Arabian Nights with a Rake by Bronwyn Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

the loving nips Alex had showered her with. She stifled a yelp against his harsh methods.
    Where was Alex now? She hoped he was safe. Somehow the sheikh knew what they had done. Had Alex made his request yet?
    Bassam pushed her inside the tent and she scanned the interior rapidly. Alex was there, seated across from the shiekh. He was alone. Crispin was not present. Alex sat erect, his body hard and alert. He was aware that the situation had become hostile. But even so, his presence buoyed her hope. She took courage from his cool assurance as he eyed the sheikh unflinchingly. Alex would not fail her.
    â€œIs this how you treat your guests? I have come to barter with you honestly for a lowly slave in your possession.” Alex charged, taking the offensive as she was thrust into the center of the conversation.
    She met his eyes with a quick glance, but he shifted his gaze away. Probably a smart choice. Susannah averted her own eyes to the floor, unwilling to give away more emotion than she wanted. Her freedom lay in the balance, dependent now upon the wits of Alex Grayfield. A wrong glance from her, a wrong word, would seal not only her fate but his. They were now irrevocably linked together.
    â€œYou have taken her without my permission. You’ve lain with her and befouled her.”
    â€œAnd I am willing to do my duty by her.” Alex replied evenly, showing no agitation at the harsh words meant to provoke. “I will take her from your sight.”
    â€œThat is not all.” Muhsin held up a hand. “She has committed an act of defiance against me. I have it on good authority that she went to you, she sought your bed willingly.” He gave a manly shrug. “If it had been simply a matter between men, we could have settled it between ourselves,” he said benevolently, although Susannah doubted it would have been as simple as he made it sound. “But a woman’s dishonor combined with a slave’s disobedience must be accounted for lest others find me weak and seek to try me in kind.”
    The look Muhsin cast her chilled her in spite of the tent’s heat. She heard the implicit deal Muhsin was willing to contract with Alex. She would be made to pay most horribly. If Alex confessed she’d come to him, he could pass unscathed as long as he left.
    Alex said nothing, and Susannah breathed more easily. She wanted to trust Alex, but the offer had to be tempting. The sheikh spoke again. “You have in your possession a horse I admire. Relinquish the horse and that would cover any misunderstanding between us.”
    Again the implicit opportunity to deny her, to lay the blame entirely at her feet; she had seduced him and he had not understood the inappropriateness of the seduction. Susannah clenched her hands to keep them from trembling. Surely Alex would not betray her? He’d promised. But what did she know of the man? Was he a man of his word or would he seek to save himself at her expense? Her mind warned that she knew nothing of him, a man who had wandered in from the desert two days ago.
    But her heart argued otherwise. The man so concerned with her pleasure, who worshiped her body so reverently, was a man of sincerity and honor. Whatever he did with her afterwards, he would not leave her here to face a cruel fate at Bassam’s hands. She knew what awaited her if he denied her—public punishment and the private humiliations Bassam would heap upon her. She could imagine too what awaited Alex if he did not deny her. At the very least there would be trial by fire, the Bedouin tradition for truth-telling, at the worst he would be ruined as a man unless she could intervene.
    â€œWill you play me for her? She is not one of you. Your codes are not her codes. Whatever she has done, let me at least play for her. I fancy her and, unlike you, I am not repulsed by her sin.” Alex said with cool casualness.
    â€œNo cards,” The sheikh laughed, warming to the idea of a