Sheikh Seduction

Meaning what? That he thought Husam liked the way she looked, and maybe he shared that feeling? Husam’s interest left her cold, but the possibility that Tariq would be attracted to her sent heat skittering through her. There had to be another explanation to his words. She wasn’t about to ask.

She remembered another detail. “We were supposed to visit the well this morning. When we were delayed, Husam recommended that we not go until tomorrow. Jeff wouldn’t hear of it. Maybe Husam had a premonition.”

Tariq tapped his long fingers on the steering wheel as he considered that. “Why was Husam with you, but none of the others you met with?”

“The site supervisor was expecting us. We were supposed to take the chopper without escort. Husam decided only midmeeting that he would come along.”

They drove in silence for a while, until Tariq leaned forward and narrowed his eyes, gesturing toward the horizon. “The oasis. We are almost there.”

She stared ahead through the steam that rose from under the hood. Then stared harder still as the scene unfolded before them. Instead of the tourist picture her mind had conjured, straight ahead was an abandoned construction site in the middle of nowhere, a ghost town of steel and cement.

Tariq slowed and looked toward the west for a long moment, making her nervous. Did he see something? She searched the distance, looking for any dark spots that might be approaching trucks.

“What? What do you see?” Dread and fear were choking her. Don’t let it be bandits! Anything butthat.

But when he spoke, the news he shared with her was even more frightening, his voice as grim as his expression.

“We better hurry. There’s a sandstorm coming,” he said as he stepped on the gas.

Chapter Three

He wasn’t the sort of man who dealt well with failure. Seeing the abandoned construction site that had been his pet project set Tariq’s teeth on edge. Yet it was nothing but a minor annoyance compared to the rage that he felt over the attack, over his men being killed, over Sara Reeves being put in danger. He was mad at himself, too, for not anticipating it, for being unable to do more.

The Hummer was barely rolling. At this stage, they would have moved faster on foot, but he didn’t want to abandon the vehicle in plain sight.

“This is the oasis?” Sara stared at him with incredulity in her expressive blue eyes that said she found the place hideous.

She, on the other hand, was beautiful, even covered with sand and blood. And what kind of man was he to notice things like that after what had just happened to his men?

“It will be,” he stated. He didn’t need one more person to question or make fun of his enterprise, whether she had the most beguiling eyes he’d ever seen or not. “Who was Jeff Myers to you?”

More than a business partner; on that Tariq would stake his life. He’d seen the way the man had looked at Sara when he thought nobody was watching.

She glanced away. “An old friend.”

He waited.

“We were supposed to get married. B. T. Reeves was my father’s company. Jeff brought needed capital and got half the firm for it. I inherited the other half after cancer took Dad.” She pressed her lips together as if she’d said too much. “Everything was supposed to work out perfectly with the two of us getting married.” She seemed compelled to explain, anyway.

“Except the wedding never happened.” Tariq wanted to know why, realized this wasn’t the time to ask.

“Where is the water?” She seemed eager to move off the subject.

There’d been plenty of tension between her and her partner; Tariq had read that clearly in the car before the attack. Judging from the man’s quiet resentment and sullen attempts to dominate her, she must have been the one who’d broken off the relationship. Jeff Meyers had wanted to regain control, probably to get her back. Tariq couldn’t blame him.

He thought of the tender way she had buried the man she no longer loved, no longer even liked, if their earlier interaction was any indication. But she had worried that his body should be found for his family. She was loyal to the end.

And right now, she was gazing at Tariq expectantly.

Yes, the water. “Under the sand.”

He pulled the Hummer inside one of the buildings, which had walls standing but no doors or windows yet. They hadn’t gotten that far with the project.

She jumped out. “There aren’t any palm trees.”

Her innocent remark pricked him more sharply than it should have.

He wasn’t daft; nobody needed to explain to him what an oasis should look like. Tariq tempered his irritation. He was getting too sensitive about this venture and all the questions that still swirled around it in the media—damaging publicity financed by his enemies.

“Can’t put in landscaping until all the heavy machinery is out of here.” He saw the place as it would be when the work was completed, this room a banquet hall fit for the most discriminating guests. He shook off the sense of frustration as he strode out the back of the building.

“It’s not what I expected.” She trailed after him.

He’d spent his life escaping other people’s expectations. He wasn’t about to start worrying about hers, regardless of whatever unreasonable attraction he felt for her. “The oasis will be a resort with a capital O.”

“Ah,” she said, but appeared uncertain still, her face softening, giving him a glimpse of what she was like with her defenses down. Of course, every expression was appealing on Sara Reeves.

“There was a real oasis here, but the well dried up about fifty years ago.” He searched for the best place to weather the storm, noticing as he did so that the satellite dish was missing. Probably knocked down by the unusually savage storm they’d had a week ago. “When we were looking for a site for a new project and had some surveys done, we found plenty of water. The water table is now deep below the bottom of the well our ancestors dug in the sand.” The desert had gotten drier and drier over the last century.

“So you’re from around here?” She gave him a searching look. “You talk like an American.”

“I lived in the States for a while.” Sometimes he thought it’d been too long, sometimes too short. He watched as her gaze flitted over his buildings. She didn’t seem impressed. It annoyed him more than it should.

“MMPOIL is branching out?” she asked.

“The oil won’t last forever.”

Now was the time to set up other businesses, to start to develop other industries. His people’s future depended on these initiatives, and he took them seriously, even though he’d received plenty of ridicule as a result. His generation had grown up oil rich. They’d seen nothing else, could imagine nothing else. They couldn’t fathom that the revenue and the lifestyle it brought would ever end. And if any such unpleasant thought did cross their minds, they took care of it with a shrug and an insha’ Allah—it’ll be according to Allah’s will.

“This place is huge.” She looked back at him finally. She had eyes the shade of the desert sky right after a rare rain took all the sand particles out of the air. A captivating blue that brightened further the few times she let her guard down, never longer than seconds at a time.

The top of her head was even with his nose. She was slim but strong, inside and out. She might bend, but she wouldn’t break. She had nearly maimed the bandit who’d grabbed her.

Tariq forced his gaze away from her lips, which might look soft if she ever relaxed. “Twenty acres. Someday it’ll be a five-star resort that will draw visitors from all over the world.”

He also had a convention center complex in mind for another location, closer to Tihrin, and a long list of other projects he fought with his enemies to bring to fruition. All things that were suddenly low on his list of priorities.

He headed toward the cluster of luxury villas, the most completed buildings. No doors or windows here, either, but the floors were tiled and the roofs finished, the sunken pools in the bathrooms set up with plumbing, if not yet hooked up to water.

“Wow, this is amazing,” Sara said, with a fair dose of surprise in her voice as she took in the brilliant colors of the mosaic tiles depicting scenes from nature, similar to those at the ancient ruins to the west of them.

“We’ll get water and look for the satellite dish.” The latter had to be near the tall building it’d rested on, probably buried in sand. They had used it during construction to amplify cell phone signals, since the nearest tower was so far away. Tariq needed to talk to his brothers, and let Omar, Husam’s father, know about his son’s abduction, although the kidnappers might have contacted him by now.

Tariq sympathized with the anguish the man must be in, and to a degree, he blamed himself. He should have noticed when the bandits took Husam, and done something to prevent it. He owed as much to Omar, an old family friend who had been there for Tariq’s father until the end. But Tariq had been so focused on Sara, and sure that Husam could hold his own…. No time to dwell on all that now. Before he could be of any help to Husam, he first had to save Sara and himself.

Water. Satellite dish. Car.

If for some reason he couldn’t get a connection, he would fix the Hummer with whatever scraps he could scrounge, and take Sara to the nearest town as soon as the storm blew over.