A while later, after rubbing down the stallion as well as Ali’s horse, Jed turned his attention to dressing the Egyptian’s wound. Pleased to discover it was not as bad as he had at first thought, Jed nevertheless determined that Ali should restrict his movement. Such a plan, however, needed Ali’s agreement, and Jed found himself hard-pressed to keep the Cairene from trying to rise.
Running a hand through his dark brown hair in frustration, Jed had almost settled upon allowing Ali to overdo, convinced it would force Ali to accept his weakened state, when Victoria joined them.
“Now, don’t go poking at him, Vicky. I’m trying to get the varmint settled down, and I don’t need you stirring things up again,” Jed stated, his deep tones making it quite evident he expected to be obeyed.
“Allah bless you for your kindness,” Ali interjected with a shy smile before Victoria could form a reply to Jed’s gruff order. Exhausted, the Egyptian had no desire for these two foreigners to start rowing all over again. “Hard as it may be to believe, Jed Kincaid has spoken the truth. There is no need for you to see to me.”
“Quiet, you. Any more insults and you’ll be sporting two bullet holes,” Jed said to Ali, but a suppressed smile was evidence that the American was glad to see the other man feeling like his usual quarrelsome self. The handsome planes of Jed’s face hardened, however, when he turned to address Victoria.
“As for you, if you still have some energy left, you can make yourself useful. Gather as much of this as you can find so I can get a fire going,” he said, kicking at a clump of some unidentifiable, well-dried substance with the hard toe of his boot.
“And if I don’t?”
“Then you’ll have no campfire to keep the jackals at bay,” Jed replied with a casual smile. “Surely even a desert greenhorn like you realizes those critters will want to creep down to the water tonight and drink their fill.”
“It’s just too bad you’re one jackal the flames won’t keep away,” Victoria grumbled, bending down to scoop up the odd-looking fuel. “What is this, anyway, some sort of fossilized peat or silt?”
Jed’s eyes widened a fraction when he realized that the fastidious Englishwoman truly didn’t know what she had in her possession. No wonder she hadn’t given him more of an argument.
“No, sugar, where are you going to get anything like that in the middle of the desert?” he asked, a wide grin showing off his even white teeth and a devilish gleam lighting his eyes. Observing Ali cringing at what was to come only added to his enjoyment of the moment. “What you’re holding is something conveniently left behind by the caravans that have bedded down here. It’s camel dung.”
“What!” Victoria shrieked, looking down in horrified disbelief at the crumbling mass in her hands.
“In order to survive in the desert, a body has to utilize whatever the Good Lord provides.”
“And he has just provided me with an inspiration for a new way to put this to use,” Victoria muttered. She drew back her hand and flung its contents in Jed’s direction. But he simply ducked and Victoria’s ammunition went sailing harmlessly past him.
“You insufferable bastard,” she hissed.
“We’ve already had this conversation, if I recall correctly, and I’d swear we settled on your calling me Jed,” he said, amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes.
“How dare you deceive me that way? Hayden will see that you pay for this,” Victoria threatened, her fists clenched and her mouth tightly pursed.
“Hayden? Make me pay?” Jed echoed with a chuckle. “I didn’t realize you were given to jesting, Vicky.”
In light of Jed’s quiet laughter, the words she had uttered began to sound false and hollow even to her own ears when Victoria tried to conjure up a picture of Hayden besting Jed Kincaid. But what was she thinking of to feel such a stab of disappointment? Hayden was a fine man, a wonderful one with superior qualities that became more apparent than ever when compared with this brash American.
“I’m not of a mind to provide you with entertainment, or to bolster your already high opinion of yourself,” Victoria stated with every bit of dignity she could muster. “At least in Khartoum, when Zobeir was trying to humiliate me, he made certain I was aware of it. But you couldn’t find enough decency within your black soul to do even that. After your despicable little joke, I feel more in need of a bath than ever. If you and Ali would take yourselves off to the other side of that small dune, I shall bathe now.”
“Not before I’ve had my fill to drink,” Jed said, indignant that despite the circumstances, Victoria Shaw managed to sound like some absolute monarch. “Besides, Ali is in no condition to be moved anywhere. If you weren’t so selfish, you’d realize that.”
“You’re right,” Victoria stated contritely, taking Jed by surprise so that he narrowed his eyes and studied her.
“But it is no problem,” Ali insisted. Touched by the sincerity Jed Kincaid refused to recognize, and troubled by the disappointment he saw registered on Victoria’s soft features, the wounded man slowly raised himself until he was sitting upright.
“Don’t be an imbecile, Ali,” Jed protested irritably. “You’re not going anywhere. If Vicky wants a bath so badly, I’ll go wait behind the dune. You can just turn around. She’ll be able to splash to her heart’s content.
“Of course...” Victoria began, not entirely happy with the situation but unwilling to abandon the fantasy of submerging herself in the beckoning waters of the oasis.
“No, it would be unthinkable,” Ali said with finality, using the tree trunk to help pull himself to unsteady feet. “It is no inconvenience to move a few yards. In fact, after being lashed to that contraption all day, I have need of a little exercise.”
“You have need of an asylum,” Jed proclaimed in disgust.
“Either you will assist me, Kincaid, or I will make my way there myself,” Ali announced obstinately.
“You’re a damned fool pampering this woman,” Jed uttered in exasperation after fetching the canteens and filling them.
Stalking to the other man’s side and slipping his shoulder under Ali’s arm, Jed put a hand at his waist to steady the Egyptian’s uneven steps.
“But what else is a man to do with a beautiful woman?” Ali asked, stiffly turning toward the mound a short distance away.
“I can think of something to do with this one,” Jed grumbled. “Too bad there are no switches to be had.”
Guilty as she was to have disturbed Ali, Victoria nevertheless breathed a sigh of relief when the duo disappeared behind the sand. Promising herself that she would make this up to the wounded Egyptian by being particularly considerate during the rest of their journey, she peered cautiously at the crest of the dune and then glanced all around. Satisfied that she was alone, Victoria began to slip out of her clothing, feeling delightfully sinful.
First she doffed the bedraggled blouse and skirt she had been wearing when she had been abducted, the skirt that brute Kincaid had slit open to her thigh. Then her hands moved to the scandalous garments Zobeir had forced upon her. Impatient to be rid of the last vestiges of Khartoum, Victoria stepped out of the diaphanous pantaloons, and her face wrinkled in distaste when she cast aside the short, bejeweled bodice.
Shivering at her nakedness in spite of the still-oppressive heat, Victoria scampered to the water’s edge. Without further ado, she gingerly entered the pool.
Though not exceedingly cool, the water felt so initially to her sun-baked skin. Having it lap around her nipples evoked mysterious sensations of forbidden pleasure, and shame mingled with inexplicable longing. She blamed her odd frame of mind on her nudity beneath the open sky and washed the dust and grime of the desert from her body, startled at how sensitive parts of it had suddenly become.
Remembering Jed’s departing words, she made a face. Switch indeed! she thought, submerging herself beneath the liquid’s surface in order to clean her hair. Why, her bottom was so raw from those endless hours in the saddle she wouldn’t be able to feel the sting of a switch, anyway. So Mr. Jed Kincaid could just keep his barbaric threats to himself. She certainly wasn’t afraid of him.
Such a realization did not dismiss thoughts of the arrogant American, however. Instead, it summoned forth unwelcome images of a face so compellingly handsome that not even the stubble adorning his unshaven cheeks could detract from it. Still, pleasing as Victoria found the attractive lines of his strong jaw and straight nose, it had been Jed’s eyes that both fascinated and frightened her from the start.
They were dangerous eyes, belonging to a man who answered to no one other than himself, a man so self-assured that he possessed no doubts but that his commands would be obeyed. Victoria had seen those eyes narrow in anger and glint in amusement. But no matter what his mood, there had always been a wild spark lurking in their depths that hinted at a masculine essence so strong, Victoria was drawn to it even as she was horrified by it.
It was there, too, in the easy gait of Jed’s proud stride, and the carriage of his broad-shouldered, muscular frame. In fact, it was in every ounce of his being, and the realization made Victoria shudder. She had never before encountered anyone like Jed Kincaid. No wonder she didn’t know how to deal with him.
* * *
He’d met her type plenty of times before, Jed fumed, lying on his back, his dark head cradled by his strong, interlocked fingers as he waited for Queen Victoria to finally finish her ablutions.
Yes, women as haughty and selfish as Vicky were a dime a dozen in “polite society,” and he knew exactly how to handle them. Of course, there weren’t many who were quite as pretty as the woman sharing the trail with him, Jed admitted reluctantly. She was a fetching little thing. Those big blue eyes of hers and all that blond hair could drive a man to do strange things if he weren’t careful. And that figure, Lord have mercy! That tight little seat and those high, firm breasts of hers just cried out to be caressed.
Jed squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to erase the unbidden images of Vicky’s fiery beauty. But no matter how much effort he made, he only succeeded in bringing forth new, more erotic visions of Vicky gloriously naked, frolicking uninhibitedly in the waters of the oasis. Damnation, but the woman bedeviled him. He would have groaned aloud if Ali had not been resting at his side.
Then, a wicked grin spread slowly across his deeply tanned face. He was certain to be bothered by her for a great while unless he satisfied his curiosity and got Vicky out of his system once and for all. Surely the reality of her unclad curves could never compare to the lushness with which his woman-starved appetites endowed her in his mind’s eye.
One quick look and this present, unbearable affliction would disappear. After all, he was bound to be disappointed. None of the many women of his acquaintance had ever possessed the feminine allure that his feverish brain assigned to Vicky.
Impulsively, he rolled onto his taut stomach and was about to begin inching his way to the top of the dune, answering a summons he couldn’t control, when a dark hand shot out to restrain him.
“Don’t, Jed,” Ali admonished. “Leave the woman in peace.”
“Oh, so Vicky has a protector now, does she?” Jed drawled with a placidity he didn’t feel. Why did Ali care, unless the Egyptian, married though he was, felt drawn to Vicky, too? “There’s no way you can stop me, you know.”
“She belongs to another man,” Ali reminded him, ignoring Jed’s challenge.
“It might be that’s something we should both remember,” Jed answered. He almost winced at the illogical tenor of his reply, and the harshness of his tone. Ali had been mostly unconscious since they had rescued Miss Shaw. Yet, idiotic as it was, Jed felt a stab of envy at the few friendly words the Egyptian and Vicky had shared. Why couldn’t she talk to him that way?
“I do not forget,” Ali replied, affronted by Jed’s unfounded insinuations. “Nor do I forget my Fatima. But you, Jed, cannot really mean to spy on the woman while she is bathing. Such an act is contemptible.”
“Vicky doesn’t reckon I’m much of a gentleman, anyway, so what difference does it make?”
“Doesn’t your own sense of honor tell you such spying is unworthy of you?”
“I reckon you might be right,” Jed said with a frustrated sigh. “No matter how much I try to deny what my mama taught me about being a gentleman, some of the lessons stuck. I can’t be sneaky in taking advantage of that woman over yonder.”
“I knew you would agree,” Ali said, satisfaction evident in his hawklike features. It was an expression that quickly faded, however, with Jed’s next words.
“Hey, Vicky, I’m coming over the top of the dune,” the American bellowed suddenly, giving Ali a triumphant look.
“Jed Kincaid, how dare you?” Victoria squawked in protest, scrunching down in the water so that the tops of her breasts were hidden, though barely. As she watched Jed’s determined tread bring him closer, Victoria’s slender arms immediately flew across her chest to cover her nipples, grown traitorously erect. More surprising was that when Jed reached her, the set of his mouth and the predatory expression in his eyes made a part of her yearn to unveil herself to him, to rise from the water, sleek and wet, languidly exhibiting herself for his hungry perusal.
But what insanity was this? she asked herself in sharp rebuke. She was to be married shortly to Hayden Reed, one of the most refined men who had ever lived. Angry at herself for her body’s reaction to Jed’s sudden appearance, she turned her wrath on him.
“What are you doing, you despicable cur? Get back behind that incline where you belong,” she ordered imperiously.
“You don’t own the desert, Vicky. The way I see it, I belong anyplace I want to be,” Jed replied, his eyes casually piercing the surface of the water and dancing over what he could see of Victoria’s creamy breasts. “Actually, I’m here to do you a favor.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Victoria intoned crisply. Her haughty, disinterested demeanor gave lie to the little thrills that mysteriously prickled along the surface of her skin at the possibilities Jed’s mocking words invoked.
“You misjudge me, Vicky,” Jed said, his voice a shade huskier than normal as the petite blonde’s nakedness began to drive him to madness he was finding hard to contain. Slowly, he turned to his saddlebag. Extracting a gallabiya from the supplies obtained from the foreman of the quarries, he returned to the water’s edge.
“What I was thinking is that you might want a change of clothing,” he said, dropping the garment beside the pool. “That is, unless you had something else in mind.”
In order to maintain his self-control in the face of her appealing blush, his sharp gaze moved reluctantly from Victoria to the harem outfit she had discarded on the bank. Drawn to it like iron filings to a magnet, Jed picked up the ornate bodice that still bore her scent. Allowing his fingers to run slowly across the rich fabric, he spoke with a hoarseness he hoped Victoria didn’t notice. “To tell you the truth, though, Vicky, I surely wouldn’t mind if you wanted to slip this on again.”
“I can’t believe what a scoundrel you are,” Victoria said after a moment’s silence, almost mesmerized by the manner in which Jed’s long, sure fingers had stroked the jeweled vest. “Hayden would never take advantage of a lady like this.”
“From what I’ve seen of Hayden, he wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if she lay down naked beside him. But that’s your problem, not mine,” Jed replied coolly. He’d been enjoying this little set-to until that damnable Englishman’s name had come up.
His irreverence vanished, Jed was becoming exceedingly serious as his eyes settled once more on Victoria Shaw. To his discomfort, she appeared to be every bit as delectable as he had imagined. It was a monumental waste of such loveliness to be destined for a man of Reed’s ilk, a notion that ate at Jed until he remembered Victoria’s argumentative nature and sharp tongue. She would undoubtedly run the man ragged. For some reason, the thought brightened Jed’s outlook considerably.
“Don’t be too much longer,” he said with a wry smile, “or I may decide to join you.” With that, he turned on his heel and left.
The moment Jed’s straight, muscular form began to disappear over the crest of the sand, Victoria scrambled to the bank and grabbed the gallabiya he had left her. She wanted to take no chances on being in the water should he take it into his thick skull to turn around and come back. While he had been standing on the bank, she had felt trapped, completely at his mercy. Although something told her Jed Kincaid would never force her to lie with him, his being so near while she hadn’t a stitch on had proved a singularly disturbing experience, one she didn’t dare repeat.
Frantically grabbing at the hem of the gallabiya, she didn’t see Jed grimace and give in to temptation, glancing back over his shoulder before completely vanishing from view. Nor did she hear his sharply indrawn breath as his captive gaze slid slowly over her feminine curves.
“Kincaid!” Ali reproved.
“I told her I was coming, didn’t I?” Jed asked after releasing his breath in a rush. “Besides, she was in the water. There wasn’t much to see.”
“Until you turned around, I warrant,” Ali replied, his voice rife with condemnation. “What about your mother’s struggle to turn you into a gentleman?”
“I guess her lessons didn’t stick much, after all,” Jed commented wryly. Still reeling from the vision of Victoria after she emerged from the pool, all wet and sleek, her ivory skin glistening, he was in no mood for a lecture. He hadn’t liked the way his throat had constricted at the sight of her, and he tried to dismiss the manner in which his blood had begun to sing in his veins. Nor did he want to acknowledge what an error it had been to think that Victoria Shaw’s lush little body would not live up to his expectations.
It would appear that instead of extinguishing his smoldering masculine urges, glimpsing Vicky had started his fires going, and thoughts of her belonging to Hayden Reed no longer seemed a matter for levity. In fact, the flames licking at his self-control made him long to find a physical outlet of any sort for the emotional frustration he felt.
“I’ve finished, if you’d like to return to camp,” he heard Victoria say as she came around the side of the sandy embankment.
Though she pretended to be calm and acted as if his outrageous conduct was nothing more than she expected, Jed swore it was not just sunburn that tinged her delicate cheekbones when her eyes chanced to meet his.
“Have a nice bath?” he asked, wanting her to remember, as he did, the physical tension that had hung in the air between them at the waters of the oasis. Offhand as he tried to sound, Jed found his voice was still tight in his throat at the memory of seeing Vicky under the desert’s sun as natural as the day she had been born.
“Yes, no thanks to you,” Victoria replied scathingly. “Every time I think that you can behave no worse than you already have, you manage to prove me wrong. Not that I didn’t appreciate him before, but having met you, I thank God for allowing me to have ever found a man as fine as Hayden.”
“Hayden, Hayden, Hayden!” Jed exploded, storming to Victoria’s side and towering over her, his eyes sparking flame. The force of his emotions startled even him. But once begun, his outburst had to run its course. “If I have to hear that jackass’s name one more time, Vicky, I swear you’ll be sorry.”
“Oh, really? And just what do you intend to do?” Victoria inquired disdainfully, knowing with a woman’s instinct that as wild as Jed Kincaid might be, he would never physically hurt her.
“I’m warning you, woman, keep it up and you’ll find out. I won’t be responsible for my actions,” Jed promised ominously.
“I refuse to be threatened by you, Jed Kincaid,” Victoria scoffed. “Why, Hayden would never treat a lady so. Hayden—”
“That’s it!” Jed growled. With the ferocity of a springing wolf, he pulled Victoria to his chest so roughly that she began to doubt her assessment of him. Frightened, she wondered just where this snarling male’s rage would take him, when quite unexpectedly, his mouth descended upon hers, hard and demanding.
Not only had he touched her, he had done so unwashed and unshaven. The sheer masculine force of him took Victoria by surprise. He was fierce and primitive in the way his mouth laid claim to hers. It was most ungentlemanly. It was totally...wonderful. In Jed Kincaid’s embrace, Victoria forgot the desert, Ali and even Hayden. But most amazing of all was the manner in which she forgot herself, submitting to Jed’s punishing kiss and then relishing it, exalting in it, shamelessly abandoning herself to the continued pressure of his mouth.
She could not deny that the streak of brutish masculinity she had claimed to find repulsive now had her enslaved to the will of the reckless American she had once considered her inferior. What a perfect idiot she had been, Victoria conceded as a delicious sensation began to engulf her. Jed Kincaid, unpolished as he appeared, was superior to any man she had ever known.
Pressing her soft, feminine form against his hardened, masculine one, she moaned softly, impatient to see what would occur next. But of all the things she had anticipated, she never imagined being abruptly released. Suddenly, Victoria found herself standing alone, while the man who had set her senses aquiver stepped back, angrily muttering words she couldn’t decipher.
Feeling more vulnerable than she ever had, even during those despairing hours in the slave pens, Victoria wanted to pluck at Jed’s sleeve, to beg him to tell her what she had done wrong. Apparently he hadn’t found much to enjoy in the response she had given him. For the first time since he had come swaggering into her life, Victoria found herself without a sharp-tongued comment. Lowering her eyes to erase the sight of Jed’s glowering, she turned and walked back to camp, staring blindly out over the waves of sand.
Jed watched Victoria go. Unconsciously, he wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, his stance rigid. He hadn’t liked that kiss—not one bit. It certainly wasn’t what he had expected.
Victoria Shaw was no ice queen. Her skin had been hot and moist, the response she had left lingering on his lips seared his mouth still. She had quivered beneath his touch, sending sparks of hungry sensation coursing through his own body.
“You should not have done that,” Ali commented reprovingly from where he rested in the desert’s deepening purple shadows.
“You’re damn right I shouldn’t have,” Jed concurred. But his reasons for agreeing with the Egyptian had nothing to do with morality and everything to do with the fire burning in his loins, a conflagration that threatened to devour him and any shreds of common sense and decency he had left.
What had driven him to give in to impulse and take Victoria Shaw in his arms? The lines of her perfect body emerging from the water of the oasis sprang readily to mind, until he hurriedly banished them, once more blaming his weakness, though with less conviction than before, on not having had a woman in quite some time.
It couldn’t have been that he was susceptible to Victoria Shaw, he argued silently with that part of him that demanded he take her in his arms again. He had been able to walk away from her bathing site without touching her, after all.
No, he had merely thought to silence her, to show her once and for all who the trail boss was, to demonstrate that fine manners and manicured hands had nothing to do with a man’s worth. But without even trying, she had taught him something, as well. He had learned no matter what reason it was that had driven him to kiss her, Vicky was a beautiful, desirable woman. And with that admission came an unwelcome realization. He wanted her. He wanted her badly.
Snorting in self-derision and silently swearing that he was nothing if not loco, Jed left Ali where he was and walked the short distance to the campsite. Stalking over to his saddlebag, he extracted a fresh gallabiya. Perhaps the cool waters of the oasis would extinguish the fire that still burned in his blood, singeing his heart each time it beat.
“You’ll want to go sit with Ali,” Jed all but snarled, fixing Victoria with an intense stare that made them both uneasy.
“I’m content here,” she mumbled, hardly daring to move.
Damn it, did she have to look at him with eyes as velvety as a doe’s? He never had gotten over his aversion to training his rifle on a doe, hunting them only when no other food was available. Well, it was an undeniable fact that he was starving now, though in quite a different fashion, and Victoria was the only quarry around. He had to send her scampering on her way before his ravenous appetite got the better of him.
“You might be happy sitting there now, but how will you feel while I get ready for my swim?” Jed asked, shedding his already opened shirt and moving his hands to the buttons of his trousers.
“Oh!” Victoria exclaimed, her eyes widening with understanding. Scrambling to her feet, she darted past Jed, a deep crimson staining her already sun-reddened skin.
Jed would have laughed aloud at Vicky’s haste if her departure hadn’t made him feel more miserable. He groaned, removed his remaining clothing and plunged into the small pool as if it were the only thing in the world that could grant him salvation.
But refreshing as the water was, it brought him no relief from his burning arousal. Was this what hell was like? Jed wondered abjectly when his traitorous imagination conjured up visions of what it would be like to share this pool with Vicky.
In desperation, he resorted to sternly reminding himself of what it was he detested about women like the decorous Miss Shaw. How could one kiss have caused him to forget, even for a moment, that Vicky was spoiled, pampered and demanding?
Suits and ties, fancy parties and fancier manners, these were the things a woman like Victoria would expect. There would have to be commitment, stability and some mundane job with a chance of advancement. Once all of these things crowded into a man’s life, there was no room for impulsiveness and adventure. Jed scrubbed his skin so briskly it began to sting. Hadn’t he learned that lesson after his mother had remarried and she had introduced him, along with his brothers, into polite society? He had walked away from that sort of life before. He wasn’t going to embrace it now. It was a foolish man who placed his head in a noose he had already escaped.
Still, with the right man and the right loving, Vicky might not be such a shrew, he mused, until he caught himself and inwardly cringed. He had to be plumb crazy for such an idea to pop into his head. Victoria Shaw and Hayden Reed deserved each other and that was that. As for him, commitment wasn’t a word in his vocabulary. He was a free man, with no obligations beyond the irregular missives he sent to his mother in San Francisco.
Horrified by the direction in which his thoughts had turned, Jed climbed out of the pool and stood on the sandbank. He was undeniably tense as the water clinging to him rapidly evaporated in the dry desert air. It was as if he were preparing to escape, to make a desperate bid for freedom by outrunning the nameless demon ready to pounce on him the moment he let down his guard.
There were no two ways about it. Jed grimaced, pulling on his gallabiya. Vicky might have the face of an angel, but she was one dangerous female.
Unconsciously crooking his forefinger, Jed ran it around the inside of the gallabiya’s neckline, as if he could feel the noose tightening. Vigilance, he swore, that would be his byword until he could turn the disconcerting Englishwoman over to Reed.
Still, now that the moment had come to bring the others back into camp, Jed Kincaid discovered himself hesitating. For the first time in memory, he was at a loss as to how to handle a woman. Part of him yearned for Vicky’s company, but that side of him ruled by self-preservation balked at being anywhere in her vicinity.
Baffled, Jed worked his long fingers distractedly through his thick damp hair while he paced back and forth. It was unlike him to be unsure how to proceed in any situation, and it signaled a lack of self-confidence not at all to his liking.
Suddenly, his masculine pride began to stir. In spite of the way Vicky had affected him, and no matter how perilous her blue eyes and ripe curves made her, no female was going to cause him to hightail it. Surely he was man enough to face that little bit of femininity waiting behind the nearby mound of sand.
With a purposeful step, Jed made his way to the others. But his intentions almost crumbled when he rounded the dune.
There sat Vicky, more quietly vulnerable than he had ever known her to be. All at once, Jed felt a guilty flush wash over him at being the reason for her distress. He wanted to go to her and apologize, to enfold her in his arms and tenderly kiss away the furrows marring her brow. In short, a surprised Jed had a fierce urge to protect and comfort her.
At least, that was what he wanted to do until he recognized that there would be no need. It was apparent that a sympathetic Ali had already taken it upon himself to tend to that. And from what Jed could see, the Egyptian’s kindness had created a blossoming closeness between the two.
Moving closer, the American wondered irritably just what words Ali had used to forge such a bond. The haughty English heiress and the Egyptian shopkeeper made an unlikely pair. Yet there were plenty of women who could find the tall, sharp-featured Ali attractive, Jed realized with an unnerving start, and being wounded always guaranteed rousing a woman’s natural sympathy.
Well, damnation, that had better be all Ali had aroused, Jed swore silently, coming to stand before the two, his feet planted wide in a challenging stance.
“Time to head back to camp,” he barked.
“That would be for the best,” Ali agreed, his face showing the strain of exertion. “We have all endured too much this day,” he added with a pointed look of reproof in Jed’s direction.
Ignoring him, Jed helped the merchant to his feet, reminding himself that gentleness was called for rather than the rough, emotion-releasing movements he wanted to employ.
Slipping Ali’s arm around his neck, he was ready to proceed, when he was shocked to see Vicky trying to lend aid with her slight frame on the other side. Immediately Jed’s teeth ground together. It would seem he had returned none too soon.
“No, Miss Victoria,” Ali protested with a small smile. “I will not allow my weakness to sap you of your strength.”
“But, Ali, surely I can help,” she argued softly.
“No,” he insisted. “Allow me to do this for myself with Kincaid’s assistance.”
Do it for himself with assistance? Jed wanted to bellow. Didn’t the man know that if he wasn’t supported he’d topple over at their feet? Was this some ploy Ali was using as an opportunity to impress Vicky? The muscles along Jed’s jaw clenched visibly. Or had the bastard finally remembered he had a wife back in Cairo?
The journey back to the campsite proved a lengthy and laborious one despite the short distance involved. With each inch Ali edged forward, it became apparent that he grew weaker, so that a solicitous Victoria began to fuss over him more and more.
By the time they arrived, Ali’s swarthy complexion had grown white. Jed, on the other hand, could feel the red stain of anger creeping up his corded neck and across his face, brought on by Vicky’s unwavering concern over the injured man.
Depositing the Egyptian on his bedroll, Jed thought to diminish his own tension through labor, the only release available to him. Turning away from the others, he began to gather fuel for the fire, hoping the task would give him some solitude. But from the corner of his eye, he saw Vicky approaching.
“Don’t bother to dirty your hands. I’ll take care of this. You can go sit with Ali,” he stated, sarcasm tinging his words in spite of his efforts to project a calm, nonchalant exterior.
Victoria regarded him curiously. When she cocked her head to one side, Jed swore she was about to argue with him. But instead, she merely nodded in quiet assent and did as he bid.
Jed marked this as the first time she had ever done what he had told her without causing a commotion. To his mind, she was all too eager to return to the side of the handsome man who had shown her a little kindness. With a snort of disgust, Jed got on with his work.
An hour later, Victoria smelled the tempting odor of food that began to waft through the oasis as a result of Jed’s toils. It startled her how hungry she was, having thought herself too exhausted and upset to eat. But the aroma of whatever dish Jed was preparing brought her appetite to life, so that she waited impatiently for the American to signal that the meal was ready.
Surreptitiously she had watched Jed complete one task after another, and been quite taken by his effortless competence. But his dominance and its toll upon her had lingered in her mind, as well, no matter how she had sought to obliterate them.
She had attempted to focus on Ali as Jed had ordered, but her mind returned again and again to his last curt directive. There had been some odd, hidden meaning beneath his words, she was certain of it, but whatever it was, it had been beyond her.
Still, she had done as he had commanded and had been particularly conscientious about her duties, too, bathing Ali’s forehead, making him comfortable, fetching him a canteen. Yet whenever she had worked up the courage to look in Jed’s direction, she inevitably received a black scowl in return. Each glare had prompted her to be more attentive to the Egyptian, but her increased endeavors had earned her more foul looks instead of the approval she sought.
Not that she resented nursing Ali. He had been good to her. Besides, keeping herself occupied would prevent her thoughts from returning to the devastating kiss Jed had planted so firmly on her much too willing mouth, the kiss that haunted her still.
Stealing another glance at Jed as he moved through the camp, Victoria knew that it was best to keep away from him. Certainly it was better than having to deal with the sense of disloyalty to Hayden that had begun to eat at her conscience whenever Jed was around. And so she turned her attention to Ali once more, blocking out all else until finally the Egyptian drifted off to sleep. Then Victoria leaned back against a small date palm and closed her eyes rather than allow them to hungrily roam the landscape for one more peek at Jed Kincaid.
Her self-imposed isolation was short-lived, however. Though Victoria couldn’t see him, she sensed Jed standing before her, obstructing the remaining rays of the sun. Fluttering her eyelids open, Victoria felt her breath all but catch in her throat at the sight of him. Some time within the last half hour, he had evidently returned to the small pool of the oasis in order to shave.
Bereft of the stubble that had covered his cheeks, Jed was more appealing than ever. The lips that had given her such pleasure were now more defined. And the clean lines of his cheekbones and jaw endowed him with a compelling masculine beauty. As he stood there in his gallabiya looming over her, he had the look of some magnificent desert prince, the sort to abduct young women, not return them to their fiancés.
“Here,” he said gruffly, hunkering down and pressing a cup into her hands instead of the dinner she expected.
“Oh, you’ve brewed tea,” she exclaimed in delight, feeling flustered by his commanding presence and baffled by his charity. “It’s a bit cool, but I’m sure it will taste delicious.”
“You’re not supposed to drink it, Vicky.”
“Why ever not?” she asked, blinking her eyes in confusion.
“Because I said so,” he responded. He produced a square of cloth and dropped it into the cup. Then his sure fingers wrung out the excess liquid, and he used the material to bathe part of her face, his touch more gentle than Victoria would have imagined.
“Use this on any skin that was exposed to the sun, including that leg you had peeping out from the slit in your skirt,” he said, his voice husky. “It will take out the sting.”
Before Victoria could respond, Jed got hastily to his feet and departed, leaving her to complete the task he had started.