The Desert Bride of Al Zayed / Best Man's Conquest: The Desert Bride of Al Zayed / Best Man's Conquest

Jayne found herself bristling at the command. But she forced herself to take a deep breath and follow him through the French doors onto the terrace outside. Stairs cut into a wall of stone, lined with flaming sconces, led to a secret garden where white flowers bloomed in the waning light. In the arbour, surrounded with white roses, a table had been laid and an array of food spread out.

Nearby a fountain tinkled, the sound of water calming Jayne’s frazzled nerves.

There was huge platter of fruit with dates and wedges of crumbly white cheese that resembled haloumi. Another plate held a selection of flatbreads with hummus, fried kibbe, the spicy meatballs with pine nuts, and a dish of tabbouleh salad. Eyeing the spread, Jayne discovered that she was hungrier than she’d thought.

“Is that falafel?” she pointed to a plate of patties.

“Ta’amiyya. It’s made with fava beans, but it’s not dissimilar to falafel. Try some.”

Jayne did. She selected a little of everything and let Tariq pour her a glass of icy water. After she’d finished eating, Tariq selected two peaches from the fruit bowl to the side of the table. Picking up a sharp knife he deftly cut the peaches into slices. The inner flesh was a ripe golden orange and the juice dripped from his fingertips.

He offered her the plate.

“Oh, I couldn’t, I pigged out.”

“Try them. The taste is sweet, the flesh of the fruit soft and succulent. They were flown in from Damascus today.”

He made them sound utterly irresistible. Against her better judgment, Jayne reached out and took a sliver. Tasted it. The peach lived up to everything he had promised.

“Like it?”

“Mmm.”

His eyes grew darker at her throaty murmur. “You used to make delighted sounds like that when we made love.”

“I don’t remember.”

“Of course you do.” Tariq’s eyes were hooded, but his voice was softer than velvet and caused little shivers to spread through her.

The meal was over. She no longer had to observe social niceties. It was time for a little directness. “I don’t want to remember. I want to go back home, to move on with my life.”

“There was a time when your home was with me—”

She waved a hand, dismissing his claim. “That was another life.”

“So, there is another man…at this new home?”

“I didn’t say that.” But Jayne couldn’t help thinking of Neil, who had waited so patiently, asking her out every couple of weeks, taking her refusals stoically. He was so safe. So different from her overwhelming husband—and that was precisely what made Neil so attractive. He wouldn’t take her to the highs or the lows that Tariq had. He wouldn’t crush her love and her trust and rip her heart out.

“I have no doubt that the sudden urge for the divorce is linked to a man.” Tariq’s savage cynicism took her aback.

“Why does it have to be about a man? I want to move on, get a life.” Jayne swallowed under his quelling gaze. “I want my identity as Jayne Jones back. I no longer want to be associated with you, Sheikh Tariq bin Rashid al Zayed, son of the Emir of Zayed.”

The look he shot her was deadly. “I hadn’t realised I was such a liability.”

“Surely you want to move on, too? Get married? Have children?”

“Maybe.” His face gave nothing away.

A sharp stab of emotion pierced her. His father had wanted Tariq to marry Leila, the daughter of one of the sheikhs who had arrived at the palace earlier today. Both men were counted amongst the Emir’s closest friends. Sheikh Ali was a power in the north of the country. He owned extensive land, controlled oil leases and governed several, at times, unruly clans. And Leila’s uncle, Sheikh Mahood, was related by marriage to a sultan who ruled a bordering state that put out a massive amount of barrels of oil per day. Tariq’s marriage to Leila would solidify the fate of Zayed, making the tiny country more powerful and strategic in the region.

No doubt that marriage would take place once their divorce was final.

“On the way from the airport you said that in the past our relationship was always about what I wanted, about what my family wanted. That it wasn’t about you. I don’t remember it that way.” His voice lowered to throb a little above a murmur. “In fact, I remember sitting on a hard park bench in London, not far from that awful one-bedroom flat we rented, and staring into your eyes while we talked about the future and shared our dreams. It was about us. Not me. Not my family.”

How dare he remind her of those long-ago days? She’d been so young, so in love with the gorgeous student she’d met at the Tate Gallery. Too soon they’d been married. A mad, later regretted, impulse. “Our marriage was a mistake.”

Before his world and the reality of who he was—the Emir of Zayed’s only son—had come crashing in on them. Memories of the bittersweet days when he’d loved her—and she’d loved him—with youthful joyfulness haunted her. Then the long shadow of his father, the Emir of Zayed, had raised its head. Tariq had been summoned back to his father’s control and overnight everything had changed.

He had changed.

Jayne’s fingernails bit into her palms. She’d changed, back then, too. She’d gone from sensitive to wan and needy. And that had been before the discovery that—

“We were happy,” he interrupted her thoughts. “For a while.”

“Until I found out who you were, and everything changed.” She took a long, hard look at him. He was still the most earth-shatteringly gorgeous male she’d ever met. His golden eyes glowed with intelligence. His high, slanting cheekbones, the arrogant blade of his nose above the chiselled lips, still had the power to make her heart race. But, clad in the thobe, the fearsomely muscled body hidden beneath the white folds, he looked foreign, dangerous and very, very powerful.

“Who I was should never have changed what we had.”

“Oh, come on, Tariq. You can’t honestly believe that? The pressure of being the successor to the Emir of Zayed, the hostility of your father—”

“Leave my father out of this!” His face darkened. “He never did anything to harm you. It was your behaviour, your treachery, that destroyed what we had.”

Jayne shut her eyes blocking out the familiar invective. The Emir had hated her from the start, done everything he could to break up what they shared. And, in the end he’d succeeded. She’d been driven away, her spirit beaten, her heart broken.

Tariq had hated her.

“What does the past matter? You say it was my treachery that drove us apart. But in the end it was your lack of trust that killed what we had, Tariq. So what’s the point of—”

“My lack of trust?” Fury turned the body beside her to steel. “You—”

“There’s no point to all this, Tariq.” She turned her head and stared at the water bubbling from the fountainhead. “It’s over. I want a divorce…and once I leave I never want to see you or your father again.”

“You may just get your wish.” He drew a deep breath. “My father is dying.”

Jayne heard his words from a distance; they didn’t sound quite real. Six years ago she’d wished that the old Emir could…simply disappear out of her life…out of Tariq’s life. Then, his death would have solved all her problems. Yet now she didn’t care.

She felt numb. She told herself it was because she’d moved on. She had a life. And that life did not include Tariq. Not even if his father was dying.

“What does that have to do with me?” She kept her voice expressionless. “I don’t care about your father. I don’t care if he’s dying.” She swallowed her pain and flicked him a look. A flash of raw emotion glittered in his eyes. It was quickly suppressed. Her throat closed, feeling hot and tight. “I have no desire to see your father. Not ever again. When you told me to leave five and a half years ago, I told you that.”

“You said you never wanted to see me, either.” His mouth kinked into a mocking line. “Yet here you sit, in front of me. So, nuur il-en, never is a long time. Death has a finality that comes to us all. My father feels it is time for me to settle—he wants that reassurance before he dies.”

He paused. The silence swelled darkly around them, coloured by the undercurrents between them.

“So?”

“Who better for me to settle with than my lawfully wedded wife?”