Prince of the Desert

by Penny Jordan

  After he had ended the call and restarted the 4x4, Tariq discovered that his hands were shaking. His heart thudded impatiently into his chest wall, urging him to get to Gwynneth as fast as he possibly could. He should never have left her on her own, exposed to such danger. Any thoughts he might have had of sending her back to her home country had gone. There was only one place he wanted her to be from now on, and that was with him. He was finally prepared to admit that to himself.

  Gwynneth had packed her case, and was ready to leave just as soon as she had informed Tariq that she was now prepared to accept his offer. When would he be back?

  This would be the last time she would see him. Good. That was what she wanted.

  Liar, liar!she mocked herself.

  All right then, she mentally amended, to appease that inner knowing voice, it was what she needed! Satisfied? she asked her inner critic.

  It was Friday, and Zuran City was busy with worshippers coming from the city’s mosques as Tariq nosed the big vehicle down the same side street where earlier Gwynneth had so nearly been abducted. He drove down into the underground car park, leaving the 4x4 parked next to the new baby Bentley he preferred if he was driving himself in town. Unlike the other male members of his extended family, Tariq lived his life free of any kind of personal retinue as much as he could.

  The service lift took him up to the apartment, where he slid his key card into the lock and thrust open the door.

  Gwynneth was pacing the terrace, mentally rehearsing the speech she had tailored to be as brief as she could make it. She hadn’t heard Tariq arrive and so he had the leisure to watch her for several seconds without her knowing that he was doing so.

  It was some sixth sense that alerted her to his presence—a sharp surge of awareness that drew her gaze into the shadows where he stood as speedily as a she-falcon returning to the lure.

  Tariq strode over to the terrace and stepped onto it to join her.

  ‘There is something I want to say to you.’

  ‘Really? Like what? A repeat of that offer you made me for this apartment? One million pounds? Why not make it two—after all, you can afford can’t you, Your Highness? And before you try to deny it, I’ve read all about you inthis !’ she informed him, throwing the book onto the seating.

  She had promised herself she wouldn’t do this—so why, oh, why was she doing it? Dignified silence, that was how she had intended to greet him—and leave him. And now look at her, ranting and raving like a jealous lover!

  That book! He had forgotten it even existed, and he cursed even more now than he had done when he had first discovered it had been written. But his pain was greater than his anger.

  ‘Two million? Why stop at that?’ he demanded bitingly. He could overlook much, but not this kind of greed. Not and still call himself a man. His heart felt as though it was being wrenched apart. ‘Why not ask for three million? Or four? But let me tell you, if you do, the answer will be the same—and it is no. Contrary to what you seem to think, the fact that I am who I am does not make me a soft touch for greedy amoral women. I’ve already offered you more than this place is worth.’

  ‘Yes, I know that.’ Gwynneth stopped him. ‘And I know why.’

  Tariq watched her. Had one of the men the Chief of Police had sent to guard her broken with security protocol and told her why she was being guarded?

  ‘No wonder you want to pay me to guarantee your own exclusive secret ownership of this place. Having me here must have been cramping your style!’ Gwynneth burst out. ‘It wasn’t very hard for me to work it all out once I knew who you are. You use this apartment as…as your own private brothel—that’s why you mistook me for a prostitute! And you had the gall to questionmy morals!’

  She mustn’t let him see how upset she was.

  ‘Not that any of that matters now,’ she added, getting her voice under control. How could she lie to herself like this? It mattered more than anything else in the whole of her life, just ashe mattered more than anything or anyone else. ‘I’ve decided to accept your offer and to sell you the apartment, but…but only at the real market price.’

  She had really had to battle with herself over that. There was no way she would want to be paid more if she only had herself to consider, but by accepting less than he was prepared to pay she was depriving Teresa and Anthony of a considerable sum of money. But morally she could not bring herself to accept more than the apartment was worth—not even for them. And besides, £500,000 was still a very respectable nest egg.

  ‘So perhaps we can just get on with things and get all the paperwork sorted out as quickly as possible,’ she continued briskly. ‘I’m prepared to move out of here until everything’s done.’

  Tariq shrugged dismissively, as though her words—like her feelings, no doubt—meant nothing to him.

  ‘I’m afraid that isn’t going to be possible now,’ he told her.

  Gwynneth stared at him, and then stammered, ‘What—what do you mean?’ Had he changed his mind and decided to buy somewhere else?

  Tariq gestured towards the cane sofas, saying authoritatively, ‘We may as well sit down.’

  Reluctantly Gwynneth perched on the corner of the nearest seat, tensing when Tariq came and sat next to her, his long legs splayed out in front of him, his thigh touching her own. She wanted desperately to move away from him, but she was trapped against the side of the sofa with nowhere to go.

  ‘First, allow me to correct your misapprehensions. Contrary to what you seem to imagine, my way of life does not include semi-clandestine sexual liaisons. Nor do I have any desire for it to do so.’

  ‘You expect me to believe that, after—?’

  ‘After what?’ Tariq pressed her smoothly. ‘After I allowed you to tempt me?’

  ‘I did not tempt you! You were the one who—’ Gwynneth took a deep breath and shook her head. ‘Look, all I want—all I came here for—is to sell the apartment and take the money home with me.’

  ‘Money is obviously very important to you,’ he agreed unkindly.

  Anger flashed in Gwynneth’s eyes.

  ‘Actually, you’re wrong. It isn’t. But on this occasion—’

  ‘On this occasion you thought you would allow it to matter?’

  ‘No! If I only had myself to consider I’d walk out of here right now and let you keep the wretched thing.’

  ‘If you only had yourself to consider? And what exactly does that mean?’ Tariq queried.

  Gwynneth closed her eyes and then opened them again. ‘If you must know…’

  ‘I must,’ Tariq confirmed grimly.

  Gwynneth took a deep breath and began quietly, ‘My father had a…a girlfriend. Teresa. And a baby—Anthony. My half-brother.’ She could sense that Tariq was looking at her, but she refused to return his look, determinedly focusing her gaze away from him as she continued. ‘Prior to his death, Dad came to England on business and he brought Teresa and their baby back with him. He introduced them to me. Until then I hadn’t even realised they existed, but that was Dad all over. There’d been so many women in and out of his life for so long that I never thought…’ She gave a small shrug, not wanting to stray into the painful history of her relationship with her father. ‘Originally Teresa was from the Philippines. From what she’s told me, it’s obvious that her family have very little in the way of material assets. She wants to go back there and bring Anthony up. Even a little money would make a huge difference to their lives, but since my father hadn’t changed his will, and they weren’t married, he hadn’t made any provision for her. Everything was left to me. The apartment was his only major asset, and I decided to sell it and to put the money in trust for Teresa and Anthony. That’s why I came here.’

  She heard Tariq’s sharp intake of breath but she still refused to look at him.

  ‘You want the money for someone else?’ he demanded.

  ‘Yes,’ Gwynneth confirmed simply. Pride strengthened her voice as she told him, ‘I don’t need or want my father’s money. I�
��ve supported myself financially since I left university, and to be quite frank I prefer it that way. All I ever wanted from my father was his love.’ What on earth had made her tell him that?

  ‘It seems to me that you and I share an emotional burden,’ he said quietly. ‘Problems with our fathers left over from the pain of our childhoods.’

  Now she did look at him, unable to stop herself from doing so. What she could see in his eyes made her heart tighten with pain—his pain this time, though, not her own. She didn’t speak. Not wanting to in case she broke the fragile bond Tariq was so unexpectedly creating between them with his confidences.

  ‘I had always believed—been told—that my father abandoned my mother when I was quite young,’ he told her. ‘I only recently learned about the extenuating circumstances of which I spoke to you. After so many years of seeing my father as a man to despise and dislike, wanting to deny my cultural heritage from him, it is an odd sensation to realise that I may not have known the truth—that I misjudged him.’

  Gwynneth swallowed against her own bittersweet emotions. Bitter because of her memories, and sweet because Tariq was confiding in her. ‘I wish I could say the same about my own father,’ she admitted. ‘Unfortunately I have always known the reality of what he was, because he always made a point of telling me.’

  Tariq could hear the stark sadness in her voice.

  ‘But you are still prepared to put your life on hold in order to help his girlfriend and child?’

  ‘They are not my father. And besides, despite everything, somehow I feel I owe it to him as well as them to do everything that I can for them.’ She gave a small sigh. ‘He wasn’t a bad man so much as a selfish, amoral one.’

  ‘Amoral?’

  ‘He was very highly sexed,’ Gwynneth told him bluntly. ‘And he liked to talk about his conquests and his prowess.’ She saw the way Tariq was frowning, and, realising too late the interpretation he must be putting on her admission, corrected it hastily, assuring him, ‘Oh, not in any kind of abusive way.’

  ‘For an adult to impose his sexuality on a child in any kind of way, even verbally, is abusive,’ Tariq said grimly.

  With a father who had boasted to her about his sexuality, perhaps it was no wonder that she herself was sexually promiscuous, he reflected. Maybe she had even felt subconsciously that she had to compete with her father in order to win his approval.

  ‘That is why the apartment is so important to me,’ Gwynneth repeated, unaware of the way in which he had interpreted her words. ‘Because of Teresa and Anthony.’

  ‘You have been honest and open with me. Now it is my turn to be equally open and honest with you,’ Tariq informed her gravely. ‘Prior to your arrival here in Zuran I was involved in an undercover operation to discover the identity of the leader of a criminal gang who were targeting Zuran with a variety of criminal activities—including the double-selling scam, which enabled them to launder money. In that role I had to pretend that I was prepared to assist the gang with the necessary legalities in exchange for a financial interest in the racket. As a sweetener they gave me this apartment, so in the interests of realism I had to be seen to be using it. The night I found you here I had been offered the reward of a night with one of the prostitutes they hoped to establish here in Zuran. I had turned that offer down, but when I found you here, I thought….’

  ‘That I was a prostitute,’ Gwynneth supplied for him. ‘It’s okay. You don’t need to apologise,’ she added flippantly, in an attempt to conceal the surge of giddily relieved joy foaming up inside her. ‘I’ll take it as read.’

  ‘As to that, I wasn’t aware that I had anything to apologise for,’ Tariq informed her coolly. ‘I may have been in error with regard to your professional status, but you made it very clear that you were enjoying what was happening.’

  She couldn’t argue with that, Gwynneth realised, but she still struggled to defend herself, protesting, ‘That was a mistake! I wasn’t…I didn’t…’

  She could see from the way he was looking at her that she wasn’t having the effect she wanted to have. She might as well give up, she acknowledged, because she certainly wasn’t going to tell him that her reaction to him had trashed every single conviction she had had about her own sexuality.

  Instead she gave him a bright, determined smile and said lightly, ‘Well, now that we’ve cleared the air, and we both know what the real situation is, I’ll find a hotel to book into. I’m already packed—’

  ‘No.’

  ‘No?’ Ridiculously, her heart was beating far too fast, and with far, far too much pleasure—as though it had interpreted his refusal as a sign that he wanted her to stay with him. How on earth had that happened? She had thought she had endured enough to be protected from the danger of that kind of emotional responsiveness to him.

  ‘We’re leaving for Mjenat immediately. The Hidden Valley,’ he explained. ‘We shall be staying there for the foreseeable future.’

  He was taking her to his home. He wanted her with him. He wanted her. A second rush of joyful exhilaration followed the first before she could control it, telling its own story—as if she needed to be told how she felt about him.

  ‘But…’

  ‘I’m afraid there is no alternative. You are in too much danger to remain here in Zuran.’

  She blinked at him. ‘Danger?’

  ‘Yes. I regret to say that because you have been seen entering and leaving this apartment you have become vulnerable. The Zurani Chief of Police has received information that hitmen have been hired to…punish me for my part in ensuring that the gang are not able to set up their operations in Zuran. He has warned me that anyone closely connected with me is at risk. In fact he rang me this morning to tell me that his men have already foiled two attempts to harm you.’

  Gwynneth suddenly felt quite sick with shock and disbelief.

  ‘The car…and then those men…’ she whispered.

  ‘Yes,’ Tariq agreed. ‘Fortunately the Chief of Police has his men keeping a watchful eye on you. These people obviously think that you are my lover, and that is why they are targeting you. The Chief of Police believes that they now have all those involved under lock and key, but he has said that he wants some more time to be totally sure. It is for that reason that you and I are going to the Valley. You will be safe there.’

  Safe? With him? What a fool she had been to have thought…what she had thought. And how revealing her reaction had been. How had it happened that she had allowed herself to become so emotionally vulnerable to him? All her life she had guarded herself against just that kind of danger, yet now, and with a man her common sense should have told her was not for her, she had somehow or other let him into her heart. And now it was too late to try to bar it to him. Much too late. Andthat meant…

  The enormity of what it meant made her feel sick and shaky. She couldn’t go anywhere with him. Not now that she could no longer hide from the fact that she had fallen in love with him. And especially not now when she knew that he did not return that love. ‘There’s no need for me to go anywhere with you,’ she told him unsteadily. ‘I can go home. I’ll be safe there.’

  ‘Maybe. Maybe not. And I am not prepared to take the risk of that “maybe not”.’

  ‘Youare not prepared?’ She was using her anger to drive away those other feelings she must not feel. ‘I am an adult, and I am perfectly capable of making up my own mind and taking my own decisions.’

  ‘Indeed. But you must understand that I have a moral duty to protect you, since it is because of me that you are in danger. Were I to allow you to leave Zuran, I would have to send men with you to guard you.’

  He obviously wasn’t joking about the potential danger, Gwynneth saw apprehensively.

  ‘But your Chief of Police said he’s got those responsible,’ she pointed out doggedly.

  ‘I said he believes that he has. Naturally he wants to be totally sure.’

  ‘But surely it isn’t really necessary for me to go to the Valley with
you?’

  ‘Unfortunately, I’m afraid that it is.’

  So in actual fact hedidn’t want her with him. She assimilated that information in silence as she fought down the pain it brought her. The truth was that she wanted to go with him as little as he wanted her to be there—although for a very different reason. She had felt much safer when the barrier between them had been her assumption about his way of life and her aversion to it. Then she had believed that, no matter how physically tempted by him she might be, her emotional revulsion to what he represented would keep her safe.