Royal Affairs: Desert Princes & Defiant Virgins: The Sheikh's Virgin Princess / The Sheikh and the Virgin Secretary / Desert Prince, Defiant Virgin

Feeling pathetically grateful towards him, Alexa left the tent and was immediately confronted by his powerful shoulders and lean, long legs. He was in conversation with several men from the camp, but he turned as he heard her emerge from the tent. Their eyes met and held.

He said nothing, and yet the moment felt intensely personal—a silent acknowledgement of a secret shared. Then he gave a brief nod and Alexa felt her insides tumble. Suddenly she felt ridiculously nervous and had absolutely no idea why.

‘Good morning.’

He dismissed the man he was talking to with an abrupt wave of his hand. ‘You are feeling all right?’

She dug her hands in her pockets. How was she supposed to reply to that? No, she wasn’t feeling all right. Suddenly she felt as vulnerable as she’d felt when she was eight years old, clinging to the desperate hope that someone, somewhere would care for her and take the pain away if only she could find them.

But at least at the age of eight, she’d had childhood on her side as a decent excuse for such foolish fantasies.

What excuse was she using now?

Her eyes slid to Karim.

What was it about the dark and the dreams that had turned her into a child again? Why was she longing to trust him, when she’d long since discovered that the only person she could trust was herself?

Was it because, for the first time in sixteen years, she’d shared her past? She hadn’t had to cope with it alone, and that had felt good. And, now that she’d experienced the warmth of human comfort, it no longer seemed easy to shut her emotions away. She wanted more, and the power of that need terrified her more than the nightmare itself.

She wanted to feel his touch again. She wanted to reach out and touch him.

But that wasn’t allowed, was it? Although his gaze held hers, he held himself slightly apart—distant and unapproachable, as if warning her that the intimacy that they’d shared during the hours of darkness could not be extended into the daylight.

She was alone again.

A little masculine comfort in the darkness of the night had changed nothing, except perhaps to make everything seem just that little bit worse. Because that taste of human comfort had left her thirsty for so much more.

‘I’m fine, Karim.’ Too confused about her own feelings to hold his gaze a moment longer, she glanced away. ‘I’m sorry about last night. Not your favourite scenario, I’m sure.’

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?’