Undercover Sheik

He took a slow breath. “He killed my father.”

Confused, she tilted her head. “I thought you said he was swallowed by quicksand.”

“He was shot. His horse, with him still in the saddle, was forced into quicksand to cover it up. Then my enemy stole the country and murdered my people,” he went on.

Was he talking about the previous king? She remembered something vaguely from the media. “Wasn’t he made to stand trial?”

“Once my brother took power, yes. But he escaped from prison and now he is gathering followers, planning on assassinating the rest of my family and taking back the throne.”

“So your brother sent you after him?”

His lips stretched into what might or might not have been a reluctant smile. “Saeed has infinite faith in the laws he restored, in the system, in his army. He still does not fully realize how far Majid will go to regain power. My brother thinks I’m on vacation in Paris.”

“Paris?” She blinked.

With his headdress and tattered black robe, a rifle slung over his back and a handgun tucked into the sash at his waist, he didn’t look like the typical sightseer around the Eiffel Tower.

He caught her glance skipping over him and tipped his head, the expression on his face, the look in his sable eyes hardening. “All Arabs are not thieves and murderers. We are like any other people. Sometimes, we even go on vacation.”

“I didn’t mean to imply—” Had she offended him? She forgot whatever she was going to say and came up with another question. “Why are you looking for the old king here?”

He watched her for a moment before answering. “Majid is using the area to recruit. I followed his trail. He has some connection to Umman. A smuggler’s convoy is coming in any day now. They will bring guns Majid is sending. I’m going to talk to the men on the convoy and find out where he is now. Then I’ll go to him. I will take you to safety on my way.”

“Thank you,” she said and shook the last of the sand from her hair, then realized her headdress wasn’t anywhere around.

The quicksand had swallowed it. A shiver ran down her spine as she glanced at the spot. “And thank you for coming after me, for saving my life again.” When she turned back to Nasir, she found him watching her.

“We should go,” he said.

She stood at once and went for her pack a few yards away while he called to his camel. Ronu, she remembered his name. He was sleek and beautiful, different from the camels Umman kept that were twice as tall and several times as bulky.

She petted the animal’s neck before Nasir talked him into lowering himself to the ground. She got on without trouble. She’d never had any fear of animals. In her experience, men were far more dangerous.

“Well done,” Nasir said when he was up behind her and Ronu was standing. He sounded surprised.

“I used to ride horses,” she explained.

“He usually spits at strangers who come near him.”

“Is he bad tempered?” She leaned forward so she could pet the animal’s neck again. “He seems nice to me.”

Nasir’s response was a single grunt as he nudged the camel to walking. After a few minutes, once she got used to the swaying caused by Ronu’s uneven gait, she settled into her spot and enjoyed the ride.

“He looks different from the others,” she said.

“A different breed. Umman’s camels have been bred for smuggling.”

“That’s why they look like tanks?”

“They can carry extreme loads over long distances.”

“What was this one bred for?”

“Racing.”

She could picture Nasir flying across the desert like some angel of vengeance, his dark robe billowing behind him. The sight would be fit for a movie screen. “How fast can he go?” She half turned in the saddle.

He looked at her with a dangerous glint in his sable eyes. “Would you like to see?”

She nodded, trusting him to know what he was doing.

He’d saved her from execution, from rape and from quicksand. Knowing who he was—the Beharrainian king’s brother and not a bandit—set her at ease. And that he spoke her language helped, too.

She was alive. The thought hit her out of nowhere and a sense of giddiness came with it. How many times had she faced death in the last twenty-four hours? She didn’t want to think of it. She was alive!

As Ronu gathered speed, she bobbed perilously, until she stopped fighting it and let her body slide against Nasir’s. His solid bulk behind her had a steadying effect. Many Arab men she’d seen so far had a slight build. Nasir didn’t. He was strong and tall, wide-shouldered. And he was on her side.

She was going to make it out of here. A few days, he had said. That was all his business would take. This time next week she would be home.

Chapter Three

“It’s amazing,” she shouted over the pounding of hooves.

He had thought she would be scared once they got up to full speed, but she seemed thrilled. By the ride, or simply happy to be alive. He had never ridden with a woman before and with a man only when he was a child. Camel saddles didn’t accommodate two people well. She was practically sitting on his lap. Nasir kept his eyes on the horizon.

“Do you ride horses?” she shouted back the question.

“Sometimes.”

His tribe bred some of the finest horses in the country. But there was a thrill in a good old-fashioned camel race that those who participated in found addictive.

The animals could take on long-distance races that lasted several days across the desert, arid terrains no horse could have handled. Not every contestant made it to the finish line, nor every animal. These races tried a man. There was something primal, uncivilized about them, and often made him imagine his grandfather racing madly on a raid.

And that image brought to mind the bandit camp and Umman, even though they were a far cry from the honest raiders of the past.

“Your people did not pay your ransom,” he said. “Why?”

“Policy. If one kidnapper got money, everybody would start hunting for Americans.”

He could see the truth in that. If someone close to him got kidnapped he wouldn’t pay, either. He would hunt down the kidnappers and kill them, take back what was his. “Your people are looking for you?”

“I’m sure they are, but Umman moved the camp after they took me. I kept hoping somebody would find me…”

“I found you,” he said. “You’ll be fine.” He would see to it.

Her body was covered in her black abayah, her head wrapped in his plain white kaffiyeh against the rising sun. When she half turned, he caught a glimpse of golden hair escaping at her temple. “Why are you helping me?” she asked.

He owed as much to his sister-in-law. Sadie was from the same country as Dara. “You are a woman in need, alone. In our culture, every man owes his protection to such a woman.” Both of those reasons were true, and yet even together they didn’t explain the protective urge he felt for her.