CHAPTER ELEVEN
Olivia was sitting on the floor in the outer room when Khalid entered their tent. The sun had set and a cool desert breeze followed him in, ruffling the black canvas before he tied the flaps shut.
Shivering, Olivia didn’t bother with wrapping a shawl around her shoulders. It would be of little use since the evening’s cooler temperature had nothing to do with the butterflies teasing her belly or the goose bumps running down her arms. Her body’s response was caused by one Khalid Francois Du?s.
Not too long ago, she would’ve obsessed for hours over her relentless attraction to him. Beat herself up mercilessly, called herself all kinds of fool. But at some point, she didn’t know exactly when, being resigned to her fate had become indisputably intertwined with her inability to stop wanting Khalid.
Something needed to give. They couldn’t continue the way they were or she’d never leave this godforsaken desert. If she gave herself to Khalid, maybe he would eventually tire of her and let her go. If she came home with a baby, she’d lose friends and even some of her family might turn their backs on her, but she didn’t need anyone’s help to raise a child since she had the financial means to rear one on her own.
Unfortunately, Olivia couldn’t crack through the wall Khalid had erected between them. He barely spoke to her. They no longer slept in the same bed. He’d opted to sleep on a pallet of goatskins in the main room. Of course, she should have been happy with the arrangement, but their bed had become alarmingly large and lonely without him in it. And this silent treatment and outright indifference hurt.
“Good evening,” she said, dropping the knitting needles onto her lap. She’d been gifted with the pair and several balls of yarn in gratitude for treating Amir’s gout. Also, it was no use continuing since she couldn’t concentrate with him so near.
“Beautiful night, isn’t it?”
“Yes it is,” he said coolly, “the moon is especially bright tonight.”
Not expecting a response, Olivia almost fell over. Did this new attitude mean they’d turned a corner? Heart racing, she sat forward and watched him through the opening in the bedroom’s privacy curtain.
“Have you eaten anything?” Such a mundane question, but she didn’t care. She’d try anything to keep him talking. She was starving for his attention.
“I ate with Hassan and his family,” he replied, stepping through the curtain, a bag in hand. He’d also put on a heavier tunic over his day clothes.
Olivia tried to ignore the wave of anxiety tiptoeing down her spine. “Where are you going?”
“Malik and I are going to Saint Louis.”
He was leaving? Olivia felt like the wind had been kicked out of her. What if something happened to him and he didn’t return?
“Take me with you.” Olivia knew she sounded pathetic. She couldn’t help it. He’d been her constant companion for more than a month. And there was no way she was going to wind up stuck on the continent of Africa for the rest of her life without him.
“You’ll only slow us down, Olivia.” As if sensing her unease, he added, “I’ll only be gone for a couple of days.”
Filled with nervous energy, Olivia stood. “What am I to do while you’re gone?” she asked, pacing. Sensing a migraine coming on, she pinched the flesh between her brows. “Sit around here twiddling my thumbs?”
“You’re going to look after Wissam. You can finish your knitting.”
Olivia balled her fists. He was attempting to ease her anxiety with a mindless endeavor. She stopped pacing and faced him. It took every cell in her body to remain standing and not fling herself at his feet.
“Promise me you’ll come back.”
Khalid stared at her for the longest moment. His hair floated around his head in large loopy curls. A beard shadowed the lower half of his face. Even looking like a desert marauder, he was beautiful. Awestruck, she watched him slowly move toward her.
He towered over her. His powerful body radiated a heat that seared her from the tips of her toes to the roots of her hair. A shiver ran through her, followed by an annoying ache to touch and be touched by him.
“I promise I’ll be back in three days.” His eyes narrowed, as if reading her body signals. “A kiss goodbye.”
Worded softly, Olivia wasn’t sure if it was a request or a demand. She was confident in one thing. Rather than have him take a kiss or coax one from her, she wanted it. Badly. Hot and bothered, panting softly, Olivia licked her lips.
Khalid pulled her to him at the same time his mouth slanted against hers. Almost tentatively, his lips moved over hers, as if waiting for her to pull away. Stirred by the tenderness of his kiss, Olivia sighed into him.
Wanting to ensure he’d come back to her, she put her all into the kiss.
His hands slid over her hips. He pulled her closer, flush against him. Hard and thick, his cock teased her belly. Eager for more contact, she ran her hands over his arms, admiring the sinewy muscles.
“Are you ready, Khalid,” Malik barked from the entrance of the tent.
Khalid cursed. His warm breath beat against her lips, triggering her arousal. Her * throbbed, pulsing in tandem with the blood racing through her veins.
“Wait for me,” he whispered and then he was gone.
Feeling sorry for herself and aroused beyond belief, Olivia didn’t see him off. She walked into the sleeping area and threw herself on the bed. Maybe she could sleep for the next three days.
***
Before sunset the following day, Khalid and Malik rode into Saint Louis. During the day the French colonial town possessed a completely different energy. As the former capital of Senegal and its number one shipping port, Saint Louis was a hive of commerce. People crowded the sidewalks. Pedestrians rubbed shoulders with hawkers peddling their goods. Patrons poured in and out of stores, or congregated at outdoor cafes offering French cuisine as good as any restaurant on the Champs élysées.
Khalid bypassed them. He had a mission to complete. The sooner he concluded his business, the quicker he could get back to Olivia. Remembering their kiss, her soft willing body, a rush of blood flooded his loins. When he left her, she looked so beautiful and so goddamn desirable. If it wasn’t for his cousin’s ill-timed interruption, he would’ve taken her right there on the floor of their tent, making her come ‘til she begged him to stop.
Sighing heavily, Khalid shifted in the saddle. After leaving camp, he’d suffered the worst case of blue balls he’d ever experienced in his life. With his thoughts constantly drifting to Olivia, the pain hadn’t abated. Thankfully, they’d reached their destination and he could finally take a break from sitting on his horse.
Khalid glanced up at the druggist sign as he dismounted. Noticing Malik still astride his horse, he frowned. “Aren’t you coming in?” he asked, tying the horse’s reins to the hitching post. Some of the medicines they’d come to procure would be for Wissam.
Malik fidgeted in the saddle. “I have business to take care of in town,” he uttered, his gaze sliding away. “I’ll meet you back here in an hour.”
“Make it two. I want to visit a couple of booksellers and an antiques dealer.”
Malik nodded curtly. He turned his horse and headed west toward the bay.
Eager to finish his business Khalid didn’t wait for a lull in pedestrian traffic. He picked his way across the boardwalk and ventured inside.
“Bonjour!” A balding European gentleman in white shirtsleeves hustled over while Khalid hesitated at the entrance, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkened interior. “Puis-je vous aider?”
“I need medical supplies for our tribe,” he replied in French.
The clerk squinted at him through a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. “Could you be more specific?”
“Everything you’d find in a doctor’s office. Alcohol, dressings, aspirin, hydrogen peroxide.”
The clerk looked thoughtful. “How many people are in your tribe?”
“There are fifty-five of us.”
With a clearer idea of what he wanted, the clerk hurried around the store, pulling items from the shelves and setting them on the counter.
“These should last you a few of months,” The clerk declared, setting a thermometer and scissors on the counter beside the rest of the medical supplies. Khalid pulled out a wallet filled with French bank notes.
“Anything else?”
Khalid leaned against the counter. “Matter of fact there’s one more item.”
***
Olivia held up her left hand and pointed at her index finger. “On…for…
six…weeks,” she instructed in halting Tamasheq.
“Saddis?” Zayed copied her by holding up his own injured finger with the newly applied splint.
“Iyah.” Olivia replied as she nodded, earning her a smile of satisfaction from the goat herder.
Done with her patient, Olivia packed up her makeshift medical bag. She stood but was waylaid by Zayed, who stood as well and blocked her path. Still smiling, he held up a finger and wagged it in her face. Not sure of his meaning, Olivia watched him scurry to the back of the tent and disappear behind a cloth partition. He emerged a second later with a kid tucked under his arm.
“Non.” Olivia shook her head. With a white rump and fawn-colored chest and forelegs, the baby goat was absolutely adorable. Unfortunately, Olivia couldn’t accept. If she took every form of payment she’d been offered over the past three weeks, there would be little space in the tent for her and Khalid.
Olivia backed out of the tent empty-handed. A light gust teased the hem of her velvet robe, causing her to shudder. With the sun setting hours ago, the temperature had plummeted drastically. Olivia sighed. It would be another long, cold night alone.
What was new? Olivia mused. At least with Khalid there, sharing half the space, the tent seemed cozier and more like home. Empty, the place had become a prison again.
With her thoughts on a hot cup of tea and an even hotter brazier, Olivia hustled back to the tent. Once inside she headed straight to the box containing charcoal and matches. One by one, she lit all four braziers.
“You better have missed me as much as I missed you.”
Olivia closed her eyes against the swell of relief flowing through her. She wavered between laughing and crying, finally settling on the latter. Slowly, she turned around.
A sensual grin curled Khalid’s lips. Olivia exhaled in a rush. She wanted him so badly she could already taste the salt on his lips.
Smiling, she planted her hands on her hips. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
“So you didn’t miss me?” he asked, dropping a burlap sack by the entrance.
“What’s that?” Heart pounding a mile a minute, Olivia watched him close the distance between them.
“I’ve come bearing gifts.”
Feigning indignation, Olivia threw her shoulders back. “You’ve tried to ply me with gifts before. What makes you think I’m more amenable this time?”
“Call it a gut feeling.”
Olivia couldn’t deny her change of heart or her love of beautiful trinkets. She hated turning down all his previous gifts. Eager to see what he’d brought her, she stepped forward. He caught her half-way, his arm shooting out, wrapping around her waist.
Khalid nuzzled the side of her face. His beard scratched her skin, and a jolt of awareness shot through her, making her forget all about the bag.
“Hugs and kisses first, the gifts later,” he whispered roughly. Like her he was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling heavily. His tongue traced the shell of her ear and her knees filled with champagne.
“Miss me?”
“Every single minute,” she rasped.
He dropped slowly to his knees, his hands running down the backs of her thighs. Unsteady and quivering like a leaf, Olivia gripped his shoulders. He lifted his head, his eyes locked with hers.
Olivia devoured the perfectly symmetrical angles of his face, made more handsome with the addition of the dark facial hairs. She swallowed hard, past the lump in her throat. When did he make her heart his ally?
Khalid slowly lifted the hem of her caftan, baring her sex. He cupped her buttocks, kneading and squeezing her flesh. He tore his gaze from hers and looked down, his nose barely inches from her sex.
“Khalid,” she whispered. Her hips strained toward him, attempting to breach the chasm between them. The more he waited to touch her, the more wet she became and the more she yearned his touch.
“I’ve been hard for the past three days.”
Moaning loudly, Olivia bucked her hips, imploring him to put her out of her misery. His eyes flickered upward and a devilish grin played along his lips. Without breaking eye contact, he leaned forward.
She saw it coming, but it didn’t prepare her for the reality of his mouth pressed against her sex, his tongue licking a path to her *. All the chaotic emotions that she’d bottled up inside her since he’d been gone suddenly became too much to contain. Olivia rooted her hands through his hair, both holding on and to keep him in place.
Khalid’s reaction was equally as violent. Growling, he hooked one of her legs over his shoulder. As he gripped her ass, so she didn’t fall over, his tongue traced the folds of her sex, and then slid between her trembling thighs. Olivia pressed toward him, impatient and wanting to get closer.
He flicked her * and then drew the bud into his mouth. He sucked and savored her flesh until she longed for his cock pounding inside her. Aroused and flush with heat, it didn’t take long for her temperature to rise and her skin to perspire. Needing some respite and more than eager to feel him skin to skin, Olivia pulled the caftan over her head and tossed it aside.
“You taste so good,” he said in between massaging her * with his tongue. Blood roaring in her ears, her core tightening with increased pressure, Olivia circled her hips, pressing her sex into his greedy mouth. She so wanted him to give her release she was almost mindless with need.
Sensing her hunger, he slid his tongue inside her hot channel. Olivia cried out, her body rippling around his decadent strokes. In and out, he speared her in an agonizing rhythm, his tongue tormenting her with the promise of an orgasm.
So close. So damn close, she was breathless and panting, her body quaking violently as he pulled out and pushed back into her. Moaning, she clenched around him. Khalid had the most talented tongue. If she wasn’t careful, she might never want to return to home.
“Khalid, please,” she panted.
He lifted his head and looked at her with those pale green eyes that had seduced her not too long ago across the dining room table in her brother’s house.
“Ready to come?”
Olivia nodded.
“It will be my pleasure, but you must promise me one thing.” His gaze slid down her body to where his mouth had given her the most exquisite pleasure.
“Anything.”
“Promise me you won’t hold anything back. I want to feel you creaming all over my tongue, screaming my name as I lap up every drop.”
His words bordered on vulgar, but they rocked Olivia to the core. “I promise.”
She squeezed her eyes shut as his mouth surrounded her *. He sucked and stroked her with his tongue, making her ultra-sensitive to any and everything he did to her body. White-hot pleasure surged through her. She climaxed with a white-knuckled grip on his shoulders, her hips pumping against his mouth, and screaming his name.
Khalid stood so quickly, Olivia yelped in surprise. He wrapped his arms, banding them around her back. His gaze dropped to her bare breasts and he smiled wickedly.
“Just how I like you…naked.” Chuckling, he palmed her ass. Limp and malleable, Olivia allowed him to carry her to the back of the tent.