Wrapped In Pleasure - Brenda Jackson [108]
Johari sighed deeply. “I told you why.”
“Yes, you explained your reasoning but I’m not sure what you’re doing is going to work. What if Monty teaches you all that you want to know and your future sheikh still wants a mistress?”
“Then I would have accepted that I had failed.”
“You would not have failed. You need to just sit down before the wedding and lay down the law to him and—”
“Cel, I’ve told you. In my country a woman does not lay down any laws. She accepts any that her husband has made for her. That’s why, knowing what I know, I have to do whatever I can before the wedding.”
“Yes, but you’re supposed to be enjoying the sights, having a good time, not spending your time worrying about how to please a man, who in my opinion would be a total jerk to take another woman in addition to you. Experience or no experience, it just wouldn’t be right.”
Johari heard everything Celine was saying. And she was having a good time. That day she had spent with Monty at Coney Island, dancing those times for him in his condo, the plane trip across the ocean where she had sat in his lap while he had kissed her senseless, and even now being here on this island with him. And Monty had suggested that they do a picnic tomorrow.
“Don’t worry about me, Cel, I’ll be fine.”
“I do worry about you. Promise you won’t do anything foolish.”
Johari considered Cel’s words and wondered if sleeping with Monty fell within that category of foolish. In that case she would indulge in a lot of foolishness tonight.
“I need to get ready for dinner. Do enjoy the rest of your cruise.” She quickly hung up the phone before Cel could start preaching again. She checked the clock on the nightstand. She needed to shower and get dressed for dinner. Anticipation was flowing through her veins at the thought of seeing Monty again.
Chapter 9
Johari sat across from Monty at the dinner table, fully aware of everything about him. His every movement, no matter how slight, tightened her nerves, had heat blazing through her veins and made awakening passion flow down her spine. She had struggled through the entire meal trying not to stare but, more times than not, hadn’t been able to help herself. He was such a handsome man, strikingly so.
When she had arrived downstairs for dinner he had met her at the bottom stair. He had showered and changed into another outfit like she had done and from the way his gaze had moved over her beneath long, shuttered lashes, she had known he liked her choice of outfit—a gauze skirt set in bright geo print. It added a flare to her that he hadn’t seen before in any of her other outfits. She liked the way the top hung off her shoulders and the skirt ruffled around the hem.
He was casually dressed in a pair of dark slacks and a white shirt. It was simple enough attire, but the magnitude of his sexuality hit her hard the moment she saw him. All her senses had been on alert and the moment he’d taken her hand in his, she had to steady herself to keep from passing out. The man transmitted sensuality with such an intensity that it slammed into her head-on, made her wonder how she would be able to handle such a man in or out of the bedroom.
“Would you like anything else, Jo? Dessert perhaps?”
The sound of his voice—deep, authoritative, yet considerate—made her look up from her dinner plate to meet his dark eyes. Her response almost caught in her throat from the intensity of his stare. She noticed how, ever so slowly, subtly, yet very thoroughly, his eyes would scan her face, linger on her lips, making them throb under his scrutiny.
“No, I don’t want anything else. Thank you.”
He smiled before nodding at one of his household staff members standing not far way. Within minutes the table before them had been cleared. “Would you like to join me for a glass of wine in the ocean room?”
“The ocean room?”
He smiled as he stood on his feet. “Yes.”
Intrigued, she stood, as well, and when he walked around the table to her and took her hand in his, she felt a tingling sensation all the way to her toes. She