online The Sheik Who Loved Me by Loreth Anne White - Free Book Online Page A

looking for you all over the place. This palace is like a maze.” Her voice curled like silk ribbon through him, tightening around his insides.
    “You were looking for me?” She needed him. That pleased the primal male within.
    “I wanted to ask you if…if you’ve had any contact from the mainland yet…about me?”
    The question jolted him to his senses. He coughed, recalling his manners, stood up, pulled out a chair for her. “No, I’m afraid not. Communication is still down. Take a seat. Would you like a brandy?”
    “No, thanks, I’m fine. I need to work on keeping my mind clear if I want to remember anything.” She sat with fluid grace but he could hear the disappointment in her tone at his answer.
    “When I hadn’t heard from you, I guessed there was no information. I kept telling myself you’d come and tell me the minute you learned something.” Her eyes flashed up to his. “Right?”
    Oh, God, she’d been waiting all day, anticipating word. And all he’d been thinking about was how to get rid of her, how to stop her impacting his personal life. And here she was being considerate of him, being tactful by not wearing Aisha’s clothes, by not interrupting his dinner time with Kamilah. She’d even waited until the last possible moment in the day before coming to find him, although she’d been dying for some news, some clue to her identity.
    The knotted ball of guilt in his chest tightened. “Of course I’d tell you right away,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll know something tomorrow. My tech reckons he’ll have the satellite communication system up and running again by morning.”
    “It was downed in the storm?”
    “Yeah, the sand out here gets into everything. We use a fixed satellite system which means the phones inside the palace can be operated just like landline sets. Only trouble is the radio antenna unit and junction box need to be mounted outdoors with a clear view of the sky. That means it’s vulnerable to sandstorms.”
    She tensed suddenly. Her eyes widened, then the line of her mouth flattened. She turned abruptly away from him, shutting him out.
    A frown cut into his brow. What had he said? He studied her profile. She was hugging her arms tight to her stomach, staring out over the inky ocean. What had caused this rapid shift in mood?
    Perhaps she was wondering what befell her out there in the dark void, what had happened to the people she may have been with. Something snagged in his chest. What had she been through in that storm? Something so traumatic that it had shut off a part of her brain, made her dissociate from herself? Was what she experienced anything like the mad, awful terror that had gripped him as he’d watched Aisha, bleeding, being sucked down by the waves? Had she, too, known that huge hammer-heads swam like shadows between the reefs underneath?
    If Watson was right, her memory loss was only a temporary buffer against pain she might yet have to face in the next few days. Did she even have any idea that her amnesia was psychological? Would it help to tell her? Or would it only cause more distress?
    She put her hand to her temple, pressed down on the stitches.
    “You okay?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “No. I mean yes. I’m fine. I…I just got a feeling.”
    “You remembered something?” He leaned forward.
    “I…I don’t know. Maybe.” She forced a smile and abruptly changed the topic. “You’re a very lucky man to own such a slice of paradise, David. This place is truly beautiful.”
    “Yes,” he said, his eyes holding hers. “Very beautiful.”
    She faltered at his loaded words but held his gaze. The jasmine-scented air grew warm and thick between them. She swallowed and then turned away, but not before David had glimpsed the flare of female interest in her eyes.
    “Do storms like that happen often out here?” she asked, her voice smoky, thicker. Her obvious physical reaction to him did wild things to his body. Heat simmered in his belly. His