Chapter 19
ISAAC
“Jasmine!” I called, watching her run into the night. “Where are you?—”
I didn’t even bother finishing the question, suddenly realizing that she obviously wasn’t coming back. My head spun as I stood there, breathing hard and still tasting her on my tongue.
While I knew I’d kissed her, I had no idea what had just happened. She’d run like I’d accidentally set something on fire, but not before kissing me back. One second, she’d been pulling me closer, and the next, she was gone.
“Fuck.” I fumbled for my shirt, managing to get my head through the wrong hole before nearly strangling myself with my own sleeve. “Oh, come on.”
After a few very undignified seconds fighting my way into a garment I’d been perfectly capable of getting myself into for the last twenty-seven years—give or take—I finally got it on, but I was still pushing my hand through the sleeve as I raced out onto the sand.
“Jasmine!” I called again, but she was somehow already halfway over a dune, just the shadowy outline of a figure crossing the sand. “Jasmine!”
She didn’t even look back. At least, not that I could see, so I took off after her. But I quickly found out that while she seemed to be fast on sand, I was not.
Every stride had me sinking a few inches, the dune somehow seeming farther away the closer I got to it. Meanwhile, Jasmine floated over the terrain like she didn’t weigh a thing.
“Do you have mountain goat in your family tree?” I shouted, but she didn’t answer and I groaned, trying to move faster but failing spectacularly.
The sand kept shifting like it was trying to swallow me whole, and by the time I got to the top of the first dune, I was panting like I’d run a marathon. Jasmine had already made it down the other side, a fast-moving silhouette against the sand.
“Jasmine! Please!”
She finally looked back, but she was still moving, which was probably a good thing since I didn’t even really know what I was asking anymore at this point. Please what? Stop running? Stop making me think I just ruined the best friendship I’ve had in years? Please forgive me?
“Can we please just talk?” I took off again, but I’d barely taken two more steps before the sand once again gave way beneath me.
Unfortunately, I was going downhill now, and apparently, that also meant that as the sand gave way, it slid. And I went with it, pinwheeling before I rolled over and then kept rolling. My head went over my heels, my arms and legs useless no matter what I did. There was just nothing to grab hold of.
The next thing I knew, I landed face first at the bottom of the dune and a low groan tore out of me. Stationary now, I didn’t even try to move. There was sand in my eyes, in my mouth, my ears, and down my shirt. I was pretty sure I now had sand in places no one ever wanted it.
That was the only thing I was aware of. The sand everywhere. I wasn’t even sure if I was in pain. All I felt was the stinging sand, so I stayed exactly where I was for a few long seconds before I finally lifted my head and spat.
Sand. More sand. Every time I tried, more sand came out.
Slowly, I pushed myself upright until I was sitting back on my heels. Naturally, since I was now half desert-monster, sand poured out of my shirt with the movement, running out of my hair and God only knew where else.
“Isaac!”
When I looked up, Jasmine wasn’t running away anymore. She’d doubled back, coming straight toward me. Unlike me, however, she practically surfed down the dune she’d been halfway up, as graceful as some kind of desert fairy.
Maybe I hit my head. Yeah. I definitely hit my head.
“Isaac!” she called again. “Oh my God, are you okay?”
She dropped to her knees in front of me, her brow furrowed with concern. I blinked a few times, not convinced this was really her. She’d moved toward me supernaturally fast.
“Isaac?” she asked. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” I managed, then cleared sand out of even my throat when my voice came out hoarse. “I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?” Her dark eyes ran over me from my head to my knees, moving slowly as she searched for signs of blood or injury. At least, that was what I thought she was doing. “You look okay.”
“Physically, I’m pretty sure I am. I don’t think my ego is ever going to recover, though.”
She stared at me for one more beat before she burst out laughing. “How are you worried about your ego right now?”
“It’s very bruised. Possibly even battered.”
“You could’ve broken an arm!” she cried between laughs. “Or a leg. Or your damn neck. I was so worried when you weren’t moving.”
“Oh, that. Well, to be fair, I wasn’t sure I could move.”
She reached up, still smiling as she ran her fingers into my hair and started brushing sand off me. “You really scared me. What the hell happened?”
“I fell.”
Her lips pursed for a moment. “Yeah. I got that part. The question is how? You were rolling like a football.”
“Footballs don’t really roll all that well. The shape is kind of wrong for?—”
“A soccer ball, I mean,” she said pointedly. “Sometimes I forget you’re American.”
I sighed. “I may have become one with the Sinai and you want to argue about sports terminology?”
She chuckled and moved on from my hair to dust off my shoulders. “You know, I don’t think the Sinai wants to be one with you.”
“Ouch. How do you know? It literally tried to swallow me.”
She laughed again, sliding a handful of sand from under my collar. “I think it was trying to reject you from its depths.”
“Gee, thanks.”
She nodded, her fingers brushing down from my chest to my stomach, still flicking off sand with every movement. “Either way, you’re going to need a shower.”
“At least I’ve been properly exfoliated, right?” I held her gaze, about to carry on joking, but the humor faded out of both of us at pretty much the same time.
She let out a soft sigh. “You really did scare me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “Why did you run, Jasmine? I’m not that bad of a kisser, am I?”
Her hands stilled against my shirt and she drew in a slow breath before she shook her head. “I don’t know why I ran.”
“You don’t know?”
She shook her head again. “I really don’t.”
The honesty in her voice caught me off guard. I’d expected her to say something I didn’t want to hear, but clearly had to. I’d thought she was going to tell me off. Maybe even yell at me a little bit, but this?
She genuinely had no idea. After letting that sit between us for a long moment, she finally looked back up into my eyes. “Why did you kiss me?”
My brain offered absolutely nothing useful. I didn’t know what had come over me. That hadn’t changed between the tent and here. “I don’t really know either.”
“So we’re both just idiots acting on impulses tonight?”
“I think so.”
“Good to know.” She brushed a little more sand off my shirt, her eyes searching mine like she was still waiting for something more, but I didn’t have anything. “Are you sure you’re okay? You rolled pretty far.”
I glanced up at the dune behind us before looking back at her, mentally cataloguing my body for injury, but aside from the slight sting, there was nothing. “I’m okay.”
“Can you stand?”
“I hope so.” It took a moment for me to get my bearings, but once I did, I pushed to my feet without any sharp or sudden pains shooting through me.
Jasmine watched me carefully, seeming relieved when I didn’t collapse again. I chuckled. “I’m fine. I promise. Are you, though? For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Jasmine. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Surprise flickered across her delicate features. “Is that what you think?”
I shrugged. “Right now? Yeah, that’s what I think. I think that I wasn’t thinking and I did something I shouldn’t have done.”
“You didn’t make me uncomfortable, Isaac.” She reached for my hand, sliding her fingers between my much sandier ones as a small smile appeared on her lips. “Do you want to know the truth?”
“Please.”
“I liked kissing you,” she said softly, using her grip on my hand to tug me a little closer. “I still don’t know why I ran, but it wasn’t because I didn’t like it.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I took a step closer to her, smirking as I caught her cheek in my free hand. “Do you want to test that theory?”
She held my gaze and nodded, meeting me halfway this time when I leaned over to kiss her.
As our lips met, she curled both arms around my neck and even rose onto her toes when I drew her closer.
She let out a soft moan and I swallowed it hungrily, my heart going nuts behind my ribs and the rest of my body about to stage a riot to join in.
Jasmine didn’t pull away again. Her urgency matched mine as every trace of softness or hesitation vanished from the kiss. Our mouths crashed together again and again. My blood heated to problematic levels before I finally slowed down.
“Are you still okay?” I murmured against her lips once we separated, both of us breathing a little harder than we had been before. “You’re not going to run again, are you?”
“No, but I think maybe we should go check out that tea and dancing Habib mentioned instead of going back to the tent right about now.”
“Yeah.” I nodded, letting go of her and taking a big step back. “Yeah, I think that’s probably a good idea.”
For a second, we just stood there staring at each other, the very air between us feeling like it was crackling with electricity.
Neither of us moved or looked away, and I had a feeling that if one of us didn’t do something to diffuse this tension very soon, it wasn’t going to matter whether or not we went back to the tent.
Making a snap decision, I turned my back to her and gestured for her to hop on. “Let me give you a ride back to camp. I promise not to fall again.”
“You want to carry me all the way back?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“Uh, I don’t know, maybe because you just rolled down a dune.”
“We’ve already established that I’m fine. Just get on before I try to get a ride from you.”
“Try to get a ride from…” She trailed off. Then I heard a quiet oh before her fingers curled around my shoulders. “Yeah. Okay. Giddy-up or whatever.”
I laughed. “You’d make a terrible cowboy.”
I lifted her against me, carrying her back to camp and heading straight toward the fire instead of even glancing at our tent.
I couldn’t remember ever wanting anyone as badly as I wanted her right now, but since we were trying to avoid that, I didn’t even tempt fate by walking that way around to the firepit.
When the lanterns came back into view, I reluctantly set her back down on her feet. “Sorry, but you’re on your own from here. I don’t want to accidentally offend anyone and I don’t know the customs of these people when it comes to stuff like that.”
“Good point.” She slid to her feet and took my hand before we wandered back up to the fire like we were simply returning from a scenic stroll.
Most of our group was still sitting at the fire, talking and drinking tea while some of the locals had started playing music. Low drums echoed through the night, accompanied by a reed flute and a guitar-type instrument of some kind.
One of the older Bedouin men beckoned us over with a grin when we reached the group, insisting we join the circle gathering to dance.
As a woman started showing us traditional steps, Jasmine joined in like she’d done this a dozen times before—which she may well have—and I tried my best, but I was spectacularly bad at it.
Even so, we had a blast, drinking sweet tea, dancing, and talking until we were both exhausted.
By the time we finally headed back to our tent and crawled beneath the blankets, I was so utterly worn out that I didn’t even think.
I just reached for her and pulled her closer, promptly falling into a comfortable, dreamless sleep with Jasmine Saad in my arms, and somehow, it wasn’t even a little bit weird.