The Return of the Sheikh

She’d probably have no trouble sleeping the moment her head hit the pillow. “Thank you, and I’ll see you in the morning.”

“You’re welcome.” He reached out and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “If the tea doesn’t help you sleep, my room is next door to yours. Feel free to wake me.”

“What for?” As if she really had to ask.

“Whatever you need to help you relax.”

She suddenly engaged in one heck of a naked-body fantasy that made her want to run for cover. “I assure you I won’t need anything to help me relax.”

“Let me know if you change your mind.”

“I won’t be changing my mind.” She turned toward the door then faced him again when something dawned on her. “By the way, if all this innuendo is some ploy to scare me off, save your breath. I’ve been propositioned by the best.” And the worst of the worst.

He looked almost crestfallen. “I’m wounded you would think I would resort to such underhanded tactics.”

Maybe she had overreacted a tad. Some men just happened to be blessed with the flirtation gene. “My apologies if I’m wrong about your motives.”

“Actually, you are correct,” he said. “That was my original plan. But you have bested me, so I promise to behave myself from this point forward.”

She had a hard time believing that. “Well, in case you should get any more bright ideas, just know it will take more than a few well-rehearsed, suggestive lines to send me packing. I’ve spent many years studying human nature, and I know what you’re all about.”

He braced a hand on the doorframe above her head. “Enlighten me, Madison.”

The sound of her name rolling softly out of his mouth, his close proximity, was not helping her concentration. “You use your charm to discourage perceived threats to your control, and to encourage the results you wish to achieve, namely driving people away. But beneath all that sexy macho bravado, I believe you’re a man with a great deal of conviction when it comes to his country’s future. Am I correct?”

“Perhaps you are only projecting your need for control on me. I believe at times giving up control to another is preferable. Have you never been tempted to throw out logic and act on pure instinct?”

Her instincts told her he wasn’t referring to a professional relationship. “Not when it comes to mixing business with pleasure, if that’s what you’re asking. Don’t forget we’re trying to repair your reputation, not enhance it.”

He had the nerve to show his pearly whites to supreme advantage. “Sometimes the pleasure is worth the risk.”

“I thought you promised to behave.”

He straightened and attempted to look contrite. “My apologies. I was momentarily struck senseless by your analysis.”

Before she was momentarily struck stupid and kissed that smug, sexy smile off his face, Madison made a hasty exit.

She hadn’t lied when she’d admitted she’d been propositioned before. She had lied when she’d claimed she hadn’t been tempted to cross professional lines, because she had—the moment she’d reunited with Zain Mehdi.

Three

Perception is everything…

Zain had to agree with Madison on that point. He’d always been perceived as a man with a strong affinity for attractive women, a fact he could not deny. Yet that standing had provided the means to carry out his covert activities over the past seven years, and earned him the Phantom Sheikh title. His absence had always been blamed on a lover, and most of the time that had been far from the truth. Most of the time. He hadn’t been celibate by any means, but he had not had as many affairs as what the media had led people to believe. If he had, he would have been perpetually sleep deprived.

He also recognized that giving in to temptation with a woman like Madison Foster—an intelligent, beautiful and somewhat willful woman—could possibly lead to disaster. Still, he wasn’t one to easily ignore temptation, even if wisdom dictated that he must. And at the moment, Madison looked extremely tempting.

Zain remained in the open doorway to his suite in order to study her. She stood at the veranda’s stone wall, looking out over the valley below, her golden hair flowing down her back. She’d exchanged her conservative clothing for more comfortable attire—a casual gauze skirt and a loose magenta top that revealed one slim, bare shoulder. He didn’t need to venture a guess as to the color of her bra, since she didn’t appear to be wearing one. That thought alone had him reconsidering the merits of wisdom.

Zain cleared his throat as he approached her, yet she didn’t seem to notice his presence. Not until he said, “It’s a remarkable view, isn’t it?”

She sent him a backward glance and a slight scowl. “Why do you keep sneaking up on me?”

He moved beside her, leaving a comfortable distance between them. “My apologies. I did not intend to startle you. I only wanted to make certain you have everything you need from me.”

She faced him, leaned a hip against the wall and rolled her eyes. “Are we back to that again?”

“My intentions are completely innocent.” Only a half-truth. He’d gladly give her anything she needed in a carnal sense.

She took a sip from the cup clutched in her hands. “Sorry, but I’m having trouble buying the innocent act after your recent admission.”

That came as no surprise to Zain, and he probably deserved her suspicions. “I will do my best to earn your trust.” He nodded toward the cup. “I gather that’s Elena’s special tea.”

“Yes, it is, and it’s very good.”

“Do you have any idea what might be in it?”

She lifted that bare shoulder in a shrug and took a sip. “I suspect it’s chamomile and some other kind of herb. I can taste mint.”

He turned toward her and rested one elbow on the stone barrier. “Take care with how much you drink. It could be more than tea.”

“Too late. This is my third cup, and do you mean alcohol?”

“Precisely.”

“Is that allowed?” she asked.

“Elena is free to do as she pleases, as is everyone else in the country, within reason. We’ve always had a spiritually, economically and culturally diverse population, due in part to people entering the borders seeking—”

“Asylum?”

“And peace.”

She turned back to the view and surveyed the scene. “Then Bajul is the Switzerland of the Middle East?”

“In a manner of speaking. I might not have agreed with all my father’s philosophies, but I’ve always admired his determination to remain neutral in a volatile region. Unfortunately, the threat to end our peaceful coexistence still exists, as it always has. As it is everywhere else in the world.”

She took another drink and set the cup aside. “The landscape is incredible. I hadn’t expected Bajul to be so green or elevated.”

“You expected desert.”

“Honestly, yes, I did.”

Another example of inaccurate perception. “If you go north, you’ll find the desert. Go south and you’ll find the sea.”

She sighed. “I love the sea. I love water, period.”

He took the opportunity to move a little closer, his arm pressed against hers as he pointed toward the horizon. “Do you see that mountain rising between two smaller peaks?”