One Desert Night: Destined for the Desert King / Hidden in the Sheikh's Harem / Claimed by the Sheikh

He hadn’t answered her then, nor had he offered a word of explanation during the journey here. Having gone to bed with the hope that they had at least made some sort of progress from the way that they had talked the previous night, Aziza found this silence oppressive and disturbing. But, short of making a fuss in front of their driver, she had recognised that it was far better to remain silent until they actually arrived, and so had had to sit stiffly beside her supposed-to-be husband, hiding everything she felt from him.

But now at last they had reached the smaller, less formal mountain palace and she was left alone with him in the royal apartments.

‘Why have you brought me here?’ she demanded again when Nabil did not speak.

Nabil turned a dark, sidelong glance on her.

‘So that we can begin again.’

That caught her on the raw because she didn’t know how to take it.

‘Don’t you think that “begin” is actually the correct term? After all, nothing really started between us—did it? So why have you decided that we can begin something now? What about all your suspicions—your belief that I was involved in some sort of plot against you?’

‘I had you checked out.’

Nabil showed no hint of any feeling and his statement was so matter-of-fact it was almost totally blank.

‘So I presume I passed the test, then?’

‘If that is how you want to see it.’

‘What other way is there to see it? I didn’t know that there was to be an examination into how to be a queen, or that I’d have to wait until you decided that I was worthy of your attentions. After all you picked me. Didn’t you?’

‘I did.’ If it was a concession, it didn’t sound like one.

‘Oh, that’s good—because I thought that you had a check list that you handed out to your ministers.’

Something in his face attracted her attention, had her frowning as she looked deep into his eyes.

‘You did, didn’t you? Well that’s a pretty cold-blooded way of going about things.’

‘It was a rational way of going about things. After all, this is an arranged marriage—I understood that you knew what was expected of you. Would it help if I said that you passed every test with flying colours?’

‘Is that supposed to be a compliment?’

‘What do you think I was saying to you last night?’ Nabil countered. ‘Or were you too tired to take it in?’

Last night’s memories were hazy at best, the fog of exhaustion blurring them. But he had brought her food, had told her she had handled the ceremonials well. He had even shared the truth about his mother with her and so she had gone to bed feeling better than she had for days. But she had still gone to bed alone.

‘It wasn’t just you that I had to have investigated. I needed to know exactly what your father had planned.’

‘Oh, you needn’t have worried about that.’ Aziza refused to let that concession mean anything to her. ‘If he’d wanted to plan anything underhand, it wouldn’t have been me he’d have used. He’d never have expected that you’d choose me, for one, and he’d never believe I’d be capable of carrying it off. And, if you want to be sure that you can rely on him now, then the fact that you took his second daughter off his hands will probably ensure that.’

‘The spare...’ Nabil murmured, stunning her with the realisation that he really had been listening the night before. He was watching her, sharp, clear eyes, following every movement, every expression. It was as if he was waiting for something but she had no idea what.

‘I assume that you had my sister checked out too—but you didn’t choose her. So what made the difference?’

‘I would have thought that was obvious.’

‘Not to me.’

Nabil crooked a long finger, beckoning her. And this time his sensual mouth had softened into something close to a curve.

‘Come here and I’ll show you.’

She was almost trapped by his smile. But the memories of the wedding night were still too clear, too raw. She had no wish to fall into that trap again. To try to reach out and grasp some wonderful little thread of hope, only to have it snatched away from her, leaving her lost and empty as before. She’d been cleared by his investigators, so now she was expected to fall into his hands like a ripe little plum. The fact that she yearned to do exactly that only made her own inner turmoil so much worse.

‘I don’t want to,’ she tried now, determined not to give him the easy victory she knew he was expecting.

That curve grew, became a knowing smile.

‘And you, my lovely wife, are a liar. A very bad one.’

It was dangerously soft, almost gentle, but all the same it sent a shiver down her spine.

‘Will it help if I tell you how I feel? If I let you know the truth of what these past six days have done to me?’

He shouldn’t have reminded her of the six days since their wedding. Nabil might think he had her in his power by force of strength and control. If only he knew that she was there because of something much stronger, much more unbreakable.

Wasn’t the truth that she had stayed because she couldn’t bear to go? Because, in spite of everything, she still foolishly, impossibly, held on to those dreams she had had of him when she was young? There had been tiny moments when the hard, set mask he wore day in and day out had seemed to slip and there was a glimpse of someone else underneath. Someone she wanted to know more about.

She had wanted to stay to try to reach that Nabil. To reach him and show him that whatever had made him so cynical so young was not inevitable and unchangeable. She had wanted him to know that there was someone he could trust. But also, digging deep down and staring the truth right in the face, hadn’t she also wanted to stay because she couldn’t leave him?

She was here because she still loved him, never having lost that heartfelt crush she had held for him all those years ago; she had never grown out of it as she matured. And now, as a woman, she felt the same. But this time it was deepened and complicated by the recognition of the primitive call of his male body to hers, the power of sexual hunger that no one else had ever awoken in her.

And Nabil knew that. She didn’t have to say a word. It was there in every look she gave him, the way her eyes lingered on his body, the irresistible draw of his mouth, so that she felt her own lips tingle whenever she saw it, remembering the way he had tasted. And it was there in the way she tossed and turned at night, restless even on the silken sheets, waking in the morning feeling—and no doubt looking—like a zombie.

‘Why? What have they “done”?’

Her eyes went to his, dazed gold clashing with polished black so sharply that she could almost feel the sparks that flared between them.

‘Was it so very tiring to have me investigated? Did that snap of your fingers as you sent your minions out to hunt for scandal—look for something that might incriminate me—wear you out? And incriminate me for what? For pretending to be a maid one night rather than myself, and possibly get my family into trouble when you found me roaming about the palace on the night of the celebration? Dear me, you must have had long, sleepless nights planning and organising all that!’

To her astonishment Nabil’s response was the exact opposite of what she had been expecting. He laughed. He threw his head back and laughed loudly, the movement exposing the long, bronzed line of his throat below the rich, black beard, deepening the vee at the opening of his unbuttoned shirt so that her eyes were inevitably drawn over the tanned skin and down to where the crisp black hairs on his chest were revealed.

Since they had arrived at the mountain palace, he had abandoned the formal robes he wore when in the capital and adopted a more relaxed way of dressing, in jeans and a casual shirt. The way that the worn denim clung to his long legs and lean hips, belted close around his narrow waist, had set her pulse racing; but now the sight of him with his head thrown back, his chest expanding with laughter while his hands were pushed deep into the side pockets of his jeans, made her feel as if her legs might melt beneath her.

‘I had sleepless nights all right, lady,’ he managed at last when the laughter subsided and he caught his breath, eyes bright with amusement as he looked at her. ‘But they weren’t from planning any investigation into your behaviour.’

‘Then—what?’

Was she really that naïve? Nabil had to ask himself. Was it possible that she could actually be unaware of the effect she had on him, the way that he found it impossible to focus on anything but her if they were in the same room together? Had she really not noticed the way that he never slept at night, that he read or watched TV turned down low, or tossed and turned in a painful effort to force himself to stay where he was on the couch and not get up and make his way to the other room where she slept in his bed? Hellfire, was she so damned lucky that she slept too deeply to even be aware that he was so close?

‘I saw no sign of these sleepless nights you’re claiming. After all, by the time I got up and came out of the bedroom, the bedding on the couch was always folded and packed away...’

‘Exactly,’ Nabil cut in. ‘Do you think I wanted anyone to know how it was with us? To ruin your reputation with everyone there—let them think you were not to be trusted when I had no proof of that? If I was wrong—which I was—then I had to make sure you and I could start again, with no taint of distrust over our marriage.’

If I was wrong—which I was... The words rose up inside her like a golden bubble. Too fragile, too precious, so that she was afraid it might burst if she even looked at it too closely. She needed to hear the words; had to have them said out loud.