And forget all about uncertainty.
‘One more thing,’ he said as she reached the door. ‘I must attend a meeting with the desert tribes this evening. It will mean an overnight trip. I’ll be leaving later today.’
Surprise mingled with relief mingled with disappointment. She wouldn’t see him again before he returned to take her to the airport. Their time together before she left would be limited to a short ride in his limousine, if that. She should be happier about that, given the experience he’d put her through, surely?
‘Is it safe for you to travel away from Hebra, under the circumstances?’
One of his eyebrows arched. ‘Now you are concerned for my safety? You do surprise me. A moment ago I think you would quite happily have thrown my body out for carrion.’
She blinked, her lips tightening. ‘If I show concern it’s for the poor people you will no doubt drag along with you on this desert sojourn. It’s their safety that concerns me.’
His lips turned up in the barest smile. ‘Of course. But it’s perfectly safe. I’m headed to the opposite end of the country.’
‘Yet you thought it was safe when you brought me here. That doesn’t say much for your risk-assessment analysis.’
‘I assure you, I’ve assessed the risks,’ he said, his eyes narrowing to a dark gleam, ‘and I’m willing to take them on.’
Heat flooded her senses. She’d experienced enough of his double meanings to realise there was little doubt his words were aimed squarely at her.
But he had no chance. In one day, no more than two at the outside, she’d be gone. There was no way now that she could fall any further under his spell. Her own risk assessment told her she was just about home free.
‘In that case,’ she said, lifting her chin and finally feeling as if she was turning today’s events around, ‘I only hope you’re not disappointed.’
‘How could I be disappointed,’ he asked, ‘when you’re coming with me?’
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘NO,’ SHE said without a moment’s hesitation. ‘I don’t think that’s such a good idea.’
Whatever her see-sawing emotions were telling her, her brain was still screaming that she should get out of Jebbai as fast as possible and, failing that, to stay right away from Khaled. On that basis, going into the desert with him overnight was simply not an option.
‘Why not,’ he asked, ‘when you have seen little or nothing of my country? You’ve buried yourself in that workroom. This would be the perfect chance to explore wider afield, before you return home.’
‘Go with you, into the desert, when only minutes ago you were telling me I was to be your bride? You must think I’m mad or stupid to wander off into the desert with you when all I want to do is go home.’
‘You will go home, if you wish. I gave you my word.’
‘You got me here under false pretences. You lied to me all the way. You even let me believe in a bride that was an entire fabrication. I have to wonder what your word is really worth.’
He looked up, surprised. ‘I’d hardly describe you as an entire fabrication. Besides, I thought we’d sealed that particular deal.’
‘That was your concept of sealing a deal, not mine,’ she threw at him.
‘I see,’ he said. ‘You think we should seal the deal with something more…’ his eyes took on a predatorial gleam ‘…comprehensive?’
Heat suffused her skin in an instant, a heavy, longing pooling low down in her belly. ‘More comprehensive.’ The images his words conjured up sprang ready formed into her mind. A shock of tangled limbs; his smooth, sweat-slickened skin slipping over hers; his mouth, hot and hungry at her breast…
She forced the pictures back down, all of them, back to where they couldn’t betray her any more than the hardened peaks of her nipples already did. It was bad enough he was so painfully arrogant without her body responding to his taunts.
‘Don’t expect me to sleep with you, simply to get out of the country.’
‘I don’t,’ he said, swooping down to pick up her case. ‘When you sleep with me I expect it to be for much more basic reasons.’ He caught the look of shock on her face and smiled. ‘Of course, I meant if you sleep with me.’
His instant correction did nothing to reassure her.
‘I…I’ll stay in the palace.’
‘No. You’re my responsibility. I won’t know you’re safe unless I take you with me.’
‘I’ll be safer here, surely. There are rebels, you said, insurgents out there somewhere. Why wouldn’t I be better off here?’
‘This palace is my home. I have doubts they could get this far, but if someone is after me then this is the first place they’ll look. I won’t leave you here alone.’
‘I have Azizah.’
‘And Saleem…’
Mention of his cousin stilled her protests. Saleem would hardly accept the role of her protector. He didn’t like her, no matter how much she tried to stay out of his way and not upset him. The resentment was there, the mistrust clear in his eyes. He gave every impression that he hated her, but why? What had she ever done to him? And did she really want to endure his cold glares for two days alone?
‘Wouldn’t Saleem go with you?’
He shook his head. ‘He has other matters to attend to. He must stay here.’
‘Oh.’ Saleem was staying in the palace. That put a completely different slant on things.
‘You still don’t like him?’
‘I don’t know—he just makes me feel uncomfortable, unsettled.’
‘Saleem is my cousin. You should not feel that way.’
‘I know. I just don’t feel that I can trust him.’
‘Like you don’t trust me?’
Not like that at all. Khaled’s simple question came with a simple answer that only complicated her thoughts. Her mistrust of Saleem was whole and entire and every cell in her body reacted in the same adverse way to his presence. He made her cringe, he made her flesh creep. She just didn’t want to be anywhere around him.
Her mistrust of Khaled was completely different. She doubted his motives, she resented his arrogance and his duplicity in getting her here for reasons still not clear to her, but it was her body that she mistrusted the most. It was her body that reached out for him at the very same time her brain repelled him. It was her body that wanted him.
And she couldn’t trust herself to deny him. Maybe staying in the palace with Saleem was the lesser of two evils after all, even though the thought chilled her to the bone.
Khaled didn’t wait for her answer.
‘Then I will not let you stay. You will come with me.’
Panic welled up inside her. ‘But—’
‘Sapphire,’ he said, the sound of his voice strangely soothing, like a parent convincing a child, ‘it’s only for one night after all. What can possibly happen in one night?’
In less than two hours they were on their way out of the city and heading into the desert, the narrow strip of bitumen their only link to modern life. Sapphy travelled in the first Range Rover with Khaled choosing to drive. Half a dozen staff followed in the second.
The terrain at first was much like it had been driving into Hebra, stark, sandy flats broken by the occasional thorny plant, the air dry and clear, but gradually the landscape changed and the sand formed dunes, low and barely distinguishable at first, growing higher as they headed deeper and deeper into the desert.
Sculpted by the incessant winds, the red sand-dunes billowed all around them, creeping over the road in places and making the going tough. She sat quietly alongside Khaled as he drove, avoiding talk as far as possible and letting the landscape speak to her.
She couldn’t regret coming here. Even after all that had happened, she’d learned so much visiting Jebbai, experiencing palace life in Hebra, cool and insulated and heady with the ever-present scent of incense; visiting the city souks with Azizah and the colourful market stalls with their wares both simple and exquisite. Even his mother’s garde
n at the palace had been an experience that had fed into her psyche, enriching her experience of this country.
And Khaled? She looked over to him, his profile as majestic as the country he ruled, his strong features sculpted in his face like the lines carved by the wind in the dunes. With the white sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows, his lean forearms worked at the wheel over the uneven territory and the occasional sand drift with strength and skill. Even some part of Khaled, whether it was his power, his arrogance or his dark and dangerous eyes, would feed into her work, she was sure. There was no way she would be able to divorce him from the experience.
He looked over, snaring her gaze.
‘You’re very quiet,’ he said. ‘Are you finding the journey too tiring?’
‘Not at all,’ she answered truthfully. Khaled had been right. She’d concentrated so much on completing the wedding dress that she’d barely been out of the workroom. In many ways it was exciting to be out of the palace and away from the city. ‘Jebbai is much bigger than it looks on the map.’
He smiled, showing his even white teeth. ‘We are one of the smaller independent states, it is true, though the desert certainly makes the country seem much larger. There is more to see in terms of civilisation to the south, where the oil fields are situated. Here it is very empty, apart from the occasional tribe.’
‘Well, at least you have four-wheel drives to get around these days. Beats the heck out of doing it all by camel.’
‘Is that experience talking, or supposition?’
‘Of course I’ve ridden on camels, lots of times.’ She brushed her fringe out of her eyes. ‘Nothing to it.’
He looked quickly over at her again but this time as if he didn’t believe a word she said.
‘Really. There are loads of camels in Australia, out in the outback. Leftovers gone wild from the eighteen-hundreds when they used them for transport. Now they catch them and the handlers bring them into the cities and use them to take kids for rides at the beach or at the annual shows. It makes a change from pony rides.
‘Our nanny used to take us all to one of the beaches every year for an outing and we’d have a ride together. Opal, our older sister, loved the ponies the best. But with Ruby, my twin sister, and me, it was always the camels.’
‘I’m impressed,’ he said, a note of approval creeping into his voice. ‘You’re quite a multi-talented woman.’
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. ‘Okay, you can laugh. But it was fun anyway.’
‘Who said I’m laughing?’ he said with all seriousness. ‘You just never know when a skill like camel riding will come in handy.’
Behind her sunglasses she rolled her eyes, before turning them back to the endless dunes. ‘Sure,’ she said, dismissing him yet secretly pleased that in just one small way she’d managed to surprise him. He seemed a different person when they could touch on neutral topics, when whatever grievances he brought to their other dealings could be put aside.
It was at least twenty minutes before either of them spoke again. The road had all but disappeared under the drifting sands and her seat was getting less comfortable, the bumps were getting more pronounced and she was generally sick of the vehicle’s grinding progress through the dunes.
She reached for her bottle of water and took a swig. ‘How far now?’
‘We’ll be stopping soon.’
‘We’re nearly there?’
‘Wait,’ he said, the unexpected smile on his face warming her. ‘I think you’re going to like this.’
It wasn’t long before she found out what he meant. They pulled into a relatively flat area, really no more than a space between dunes and dominated by an ancient and squat mud-brick building. It was the end of the road, literally, and what there was to like about it was anyone’s guess.
The vehicles parked side by side under a lean-to and men started unloading the supplies.
‘You might want to take this opportunity to freshen up,’ Khaled suggested. He reached behind the front seat. ‘And here, you might want to put this on. It will protect you from the sun and the sand.’
She took the bundle he held up to her. ‘Why should I need this now?’ she asked.
‘Our journey is not quite over,’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’
He focused on something behind her. ‘See for yourself,’ he said.
A protesting bawl told her what she’d see before she turned.
‘Camels!’ she cried.
The man leading the first camels, his coiled-turban-framed face all leathery wrinkles from years of exposure to the desert sun, broke into a wide grin at her delight, revealing just three remaining teeth.
She reached up and stroked the nose of the first camel. It looked down at her, its thickly lashed, doe-like eyes considering her briefly, before lifting its head and letting out another loud bawl.
‘You weren’t kidding,’ Khaled said, suddenly appearing at her side, his hand low on her back, the other stroking the neck of the camel. ‘You really don’t mind camels. Many people are not so keen, even afraid.’
‘Camels get bad press,’ she said, trying to ignore the pressure of his hand. He was barely touching her yet all her senses seemed to focus on that one point of contact, the warmth that built deep inside, pooling into longing. It was a struggle to pull herself back to the topic.
‘But I’ve learned,’ she continued, licking lips already losing moisture to the arid conditions, yet more so, as if edged with the heat emanating from him, the heat flowing from his gentle touch, ‘that once you get to know them a little, it’s clear their reputation has been unfairly earned.’
‘Indeed? And do you think that observation might have its parallel with the human species? Do you similarly find that there are those people whose reputation has been unfairly attributed?’
He had to be kidding. She paused momentarily, considering him carefully and wondering if he was ever going to remove his hand. ‘Your actions to date go far beyond mere reputation, Sheikh Khaled.’
‘And does that then render me beyond redemption in your estimation?’
‘When compared to camels, you mean?’ She allowed herself a smile at his arrogance and shifted sideways out of his reach. ‘Let’s just say you’re starting off from a much lower base.’
He threw his head back and laughed, the sound rich and mellow. She liked the sound of it when he laughed; she liked the effect it had on his features and the warmth it stirred inside her. Something let go in the muscles of his face and the harshness softened, the angles smoothed. She liked him like this, when he seemed less autocratic, more human.
A feeling akin to regret spiked her consciousness. If only things were different…
The camel bawled into her ear, spiking her out of her thoughts. What the hell was she thinking? Things weren’t different. This guy had all but dragged her off to his desert kingdom with the intention of making her his wife. She was glad things weren’t different. Now there was no way she could possibly like him.
So what that she’d had to accompany him out here? After tomorrow it wouldn’t bean issue. She’d be gone. Long gone. He wouldn’t see her for sand.
She felt his gaze settle upon her, hot and expectant, and she deliberately avoided it, focusing instead on the camels. She needed a distraction. She needed to think about something safe. Camels were just the ticket.
They were dromedaries, or one-humped, the same kind she was used to riding with her sisters on their childhood jaunts to the beach, but these wore different saddles. Instead of the double seat she remembered sharing with her sisters, this saddle was arranged over the hump, higher off the ground and more daunting. Not that she was about to admit that to Khaled.
‘Which one is mine?’ she asked, looking forward to the separation their mounts would bring. She could do with some distance from Khaled right now.
‘This camel seems to like you. I think we will take this one.’
We will take this one? Impossible. That
was so obviously a saddle built for one. If she had to share it with him, she’d be sitting literally in his lap, brushing against him, feeling his body rock against hers every step of the way. She swallowed.
‘You mean, this one is for me.’
His lips curved in to agrin. ‘We’re one camel short. You’ll have to share with me.’
‘Can’t you get another one?’
He looked up at the sky. ‘Too late. The track is steep. We must leave now if we are to make the meeting place by nightfall.’
‘But we won’t both fit. There’s nowhere for me to sit. It’s not fair to the camel.’
‘The camel can handle the slight addition of your weight. As to the rest, let me take care of that.’
Suddenly she wished she’d stayed back at the palace. Even the sullen moods of Saleem were less threatening than the prospect of spending time within Khaled’s grasp.
‘Can’t I stay here? Wait for you to get back?’
‘And miss the experience of a lifetime? A meeting with one of the few remaining Bedouin tribes—you would never forgive yourself for that, surely.’
Was he being obtuse or was he just teasing her? It wasn’t missing the experience she was worried about. Couldn’t he see that? Or did he see it too well?
She sucked in a breath, firing up her resolve. He hadn’t got the better of her yet and she wasn’t about to let him now. It would take more than a simple camel ride to make her change her view of Sheikh Khaled.
‘Okay,’ she said with a sense of bravado that surprised even herself. ‘Let’s do it.’
As it turned out, a few minutes later when they were ready to disembark, there was nothing simple about it. From the moment she’d been hauled into Khaled’s arms she knew she was in for a rocky ride.
‘Hold tight,’ he warned her as the handler urged the camel upright, back legs first, threatening to plunge her forward into the sands if not for the steel-like bands of Khaled’s arms surrounding her. Then the process was reversed as the camel raised itself on its front legs, forcing her bodily against him.
Sexy Sheikh Bundle (Harlequin Presents) Page 37
