The Sheikh’s Reward

by Lucy Gordon

  ‘Touché. But, as you are constantly reminding me, you are like no other woman.’

  ‘No, I’m worth a good deal more, aren’t I?’ she riposted, remembering a grievance. ‘I gather thirty thousand is the going rate.’

  ‘Ah, yes, you’ve met my cousin. He’s an engaging rascal, but he has no sense of responsibility. He acts first and thinks afterwards. He’d like me to give him a share in running the country, but he’ll have to grow up first. It was improper of him to force himself on you this morning.’

  ‘And see me without my veil; don’t forget that.’ She added primly, ‘I nearly fainted with horror.’

  He laughed at her irony. ‘Yes, I guessed your delicate sensibilities would be offended.’

  ‘My sensibilities were offended by discovering that you’ve let everyone think that a hundred thousand was my purchase price, as though I were one of your racehorses.’

  ‘Certainly not!’ Ali said, shocked. ‘A first-class racehorse costs far more than that.’

  Fran threw up her hands in despair. ‘There’s no talking to you.’

  He grinned and filled her wine glass.

  For the moment she gave up trying to bring him to a sense of his iniquity. The food was splendid, she knew she looked beautiful, and she was with the most attractive man she had ever met. It was useless to deny that, even if he was her enemy. And it was hard to think of him as an enemy when his eyes danced at her over his glass and told her that she entranced him.

  ‘Come,’ he said, when they had finished eating. ‘I have something for you to see.’

  He took her hand and led her to a chest that stood near the window. He flung it open and she gasped at the treasure that lay within. Rubies, emeralds, diamonds, pearls, gold and silver lay there, jumbled together.

  Ali lifted a necklace of emeralds set in gold and held it up before her eyes.

  ‘You have the kind of colouring that can wear all jewels,’ he said. ‘Diamonds and pearls, as well as rubies and emeralds. Today I think it will be emeralds; tomorrow-’

  ‘Nothing,’ Fran said. ‘Neither today nor tomorrow. I won’t take anything from you, Ali, because I have nothing to give back.’

  She looked at him levelly. She wanted no misunderstanding.

  He sighed. ‘Why do you fight what is between us?’

  ‘Because I’m here by force. As long as I’m a prisoner, there is nothing between us.’

  ‘You’re a hard, unforgiving woman-’

  ‘I’m a free woman.’ She tapped her breast. ‘Free in my heart, where it counts. In here I have something that you’ll never conquer by force or trickery.’

  Before she could say more the door was flung open and someone strode into the room. Fran started at the sight of Prince Yasir. His face was flushed, and he seemed on the verge of losing control.

  Ali’s face darkened, and he said something in Arabic that sounded like a command. Yasir replied in the same tongue, obviously furious. He pointed to Fran, and held up two, then three fingers. She stared at him, wondering if she’d understood properly, and which of them she was angrier with if she had.

  Ali was clearly giving a refusal, and Yasir’s temper increased. Ali made a gesture of finality. Yasir pointed at Fran and held up four fingers.

  ‘You do and you’re dead!’ she muttered.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Ali replied coolly. ‘When I sell you, I shall demand much more than four times the original price.’

  ‘How much?’ Yasir demanded at once. ‘For her I pay whatever you ask.’

  He reached for Fran, who drew back a fist in readiness. But Ali was there before her. The next moment Yasir was reeling back against the wall, rubbing his chin.

  Ali gave him no chance to recover. Seizing Yasir’s collar, he hauled him to the door and threw him out. He turned back into the room before the look in his eyes had changed, and Fran backed away, astounded at what she saw there. Ali was ready to commit murder.

  In two steps he was beside her, pulling her into his arms.

  ‘He dared to offer me money for you,’ he grated. ‘He thinks money can buy anything.’

  ‘Not me,’ she said breathlessly. ‘Neither his nor yours.’

  She wasn’t sure that he heard her. His eyes were searching her with the brooding intensity of a man who’d seen a prize almost snatched from him, but had recovered it in time.

  ‘From the moment I first saw you I knew you had to be mine,’ he murmured. ‘I can wait no longer.’

  She stiffened in alarm. She had resolved not to yield, and if she didn’t assert herself now it would be too late.

  ‘Ali, let me go,’ she breathed.

  ‘Never in life. You’re mine, and you’ll be mine for ever.’

  The prospect was seductively sweet. For a moment her senses swam. To give him all of herself on a tide of passion, if only…

  Putting out all her strength, she broke from him and turned away quickly.

  ‘This isn’t going to happen,’ she gasped.

  Ali’s eyes kindled as he reached for her, and Fran knew he was at danger point. There was only one thing to do. Throwing caution to the winds, she fended him off and boxed his ears hard enough to make his eyes water.

  It was safe to assume that no woman had ever treated his royal person in such a way before. Ali was motionless through sheer astonishment.

  ‘You forced me,’ Fran said breathlessly.

  ‘You-’

  ‘Don’t look at me like that.’ She swiftly put a table between them. ‘It was your own fault for not acting like a gentleman.’

  ‘I don’t have to be a gentleman,’ he snapped. ‘I’m the prince.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong. The prince should always be a gentleman.’

  Ali breathed hard. ‘You picked a wonderful time to start lecturing me. Your recklessness will lead you into trouble one day.’

  ‘One day? What do you think this is? So now what happens? Do I get thrown into a dungeon for daring to strike the prince?’

  ‘Don’t tempt me,’ Ali said through gritted teeth. He turned sharply away, less he see the confusion in his eyes as he brought his temper under control. When he felt he could speak calmly he turned back and regarded her with frosty eyes.

  ‘Now will you release me?’ Fran demanded.

  ‘Release you?’ he echoed in amazement. ‘After this?’ He took a long, hard breath. ‘Much as I would like to let you feel the full weight of my displeasure, I have to approach the matter more subtly. Tomorrow you will be taken to a different apartment.’

  ‘Aha!’ she said triumphantly. ‘The dungeon!’

  Ali gritted his teeth. ‘Your new apartment will be of the greatest comfort and luxury. You will have eight maidservants with instructions to attend to your every whim. Wherever you go, people will bow. I shall shower you with jewels, which you will wear at all times.’

  ‘What is this?’ Fran demanded suspiciously. ‘If you’re hoping to change my mind, let me tell you-’

  ‘From this moment you are my official favourite, entitled to the special treatment of one who has exerted herself to please me.’

  ‘But I didn’t exert myself to please you. Nor will I, ever!’

  ‘Well, if you think I want the world knowing that-!’ he said savagely.

  Fran stared at him, her jaw dropping as the implications of this washed over her.

  ‘Oh, my goodness!’ she breathed. ‘You’re caught, aren’t you? You can’t let anyone suspect that Prince Ali Ben Saleem had his face slapped by a woman he’d deigned to honour.’ She gave a peal of laughter.

  ‘If you don’t stop that,’ he grated, ‘I really will throw you into a dungeon.’

  ‘No, you won’t,’ she choked. ‘It would give too much away. And after you paid all that money for me you wouldn’t want people to know that your judgement was slipping. Oh, heavens! This is wonderful!’

  ‘That’s enough!’ There was real menace in his eyes this time. ‘You’re very sure of yourself, but suppose I decided to
dispense with your consent? Who do you think would help you?’

  She met his eyes, unafraid, defiant. ‘You won’t do that.’

  ‘Let me remind you who I am, and what my powers are.’

  ‘But that’s why you won’t,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It would be an admission of failure, an admission that you can’t win me. Nobody else might know, but you and I would, and you couldn’t live with that.’

  His face was black with anger and she knew she’d touched a nerve.

  ‘And there’s another reason,’ she added. ‘You couldn’t do it. You’re a tyrant, a scheming manipulator and an arrogant, conceited dictator, but you’re fundamentally a decent man, and it isn’t in you.’

  He regarded her. The fury had died out of his face but his eyes were still unforgiving.

  ‘You have the tongue of a serpent,’ he said bitterly. ‘Let me warn you that a woman who can discern a man’s weaknesses should have the good sense not to taunt him with them.’

  ‘So you admit you have weaknesses? Well, that’s a step in the right direction.’

  ‘Does nothing make you afraid?’ he snapped.

  ‘Would I tell you?’

  ‘Even you have weaknesses.’

  ‘But perhaps I’m better at keeping them hidden.’

  Ali breathed hard. ‘To think that I-’ He checked himself, on the verge of putting something into words that shocked him.

  ‘That you what?’

  ‘Nothing. But one day I shall have sons. And I shall tell them about women like you, and warn them to avoid such women like scorpions.’

  ‘Pity someone didn’t warn you,’ Fran said affably. ‘I think I’ll be going now. Will you summon the bearers?’

  ‘Are you mad?’ he demanded. ‘You can’t leave before morning or the whole palace will know.’

  ‘And your reputation will be shot to pieces,’ she teased.

  ‘Do you realise that you’ve condemned us to a night of making small talk?’

  ‘You could give me that interview.’

  ‘Be very careful!’

  ‘All right, then I’m going to sit down and finish my supper. And why shouldn’t we make small talk? I’ll bet you’ve never done that with a woman before.’

  ‘Nonsense.’

  ‘It isn’t nonsense. You only have two attitudes to women-seductive and dismissive. But you can’t seduce me and for a few hours you can’t dismiss me, so you’ll have to talk to me properly, about something that really matters.’

  ‘I’ve told you I don’t do that with women.’

  ‘Exactly my point. So we seem to be faced with a long, boring night, chatting about the weather.’

  He merely scowled and seated himself. When Fran poured him some wine he scowled again, but accepted it. She had a sudden conviction that he was longing to rub his cheek, but would die rather than let her see him do it.

  Her lips twitched. On the face of it nothing had changed. She was still Ali’s prisoner, subject to his power. But she had challenged that power, and discovered its limits, and her confidence was coming back.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘T ELL me some more about Yasir,’ Fran suggested.

  ‘His father was my father’s brother-his elder brother, unfortunately, so Yasir thinks that his father should have taken the throne, instead of mine.’

  ‘Doesn’t the eldest son take over automatically?’

  ‘No. This part of the world is dangerous, and a ruler must be strong. My father was the stronger, so he took the throne as was his right. But Yasir feels that he, not I, should rule, and the result is a scene such as you saw tonight, for which I apologise. He had no right to burst in here, and I shall make sure he knows it.’

  ‘I think he already does. Were you wise to strike him?’

  ‘Most unwise. Luckily he’s a good-natured fellow, and will forgive me easily.’

  Fran decided to say no more. But she had seen a burning resentment in Yasir’s expression that told her Ali had misread his cousin. She became thoughtful.

  As she watched Ali’s scowling countenance an imp of mischief was taking possession of her. It might be reckless and unwise, but that was in her nature. She’d never run from a risk.

  ‘Something amuses you?’ Ali growled.

  ‘I was just thinking about the fix you’re in.’

  ‘Then I advise you to keep your amusement to yourself.’

  ‘All right, I’ve got an idea. Let’s go back to the beginning, and talk as we might have done that first night, if I could have told you everything.’

  ‘I thought you told me a good deal,’ Ali said. He added with a touch of bitterness, ‘But of course it was all invented-all those pretty stories about the Arabian nights were planted, because you thought they would entice me to indiscretions that you could make use of.’

  ‘Oh, no,’ she said quickly. ‘That was all true. I told you things about myself I’ve never told anyone else, and I’d hate you to think-that, at least, was real. Please, Your Highness, you must believe me.’

  He gave a twisted smile. ‘I think we’ve got a little beyond “Your Highness”.’ This time he did rub his cheek, and actually managed to return her smile. There was a touch of ruefulness in his eyes that almost made her start to like him again. Almost. She must guard against his charm, she told herself.

  ‘I told you those things because I knew you’d understand. Nobody else ever could. Uncle Dan and Aunt Jean thought only solid things mattered. They didn’t have any time for “fancy ideas”. At school I took supposedly useful, worthwhile subjects, like mathematics and computing, because they wanted me to. And when I turned out to be good at them I was kind of set on my path for ever. After that nobody ever thought of me as having a fanciful side-until you.

  ‘It was a glorious release, being able to talk about those things after all these years. It was like somebody opened a door.’

  ‘Yes,’ Ali said quietly. He wished she wouldn’t say these things that reminded him of his own feelings that night. The certainty that he’d found a sympathetic soul, able to understand him without words, had almost overwhelmed him. Suddenly his loneliness-the loneliness of a man who had everything except that which he truly wanted-had seemed to fade.

  They had said very little, but that little had opened up long vistas of understanding. Her beauty and sexual charisma had heightened her magic, but been only a small part of it. He had ached to take her into his bed, but also into his heart.

  When he’d been called away on business, he had cursed inwardly, and cut the call as short as he dared. But he’d never doubted that this woman whose soul spoke to his own would be waiting, still held in the enchantment that was woven around them both.

  When he’d found her gone, it had been as though she’d punched him in the heart. He’d had no experience of rejection, and he’d felt like a young boy, floundering to get his bearings. He’d been compelled to hide his feelings and laugh it off, lest his servants suspect that a woman had mocked the Prince of Kamar. It had been a lesson in reality, and like all the lessons of his life it had taken place in a cruel spotlight.

  Later, of course, he’d understood that she had never meant to go through with it. When she’d reappeared as a journalist he’d realised that it was a set-up from start to finish.

  And now here she was, ostensibly in his power, yet still teasing and challenging him, still leaving him empty-handed. A man couldn’t win with this woman, and that was something he had to alter.

  Fran was still talking, apparently oblivious to his mood.

  ‘After that it was just taken for granted that I’d go on taking useful subjects because I was good at them. So I went to college and did economics, which I must admit was fascinating.

  ‘You wouldn’t think stocks and shares and financial forecasts could be as thrilling as all that, but they were. And when I discovered that I had a “nose” for the markets that sealed my fate. I’ve got a friend who never buys new shares without calling to ask what I think.’

&nbs
p; ‘Indeed!’ Ali said coldly. ‘A little more wine?’

  ‘No, thank you. I want to tell you what they say about your companies on the Stock Exchange.’

  ‘I’m not interested in what a woman has to say about my companies, or the London Stock Exchange.’

  ‘I can tell you what they’re saying in Wall Street too,’ Fran went on, unperturbed, ‘and the Bourse in France.’

  ‘But I have no wish to hear.’

  ‘I’m sure you haven’t. But there’s not a lot you can do about it, is there?’ she asked lightly.

  ‘You are making a big mistake,’ he informed her.

  Instead of answering in words Fran extended her index finger and beckoned to him. Her smile was enticing and her eyes full of mischief. Ali felt his head swim, and before he knew what he was doing he had leaned towards her. Fran came closer, and when she spoke her warm breath whispered against his face.

  ‘It’s very simple, my darling,’ she murmured. ‘If you don’t let me say what I want, and pay attention, I shall scream for help at the top of my voice.’

  ‘And do you think anyone will come?’

  ‘Of course not. But they’ll hear, and they’ll know that you paid a hundred thousand for nothing.’

  Ali drew a long breath, a prey to conflicting emotions. The skittering of her breath on his face was sending tremors through him, causing reactions that infuriated him. It was maddening to know that this woman could make him want her to madness as the very moment she was mocking him. She must be resisted and taught a lesson.

  But she had called him ‘my darling’.

  ‘You,’ he said with deliberation, ‘are descended from a rattlesnake. Your father was a vulture. A man foolish enough to love you will end up with his heart shrivelled and his bones bleached white in the desert.’

  ‘And you,’ she returned, ‘are making a big mistake in trusting Lemford Securities. The man who runs it lives on the edge. He’s borrowing short and lending long, and I’m sure you know that’s a recipe for disaster. Or don’t you? Well, let me explain-’

  ‘I can follow that kind of kindergarten economics,’ he snapped.

  ‘I’m so glad, because then maybe you can understand the rest.’