Page 63 of The Sheikh's Desert Captive

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Nicole had been home for a week before she decided to visit Rashid's empty palace near the city.

Since returning, she hadn't been able to get in touch with him. The satellite number she'd gotten from her mother just rang unanswered. Nicole could just imagine Rashid up in the north, secure within the walls of his isolated palace. Was he even thinking about her? Why hadn't he made any attempt to get in touch with her? Surely he would have wanted to make sure she'd arrived home safely.

Nicole had wondered what she could do to get in touch with Rashid. She needed to get in touch with him. The days since she'd arrived safely home had been a roller coaster ride of emotions. Memories of her time with him had tormented her, made her nights back in her bedroom in the embassy almost unbearable.

On arriving, Nicole had been immediately grilled by her sisters and her mother for more information about what had happened to her up north. But, Nicole had held out, merely telling them that she'd had a crazy adventure up there and that she was glad to be back with her family.

But, still her sisters persisted, until eventually she told them some of what had happened with Rashid. Of course she couldn't tell them about her last night with him. But, she did give them some details about Rashid and the kind of life he had in the palace. She told them he'd been the perfect gentleman, treating her with courtesy.

The way Erin and Belle had rolled their eyes on hearing that told Nicole that they didn't believe anything she said. They knew she was hiding something, but she couldn't even contemplate telling them the truth. Some things were just private.

The most eager to know the details of her stay in Rashid's palace had been Nicole's youngest sister, Belle. But, being the youngest, Belle could be forgiven for thinking the whole thing exciting. Nicole tried to temper Belle's obvious enthusiasm for adventures with sheikhs.

Belle had seen what had happened with Erin, and thought that every relationship with a sheikh would inevitably have a happy ending. Belle really was incredibly trusting, Nicole told herself after her nightly girl talk with her sister up in Nicole's bedroom in the embassy. Probably too trusting for her own good.

Nicole was just glad to be home, even if the sadness at not being with Rashid clawed at her every moment of every day and night.

At first, Nicole had been glad for the safety of the embassy. Her parents were so pleased to see her home in one piece. Nicole hadn't realized the extent to which her parents had worried about her while she'd been gone.

During the family talks at the breakfast and dinner table, her parents and sisters had managed to extract information from Nicole, piece by little piece. She didn't mind that. She knew they all loved her, but the way they'd missed her just gave Nicole an even stronger sense of the bonds in her family.

Maybe next time she wouldn't be so reckless, she told herself. If this was what it had done to her family, thinking that Nicole had gotten herself into trouble, she knew she didn't want that. Didn't want them to worry so much about her.

What she'd done, going up there with Hakim, had been selfish and reckless, and she knew she would never do anything like that again.

But, didn't that mean she would never see Rashid again? If Nicole wouldn't be heading up into that high country again, didn't that mean that Rashid would be lost to her forever?

Her mother, Annabelle, had said she would use her connections and find out the location of the palace Rashid had spoken about with Nicole. The palace he'd grown up in; the one he'd abandoned, leaving it empty, a symbol of his disdain for the life in the city. Nicole knew there would be no point in finding the place. It would be empty and dark and abandoned.

Annabelle spoke with Nicole one morning, a week after Nicole had returned.

The remains of dinner had been cleared. Nicole and her mother sat at the table in the embassy dining room. Everyone else had left the room. Her father had gone to his study and Belle was up in her room.

Annabelle finished drinking the last of her coffee and put the cup down on the table. She peered across at Nicole. There was a deeply compassionate expression on her mother's face, Nicole realized. Mother and daughter shared the same even, pretty features as well as firm expressive gaze. Now her mother was looking at her with that look Nicole recognized all too well. The kind of expression which usually preceded a heart to heart conversation.

"How are you, Nicole?" Annabelle asked.

"I'm fine, mom," she replied curtly.

"Just fine?"

Nicole nodded. "I'll be okay."

Her mother's eyes narrowed. "You seem preoccupied since you've returned."

"It was a crazy trip," Nicole replied.

Annabelle nodded. "It certainly sounds like it. I was worried, you know."

"I'm sorry, mom. I won't do anything like that again."

"I hope not. And Sheikh Rashid? What about him?"

Nicole peered across at her mother. "What about him?"

"You haven't been able to get in touch with him," Annabelle said in a flat voice.

---