The Call of the Desert

by Abby Green

  Her heart swelled—not for this city in particular, but for this part of the world. If any city held her heart it was Burquat, high on its huge hill, with its ancient, dusty winding streets and mysterious souks. But the air here was similar, and the heat …

  She heard a sound behind her and turned to see Kaden standing at the doors. Her heart leapt. He was dressed in faded jeans which clung to powerful thighs and a sweaty polo shirt, boots to his knees. Damp hair stuck to his forehead.

  As she watched, he started to pull off his shirt with such sexy grace that she dropped the croissant and didn’t even notice. How could she feel so wanton and hot, mere hours after—?

  Kaden threw down his top and came to Julia, hemming her in against the wall with his arms. His mouth found and nuzzled her neck. He smelled of sweat and musk and sex.

  Julia groaned and said, half despairingly, “Kaden …”

  He pulled one shoulder of her robe down and kissed her damp skin. “You missed a bit here … I think we need to remedy that.”

  With that awesome strength he picked her up, and within minutes they were naked and in the shower.

  Much later, when the daylight was tipping into dusk outside, Julia woke from a fitful sleep. She felt disorientated and a little dizzy, even though she was lying down. Flashes of the day came into her head: the lavish wedding ceremony in the ornate ceremonial hall, Samia looking pale and so young, her husband tall and dark and austere, reminding Julia of Kaden.

  And then, after a token appearance at the celebration, Kaden pulling her away, bringing her back here, where once again passion had overtaken everything. Her body was still sensitive, so she couldn’t have slept for long.

  She heard a noise and turned her head to see Kaden sitting at a table in the corner of the palatial room, with his slim laptop open in front of him. That lock of hair was over his forehead, and he sipped from a cup of what she guessed was coffee.

  There was something so domestic about the scene that Julia’s heart lurched painfully. And she knew right then with painful clarity that she had to be one to walk away this time. She couldn’t bear to stand before Kaden again and have him tell her it was over.

  As if he could hear her thinking, he looked over. He was already half dressed, in black pants and a white shirt. His look was cool enough to make her shiver slightly, and he glanced at his watch. “We have to be ready in half an hour for the final banquet.”

  Julia shot up in the bed, clutching the sheet. “You should have woken me.” With dismay she thought of her dress for this evening that was already in the wardrobe. It was another couture gown, and she was going to require time to repair the damage and restore herself to something approximating normality. If she could ever feel normal again.

  Feeling absurdly grumpy, Julia marched into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

  Kaden sat back in the chair and frowned, looking at the tangled sheets of the bed. The truth was he’d felt so comfortable here in the room, with Julia sleeping in the bed just feet away, that he’d forgotten all about waking her. His skin prickled at that. He’d felt that way before … with her, but never with another woman. Even with his own wife he’d insisted on separate bedrooms and living quarters. He knew now that if the situation had been reversed and he’d been married to Julia it would have been anathema not to share space with her.

  If he’d married Julia.

  That all too disturbing thought drove him up out of his chair and to the phone. He picked it up and gave instructions to the person on the other end.

  When Julia emerged from the bathroom there was a pretty young girl dressed all in white waiting for her. She said shyly, “My name is Nita. I’m here to help you get changed.”

  Too bemused even to wonder where Kaden had disappeared to, Julia let Nita help her, and within half an hour she was dressed and ready again. At precisely that moment Kaden reappeared at the bedroom door, resplendent in another tuxedo. He held out his arm for Julia, who took it silently.

  This time her dress was a deep purple colour. A tightly ruched strapless bodice gave way to swirling floor-length silk which was covered in tiny crystals. The effect was like a shimmering cloud as Julia walked alongside Kaden.

  She could feel the ever-present tension in his form beside her, and marvelled at the irony of the whole situation. She was arguably living every little girl’s fantasy, here in this fairytale castle, yet with the bleakest of adult twists.

  She had to end this tonight—before he did. Before he could see how helplessly entangled she’d already become again.

  A few hours later, when the crowd had watched Sultan Sadiq lead his new wife from the ceremonial ballroom, Julia was exhausted, and more than relieved when Kaden took her hand to lead her from the room. Her traitorous blood was humming in anticipation as they neared the bedroom. But she forced ice into her veins.

  When they reached the room she extricated her hand and went and stood apart from him. He was surveying her warily, and she realised just how little they’d really communicated all weekend—as if he had been deliberately trying to avoid any conversation or any kind of intimacy beyond sex. It galvanised her.

  She hitched up her chin. “The couple I was talking to earlier are leaving Burquat tonight, on a private flight back to England. They’ve offered me a seat on the plane if I’m ready to go in an hour.”

  Julia was vaguely aware of tension coming into Kaden’s form. “You can’t wait until tomorrow morning, when I am going to take you home?”

  She shook her head, almost dizzy with relief that she was taking control of things. That Kaden wasn’t coming closer, scrambling her brain. “There’s no need. I need to get back. I’ve got work this week. I’ve got a life, Kaden. I think it’s best if we just say this is over, here and now. What’s the point in dragging it out?”

  Kaden was seeing a red mist over his vision. So many conflicting things were hitting him at once. No woman had ever walked away from him, for one thing. But a dented ego had never been his concern. It was Julia, standing there so poised and cool, as if ice wouldn’t melt in her mouth. When only hours before she’d been raking his back with her nails and sobbing for him to release her from exquisite pleasure.

  Jerkily Julia moved to the drawers and picked up what looked like a jewellery box. She was already gathering her things to start packing. Filled with something that felt scarily close to panic, Kaden took a step forward and noticed how skittishly she moved back. Her face had an incredibly vulnerable expression but he blocked it out, and it was only then that he noticed—at the same time as she did—that some jewellery had fallen from the box after her skittish move.

  He watched as she bent to pick up the trinkets and then, as if in slow motion, something gold fell back to the floor. Before he even knew what he was doing he’d stepped forward and picked the piece up.

  Julia stood up. Her heart had stopped beating. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion. Kaden straightened. The distinctive gold chain with its detail of a love-knot looked ridiculously delicate in his huge hand. He didn’t even look at her.

  “You still have it.”

  Julia didn’t have the strength to berate herself for having brought it. She swallowed and said, far more huskily than she would have liked, “Yes, I still have it.”

  Even now her fingers itched to touch the tell—tale spot where it usually sat, and she clenched her hand into a fist. Kaden looked at her and his face was unreadable, those black eyes like fathomless wells.

  “You always touch your throat …” He reached out his other hand and touched the base of her neck with a long finger. “Just here …”

  Julia gulped, and could see his eyes track the movement. With dread in her veins and a tide of crimson rising upwards she could only stand still as Kaden carefully stepped closer and opened the necklace, placing it around her neck and closing it as deftly as he had the day he’d bought it for her.

  She felt the weight of the knot settle into its familiar place, just below the ho
llow at her throat. Kaden took his hands away, but didn’t move back. Julia couldn’t meet his eyes. Mortified and horrifically exposed.

  Kaden looked at it for a long moment, and then he stepped back. When she raised her eyes to his they were blacker than she’d ever seen them. His face was set in stark lines. “If you’re sure you want to go home now, I’ll see that Nita comes to help you.”

  Julia shook her head, feeling numb. She wasn’t sure how to take Kaden’s abrupt volte face, when moments ago he’d looked as if he was about to tip her back onto the bed and persuade her to stay in a very carnal way. Now he looked positively repulsed. It had to be the necklace. He was horrified that she still had it, and what that might mean. Memories, the sting of rejection—all rushed back.

  “It’s fine. I don’t need help.”

  Kaden saw Julia’s mouth move but didn’t really hear what she was saying. All he could hear was a dull roaring in his head, the precursor to a pounding headache. And all he could see was that necklace. It seemed to be mocking him. He could still feel its imprint on his hand.

  A tightness was spreading in his chest. He had to get out of there now. He backed away from Julia. Gathering force within him was the overwhelming sensation of sliding down a slippery slope with nothing to hold onto.

  Julia watched the play of indecipherable expressions cross Kaden’s face. She felt like going over and thumping him. She wanted to wring some sort of response out of him … But then she felt deflated. How could she wring a response out of someone who had no feelings?

  She swallowed painfully. “I … It’s been—”

  She stopped as he cut her off. “Yes,” he agreed grimly. “It has. Goodbye, Julia.”

  And with that he turned and was gone, and all Julia’s flimsy control shattered at her feet—because she felt as if she’d just been rejected all over again.

  Less than an hour later Kaden was in his own private plane, heading back to Burquat. He’d actually had a meeting lined up the following morning, with some of Sultan Sadiq’s mining advisors, but had postponed it. The fact was he’d felt an overwhelming need to get as far away from B’harani as possible, as quickly as possible.

  He looked down at his hand. It was actually shaking. All he could see, though, was that necklace, sitting in his hand, and then around Julia’s neck. It was obviously the necklace she went to touch all the time. It hung in exactly that spot, and when he’d put it on she’d looked guilty.

  The question was too incendiary to contemplate, but he couldn’t help it: who would keep and wear a cheap gold necklace for twelve years? It was the only piece of jewellery, apart from his ex-wife’s wedding rings, that he’d ever given to a woman, and he remembered the moment as if it was yesterday.

  Kaden’s mind shut down … He couldn’t handle the implications of this.

  He watched the B’harani desert roll out below him, and instead of feeling a sense of peace he felt incredibly restless. His hands clenched to fists on his thighs, he didn’t even see the air hostess take one look at his face and beat a hasty retreat.

  Kaden assured himself that for the first time since he’d met Julia he was finally doing the right thing. Leaving her behind in his past. Where she belonged.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “YOU are definitely pregnant, Julia. And if the dates you’ve told me are correct I’d say you’re almost three months gone—at the end of your first trimester.”

  Julia’s kindly maternal doctor looked at her over her half-moon glasses,

  “Why didn’t you come to me sooner? You must have suspected something, and we both know your periods are like clockwork.”

  Julia barely heard her. Shock was like a wall between her and the words. Of course she’d suspected something for the last two months, but she’d buried her head in the sand and told herself that fate couldn’t be so cruel—not after years of trying for a baby with her husband. Hence the reason why her doctor knew her so well.

  But then the problem hadn’t been on her side. It had been her husband’s.

  The doctor was looking at Julia expectantly, and she forced herself to focus. “I just … I couldn’t believe what it might be.”

  Her doctor smiled wryly. “Well it’s a baby, due in about six months if all goes well.” She continued gently, “I take it that as you’re divorced the father is …?”

  “Not my ex-husband, no.” Julia bit her lip. “The father is someone I once knew, long ago. We met again recently …”

  “Are you going to tell him?”

  Julia looked at her friend. “To be honest? I don’t know yet … what I’m going to do.”

  The doctor’s manner became more brisk. “Well, look, first things first. I’ll book you in for a scan, just to make sure everything is progressing normally, and then we can take it from there— OK?”

  One month later

  Kaden paced in his office. The ever-present simmering emotions he’d been suppressing for about four months were threatening to erupt. Julia was here. Outside his office. Right now. She’d been waiting for over an hour. He would never normally keep anyone waiting that long but it was Julia, and she was here.

  He ran a hand through his hair impatiently. What the hell did she want? His heart beat fast. Did she want to continue the affair? Had she spent the last months waking in the middle of the night too? Aching all over? He felt clammy. Would she be wearing that necklace?

  He clenched a fist. Dammit. He’d hoped that by now he’d have chosen a wife and be in the middle of wedding preparations, but despite his aides’ best efforts every potential candidate he’d met had had something wrong with her. One was too forward, another too meek, too sullen, too avaricious, too fake … The list was endless.

  And now he couldn’t ignore the fact that Julia Somerton had come to Burquat, going unnoticed on the flight lists because of her married name. In Burquat all repeat visitors were noted. She’d made her way to the castle and now she was sitting outside his door.

  His internal phone rang and he stalked to his desk to pick it up. His secretary said, “Sire, I’m sorry to bother you, but Dr Somerton is still here. I think you should see her now. I’m a little concerned—”

  Kaden cut her off abruptly, “Send her in.”

  Julia finally got the nod from Kaden’s secretary, who was dressed not in traditional garb, as everyone used to be when she’d been here last, but in a smart trouser suit, with a fashionable scarf covering her hair. She’d been solicitous and charming to Julia, but Julia had noticed her frequent and concerned looks and wondered if she really looked so tired and dusty.

  Her flight from London had left at the crack of dawn, and the journey from Burquat airport in a bone-rattling taxi with no air-conditioning had left her feeling bruised and battered. Thankfully, though, the incessant morning sickness she’d been suffering from had finally abated in the last month, and she felt strong enough to make the journey. Physically at least. Mentally and emotionally was another story altogether.

  She knew that she’d lost weight, thanks to the more or less constant morning sickness, and she was pale. She couldn’t even drum up the energy to care too much. She wasn’t coming here to seduce Kaden. When he’d said that clipped and cold goodbye in B’harani after seeing the necklace it couldn’t have been more obvious that he’d been horrified. She’d watched his physical reaction and known that any desire had died a death there and then.

  Julia stopped herself from touching her neck now, and reminded herself that the necklace was safely back in the UK. She stood up and walked to the door. The secretary had told her to leave her suitcase by her desk. Julia hadn’t even booked into a hotel yet, but she’d worry about that after.

  The door swung open and she took a deep breath and stepped into Kaden’s office. The early evening sunlight was in her face, so as the door shut behind her all she could see was the formidable outline of Kaden’s shape.

  She put a hand up to shade her eyes and tried to ignore the wave of déjà-vu that almost threatened to knock he
r out. The last time she’d been in this room—

  “To what do I owe the pleasure, Julia?”

  So cool.

  Julia forced herself to breathe deep and focus on getting the words out. “I came because I have to tell you something.”

  Kaden finally stepped forward and blocked the light, so now Julia could see him. She felt her breath stop at being faced with his sheer male beauty again. And also because he had a beard—albeit a small one. His hair was longer too. He looked altogether wild and untamed in traditional robes, and her heart took up an unsteady rhythm.

  Stupidly she asked, “Why do you have a beard?”

  He put up a hand to touch it, almost as if he’d forgotten about it, and bit out, “I’ve spent the last ten days in the desert, meeting Bedouin leaders and councils. It’s a custom among them to let their beards grow, so whenever I go I do the same. I haven’t had time to shave yet. I just got back this morning.”

  Julia found this unexpected image of him so compelling that her throat dried. He was intensely masculine anyway, but like this … Her blood grew hot even as she looked at him. And he was looking at her as if she’d just slithered out from under a rock.

  He quirked a brow. “Surely you haven’t come all this way to question me on my shaving habits?”

  A wave of weakness came over her then, and Julia realised she hadn’t eaten since a soggy breakfast on the plane—hours ago. She cursed herself. She had to be more careful. But in fact, whether fatigue or hunger, whatever it was created a welcome cushion of numbness around her.

  She looked at Kaden again and willed herself to be strong, straightening her spine. “No, I’ve come for another reason. The truth is that I have some news, and it affects both of us.” She continued in a rush, before she could lose her nerve. “I’m pregnant, Kaden. With your baby … Well, actually, the thing is, it’s not just one baby. If it was I might not have come all this way. But you see, I’m almost four months pregnant with twins … and the thought of two babies was a bit much to deal with on my own … and I know I could have rung, but I tried a few times … but that’s when you must have been away in the desert and I didn’t want to leave a message …”