CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SHE WOKE SLOWLY, stretching out a body that had been very well used. She smiled as she remembered Shazim making love to her, and stretched out a lazy hand to touch him.
‘Hey, lazy bones—’
She turned to see Shazim, already up and drying his wild black hair on a towel. There was another towel slung around his lean waist. He’d been for a swim, and his bronzed torso was pumped and gleaming. He looked amazing. Burying her face into the pillow, she faced up to the fact that she looked like the same sleep-wrecked, down-to-earth woman she’d always been, a woman who was far too sensible to ever be called pretty. In fact, forget pretty. A man like Shazim would hook up with a genuine beauty. It was one thing having a passionate fling with the ugly duckling, out in the desert with no one to see them, but he’d want the swan for when he was back in town.
‘Come on,’ he urged, leaning over her. ‘It’s time to get up and out.’
She pushed her worries aside. ‘Kiss first,’ she insisted, clinging onto the fantasy for as long as she could.
‘We’ve got work to do,’ he said sternly.
She loved his sternness. She loved the work. She loved the way he said, we’ve got work to do. The fact that Shazim was already thinking of them as a team, at least professionally, was all she had ever wanted. And they were a team—a great team.
At least for now.
Turning to face him, she smiled away her fears and reached up. ‘This is something special, isn’t it?’ Now she sounded desperate, but she was too much in love to care.
He laughed. ‘So special I may never get enough of you.’
Her heart actually ached with happiness. That was all she had wanted to hear.
He should have known it wouldn’t end with a good morning kiss. The moment his hands closed around Isla’s soft, hungry body, it was only a short trip to their favourite destination. Making her shriek with excitement as he swung her off the bed, he kissed her deeply as she wrapped her legs around him. Backing her up to one of the sturdy tent poles, he did the only decent thing.
‘Oh, yes,’ she exclaimed, working furiously to draw him inside her.
In a matter of moments they were working together and laughing softly against each other’s mouths.
‘One more time,’ she begged him, writhing a little to encourage him.
He needed no encouragement and took her again.
* * *
These had been the best few days of her life, Isla thought, smiling as she helped Shazim to free some rare desert gazelles into the wild later that morning. They had shared something special. And the best thing about it—the part she couldn’t believe—was that Shazim seemed to feel the same about her. He hadn’t told her exactly that he loved her, but he had said that he could never get enough of her.
Okay, she was a realist, and Shazim was a king, a lord of the desert. They could never be a cosy couple, but they might work something out.
And when he gets married, as kings do?
She didn’t know—she wasn’t sure. That was a question for another day.
Forcing unwelcome thoughts out of her head, she got on with unlatching the crates to free the animals. Her heart swelled with love for Shazim as they exchanged a triumphant glance when the animals bounded free.
‘And now I must go,’ he said, shocking her into silence. ‘I’ll take a quick swim to freshen up, and then—’
‘You’re going already?’ She had thought she was prepared for this. He’d said something about the rangers coming so she wouldn’t be alone, but she’d been too busy working, and hadn’t really listened. Shazim had explained that he had some matters of state to attend to, she remembered now, after which he would be meeting with some Q’Aqabian tribesmen. His departure was hardly a surprise. She just hadn’t expected it to be so soon.
‘An emergency,’ he explained, frowning with concern. ‘A dispute between some local tribesmen—if I’m not there to pass judgement it could blow up into something big.’
‘Then, you must go,’ she insisted. ‘What?’ she said when he hesitated.
‘I don’t want to leave you, Isla.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you’ve got to go.’ Pushing her hair back, she straightened up to confront him. ‘Don’t think I can’t manage here.’
‘The rangers are on their way to join you,’ he murmured as if thinking out loud.
‘There you are. Everything’s fine. Now, go.’
‘The last communication I had with the rangers said they’d be no longer than half an hour.’
‘Then, what are you worrying about?’
He hummed in answer.
‘Look,’ she said, pointing out into the desert. ‘You can see the dust from their Jeeps from here. They’re even closer than you thought.’
‘They’ll have to leave the Jeeps with tribesmen, and travel on by horseback—’
‘I know you wouldn’t leave me if you thought there was the slightest danger.’
Only Shazim’s eyes were visible now as he wound his howlis around his head. He was again the Lion of the Desert, and she knew exactly what she was taking on. They both had a job to do. ‘Go,’ she insisted. ‘I wouldn’t have agreed to come to Q’Aqabi in the first place if I hadn’t thought I could handle situations like this.’
‘There are plenty of supplies in the tent for all of you, so you can stay on and finish the job.’ Shazim’s stallion was becoming impatient as he added, ‘The weather report is good, but remember that the desert is unpredictable.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ she insisted, flinging her arms out wide. ‘If I can’t survive for twenty minutes on my own, what hope do I have of keeping a job here?’
Shazim still look worried as he made the customary gesture with his hand to his forehead, his lips, and then his heart, and she wondered if his concern had anything to do with those shadows in his eyes. He didn’t give her time to ask him as he wheeled his horse and rode away.
Shazim was a king with duties to his countrymen, Isla reasoned sensibly after watching him ride away until he had disappeared from sight. He could hardly take off endless amounts of time to be with her. She had always known that what they had would end abruptly, and maybe this was for the best. Shazim would come back, of that she had no doubt, but by then they would both have had chance to think, and to come to terms with a reality that did not include a long-term relationship between Shazim and his latest veterinary recruit.
* * *
The rangers did not arrive. Instead, Isla received a radio message to say that a flood warning had prevented them from taking the route they had intended, and that she must get herself to higher ground without delay. Shazim was already on his way back to her.
‘If he’s only coming to rescue me, he can stay where he is,’ she insisted as her heart squeezed tight with concern for him.
‘He’s on his way, Ms Sinclair. There’s nothing we can do to stop him now.’
She would have said more, but the radio signal crackled and then broke up.
Well, there was no sign of a flood so far, Isla reassured herself, and Shazim was as capable as she was of taking care of himself. But she still worried about him, and kept on checking the sky to be sure there was no sign of a storm. Maybe the flood warning was for somewhere else, she reasoned, somewhere closer to the rangers. If the worst happened, she had been watching the path the gazelles took up the cliff when they were released. They were wily animals and instinct invariably kept them safe. The pathways up the cliff were narrow, but manageable. She could only hope Shazim didn’t take any chances with his safety. Dashing worried tears from her eyes, she got on with her work.
* * *
He could not believe what he’d done. He’d left Isla alone in the desert. Who knew better than he that conditions could change in minutes in the wilderness? In one final irony, as he’d ridden away he had told himself that he was doing the right thing, and that he should leave Isla for her own sake, to save her from him.
He’d made a critical error. If Isla was in danger, there was nowhere else he should be than at her side. He had issued a declaration to the tribesmen that if they didn’t sort out their differences they would be answerable to him. Word from his council had come back immediately to say the warring factions had parted grumbling, but resigned to obey their Sheikh’s will.
Shazim was a strong ruler, and he should have known better than to allow his feelings for Isla to go so deep. He could not allow their relationship to progress, but that didn’t mean he would knowingly expose her to danger. He couldn’t bear to be responsible for another tragedy. And when Isla was involved—
Leaning low over his stallion’s neck, he urged his horse to gallop even faster. He would reach Isla—whatever it took.
He reined in abruptly. The outcrop of rock where he’d left her was already awash with water. The dried up riverbed was full. He’d have to go around it. He tried to reach her by satellite phone, but each time the line cut before she could answer; a sign that the weather conditions were deteriorating. He could only hope that she’d had the good sense to move to higher ground. He scrambled helicopters from the royal fleet, but even he couldn’t be sure that they would arrive in time.
If he lost her—
Isla had more courage and can-do in her little finger than anyone he’d ever met. He might be wedded to his country, and to the projects that had meant so much to his brother, but if this was what caring for someone felt like, then he embraced it with all his heart, and the sooner he told Isla how he felt about her, the sooner he might be able to live with himself again. The realisation that she might be in danger had shaken him to the core—it had unlocked something in him and he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he had to be with her, because he loved her. She was his life.
* * *
There was no sign of Shazim, nor was there any sign of an impending flood. There was an increase in the flow of water in the riverbed, but that was only consistent with a brief rainstorm somewhere else. The sky was sullen overhead, which was new in Isla’s brief experience of the desert, but there was nothing else to alarm her. She had one more group of animals to tag before the herd could be left to roam at will, and then she would call it a day.
Or so she thought. But a few of the animals were really wily, and had managed to escape. She caught up with them further down the riverbed on the flat ground that Shazim had warned her to stay away from, as it could flood.
She would be quick, she reassured herself as the deepening river water washed over her sand boots.
She glanced up to where the rest of the herd was waiting. Some of them were climbing higher still. She stopped for a moment to listen, but could hear nothing unusual. Maybe there was some tasty moss on the higher slopes.
It didn’t take her long to finish and, as the last animals joined their companions, she shaded her eyes and smiled to see a group of horned faces staring down at her.
The last animal to be released was a fawn. It leapt up the jagged path like lightning, and Isla’s stomach clenched when she saw its startled eyes and laid-back ears. She tried telling herself that no animal liked to be captured and tagged, and she had no reason to be fearful. She ducked instinctively as a crash of thunder argued with this. And then the rain came down. It didn’t just start to fall, but hit her with the force of endless blows. She was drenched immediately.
So that was why the animals were so spooked. She’d done her homework, and she knew what could happen in a thunderstorm in the desert. After Shazim’s warning, she took no chances and raced to the base of the cliff. Starting to scrabble up it, she knew she’d been overconfident and too absorbed in her work. She should have done this sooner. Her nails ripped on the treacherous surface as she struggled to find a handhold on the same path the gazelles had used. Desert sand didn’t soak up water quickly, and the walls of water created by a sudden rainstorm could be as much as thirty feet high. She had to keep on climbing or she could drown. More people drowned in the desert than died of thirst, she had also read.
She reached a ledge and took a moment to catch her breath, but she still wasn’t high enough. The animals were a long way above her, but they took chances, and she didn’t have their blind courage. They would launch themselves into space on a wing on a prayer, but if they fell... She cried out as the fawn she’d just tagged spun past her. Jostled from the ledge by its companions, it had missed bouncing off the cliff face by only a hair’s breadth. It landed awkwardly and she breathed a sigh of relief when, having righted itself, it shook its head. But it was dazed, and was bleating with bewilderment.
By this time she was halfway down the cliff on her way to rescue it. And now she could hear the water coming. Just the faintest rumble in the distance, but it was getting louder all the time.
* * *
He saw the flash flood coming while he was safe on higher ground. The only way he could be sure that Isla wasn’t trapped was to climb the cliff where they’d been working from the other side.
When he reached the top and looked over the edge, the sheer volume and force of the water was far worse than he’d imagined. He had supplies in his saddlebag, including rope, gloves, and a medical kit, all of which was a necessary precaution in the wilderness. And he knew how to climb. He also knew just how dangerous it could be. In fact, who knew better than he, when his climbing had been responsible for the tragedy that had killed his brother?
There would be no more tragedies today. On that he was determined.
Uprooted palm trees were being swept along like matchsticks. Desert storms arrived fast, and subsided just as quickly, but the devastation they caused could have tragic, long-term consequences. Isla would be safe if she had stayed in the tent, but he doubted she would have gone there, as she had been so keen to finish her work. She was still here somewhere, he was sure of it—but where? She would have to climb to at least thirty or forty feet above the riverbed to be safe.
Looping a rope around a rock, he heaved himself up and climbed on, telling himself that she was sensible and resourceful. She had proved herself in the sandstorm, and he’d warned her not to go near the riverbed. She would be safe.
She had to be safe.
He’d climbed high enough to catch sight of the tent through the driving rain, and he scanned the area between there and the oasis.
There was no sign of Isla.
The water was crashing around one side of the rocky outcrop, destroying everything in its wake, while on the other side the scenery was unchanged. He could only hope that Isla’s smarts had kept her on the safe side of the cliff.
* * *
She was on a ledge, safe for the moment, with the gangly animal in her arms, resting before she pressed on, when a dark shape loomed over her.
‘Shazim!’
She couldn’t have been more surprised to see him climbing down to her, having come over from the other side of the cliff.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked, taking in the situation at a glance.
She nodded as his eyes blazed into hers. Without another word, he took the fawn and lifted it onto his shoulders. ‘Come on. We can’t stay here. The water’s still rising.’
‘No.’ She shook her head as he held out his hand to help her. ‘You need both hands to climb—it isn’t safe. I won’t be responsible for sending the ruler of Q’Aqabi plunging to his death.’
The change of expression on Shazim’s face shocked her.
‘Take my hand,’ he repeated harshly. ‘We have hardly any time left before the next wave of water sweeps us away.’
Ignoring him, she crabbed sideways until she found a foothold. Then, launching herself into space, she somehow landed on a narrow ledge. Once she was sure it cold hold her, she instructed, ‘Pass me the gazelle.’
‘No. You’re not strong enough.’
‘Pass him up,’ she insisted.
He didn’t doubt Isla’s courage, but she didn’t have the strength for this. The gazelle, meanwhile, made its own choice, and coiled around
his neck in terror, refusing to move.
‘Stay where you are,’ he called out. ‘I’m coming up.’ Having found the entrance to a cave in the cliff face, Isla was taking refuge there. When he reached her she was ashen-faced. Carefully disentangling the gazelle, he set the small animal on the path to freedom. Dragging Isla into his arms, he embraced her with relief. As she clung to him he wondered if he could ever let her go. ‘I’m sorry this had to happen. It’s my fault for leaving you.’
He pressed his face into her hair, but she pulled back and shook her head. ‘I knew what I was doing. I’m not a fool, Shazim.’
‘No,’ he argued grimly. ‘You’re anything but a fool, but you could still have been killed.’
‘You left me for what you thought was a few short minutes,’ she argued. ‘If I can’t cope in the desert for that long, then I don’t belong here.’
‘But if anything had happened to you—’
‘It didn’t. And if it had, I would have been responsible, not you.’
‘You’re wrong,’ he said coldly. ‘I would have been responsible, because I brought you here.’
‘What’s really wrong with you, Shazim?’ she demanded. ‘You don’t come into the desert unless you can help it these days, your rangers told me. You set up one of the most important conservation programmes in the world, and then you stand back and let others take the glory, while you micromanage the scheme from a distance. The project only exists because of you—’
‘You’re so wrong about that,’ he said bitterly.
Isla shook her head. ‘It exists because of you, and not because some ghost from the past is directing you from afar. This is your project—your work—your triumph.’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about!’
‘Don’t I? I know what I see. You didn’t bring me here to be a puling milksop who agrees with every word you say. You brought me here to challenge and question, and to add value to your scheme. And I will, if you’ll allow me to. But if I can’t be trusted alone in the desert, then I don’t know where we go from here.’
In the Sheikh's Service Page 13
