Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Her muscles and joints were far too locked up for her to stand on her own. Rainier had to lift her into the deep tub and help her sit in the hot water. Nothing had ever felt so good. He kept her hair in his hands to prevent it from falling into the water, twisting it on top of her head and pinning it in place with an expertise that reminded her he had done so many times. How he’d found the pins for her hair, she had no idea.
“I’m glad you aren’t cutting your hair, although I’m a little surprised. It’s heavy. You have a lot of hair. Your mother has beautiful hair, you inherited it from her, but she’s very modern. She doesn’t wear it long like this.”
He hadn’t exactly asked her a question, but she knew he was curious. “Scorpion chopped it off. Remember when you first rescued me?” Although he might not have noticed when her body was such a mess and she was close to death.
“I remember.”
“Chopping my hair off was part of his punishment. He wouldn’t let me have hair because he claimed I didn’t know how to behave correctly as a woman.” She had tried hard to close the door tight against those memories. “I prefer to have my hair long. Mama Ahmad wore her hair in a long braid most of the time and covered it. She showed me how to do quite a few different braids and how to wrap them on the back of my head or on top so I could cover my hair.”
“She made quite an impression on you.”
“She was wonderful. She taught me so many things, from cooking and baking to henna tattooing. I never heard her complain. If visitors came, she welcomed them and made them feel at home.”
Rainier’s hands were on her shoulders, his strong fingers massaging her muscles to loosen the tight, sore knots. “She sounds like she was a very impressive woman. She would have been proud of you, Shabina. You turned out very much like her. Warm, welcoming. You treat everyone who comes to your home or café with that feeling of warmth that makes them want to return.”
His praise thrilled her. That was the thing about Rainier. He didn’t just hand out compliments on a regular basis. That wasn’t his way, but he managed to make her feel good about herself in unexpected moments. In unexpected ways.
“Thank you, Rainier. It means a lot that you would say that to me. I loved her. I miss her every day. I always ask myself what she would say or do in each situation when someone is being nasty to me in the café.”
His fingers ceased motion, tightening on her shoulders. “What do you mean by that? Do you have customers who get ugly with you?”
Shabina couldn’t help herself; his reaction made her want to laugh. She tilted her head back to look up at him. “Rainier, be serious. Anytime you’re in a business dealing with the public you’re going to have to expect to run into people with bad attitudes.”
Some dark emotion moved through his eyes. “Perhaps that business isn’t one you should be in, Qadri.”
“I love my café.”
He stood up, and immediately tendrils of panic began to unfold in the pit of her stomach. She pressed her fist against her churning abdomen resisting the urge to bring her knees up. She would not be so pitiful that she couldn’t trust that he would return in a few minutes.
“Get warmed up. It won’t take me long to settle the animals and ensure security is tight.”
She nodded, wishing she could muster up the strength to tease him about his commanding tone. He always used it. He always would. She knew it irritated her friends, but she didn’t mind; in fact, she found the way he spoke reassuring.
Rainier wasn’t arrogant, although he came off that way to most people. She knew her father thought he was arrogant. She had always found it funny when her father accused Rainier of arrogance because the majority of people dealing with her father considered him extremely arrogant. Her father had always gotten his way in negotiations—until he tried to pay the ransom for her.
Shabina couldn’t help herself, she drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, contemplating the things Rainier had revealed to her about the night he’d rescued her. He claimed that she hadn’t been the reason he’d killed the men in the camp that night, that he’d been sent there for that purpose.
Her mind turned that information over and over. Rainier was Deadly Storms, the assassin so often whispered about, and he told her he was there to dispose of Scorpion. If that was true, had it been a bonus that he’d rescued her? She’d always thought he had come to the camp specifically for the purpose of retrieving her. He knew she was there. That hadn’t been a surprise to him.