Danger in the Desert

by Merline Lovelace

Later, much later, Jaci would kick herself for letting that cocky grin erase all doubts about driving off with a stranger. At that particular moment, though, all she saw were a pair of glinting gray eyes and an impossibly sexy smile.

  “If you’re sure it’s no trouble?” she said a little breathlessly.

  “No trouble at all.”

  “Then I’ll take you up on your kind offer.”

  “Good. Keep the card,” he told Mrs. Grimes as he scooped Jaci up in his arms again. “Have your tour guide call me in a half hour or so, and I’ll let y’all know what the doc says.”

  The address on the card and that easy “y’all” confirmed Jaci’s initial guess. The man sprang from Western stock.

  Unlike her. Born and raised in Illinois, she’d followed her high school sweetheart’s lead and applied to the University of Florida. Unfortunately, Bobby had used the year between his graduation and hers to dramatically expand his sexual horizons. Worse, he hadn’t bothered to tell Jaci he wanted to continue his extracurricular activities until after she’d shown up for her first semester.

  She’d endured a miserable four months while he strutted around campus with a variety of different women. Then his partying and late nights caused him to flunk out at the end of the semester. Jaci considered that sweet justice, but his abrupt departure from her life didn’t lessen the sting.

  She’d pressed on and completed her degree in library science. A subsequent job offer at the university’s Architecture and Fine Arts Library had kept her in Florida after graduation. She’d never joined the lively on-campus party crowd, though—or the beach bunnies who headed for white sands and green waters every weekend. Her values were still solidly Midwestern, and her interests were more academic than social. Work filled her days, and an assortment of study groups took up several evenings a week.

  It was one of those groups that had hooked her on ancient cultures—especially Egypt. Since joining the group, Jaci had dreamed of visiting this cradle of modern civilization. Three years of watching her pennies had made the trip a reality. She refused to let a fall from a camel ruin it!

  She confided as much to her knight errant once he’d deposited her in the passenger seat of his rental car and had taken the wheel.

  “I really, really appreciate you doing this. I can’t afford to waste a minute of my time in Egypt.”

  He slanted her a quick look. “Have a full schedule laid out, do you?”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe! I’ve been planning this trip for ages.”

  She settled back in the seat, thinking of the months of study and preparation that had gone into her trip. Thank goodness for the Thursday-night group. One of the members had been born in Egypt. A former adjunct professor at the Health Science Center, Dr. Abdouh had retired from medicine years ago. He’d been a great help to Jaci in preparing for her great adventure.

  She would have to email him about her near disastrous camel ride and send him a digital picture of the little scarab now tucked in her tote bag. Maybe he could interpret the markings on the beetle’s back. He’d probably tell her the inscription read “Made in China,” she thought ruefully. She didn’t care. It was…

  A shrill horn and the screech of tires cut into her musing. Gasping, she thrust out an arm to brace herself as a taxi shot into their lane. Her self-appointed chauffeur stood on the brakes and let loose with some Arabic. When Cairo’s unbelievable snarl of exhaust-spitting traffic had sorted out a little, Jaci gave him a sideways glance.

  “You must spend a lot of time in Egypt if you’ve learned to speak the language.”

  “I’ve picked up a few phrases. Not anything you’d want me to translate, though.”

  There it was again—that quicksilver grin. Jaci felt its impact all the way down to her toes. She curled them inside her sneakers and barely cringed when Deke had to swerve into another lane to avoid a donkey cart filled with cabbages piled to an impossible height.

  Jaci twisted around for a better look. This was Cairo at its most vivid, she thought on a rush of pure delight. Donkeys were vying for road space with exhaust-spewing vehicles. Multistory concrete buildings were decorated with Arabic arches. Old men were fishing in canals dug by their ancestors millennia ago.

  “So where’s home for you, Jaci?”

  The question brought her back around in her seat. “Gainesville, Florida. I’m an assistant research librarian at the university there.”

  “Guess that explains the gator on your friend’s visor. The lady who took me for a white slaver.”

  “That’s Mrs. Grimes,” she said with an embarrassed laugh. “She’s a former high school teacher. She takes nothing—and no one—at face value.”

  “Smart lady.”

  Very smart, Ace thought with a sideways glance at his target.

  “Here we are.”

  He dodged a stream of oncoming vehicles and pulled through an arched entry into a palm-lined courtyard. Kahil’s Egyptian-born, American-educated wife had opened her free clinic two years ago. Ace had been present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. His company also contributed heavily to the clinic’s operation. Dr. Fahranna El Hassan was nothing if not persuasive.

  She was also tall, slender, gorgeous—and iron-willed enough to have tamed Wild Man Kahil. And now that she had her husband on a short leash, she’d moved Ace to the top of her list for reform—a fact she reminded him of after an attendant had showed him and Jaci Thornton into an exam room and the doctor burst into the room.

  “Deke!” She threw her arms around him, digging her stethoscope into his chest as she kissed him on both cheeks. “Why didn’t you give Kahil and me more warning of your visit? I have a cousin I want you to meet. She just might be the woman to wean you from your evil ways. Or…”

  Her curious eyes swept over the female perched on the edge of an exam table.

  “Have you brought one of your own for me to check out?”

  “Curb your matchmaking instincts, Fahranna. I’ve brought you a patient.”

  All brisk business now, the physician addressed Jaci in her usual blunt manner. “I am Dr. El Hassan. And you are?”

  “Jaci Thornton. Mr. Griffin, uh, Deke and I just met.”

  Fahranna lifted one delicately arched brow. “Did you?”

  “We were at the pyramids. He was kind enough to bring me here after I fell off a camel.”

  “Ah, yes,” she said with a wry smile. “The camels. What did you injure?”

  “My knee, but it hardly hurts anymore.”

  “Let’s take a look at it, shall we? You will have to remove your slacks. Deke, take yourself back to the waiting room.”

  To Jaci’s relief, Dr. El Hassan’s diagnosis confirmed her own. She hadn’t broken any bones, just collected another bruise. The doctor recommended an ice pack if her knee started to swell and heavy-duty aspirin for pain.

  When she walked Jaci to the waiting room, Deke tossed aside the newspaper he’d been perusing and offered his arm for support. Jaci took it with a shy smile that the physician didn’t fail to note.

  “You must come for dinner,” she announced with a gleam in her dark eyes. “Kahil will want to meet the woman who moves his friend to such noble acts of chivalry.”

  Jaci opened her mouth to decline the offer, but her companion preempted her.

  “You know I never turn down a free dinner, Fahranna. I’ll give you a call later and set up a time that fits with your schedule and Jaci’s.”

  Chapter 3

  Ace waited until he had his target back in the rental car and was headed back to Giza to dig the hook in deeper.

  “How long will you be in Cairo, Jaci?”

  “Three more days.”

  “What does your agenda look like?”

  “It’s packed, morning to night. We’re doing a breakfast cruise on the Nile, a visit to the pyramids of Saqqara and a whole afternoon at the Cairo Museum.”

  With its priceless gold and lapis lazuli statue of the goddess Ma’at, Ace remembered with a sudden tightenin
g of his belly.

  Coincidence? Could be. A trip to Cairo’s famed museum was on every tourist’s agenda.

  “And,” his passenger added with a flush of excitement, “we’re going to the Valley of the Kings! We’ve got a whole day to explore Luxor and Karnak.”

  The Valley of the Kings, where Hatshepsut had constructed the temple to Ma’at. The same temple supposedly raided by tomb robbers more than a thousand years ago, giving birth to the legend that the goddess would someday send a messenger that it was time to restore cosmic order.

  Another coincidence? Once again, it could be. But Ace had spent too many years in this business to take anything on supposition.

  “What evening could you have dinner with Fahranna and her husband? You need to see their home,” he added when she looked doubtful. “It’s been in Fahranna’s family for generations. The mosaic tiles in the entryway were supposedly fired in the same kiln as the tiles in the Grand Mosque.”

  “Really?”

  She chewed on her lower lip, obviously torn. Ace reeled her in even further.

  “The garden alone will make think you’re in something right out of Arabian Nights. Moorish arches, marble fountains, swaying palms. Last time I was there, they even had a nightingale warbling away.”

  “It sounds incredible.”

  “It is. How about tomorrow evening?”

  She’d taken the bait. Her eyes were as bright as emeralds.

  “If that works for you and your friends.”

  Ace knew damn well Kahil would make it work. His people were closely monitoring the sudden spurt of emails and cell phone chatter that mentioned Jacqueline Thornton by name. The colonel had already indicated to Ace that he wanted to make his own assessment of Thornton’s motives for visiting his country.

  “I’ll give them a call later and let you know.”

  He cut the wheel to avoid a wobbly cyclist and decided to go straight for the jugular.

  “So what brought you to Egypt?”

  “My Thursday-night study group,” she answered with a smile. “We meet once a week to explore ancient civilizations. We’ve been focusing on Egypt for the past year and…well, guess you could say I’m hooked.”

  “On?”

  Her hand made circles in the air. “The culture, the history, the architecture, the rich pantheon of gods and goddesses. They all fascinate me.”

  “The gods and goddesses, huh?” He shot her a quick look. “I don’t know that much about Egypt’s ancient deities, but from what my friends have told me, there were a bunch of ’em. Anyone in particular catch your interest?”

  “Yes!”

  Ace gripped the wheel as she angled toward him, her face alight. He paid no attention to her sparkling green eyes this time or the way the ends of her soft brown hair brushed her cheek. His entire being was focused on the seemingly artless disclosures that spilled from her lips.

  “I’m thoroughly intrigued by the goddess Bast.”

  Bast? Was that another name for Ma’at? Ace knew most Egyptian gods and goddesses had changed names and shapes over the various dynasties. Had he missed that one?

  “She was the Egyptian cat goddess,” Jaci related eagerly. “Did you know the Egyptians highly revered house cats?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “It’s true. Cats helped keep vermin out of grain supplies and would kill snakes, especially cobras. Owners would adorn their cats with jeweled collars, even let them eat from their plates at the table. If the owners were wealthy enough, they would have their household ‘protector’ mummified. Supposedly, more than three hundred thousand mummified cats were discovered when one of Bast’s temples was excavated.”

  “Three hundred thousand?”

  “I know. Sounds wild, doesn’t it? Unless you’re a cat lover.”

  “Like you?” Ace guessed.

  “Like me,” she agreed, grinning. “I’ve got two.”

  Figured. A college librarian with those wholesome, girl-next-door good looks. Not the type to go for a pit bull or a big, galumphing Lab.

  “One—Mittens—is the laziest feline in the universe. She usually can’t be bothered to do more than lift her head and twitch her tail when I come home from work. The other—Boots—is more lively. The little stinker has shredded two sets of living room drapes.”

  Good Lord! Mittens and Boots.

  Restraining a grimace, Ace gave his passenger another quick glance. Was she for real? Or really, really good at projecting an air of wide-eyed innocence to disguise other, more suspicious activities? Damned if he could decide…yet.

  He had pretty well made up his mind by the time he pulled into the parking lot for the Sound and Light Show.

  Jaci Thornton had to be exactly what she seemed—the archetypal American tourist on the trip of a lifetime. When Ace had brought up Ma’at, she’d scrunched her forehead and said she’d read something about that goddess but couldn’t recall specific details.

  He’d then casually steered the conversation to Egypt’s current political situation. Other than knowing the name of the current president and that he advocated reforms that had stirred opposition among some conservatives, Jaci didn’t seem to have a clue as to who led the opposition.

  She’d sounded so convincing, so sincere, that Ace was ninety-nine percent sure she was the naive, trusting tourist she appeared to be. Until he’d satisfied the remaining one percent doubt, however, he didn’t intend to let the woman out of his sight.

  He made sure of that by parking the car and insisting she let him walk her to the entry point for the Sound and Light Show.

  “I’m fine, Deke. Honestly. My knee hardly hurts at all anymore. I can navigate on my own.”

  “Save your breath. No way I’m going to just dump you in the parking lot. Besides,” he added as he hooked her arm through his, “I’ve never seen the laser light show. I’m thinking I might join you. If you don’t mind?”

  Mind?

  Jaci’s heart skipped a beat. Like she would mind sitting under the stars with this kind, thoughtful, incredibly sexy man?

  In the few short hours she’d known him, he’d rescued her from an unscrupulous camel driver, used his own body to break her fall and re arranged his schedule to get her to a doctor. He’d also promised to set up what sounded like a truly magical evening at his friends’ home. Incurable romantic that she was, Jaci already viewed Deke Griffin as her own personal knight in shining armor.

  “Of course I don’t mind,” she said in answer to his question. “But…”

  She slowed to a stop and stood beside him in the parking lot. Chewing on her lower lip, she tried to find a delicate way to express her thoughts. There wasn’t one.

  “Look, I don’t want to sound ungrateful for all you’ve done or, well, misconstrue your motives. It’s just that I’m, uh, not…”

  His eyes locked with hers. “You’re not what, Jaci?”

  Okay, she could do this. She owed it to him as much as herself to be completely honest.

  She’d learned that painful lesson from her first and only love. If Bobby had been honest with her, if he’d told her about the “freedom” he’d discovered his freshman year in college, she wouldn’t have followed him to Florida—or endured the agonizing humiliation of knowing he was out partying with a different girl every weekend.

  Jaci hadn’t dated all that much since college, but she made it a point to be totally honest with the men she did go out with. After all his kindness, she owed Deke Griffin the same courtesy. Pulling in a deep breath, she met his intent gaze.

  “I’m not looking for a vacation fling.”

  Was that a glint of surprise that came into his eyes? Or approval? She was still trying to decide when his mouth curved and the glint turned positively wicked.

  “Glad you let me know. Guess I’d better scrap my plans to carry you off to a remote desert oasis for a wild orgy.”

  Jaci had to laugh, but the erotic vision he’d painted sent a shaft of sudden and totally unexpected heat through her
belly.

  Now that, she decided, would be the adventure to end all adventures! Her vivid imagination concocted an image of the two of them alone in a silken tent, of her peeling off his sport coat and shirt. Popping the snap of his jeans. Gliding her palms over his taut belly.

  She didn’t realize her breath had shortened and her face had heated until Deke cupped her cheek with his palm. His skin felt smooth and cool against hers.

  Good Lord! Was she really blushing like some Victorian schoolgirl? She didn’t know—and when he dipped his head and covered her mouth with his, she didn’t care.

  The kiss reinforced her growing conviction she’d stumbled on an honest-to-goodness Lancelot. As his lips moved over hers, she could taste the heat in him, feel the strength in the arm he moved to her waist. Yet he lifted his head and ended the contact long before she was ready, darn it!

  “I shouldn’t have done that.” His gray eyes were stormy now, his brow creased. “I’m sorry.”

  She let out a slow breath. “I’m not.”

  They stood in the dusty parking lot for several moments, his gaze on her face, hers on his. The honk of a taxi driver impatient to disgorge his passengers jerked them from their separate reveries.

  “We’d better get inside,” Deke said, a muscle working in the side of his jaw, “or we’ll miss the show.”

  As they approached the modernistic building that formed the entrance to the laser show, Jaci leaned more heavily on his arm than she needed to. Her senses were still running riot from that kiss, and the play of hard muscle under his sleeve evoked another series of images—more X-rated this time. She pictured him naked this time, stretched out on a bed covered with jewel-toned silks and his body sleek with sweat as she straddled his hips and…

  “…your ticket?”

  She blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “Do you have your ticket,” Deke asked, “or do we need to buy another?”

  “Oh! I’ve got it. Somewhere.”

  She fished around in her tote for several moments before finally producing the envelope of tickets included in the welcome packets provided by the tour agency. Deke paid for his and ushered her inside.