The Sheikh's Fantasy Girl - Completed.

Chapter Fifteen

Andie shook her head, nodded, and then shrugged. "I hope I'm wrong, Shihab. You have no idea how I need it to be wrong." His thumb stroked across her cheek.

"We need to look at all the scenarios, Andrea. A good actor can pull an accent."

"Much harder over a phone, surely? It was a female that is all I know, pretending to be me. It has to be someone back at home. I told you I was a mess."

"You have a reason to be." She reached out towards him and he shifted, so she could snuggle up against his side, cocooned in his enfolding arm. She placed a hand on his chest that felt so good. "No matter what you think, I am always here for you," she looked up at him. "Things are happening in my life I have no control over, and can't explain. Trust me Andrea that is all I ask."

She took a deep breath. "I want to, but I'm all over the place emotionally, and I hate it. I write it but don't live it for myself. I prefer the quiet life."

From behind he fingered her hair, something she had missed, scalp tingling. "I think you have been hiding behind your writing, Andrea. You need to feel, need to express yourself." She stared up at him, amazed. So close to the truth, she was emotional and needed to control herself. "What if it wasn't someone you know? What if it was some sort of joke?"

Her eyes widened, startled. "Are you saying, someone here could have done this to me, for a joke? A joke! Why? Why me?" She clamped a hand over her mouth, pulling out of his arms. "Because of us! I knew it was a mistake."

"Us? What about us? There is no us, is there," he said in a disgruntled tone.

She gulped, suddenly jittery, fiddling with her top. "I mean not as a couple, but a connection. Always talking. You told them I had free range, and they hated it."

His brows furrowed down. "That is so stupid. Because of others, you have distanced yourself from me?"

"I had to work with these people and they saw other things, Shihab. I like you, really I do, and we get on so well, but they hated it. I can't do this," she shifted to stand.

He looked at her in disbelief. "So you let others decide what you can do or who you see?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "I wanted to apologise for my accusation. It was so wrong. I was in the wrong and had to fix it. Thank you for the card. I need to go," she walked out before he could even try to stop her. 

He didn't even try. Instead, he let her go.

After a long bath and changing into her usual writer's garb, she sat on the bed, chewing on a pen. That hadn't exactly gone to plan. She had no idea if he forgave her or not. And he was correct. She was pathetic.

Before her parent's death, when she was home full time, writing, her sibling always thought she was free to collect their kids. Run around paying their bills, because they were so busy, and she was twiddling her thumbs, doing nothing important. 

In the end, she said no. 

Had to think of herself for once, and was turned against, called selfish. A waster that she couldn't even help her own family. She had locked herself away and concentrated on her first book.

A knock on the door had Andie pull on a dressing gown and went to answer, finding Shihab leaning against the wall near her door, arms crossed. "Did you really put the basket together yourself? Hand-picked all the items also?"

She chewed on her bottom lip. "I'm sorry if it isn't what you like. I'm sure they can be exchanged."

Tiredly he ran a hand through his hair. "Tell me, Andrea, when had it happened that everything I say or do, you misjudge, when you used to trust me?"