He gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’ll leave you and go get her. Both the things you wanted. It’s your lucky day.”
It was ending. He was leaving her. She thought of the time she’d wasted, longing for him to kiss her and doing nothing. Waiting—always waiting—with a timid heart!
“But you said you couldn’t trust me. That if you brought back my sister early, I might demand a hundred million dollars for my land.”
He gave a hard laugh. “You’re more trustworthy than anyone in this crazy, savage world. Including me.” Grabbing her upper arms, he looked down at her. “Serves me right,” he muttered. “I never should have tried to get around my promise.”
“Take me with you.”
His eyes widened, then he slowly shook his head. “It’ll be better… for your sake… for both of us… it’s best that we separate.”
“Separate,” she echoed, feeling hollow.
“Until the land comes through.”
She swallowed. “Until we divorce.”
His lips curved into a humorless smile. “You know what, I’m almost glad I lost.” He tucked a loose tendril of her brown hair behind her ear, then looked straight into her eyes. “Save yourself, Josie. For your next husband. For a man who can deserve you. Who can love you,” he added softly.
Turning away, Kasimir started to walk towards the door.
“I intended to lose the race,” she blurted out.
She heard his intake of breath. He slowly turned to face her.
“Why?” he asked in a low voice.
She gulped. She had to be brave. To tell the truth. And do it now. Now, without thinking about the risk or cost. Now.
Josie crossed the tent to him. Standing up on her tiptoes, she put her hands on his shoulders and looked straight into his startled blue eyes. “Because I wanted you to seduce me,” she whispered.
And leaning forward, she kissed his lips.
So much for his brilliant intelligence. Kasimir had thought he was so smart, finding a loophole around his promise. Passing her in their race down the dune, he’d felt triumphant, his body tight, knowing he all but had her in his arms.
Then there was a scream, and she’d flown past him. She was such an accomplished snowboarder that she’d had no problem handling the textural differences between snow and sand. And she’d seen the source of the scream, the injured boy, hal
f a second faster than he had. It was enough to make any man feel slow. Stupid and slow.
Which was exactly how Kasimir had felt pacing the tent of the boy’s family as his uncle, a doctor trained in Marrakech, worked on the boy’s ugly compound fracture with his limited instruments at hand. Kasimir had looked down at the sobbing boy, wishing he could do more than order a helicopter on his satellite phone, wishing they didn’t have to wait so long, and most of all, dreading the long, jarring journey the boy would face traveling to the hospital in Marrakech.
After Ahmed was loaded on the helicopter with a stretcher, Kasimir had evaded the tearful thanks of Ahmed’s family. Shoulders tight, he returned to the tent where Josie waited—not for his seduction, but for her freedom.
The whole afternoon, from start to finish, had left the acrid sourness of failure in his mouth.
And then—Kasimir had tasted the sweetness of Josie’s lips against his.
She’d reached her hands around his shoulders, lifting up on her tiptoes, and he’d just stared down at her in shock, telling himself he was completely misreading the situation. Josie, the inexperienced virgin, wouldn’t make the first move.
Why would she kiss him? He was a man who stood for nothing and no one. She was an angel who knew how to fly.
I intended to lose the race. Because I wanted you to seduce me.
He heard a soft sigh from the back of her throat. Saw her close her eyes. And she pressed her soft, trembling lips to his.
He didn’t immediately respond. He was too amazed. But when she grew shy, and started to draw away, a growl came from the back of his throat. Closing his eyes, he roughly pulled her back against his body and returned her kiss with force, with all the passion and longing he’d tried so hard not to feel. He let himself feel it—all of it—and desire overwhelmed him as it never had before.
Her lips parted as he deepened the kiss. She returned his embrace awkwardly, hungrily. And it was the best kiss of his life.