.

a black dress with long sleeves, a peasant neckline and gathered waist. The full skirt swirled around her legs as she sat down. He let his fingers trail along the exposed skin of her shoulders above the wide neckline and she shivered. Satisfaction that his mission would soon be accomplished settled over him as he dropped his hand, moved around the table and took his own seat.

      Even in the dim light of the restaurant, he could tell she was blushing again.

      “Surely such a small touch is not cause for embarrassment?”

      She smoothed her already perfectly coiffed hair. She’d worn it up again. Though he liked the view it gave him of her slender neck, one day soon, he would remove the clip and see what the dark honey strands looked like tumbling against her shoulders.

      “I’m not embarrassed. Not exactly.” Her sigh lifted her breasts against the soft fabric of her bodice, revealing the source of her blush.

      His little virgin was excited. Two unmistakable ridges under the black material gave her away. They also apprised Hakim of the fact she was not wearing a bra. The knowledge had a by now predictable effect on him.

      “What are you exactly?” he asked, wondering if she would admit anywhere close to the truth.

      “Stupid.”

      He shook his head. Little did she know, but her desire for him would soon be fulfilled. “Jewel of my heart, you must not say such things.”

      She dropped her focus to her lap, where she straightened her burgundy napkin against the black fabric of her skirt. “You shouldn’t call me things like that. I know you’re just saying it because it’s the way you talk, but…”

      He reached across the table to tip her chin up with his finger. “It is not merely the way I speak. Do I use such terms with other women in your hearing?”

      Her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth and her eyes reflected confusion. “No.” It was a bare whisper.

      He wanted to kiss those trembling lips. Her vulnerability called to primitive instincts inside him.

      “They are words meant for you alone.”

      It was as if she stopped breathing and she went utterly still, the look in her eyes a revelation of emotions so volatile he was shocked by them. Then her eyelashes lowered and she sucked in air too quickly, choking.

      He offered her a glass of water as she sought to get the small coughing fit under control.

      “Thank you.” She drank the water and he watched as her throat convulsed gracefully with each swallow.

      “You have a beautiful neck.”

      The water glass tumbled and only the quick action of a nearby waiter saved her dress from a drenching. Considering her reaction to his last statement, Hakim decided it would be best to wait until after dinner to propose.

      By the time Hakim pulled his black car to a halt in the parking garage of her apartment building, Catherine’s nerves were stretched tighter than an overtuned violin string. They wound one notch tighter when he insisted on seeing her inside.

      She watched his dark hands as they unlocked her door and turned the knob to open it. Such masculine hands and yet so fluid in their movement, she desperately wanted them on her.

      He pushed the door open and ushered her inside, one of the hands she found so fascinating secured around her waist. Her lungs stopped working while her heart went into overdrive. He closed the door and locked it, indicating he wasn’t leaving any time soon and her already racing heart went turbocharged.

      He led her toward the living room and she was surprised when her legs were able to move. She felt like her bones had all melted to jelly.

      When they reached her bright yellow couch, he gently pushed her down onto the overstuffed cushions and then sat beside her. So close beside her that her shoulder was pressed against the hard wall of his chest. “I wish to speak with you.”

      “Oh,” she squeaked.

      He laid the hand that was not attached to her waist on her thigh, succeeding in surrounding her completely with his body and putting her on the verge of hyperventilating.

      What would he do if she turned to him and did what she’d been longing to do for so long, touch the black silkiness of his hair and kiss the sensual line of his mouth? She clasped her hands firmly together in her lap to stop them from taking liberties that might end in her humiliated rejection.

      For several seconds, neither of them spoke, the rush of air going in and out of her lungs at such a rapid rate the only sound in the room. He started to draw small circles on her thigh with his forefinger, sending awareness arcing up her leg and to the center of her being. She stifled a gasp of pleasure. She couldn’t move. Nor could she look at him. Her attention was firmly fixed on that darkly tanned hand as it moved lazily against the black knit of her skirt.

      Still he said nothing.

      The quiet became unbearable. “Hakim?”

      His silence beat against her and she sensed he wanted something from her, but she did not know what. Finally, when she could not tolerate one more second of the tortuous anticipation, she raised her head and tilted it backward to look at his face.

      It was what he’d been waiting for. Eye contact.

      Dark ebony bored into her. “You have enjoyed these past weeks in my company, have you not?”

      “Yes.”

      “Am I a fool to believe you would like our association to continue?”

      “No.” She had to clear her throat before she could get more words out. Necessary words. “You could never be a fool.”

      “Then I would also not be out of bounds to hope you might want to deepen our relationship?”

      He wanted to be her boyfriend? Her mind couldn’t quite grasp the concept, but she nodded her head in agreement anyway.

      “Yes, I would be out of bounds, or yes you want to deepen our relationship?”

      “I want…” She forced her halted lungs to pull in a breath of air. “I want to deepen our relationship.”

      Would he kiss her now? The mere thought sent her pulse on a ride like a runaway stagecoach.

      “Marry me.”

      She was daydreaming. She had to be.

      But there was something wrong with the fantasy. “But you’ve never even kissed me.”

      “I have not had the right.”

      “What do you mean? Were you… Were you attached to someone else?”

      “No, not that, but I was not as you put it attached to you, either. It would not have been right for me to kiss you before formal declarations were made.”

      Did he mean declarations of love? No. He’d said formal declarations. “Do you mean you have to be engaged in your country to kiss?”

      His hand moved from her thigh to her cheek and he cupped it, his expression almost tender. “To kiss a virgin, yes.”

      Was her lack of experience so obvious? She supposed it was. “But this is not Jawhar.”

      “Nevertheless, I will treat you with the respect due you.”

      That was nice. “If I say I’ll marry you, will you kiss me then?” This was by far the strangest daydream she had ever indulged in, only she knew on some level it was all too real.

      A distinctly predatory light entered his obsidian eyes. “Yes.”

      “Yes,” she repeated, not ready for the fantasy to end.

      “You will marry me?”

      “Yes.” He couldn’t really mean it and she would say just about anything to experience his mouth on hers. “Now you can kiss