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“Are you all right? Can you breathe?” he asked in a perfect English accent.
The harsh rasping breaths were easing, and she nodded.
“How about your eyes?” he asked.
She tried to open them, but immediately closed them with a cry as the gritty sand stung. She went to rub her eyes, but he uttered another abrupt command and grabbed her hands and brought them down to her sides.
“It’ll make it worse,” he said. “I’ll get some water, but no rubbing, okay?” He gripped her hands more firmly to emphasize the point. “There’s a chair right behind you. Sit down.” She felt behind her and did as he’d instructed. She thought she’d do anything he suggested right at that moment, such was the relief to be inside, and safe from the world outside the castle walls.
She held up her head blindly as she listened to the sound of water running and approaching steps.
“Lay your head back,” he said. He swept a wad of sopping wet cloth over her face before gently wiping away the sand from her eyes. It felt blissful after the sting of the hot sand. “You take it. But take care not to rub in the sand. Squeeze the water to drip it over your face like this.” She blinked at the stream of warm water rinsed the sand from her eyes, allowing her to see his form for the first time.
He was standing beside a sink, running water into a cup.
“Come and rinse your mouth out.”
Again, it was no request. But she’d welcome any command which would rid of the all the grit and sand and dust she’d swallowed.
“Here,” he said, pressing a glass of water to her lips. “Swill the water around your mouth and spit it out. Get rid of the sand in your mouth before you drink.”
She groped for the edge of the sink, took a mouthful and spat it out before taking another mouthful and drinking it thirstily down. It seemed forever since she’d last taken a swig from her water bottle. Then she cupped her hands under the running water and brought them to her eyes, rinsing the sand away repeatedly. He pressed a bowl of water into her hands.
“Open your eyes under the water.”
She did as he said, blinking to allow the water to clear away the grittiness. He re-filled the water, and she repeated the exercise, only stopping to have one last lung-cleansing cough.
Relieved, she gripped the basin and looked up at her rescuer. This time shecouldsee. And what she saw wasn’t what she’d expected to see. He had to be the most handsome man she’d ever seen. And, she registered next, the angriest.
CHAPTER 2
But those eyes and those lips! Framed by the white keffiyeh and the scarf he’d now pulled off his face, his dark eyes were narrowed and dangerous as he stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at her. It seemed his caring side had vanished along with the sand from her eyes and throat.
His powerful presence filled her blurry vision, and she suddenly thought that while she might have been saved from one kind of experience, she might very well have fallen into another. What was he doing here in this seemingly uninhabited castle? And, more to the point, was she safe with him?
He shook his head in contemptuous disbelief. “What thehellwere you doing out there?”
“Trying to hide from the storm.” She tried to clear her croaky voice. “My tour bus left without me.”
He shook his head. “The tour operators have strict instructions that you are to stay together! I will inform the authorities. This is serious. If I hadn’t heard you cry out, you would havediedout there.” He muttered something in Arabic, which she’d definitely never heard her grandfather say and which she definitely knew wasn’t complimentary. “They’ll never work again!”
“Oh, no!” she said, remembering how anxious the guide had been that they both behaved and enjoyed themselves. “It wasmyfault,” she gabbled, remembering the large family the harassed tour guide supported. “No one else’s. My backpack was stolen, and I went running off to find the children who stole it.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Children, you say? What did they look like?” It was less of a question and more of the command.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. They just looked like kids. I only saw them for a split second before I fell and they disappeared.”
He gave a brief nod, and Sarah got the impression that he might know where to find them. “Do you know where they might be? Can you get my backpack back? It has everything in it—my passport, my money, my phone.”
“What?”
He looked at her as if she were the most stupid thing on this earth. She couldn’t help but agree with him.
She bit her lip as she felt a surge of emotion well up within her. She was safe now. At least for the time being, and now that the danger of imminent death had passed, she could see what a predicament she was in. She swallowed hard. Now was hardly the time to confirm his opinion of her and to dissolve into tears.
“It hadeverythinginside.” She shrugged and gave an involuntary sniff. “I thought it was safer than leaving it on the bus.”
He gave another low, derisive noise. He was beginning to annoy her.
