Royal Affairs: Desert Princes & Defiant Virgins: The Sheikh's Virgin Princess / The Sheikh and the Virgin Secretary / Desert Prince, Defiant Virgin
He didn’t reply, and she wished she’d had the sense not to raise the subject. Even though they weren’t touching she could feel the tension in his powerful frame, and sensed that he had every intention of avoiding any reference to the conversation that they’d had in the dark recesses of the night. She sucked in a breath. ‘Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you. You were—kind.’ It seemed a completely inappropriate word for this man, who was the complete antithesis of the word kind, and perhaps he thought so, too, because his dark eyes narrowed slightly as he studied her face in brooding silence.
Finally he spoke. ‘No apology is needed. You had a long and tiring day. Enough to trigger bad dreams in the most robust personality.’
‘Yes.’ There was no need to tell him that the dreams had nothing to do with the day they’d had and everything to do with her dark and tangled past. He didn’t need to hear that. He didn’t want to hear it. The loneliness of her situation rose up inside her and threatened to swallow her whole.
Karim took a step backwards, his tone cool and lacking in encouragement. ‘We should leave. Eat something.’ He waved a hand towards a rug that had been spread out in front of the tent. ‘I’ll meet you by the car when you’re ready.’
Alexa watched him stride off and dropped onto her knees on the rug, not at all feeling like eating. She nibbled a few dates and some pita bread and took a few sips of water, before returning to the tent to pack her things. Keep moving forward. Never look back.
Karim was already loading the four-wheel drive. ‘Are you ready?’
‘Yes.’ She handed him her small case and he stowed it in the back. ‘How far are we going today?’
‘We should reach the next oasis. It’s much bigger than this place. More of a tourist resort. From there it is less than two days’ drive to the Citadel. You should be in plenty of time for your wedding.’
‘Wedding.’ Alexa stared at him and he lifted an eyebrow.
‘You’d forgotten your wedding?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. Of course not.’ But she had. Just briefly, her life had condensed itself down to this one single moment, and the only man in her mind was him. But now she was duly reminded that there was so much at stake. As if remembering that fact, she glanced once over her shoulder and then slid into the car, trying to ignore Karim in the seat next to her.
Strong, she thought wistfully. During the night it had been his strength that had comforted her. And she had to remind herself that there had been nothing personal in the gesture.
‘So—tell me about this dune driving.’ Trying to distract herself, she covered her eyes with her dark glasses and stared out of the window at the towering dunes that surrounded them. ‘They look pretty high. You drive right to the top?’
‘And down the other side and then back up to the top again.’
‘Sounds fun. Can we do it?’
He glanced towards her, dark eyes incredulous. ‘You want to drive to the top of a dune?’
‘I thought we could both do with a little light relief.’
‘I haven’t done it since I was in the army.’
‘So what’s that supposed to mean—are you too old to have fun?’ A devil inside her made her tease him. Or perhaps she was just overcompensating for the misery she felt. ‘Or have you lost your nerve since then, Karim?’
‘It is your nerve that concerns me. You may be a rebel, but I don’t think you’re brave.’
Aware that he was referring to the tears she’d shed the night before, she drew in a deep breath. ‘My nerve is intact. I thought you wanted to show me the desert. So take me to the top of a dune and show me your desert, Karim.’
For a moment she thought he was going to refuse. Then he turned towards her, his dark eyes gleaming with challenge. ‘Do you like roller coasters?’
Alexa sensed a change in him. Suddenly he seemed lighter—less intimidating—and the tantalizing glimpse of this hidden part of him intrigued her. ‘I’ve never been on a roller coaster. Try me.’
‘You promise not to scream like a girl?’ A faint smile tugged at the corners of his normally serious mouth, and that smile was so surprising that she felt her stomach flip.
‘I promise not to scream like a girl. Go for it. Rediscover your reckless youth.’
‘All right. Hold on.’ Without giving her a chance to change her mind, he turned the wheel, flattened the accelerator and the vehicle shot straight to the top of the dune.
The sudden rush of speed made her wish she hadn’t been quite so rash, and if she could have changed her mind in that split second then she would have done.
Why, oh, why, had she encouraged him to behave like an irresponsible teenager?
As they roared up the side of the steep dune she clutched her seat and cast a look at his profile—and saw not a teenager, but a man.
His eyes were fixed ahead in total concentration, his hands moving instinctively over the controls as he demanded the utmost from the vehicle. And his cool confidence soothed her anxiety and she found herself relaxing, and then gasping with amazement as they crested the dune and she saw more dunes stretching out ahead of them like an exotic, fiery labyrinth.
‘Oh, it’s beautiful,’ she breathed. ‘So beautiful. Like another world.’
For a moment they were poised on the top of that world, and then Karim threw her a slow, wicked smile and hit the accelerator with his foot. The vehicle plunged nose-first down the vertiginous drop on the other side, forcing Alexa to throw out a hand and steady herself against the dashboard.
It was so thrillingly terrifying that at first she couldn’t catch her breath. Resisting the temptation to cover her eyes, she braced herself for the moment when the vehicle would topple over and land upside down at the foot of the dune, but it didn’t happen. Instead they descended the dune in a smooth rush, Karim handling the wheel so skilfully that Alexa laughed with exhilaration.
They reached the bottom and he jerked on the handbrake.
She gulped in some much-needed air and then turned to look at him, unsure as to exactly what was responsible for her churning stomach: terror or the impact of the devastating smile he’d given her. ‘Is this what they teach you in the army?’
‘Desert survival.’ Still smiling, he released the handbrake and drove back towards the road. ‘You’re a very surprising woman, do you know that?’
‘Because I didn’t scream like a girl? I didn’t have the breath to scream.’
‘Because you’re not afraid of any of the things I would expect you to be afraid of. You shrug off the heat, you stroke a snake and you laugh at dune driving—but you hate locked doors, cry in your sleep and you run from a man who has no reason to chase you.’
Her smile faltered. ‘Well, fear is a funny thing, isn’t it? It’s different things for different people.’ Dark clouds swirled around her brain like a malevolent stalker ready to snuff out her brief flirtation with happiness. ‘Can I have a go behind the wheel?’
‘You have to be joking.’
His reaction made her laugh. ‘So is this your fear, Karim? A woman behind the wheel?’
‘Driving in the desert is very different to driving on tarmac. The sand is constantly shifting. It isn’t as easy as it looks.’
‘It doesn’t look easy at all. But it looks fun. That’s why I want to try it.’ Alexa couldn’t remember a time when she’d laughed like that, and suddenly she was desperate to recapture the moment. ‘Can I?’
‘You forget that I’ve already experienced your driving once. Even without the presence of a sand dune, it was scary.’
‘That’s not fair. I was afraid we were being followed.’
‘You drove like a madwoman,’ Karim muttered, adjusting several controls on the dashboard and steering the vehicle back onto the sandy road that cut between the undulating dunes. ‘If that is how you drive, then it is no wonder that you have had accidents.’
The feeling of happiness left her as abruptly as it had arrived. ‘My accidents had absolutely nothing to do with my driving.’
‘You are saying that the tree jumped out and banged into your car?’
‘No. I—’ Oh what was the point? His job was simply to escort her safely to the Citadel, not provide her with emotional support. She didn’t need emotional support. ‘Accidents happen, Karim.’
He watched her for a moment, his gaze disturbingly acute. ‘Not when I am your bodyguard.’ He sounded so confident that for a moment she wanted to believe him. It would have been so tempting to just relax and let someone else take the pressure for a change.
But she knew she couldn’t do that.
An unexpected moment of lighthearted fun didn’t change the facts. Her life was in danger, and she wouldn’t be safe until they were inside the high stone-walls of the Citadel.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THEY arrived at the oasis as dusk was falling.
Alexa watched as Karim avoided the busy tourist hub and drove the vehicle to an elaborately tented area slightly set apart. ‘They call this the Royal Suite. It has been set aside for our use. It’s more private than the other accommodation.’
‘I wish we didn’t have to stop.’
‘Even I cannot drive for days without rest,’ he said dryly. ‘You need to relax and leave the worrying to me.’
‘But you’re not worrying.’
‘A worry is merely a problem which hasn’t been solved.’ He undid her seat belt, and there was a sardonic gleam in his eyes. ‘If I see a problem, I solve it.’
Her heart banged against her chest. ‘What if you don’t see the problem before it hits you?’
‘Then the reaction must be all the quicker.’ Leaning her head back against the seat of the car, she closed her eyes. Despite the sleep she’d managed to snatch, she felt mentally and physically exhausted, the strain of the past few weeks building to a crescendo. ‘I’m so tired.’
‘Hopefully you will sleep better tonight.’
‘Yes.’ Alexa turned to look at him. ‘Thank you. I know I said I didn’t want a bodyguard, but I never would have managed this journey without you. I can see that now.’ She sensed his immediate withdrawal.
‘You are my responsibility.’
In other words he was just doing the job he was being paid to do, and he didn’t want her to forget that. Unreasonably disappointed by his reaction, she climbed down from the vehicle and followed him into the tent.
‘Well, I envy your stamina. I don’t think I have the energy to eat. I’ll just go straight to bed, and—’ She broke off with a gasp of shock as she walked into the tent and saw the bed. ‘Oh my goodness! It’s like something out of an Arabian fantasy.’
‘Indeed.’ Karim opened a bottle of water and handed her a drink. ‘The tourists like it. It is the honeymoon suite, I believe.’
Alexa stared at the huge bed draped in jewel-coloured silk and velvet cushions, and felt the colour heat her cheeks. Arabian antiques and elaborate rugs gave the tent a warm, intimate feel. It was clearly a place for lovers. ‘Won’t we be conspicuous staying here?’
‘No one will be looking for you in the honeymoon suite. You’re not married yet.’
The yet hung between them, and she gazed at him for a moment, noting the sudden tension in his broad shoulders.
It was ridiculous, she thought frantically, to be so sexually aware of a man when she was about to marry another. She had to stop thinking about Karim in that way. Just because he’d been kind, didn’t mean that he was thinking …
‘We should eat.’ His voice sounded unnaturally harsh, and the fact that he turned away from her made her wonder if he’d somehow sensed the way she was feeling.
Was he shocked? Embarrassed? Probably, because she certainly was.
‘I’m not really hungry.’
‘Sit down, Alexa.’ He sounded tired, and he rubbed the tips of his bronzed fingers over his forehead as if to relieve the tension. ‘You must eat. We have almost two days of travel ahead of us, and you ate virtually nothing today.’
‘All right. Just something small.’
She wasn’t aware that he’d communicated with anyone, and yet moments later several staff entered the tent, bearing a selection of dishes which they placed on the rug. Once they were alone again, Alexa knelt down. ‘So this place is actually a hotel?’
‘Zangrar is proving a surprisingly popular tourist destination.’ Karim picked up a dish and transferred several delicacies to her plate. ‘These desert encampments appeal to the romantic nature of tourists. They have a chance to swim, go dune driving, ride a camel and spend a night in the desert under the stars.’
‘Tourism was the Sultan’s idea?’
‘He has driven much of the commercial development, yes. It is important to look forward to the time when our natural resources run out.’
‘It’s wonderful that he cares so much about the future of Zangrar.’ Alexa stared at the food on her plate without touching it. ‘My father was the same. He was passionate about Rovina—’ She stopped suddenly, horrified with herself. Why was she talking about her father?
‘His death must have been a great loss to the country.’
‘I miss him every day.’ Her hand shook, and Karim reached out and gently removed the plate that she was holding.
‘Much of the security of childhood comes from parental love. You were deprived of that.’ His astute observation surprised her.
‘Yes, it was hard.’
‘At least you had your uncle to care for you.’
Alexa felt herself hovering on the brink of unfamiliar territory. This was the point where she should tell him the truth. She wanted to tell him the truth. But trusting anyone was so alien that she just couldn’t persuade her mouth to form the words. She just couldn’t take that final plunge. So she stayed silent, and was just about to change the subject altogether when she heard the sound of a vehicle outside.
She turned her head swiftly towards the doorway of the tent. ‘Did you hear something?’
‘A car. Probably late arrivals.’
But her sense of danger was so finely tuned that she just knew, and she stood up so quickly that she tipped several of the dishes onto the floor. ‘They’ve found us.’
Karim’s eyes narrowed, but he rose to his feet. ‘They will simply be tourists. Wait here. I will investigate.’
‘No!’ Forcing herself to think clearly, she grabbed his arm. ‘Don’t do that. Is there another exit? We need to get out of here before they find us.’
‘Calm down.’ Clearly believing that her reaction was wildly exaggerated, he gently removed his arm from her grip and strolled out of the tent.
Alexa didn’t waste a moment in contemplation.
Her hands and knees shaking, she stuffed her hair under a hat and grabbed her knife. Hoping that the Sultan would agree to pay for the damage, she cut a hole in the back of the opulent tent and slipped out into the night.
She wasn’t waiting to see who the visitors were. She already knew.
And she ran. As quickly as she could in unfamiliar terrain she ran, past a swimming pool, between the sloping palm-trees and out towards the desert. She didn’t know where she was going, but she hoped she’d be able to find somewhere to hide. Her heart was pounding, her mouth was dry and she stumbled twice as she ran in the darkness.
There were shouts from beyond the tents and then an explosion of gunfire behind her, and Alexa froze. She’d left Karim to handle them alone.
She looked over her shoulder, torn by indecision. He hadn’t believed her and that wasn’t all his fault. She hadn’t told him everything, had she? And now, because of her, he was in danger.
Cursing herself for not forcing him to leave with her, she turned back towards the tents, but then she heard the roar of a car engine and headlights came towards her.
Her heart pounded and a feeling of helpless despair swamped her.
They’d found her. And out here, trapped in unfamiliar terrain, she could do little to defend herself.
It was all over.
Unable to run, she stood staring at those headlights—stood waiting to die.
‘Alexa! Move!’ Karim’s harsh tone penetrated her haze of fear, but she was shaking so much she couldn’t do anything. He opened the door, jumped down from the vehicle and swung her bodily into his arms. ‘Now is not the time to stand still.’ Behaving as if she weighed nothing, he virtually threw her into the passenger seat, and was back behind the wheel and stamping hard on the accelerator before she’d even had time to catch her breath.
‘Do your seat belt up,’ he bit out sharply. ‘In the dark I can’t be sure I’ll avoid the holes in the ground.’
Her hands shaking, she did as she instructed and then gasped as she saw the stain spreading on his sleeve. ‘You’re hurt.’
‘It’s just a scratch.’
‘It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have let you come with me—’
‘Are they behind us?’
Alexa glanced over her shoulder and saw lights. ‘Yes. They’re following.’
‘Then we go where they won’t be able to follow.’ His tone grim, Karim spun the wheel and took the vehicle off-road.
Realising his intention, she clutched at her seat and looked at him in disbelief. ‘You’re planning to go dune driving in the dark?’
‘It will make it harder for them to follow. There is an old Bedouin camel-trail not far from here. If we can make it to there, then we will be safe.’ He took the vehicle up the side of the dune in much the same way as he had done that morning, only this time there was no laughter, and she was horribly aware of the stain darkening the fabric of his shirt.
‘I need to stop the bleeding. Does this car have a first-aid kit?’
‘Under the seat. Leave it. They’re still behind us.’ As they reached the top of the dune, he glanced in the mirror and gave a faint smile of triumph. ‘But not any more. They didn’t tackle it at the right angle and they have rolled to the bottom. Let’s move.’
‘Your arm—’
‘Hold on.’ He took the vehicle down the other side, driving with more care than he had during daylight hours. ‘Tell me who they are. Who are those people?’
‘I don’t know. Someone working for my uncle. It’s always someone different. To be on the safe side, I just suspect everyone.’
Karim muttered something in his own language, and then switched back to English. ‘Are you telling me that he employs different people to kill you?’
‘I did tell you that my life was under threat, but you didn’t believe me.’
‘Reasons might have helped.’
‘Never mind that now. Oh, God, there’s blood everywhere.’ She dug around under the seat, found the first-aid kit and flipped it open. ‘You’re going to have to stop so that I can look at your arm, Karim.’
He ignored her. ‘Talk to me, Alexa! Why would your uncle want you dead?’
‘It’s complicated, and you need to concentrate on driving.’
Rummaging through the first-aid kit, she pulled out a bandage. ‘Is the bullet in the wound?’
‘No. I’ve already told you, it’s just a scratch. Answer my question. What are we dealing with here?’
‘Cain and Abel,’ she muttered, and he glanced at her sharply.
‘Jealousy between brothers? That is what this is about?’
Alexa ripped the packaging from the bandage. ‘His brother—my father—is dead. I’m the last remaining obstacle between him and the throne of Rovina.’
‘He already rules Rovina.’
‘As Regent. He wants to rule in his own right. He’s always wanted that. If I reach my twenty-fifth birthday, then I take over as ruler. He isn’t going to let that happen.’ She steadied herself as the vehicle plunged and bounced on the uneven ground. ‘You need to stop so that I can see what I’m doing.’
‘We’re not stopping until I decide that it’s safe.’
‘Then I’ll just have to bandage it over your clothes. I’m sorry you were hurt because of me.’
He glanced towards her, his eyes gleaming dark and dangerous in the dim light of the car. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said that you were in danger. When it is safe, we will stop and you will start talking. And this time I’ll be listening hard.’
Her hands shook as she bandaged his arm. ‘We won’t be safe until we reach the Citadel.’
‘We will. The desert is a very unforgiving place for those without knowledge. This is an old Bedouin route. If we drive along here, we will reach the caves and we can rest there.’ Karim reached out a hand, punched a number into a satellite phone and then proceeded to speak rapidly in a language that she didn’t understand. When he finally broke the connection, she looked at him expectantly.
‘What was that about?’
‘I have asked for a security team to pick up those men and question them.’ His expression was grim as he gripped the wheel with his hand and drove hard and fast through the desert. ‘There may be others.’
The caves formed a dark, forbidding labyrinth at the base of the huge sandstone-cliffs. Alexa leaned forward, peering through the darkness. ‘We’re going in there?’
‘Yes.’ Karim parked the vehicle out of sight of the road and winced as he reached for a torch and some blankets. ‘No one will look for us here.’
Alexa felt her stomach lurch at the thought of all that dark, confined space, but said nothing. She knew that they needed to get out of sight, and she was worried about Karim’s arm. ‘Let’s go, then.’
She followed him into the entrance of the caves. ‘Shall we just stop here?’ Her voice echoed and he flashed the torch towards the back of the cave where the rocks narrowed.
‘Through there is a smaller chamber. We’ll spend the night there. It will be warmer.’
And darker and more closed in. Alexa stood for a moment, finding it impossible to make her feet move. Then she remembered that they were in this situation because of her, and forced herself to follow him through the narrow gap, reminding herself that she wasn’t locked in.
There was a way out.
Karim checked that the ground was dry and then dropped the blankets. ‘Sit down.’
‘ You sit down. I need to look at your arm.’ She undid the emergency dressing she’d applied and waited while he pulled off his shirt. Blood oozed from the wound, and she cursed softly and pressed down hard, staunching the flow. ‘It’s bleeding a lot. I’ll clean it and dress it, but I suspect that it could have done with some stitches.’
‘So blood is yet another thing that doesn’t frighten you?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. Can you shine the torch on this so that I can see what I’m doing?’ Removing what she needed from the first-aid kit, Alexa swabbed the wound and took a closer look. ‘You’re right. The bullet just grazed the skin. I’ll clean it, but you probably need some antibiotics.’
‘And how can a princess, who supposedly isn’t interested in anything more than fast cars and high heels, be so adept at first aid?’ He watched as she carefully applied a sterile dressing to his arm and bound it firmly.
‘I’ve spent a lot of time working at the local hospital. William hasn’t invested any money in healthcare since he became Regent. The hospitals are struggling—no money, no staff. Morale is rock bottom. I help out when I can.’
‘You work in the hospital?’
‘As a volunteer.’ Alexa closed the first-aid kit. ‘I’m not trained, or anything. I would have loved to have been a doctor, but there was never any chance of that.’
He studied her for a moment, his expression forbidding. ‘Sit down, Alexandra. It’s time we talked about your uncle.’
Alexa sat down on the rug and tried not to think about the darkness. They weren’t closed in, she reminded herself. ‘I’m really sorry I got you into all this. I knew it was a mistake to take you with me.’
‘I didn’t give you a choice in the matter.’ He sat down next to her. ‘But clearly, I should have listened to you more carefully. I’m listening now, Alexa. Start talking.’ The silence of the cave closed around them like a protective cocoon.
‘I wouldn’t know where to start.’