The Sheik's Desires Boxset Read online

  Her hackles rose with his refusal to let her escape. Squaring her shoulders, she faced her boss head on. “I have no reason to be here,” she argued right back.

  He shook his head, not believing that his brother had released her yet. “You stuck your foot in it, Ana. Now you have to deal with the consequences like a real soldier.”

  Her eyebrows came down into a severe frown. “I’m not a soldier!”

  “You’re acting like a coward,” Jual replied with a matter of fact tone.

  Ana gasped at that word. It was offensive and…possibly true but she didn’t need to be told that to her face!

  She pulled her shoulders back and slammed the door. Spinning around, prepared to figure out another escape route, she realized that the man in question was right behind her.

  Two things hit her all at once. First, the man was naked! Well, he had a towel wrapped around his lean waist, but that was it. He had another towel in his hand that he used to dry his hair, then rubbed it against his chest. Ana couldn’t do more than stare, fascinated by that hand as it moved the towel over all of those muscles. They were everywhere, the skin and muscles flexing as he dried himself off. Was his hand moving more slowly? Was he…

  Her eyes flipped up to his and she blushed when she realized that he was watching her, watching him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered and licked her dry lips.

  “I enjoyed it,” he murmured. “Feel free to take over.”

  Ana felt her breath catch in her throat and her eyes moved down over his body again, her mind spinning out of control at the idea of drying off that man’s chest and arms. And…everything else.

  “No.” She shook her head, looking at his chest. “No. Thank you very much.” She realized what she was doing and then she noticed the tenting of that second towel. She spun around, trying to hide both her blush and her interest. “Don’t you need to get some sleep? Weren’t you out on a field exercise with your men?”

  “No and yes.”

  She looked back at him. Confused.

  “No, I don’t need sleep and yes, I was out on a field exercise with my men,” he explained. “You don’t like being called a coward, do you?”

  She straightened her shoulders, her chin jutting outward in defiance. “No one likes to be called a coward. Would you?”

  “No,” he laughed softly. “But I’m not the one trying to run away.”

  She lifted her chin higher. “I wasn’t running away.”

  He smiled at her obvious lie. “What would you call it?”

  She tilted her head slightly. “Self-preservation,” she finally replied.

  He laughed. “Tell me what you do for the government,” he commanded as he turned and walked through one of the doors.

  She watched the darkened door for a long moment, her mind once again going into overdrive at the thought of what he might be doing. Had he tossed that towel off? Was he naked already? Oh my, what kind of underwear did he wear? She really hoped he didn’t wear the tighty-whities. She pictured him in boxers. Not the loose kind either. She imagined him pulling on those cotton boxers, the kind that hugged…everything… close.

  “Whew,” she sighed and leaned her head back against the wooden doorway, almost bumping her head in the process.

  “Ana?” he called out.

  Her eyes popped open and she looked around, relieved that he hadn’t seen her acting so ridiculous. Question! He’d asked her a question. Well, no, he hadn’t asked her a question. He’d commanded her to tell him…darn it! What had he said? Her job! Yes! He’d asked what she did for his government.

  Her fingers tapped against the wood of the door, trying to force her mind to start working again. “Um…yes. I uh…I’m a mathematician. I use formulas and plug them into a computer program that I then use to decrypt internet chatter.”

  He came out of the room wearing a pair of dark slacks and pulling on a white shirt. “Are you any good?” he asked as he approached.

  She smiled although Ana wasn’t aware of how her smile transformed her features. “I’m the best you’ve got,” she told him and she wasn’t just saying that. “I’ve developed formulas that have decrypted four times the information any other analyst in your security group has managed.”

  He laughed softly. “Impressive,” he replied.

  Her eyes dropped to his fingers that were no longer buttoning the tailored shirt. That meant that his muscular chest was still exposed to her hungry eyes. “You should button that up,” she told him, her voice croaking as those strange feelings washed over her once again.

  The man moved closer and Ana breathed in his clean, male scent. “Why?” he asked, his voice soft and husky.

  Ana tried very hard to pull her eyes away from that magnificent chest but…she failed. “Because you’re….you and I’m,” she hesitated, licking her lips again, “well, I’m an analyst on your staff and I really should get to work and you’ve been up most of the night so you probably need your sleep so I’m going to just…” she tried very hard to find the door knob so that she could leave but her fingers kept fumbling and never found the stupid door knob.

  “You’re going to stay with me and tell me about yourself.” He glanced at his watch. “Breakfast should be here soon. We could both use a cup of coffee.” Something occurred to him. “Why were you in the office so early this morning? The rest of the staff aren’t scheduled to start work for another few hours.”

  Ana thought quickly but because that darn shirt was still open and all of that amazing skin was still making her mouth dry, she had trouble coming up with a good enough reason.

  “The truth, Ana,” he warned her with amusement in his voice this time.

  She glanced up at him, pretending to be offended. “Why in the world would you think I was going to lie to you?”

  “You were. It was in your eyes. So what’s the truth?” He put a hand to her elbow and led her over to one of the tables. It was still dark outside, but he pressed a hidden button and servants appeared almost instantaneously with food that they set out on a table by a still-dark courtyard. He was holding a chair out for her and Ana had no option except to sit. It wasn’t like she could simply refuse to dine with the man. He was her boss’ boss’ boss’ boss – or something like that. She had no idea how many supervisors it took to reach this man’s desk but she didn’t want to find out either.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just take a nap or something?”

  He sat down opposite her. “Ana, if you don’t stop telling me to go to sleep, I’m going to have to prove to you just how vigorous I feel right now.”

  She bit her lower lip, trying to hide the blush his words created. “Um…right.”

  “You were going to tell me about your work,” he said and poured her some steaming, hot coffee.

  Ana lifted the delicate cup, not exactly sure how to drink out of anything so pretty. She had a large mug in her office that she kept at her elbow and filled it up several times during the day. “How much sleep do you need each night?” She saw the gathering storm in his eyes and sat up straighter. “Because I need eight or nine hours. Of sleep, that is,” she thought, trying to clarify, but the slight raising of his dark eyebrow quickly told her that he understood. “I mean, of course you need at least eight hours of sleep.”

  “I need about four or five hours of sleep each night.”

  Her mouth fell open with that. “No way! That’s just not right.”

  He shrugged one of those broad shoulders that so fascinated her, drawing her eye once more.

  “Four or five hours a night leaves me with extra hours to do…” his eyes moved over her figure, then back to her eyes before he said, “other activities.”

  Ana’s mouth opened up and she was just about to ask him what “other activities” he might be doing but the expression on his handsome features warned her not to go there.

  “Right,” she snapped and pressed her lips together.

  His deep, sexy chuckle sent her nervousness spiralling out of cont
rol. “Drink your coffee, Ana. We’ll have breakfast, then you’re going to show me what you do.”

  Ana carefully set her coffee cup down on the table. “I can’t. My work is top secret.” She was just about to take a bite of a delicious looking muffin when her mouth snapped shut and she looked across the table at him one more time. “Okay, that was stupid,” she told him. “Sometimes, I get a bit overly protective of my work.”

  He laughed softly. “Admirable. But I’m one of those people you can discuss your work with. I promise I won’t spill state secrets.”

  She smiled slightly, but it was strained because she was reading something in his eyes that made her more nervous. “Yes. Right. Anyway, well, I’m currently working on…”

  “Coffee and food first, Ana. You look like you’re hungry.”

  She stared down at the muffin that was pretty much destroyed now after her fingers had broken it up into little pieces. Sitting back in the chair, she sighed heavily. “I don’t think I can eat anything right now.”

  “Why is that?”

  She glanced across the table at him, then away. “Because you make me nervous.”

  That annoying eyebrow went up again. “How am I making you nervous?” he asked softly.

  She shifted in her seat, feeling very much like he wanted her for breakfast and not the muffins or scrambled eggs on the table. “I don’t think you’re interested in what I do.”

  “What do you think I’m interested in?”

  Her fingers tapped against her thigh and she wished she could be anywhere but here at the moment. “Me. But that’s not happening,” she told him quickly.

  “Why? Do you find me repugnant?”

  She quickly shook her head. “No! Not at all. The complete opposite, actually.”

  He continued to regard her with both amusement and interest. “So what is the problem? We’re both attracted to each other, we’re both consenting adults, neither one of us is attached to another person. We’re both free to explore this attraction between us.”

  She shook her head, horrified by his simplistic view of the situation. “No. That’s not going to happen. You see, I’m relationship-voodoo.”

  Najid blinked, not sure what she meant by that statement. “Voodoo? Isn’t that the religion based on African spirituality?” he teased.

  Ana sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Of course it is. But I was using it in a slang way and I apologize if I’ve offended or confused you. What I’m trying to say is that having a relationship with me is bad luck. I am not a good candidate for relationships in any form.”

  “Explain,” he commanded and started eating his breakfast. He was fascinated by this woman. The more she talked, the more interesting she became. All he wanted to do was to pull her into his arms and kiss her, to explore her body; but he also realized that exploring her mind was just as interesting.

  Then his eyes moved down to her full breasts pressing against the thin material of her shirt and had to change his mind. Exploring her mind was interesting, but he suspected that exploring that lush body of hers would be more amazing. By the end of this day, he would be able to compare the two activities and make an educated guess.

  Ana shrugged slightly. “The last man I dated realized he was gay.”

  Najid almost choked on his coffee at that announcement. When he had himself back under control, he said, “I don’t think you should concern yourself with that possibility.”

  “Another guy I dated was arrested. Of course, I might have been speeding at the time.” She looked up at the ceiling as if trying to remember the scene. “And the guy was sweet until he pulled a gun on the police officer. If he’d just sat there in the passenger seat and not said a word, he wouldn’t have been arrested. So he sort of panicked. And I got caught in the crossfire.”

  “Excuse me?” he demanded, his voice angry. “Are you saying that someone pulled a gun on you?”

  She quickly shook her head. “No. Joe didn’t pull a gun on me. He pulled a gun on the police officer. But when Joe thought he was going to be arrested, he used me for a human shield.”

  Najid’s fork clattered to the plate. “That’s unacceptable! Where is this man now?”

  Ana waved away his concern as she picked up a piece of the mutilated muffin. “Oh, don’t worry. He’s in prison. This was back in Texas and it really isn’t smart to pull a gun on a Texas state trooper. They get pretty angry about things like that so Joe is in prison. Fortunately, it was all recorded on the trooper’s car camera so Joe didn’t stand a chance in court.”

  Najid relaxed back in his chair, trying to calm his temper. “I can imagine. What were you doing in Texas at the time?”

  She swallowed the amazingly delicious bite of muffin. “Antonio Almerez challenged me to figure out a math problem.”

  Najid’s eyes narrowed. “Antonio Almerez is one of the top mathematicians in the world. I’ve consulted with him on several occasions about analysis that he’s done.”

  Ana shrugged. “He can be a bit tedious until you get to know him better. And I solved a problem for him. Everyone says he’s just a pompous jerk but I found him to be a nice guy.”

  Najid laughed, stunned by additional proof of this woman’s intelligence. “Mr. Almerez is not nice to anyone beneath his intelligence level, from what I’ve heard. He disdains talking with anyone who is not mathematically brilliant.”

  Ana shook her head. “I didn’t find that to be the case. He’s very funny and charming when he wants to be.”

  Najid didn’t like the sound of that. “Tell me you weren’t…”

  Ana laughed, knowing exactly where his mind was going. “The man is eighty-five years old! He’s older than my grandfather!”

  Relaxing back in his seat once again, Najid surveyed the beautiful woman with wonder. “Of course. And your other relationships?”

  Ana looked up at the ceiling. “Well, I’ve told you about Joe and Milton. Then there was Burt, but he didn’t last long. He got married after our second date. And Mike. He was a sweet guy but I found out that he was flat broke and only using me to play poker.”

  “Poker?”

  She nodded her head. “Poker is pretty easy to play.”

  “You count the cards?”

  She rolled her eyes again. “Being successful at poker isn’t about playing the cards in your hand. Yes, of course I count the cards but during a good poker game, you play against your opponent’s hand. I’ve figured out ways to mathematically understand body language. That’s what the deal was with Jual.” She glanced nervously across the table. “I guess I should call him Prince Jual around you, shouldn’t I? We just…no one is very formal in the security office so I’m used to just calling him by his name.” She shrugged, not sure how this man would feel about the casual atmosphere in the area where she worked. “I promised to teach all of this to his team and in return, he would teach me self-defense.”

  “You will not be learning self-defense from my brother,” Najid stated emphatically. The idea of any man’s hands on what he now considered to be his woman would not be permitted. Jual also understood this by now.

  “Why not?” she demanded indignantly.

  “Because you will be busy with other things. And if you want to learn self-defense, I will teach you.”

  She looked at the man’s enormous body and shook her head. Jual had offered to teach her as well but that man was just as enormous. No way was she learning anything from either giant. “Absolutely not. Like I said earlier, you’re too big. I want to start with someone smaller, more my size.”

  “A smaller man would not be able to handle you,” he assured her, thinking that her personality was bigger than her petite frame.

  She pushed backwards, shaking her head as she stood up from the table. Ana was angry now. This man seemed to be trying to enforce his will on her and it made her panic. Maybe because…could she want that? Certainly not, she told herself! “I’m going to learn self-defense and it isn’t going to be from you,” she said, putting
her hands on her hips as if challenging the tall man.

  Bad move, she thought in the next instant.

  No longer was she challenging the man. Somehow she’d gone from standing on the opposite side of the table from him to finding herself in his arms! She was pinned up against the wall, her body plastered against his enormous, muscular frame and she gasped at the shocking contact. Who knew a guy his size could move so quickly?!

  “What are you doing?” she demanded, pushing ineffectually at his shoulders.

  Najid smiled, a wicked look entering those dark eyes. And all of that wickedness was directed towards her. “I don’t think you understand the position you’re in, my little lady.”

  “I’m not your anything!” she gasped out, wiggling against him to free herself. But that was a bad move. The friction against his body only increased her awareness of him as a man, a very strong, very powerful man who made her body sing a different tune than anything she’d ever known before. She had to fight the instinctive need to wrap her legs around his waist and press her hips against his. She spread her fingers out wide, as if that might keep her hands from moving down over his shoulders, exploring fascinating muscles that…

  “Let me go,” she demanded.

  His only response was a deep chuckle. “I don’t think so,” he replied back. “And I don’t think you really want me to release you either.”

  “You’re a brute,” she snapped. But then he shifted his body against hers and she gasped, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as lust, a new feeling she’d never experienced, surged through her.

  “Don’t do that,” she whispered, praying he would, hoping he wouldn’t.

  “Don’t do what?” he asked, feeling her body heat against his own. “Don’t do this?” he asked, moving his hips again.

  Ana inhaled sharply, her fingers flexing away from his chest but her palms wouldn’t break contact. “Yes. Don’t do that again,” she told him softly. Breathlessly. But then her own hips shifted, feeling that place on him, that hardness that…oh yes! If she could only…

  Closing her eyes, she shifted against him, moving her hips against that hard part of him that had caused her body to become inflamed with a strange urgency. “This is wrong,” she moaned even as she pressed against him once more.