Spice of Love - Completed

Chapter 1

"Catherine Little."

The husky timbre to his voice sent the hairs standing up along her nape. Memories of that voice whispering foreign words into her ear that night they shared together sent her head jerking up in shocked awareness as the familiar sexual tension flooded her system. And when her blue gaze clashed with a pair of emeralds she thought she would never see again, they widened at the mutual recognition. That single night of passion had done absolutely nothing to reduce the waves of intense awareness that lapped between them, leaving her feeling ridiculously lightheaded.

"You!"

The assessing emerald gaze glimmered in its intensity and a light of sardonic amusement crept into their gleam.

"Me," he agreed, his accent thickening with the timbre of his voice as the shiver to her spine turned to an unexpected shudder. Instantly, Cat was transported to that night she had lain naked in his arms. Her own eyes darkened with renewed intensity as she allowed her gaze then to drift hungrily over the man she never thought she would ever see again.

"You found me?" Her words came out in a hoarse whisper, an inexplicable excitement setting her blood to throb in her veins. But both of them heard the half-question contained within. How?

"Your sister has been remissive in relaying our encounter, I see." He lifted a rueful brow in response. The purse to his lips drawing her avid gaze to the sensuous pout to it and the blood in her veins heated up a notch.

"Emily?" Cat managed, confounded, still not quite believing he was here.

"Lucy," he amended, mildly.

"Lucy!" Cat gasped. Lucy had found her one-night-stand and never mentioned it.

"I believe your sister was a little disapproving," he added mildly, understating matters considerably.

Cat chuckled. She could well imagine just how disapproving Lucy would have been. They both would have been, Emily and Lucy. Neither understanding, her night with this man had been inevitable. Just one of those inexplicable events of the cosmos; the ones science had a hard time explaining. Her lips tugged up at the corners. He was here. The man she lost her virginity to, her one-night-stand—he was here. An unexpected elation sent her blood rushing through her veins and the effect was a light-headedness that left her spinning. Cat gasped for breath. But she had more pressing concerns to address first.

"I never got your name," said Cat instead, pointing out that he had her at a disadvantage. He knew her name, she had yet to discover his.

"I am Sadiq," he said simply.

"Sadiq," murmured Cat, tasting the sound of it on her tongue, and her heart stilled before melting further out of control. "Sadiq."

Sadiq stared at the exquisite blond before him and felt that instant recognition that had pulled him to her two weeks before, when he had walked into Marcus Slater's house. A recognition that went beyond the norm. He had just returned to Melbourne that evening to find an invitation from Slater in his correspondence. Mark Slater, with whom he had a passing acquaintance through his dealings with Richard Reeves. Seeing the invitation had sparked a need to release the strain he was under, and he had taken the opportunity to grab his keys and drive not to the Slaters' home, but to the Neils', to confront Daniel Neil, spoiling for a fight. Knowing the Neils were behind in meeting their obligations to him offered Sadiq the perfect opportunity to vent. Only his fingers on the wheels had clenched as he neared the Neils and he knew then he was in no right frame of mind to confront anyone. Not if he wanted to make it through the day without blood on his knuckles. For some reason, that he was now beginning to suspect was the hands of fate, he found himself turning his vehicle about and returning to the street that would take him to the Slaters' house