Innocent in the Desert: The Sheikh's Impatient Virgin / The Sheikh's Convenient Virgin / The Desert Lord's Bride

Eva registered that they were entering an underground car park, a vast echoing concrete space. If this was for the hospital, business was not good because they were literally the only vehicle in it.

‘If you want to visit, I’ll wait in the car. Don’t worry, I’ll duck down if anyone comes,’ she promised.

‘I admire your ingenuity but there will be no other cars.’

Before she could question this peculiar prediction he added, ‘And you are coming with me.’

Eva threw him a doubtful look. ‘If your daughter is ill she might not want to see strangers.’

‘I will visit my daughter alone after the ceremony.’

All at sea now, Eva shook her head. ‘What ceremony?’

‘The civil wedding ceremony. By the time the story appears we will be husband and wife.’

Eva stared. ‘You know, you don’t look insane.’

‘Of course, the venue is not ideal.’

The concession drew a strangled laugh from Eva.

‘King Hassan favoured waiting until he arrives tomorrow, but—’

Eva’s eyes shot wide. ‘My grandfather is coming …?’ she yelped in alarm. ‘What is this—a conspiracy?’ Stupid question—of course it was.

He ignored her interruption and said calmly, ‘We met when at your grandfather’s palace last year.’

‘We did?’ she said, humouring him.

‘Yes.’

‘And was it love at first sight?’

Frowning at her sarcastic interjection, he continued stonily, ‘The official wedding plans were put on hold when Amira became ill. But we married in secret at a civil ceremony because you wished to be by my side and support me through this difficult time.’

Eva found it bizarre to hear this fairy story recounted in a flat, detached tone she associated with someone reciting the periodic table.

‘And this is your idea of a solution?’ She shook her head. ‘You look like you have a mind like a steel trap—how wrong could I be? I won’t even bother pointing out all the flaws in your plan, because it isn’t going to happen.’

‘That is up to you.’

‘That’s the first sane thing you’ve said,’ Eva observed, feeling not at all comforted by his admission.

‘Look, I don’t have the time for this.’ He glanced down at the watch on his wrist and the furrow lines between his brows deepened. ‘So I will spell out the facts and then you may make your decision.’

She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter what you say—’ She intercepted his expression and, with a disgruntled sniff, said, ‘Oh, all right, then, I’m listening.’

‘Your grandfather is a pragmatic man. He is not averse to change and progress, but he understands that such things are not brought about overnight. He could impose change but he would not because he knows that for change to succeed he must take his people with him on the journey.’

He said her grandfather but as she listened Eva got the impression that the philosophy he espoused was perhaps a little more personal—his own?

‘Honour seems an old-fashioned concept to you.’

He was presuming she had no moral values; Eva’s lips tightened at the assumption.

‘But,’ he continued, ‘it is a central precept to your grandfather’s life. If King Hassan did not react to an insult offered his granddaughter he would lose respect and be viewed as a weak king. He has no choice in this matter.’

‘Is he very angry?’ she asked in a small voice.

‘Not with you.’

‘With you …’ Her shoulders slumped. ‘Oh, God! I’m sorry, I really am, but don’t worry,’ she added brightly. ‘I’ll make it right. I’ll tell him how it was that you were … I’ll—’

Looking visibly unappreciative of her assurance, Karim cut across her, his voice sounding to Eva awfully like that of a man who had reached the limit of his—limited—patience.

‘Have you been listening to a word I have said? Clearly not.’

The dry afterthought brought a militant sparkle to her eyes. ‘I can—’

‘No,’ he interrupted in a tone that made Eva retreat back into her seat. ‘You do not appear to understand anything. If this scandal is not smothered before it takes on a life of its own—’ Karim had seen it happen ‘—there will be consequences. Consequences that no earnest assurances or your version of the truth will alter.’

Eva’s defiance in the face of his uncompromising edict was shaky. ‘What could happen that would be so bad?’

Even as she voiced the perfectly valid question the voice in her head was saying, Bad idea.

The voice got louder when Karim smiled with, it seemed to a resentful Eva, a certain grim relish and told her, ‘The contract that is yet to be signed to allow the pipeline from our oilfields to pass through Azharim in order to reach the coast—this would not happen. The knock-on effect …’ He shrugged.

‘It would be massive and not just economic. This thing will not happen in isolation. The surrounding countries of the region would undoubtedly be drawn in—sides would be taken.

‘Political stability is not something we take for granted. It is something we work at and have done for many years. Our countries have collaborated on several projects, at the present a cancer hospital—it would be the only one in the area.’

The light of determination in his eyes glowed bright as Karim considered the project that was very close to his own heart.

The royal connection went deep. His own cousin, Hakim, who was an internationally renown oncologist—Hakim had diagnosed Amira’s condition—had left his position at a Swiss clinic to personally get the project up and running.

‘So no pressure then.’ Underneath her flippancy Eva was feeling utterly trapped; she felt as if the stability of an entire region had been placed on her shoulders.

He levelled a questioning look at her pale face and said quietly, ‘You wish me to go on?’

Eva’s disbelieving laugh contained no humour. ‘There’s more?’

Karim stayed silent and she turned her head, looking out of the window into the empty car park. ‘I get the general idea. If I don’t marry you, I’ll be responsible for, well, just about anything and everything.’ She expelled a shaky breath and gave another strained little laugh. ‘I suppose it would be easier to say what I won’t be responsible for.’

‘It is your choice.’

It so was not! Eva, her eyes filled with simmering resentment, turned in her seat to face him. ‘It’s moral blackmail.’

‘It is necessity, but semantics aside—’

‘Semantics aside,’ she gritted though clenched teeth, ‘you’re relying heavily on me having a conscience.’

A glimmer of emotion Eva struggled to put a name to flickered across his face before he took her chin between his finger and tilted her face up to his.

‘I know you have a conscience, so, yes, this is a stacked deck, but remember I am not asking you to do something that I am not willing to do myself.’

His fingers slipped away and Eva, her full lower lip caught between her teeth, dropped her gaze and didn’t see Karim’s shoulders relax in relief when she nodded her head.

‘I feel like I’ve just jumped off a cliff.’ And while I’m doing it all I can think about is the texture of his skin … which makes me not only suicidal, but insane!

‘Don’t worry. As your husband it will be my job to catch you.’

‘Oh, don’t worry—if I jump I’ll take you with me.’

A slow smile spread across his sombre features. ‘A woman who thinks in terms of retribution … I can identify with that.’

Eva closed her eyes; she was so out of her depth!

The lift doors opened onto a large square reception area.

It was ultra-modern and like no hospital Eva had ever seen. The decor involved a great deal of glass. Staring at a solid wall of it with water running over it, Eva followed Karim’s impatient direction to precede him.

The two men who had ridden up with them in the lift stayed there as the doors slid silently closed and another older man also clad in similar robes materialized, it seemed to a bemused Eva, out of thin air.

He bowed low to them both—Eva always found that embarrassing—and spoke to Karim in Arabic.

Karim said little, but nodded several times as though what the other man had said satisfied him. Eva had the impression that he’d have said if it didn’t.

Karim did not strike her as a man who would tolerate incompetence in silence, or it seemed, if his expression when she spoke was any indicator, a bride-to-be who spoke out of turn.

‘This is a hospital?’

His eyes briefly brushed her face. ‘Yes, this is a hospital.’ He then proceeded to ignore her and turn back to the other man.

‘How are you going to keep this under wraps? Won’t someone see us?’ she suggested, seeing a gaping hole in this plan.

Eva wasn’t sure if it was the question or the interruption that caused a spasm of irritation to cross Karim’s lean features.

‘If you are hoping for a last-minute reprieve—don’t,’ he advised. ‘Do you see people?’ His nod took in the empty places behind a large reception desk. ‘Do you see anyone?’

She shook her head. The place was deserted.

‘No, and you will not. Tariq—’ he nodded towards the older man ‘—has cleared our route.’

The man under discussion nodded respectfully to her and spoke into his earpiece before confirming calmly in English, ‘The route has been cleared.’

Eva stared. ‘But how …?’

It was Karim who replied. ‘A lot of things are possible when one is donating a new clinic.’ If these people saved Amira he would donate a new hospital!

‘I suppose it is,’ she said faintly.

‘Then come,’ Karim urged. ‘I want to get this over with.’

A strangled laugh was drawn from Eva’s aching throat. ‘And they say romance is dead.’

‘You want romance?’

Smothering her growing desire to say, Wake me when this is over, she met his eyes; they were as cold as ice. ‘No, I don’t.’ Could this day get any more surreal?

‘Fine, then let us …’

The tall man that Karim had called Tariq cleared his throat and bowed his head to Eva. ‘I thought these might be appropriate,’ he said, producing a large bouquet like a magician.

Karim fought his impatience; his conference with the medical team taking care of Amira was in ten minutes’ time. ‘That is hardly necessary—’

‘Not necessary, but very thoughtful,’ Eva interrupted, accepting the flowers and smiling her gratitude to the man with the stony face. The look she cast Karim held less warmth.

Karim told himself that Tariq was welcome to her smiles and gritted his teeth. ‘Fine, have the flowers.’

‘I will!’ Eva retorted, holding the sweet-smelling posy to her chest as she scowled defiantly up at him.

She was doing what he wanted; she was jumping through all the hoops; she was signing her life away—would it really hurt him, she wondered bitterly, to be civil at least?

‘Come!’ Karim reached out, but before he could grab her arm he released a shocked cry of pain.

‘Oh, no, I’d forgotten.’ Eva grabbed the furry bundle that was attached by its teeth to Karim’s wrist and, tapping its nose, pushed it back into her pocket, where she assumed it had been asleep.

The rock-faced man did the spooky magician thing again and produced a clean white bandage and Karim began it wrap to around his wrist.

‘What is that thing in your pocket?’

Eva shook her head mutely. He looked pretty mad—considering the blood on the floor, possibly, she conceded, with some justification.

‘I take it you did not growl or bite me?’

Neither seemed such a bad idea to Eva. ‘You scared her,’ she said defensively. ‘She must have fallen asleep.’

‘What is it?’

‘A dog, obviously.’

Karim’s brows lifted. It looked like no dog he had ever seen. ‘It looked like a rodent.’

‘Why would I be carrying a rodent around in my pocket?’

He lifted his eyebrows and she flushed. ‘I told you I walk dogs, and I forgot she was there.’ She had delivered all but Sukie safely back to their owners when she had been plucked from the street.

‘Walk? The creature was in your pocket? Or does it get its exercise biting innocent passers-by?’

Her eyes skimmed his mouth. ‘You’re not innocent, and I only put her in my pocket when she’s tired.’ Frolicking around the park with a bunch of long-legged dogs tired out the little creature. ‘And it was raining. She’s not keen on water.’

Karim’s expression showed pretty clearly what he thought of a water-hating dog. He turned to Tariq, who had again anticipated his needs.

‘Zadik will look after the animal,’ he said, indicating a younger man who appeared slightly breathless beside them.

‘Hand it over, Eva.’

Eva’s mutinous expression revealed her reluctance to comply. ‘She’s a pedigree and worth a lot. You won’t—’

‘Eat it?’ Karim snapped. He imagined a long-distance runner with the winning line in sight might feel the way he did if the endline was constantly moving.

Unable to contain his impatience another second, he took matters into his own hands in the literal sense and, reaching into her pocket, removed the ball of fluff that growled low in its throat.

He handed it to the bowing younger man. ‘Dog has been off our menus for some years now. Enough of this … come …’ He extended his hand and, after a moment’s heart-thudding hesitation, Eva put her own into it.

Her feelings when his brown fingers closed over hers were disturbingly ambiguous.

Led down the corridors that were, as promised, totally empty, she was aware of the silent presence of several robed figures all sporting earpieces like Tariq and all looking ready for anything.

They stopped outside a door that looked no different from any other they had passed, and after opening it Tariq bowed and stood to one side to allow them to enter before him.

Eva, shaking her head, pulled her hand from Karim’s.

‘I can’t get married in a duffel coat.’ Even if it was a damage-limitation exercise more than a marriage.

Karim shot her a look that brimmed with impatience. ‘Then take it off.’ The advice just stopped short of a snarl.

‘Allow me, Princess.’

Eva turned, surprised to find herself directly addressed by Tariq, who, after bowing gently, eased the heavy coat off her shoulders.

‘Thank you,’ she said uncertainly.

Inside her head a voice was saying, Run … run … but her feet were moving in the wrong direction with the help of an encouraging smile from the older man and Karim’s firm hand in the small of her back.

Clutching her flowers, Eva heard the doors close with a click of finality behind her and felt a strange sense of calm wash over her. The calm lasted throughout the brief ceremony.

It was a feeling similar to being in a dream and knowing it and relaxing because you knew that it didn’t matter what happened because you were going to wake up.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later, when she was standing outside in the corridor with a ring on her finger and Karim totally ignoring her while he conversed in a mixture of French and Arabic to Tariq, that she realised she wasn’t going to wake up. This was real; she was married.

She had woken from a dream and found herself in the middle of a nightmare. The calm that had supported her vaporised and icy panic slid in to fill the space it left. It clogged her throat and filled her churning stomach.

What had she done?

‘Go with Tariq.’

Eva bit her trembling lip and tilted her face to his; the man she had married looked remote and stern.

‘But … you …?’

‘I need to be with Amira.’ Mentally, Eva realized, he already was; he was looking right through her.

‘Can I do anything … help …?’

‘You?’

Eva swallowed, trying hard not to show how much the rejection hurt. Her response was, she knew, irrational, but she had no control over it.

‘I just thought …’

‘If you want to help go with Tariq. He will take care of you.’ He nodded once more in her direction and strode away.

Eva watched the tall, elegant figure until he vanished from view. She turned her head and caught an expression of sympathy on the face of the man beside her.

The idea that she was an object of pity for members of Karim’s household filled her with horror. She immediately pinned on a cheery smile.

‘So what next?’

‘I will escort you to—’

Unable to maintain the pretence of listening, Eva, her voice tense, cut across him. ‘Is she very ill?’

There was a pause before Tariq, looking uncomfortable at being directly addressed, responded, ‘Yes, she is.’

‘And he … Prince Karim … he has spent a lot of time here?’

‘He has barely left her side.’

‘And that is where he is now?’

‘The doctors have been trying some experimental treatment. They will be able to tell the Prince today if it is working.’ He stopped and looked as though he regretted revealing so much, then, bowing his head, he gestured for her to precede him. ‘If you would come this way, the Prince has asked me to—’

Eva began to move, then stopped. ‘He’s alone—I mean, there’s no family or anything with him?’

‘No, he is alone.’

Eva narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘No.’ Smiling with a confidence she was not feeling—she was not in the habit of blindly following her instinct—she turned to face the tall, forbidding figure beside her.

She might be a wife in name only, but the thought of Karim facing what could be bad news … the worst news … alone just seemed so wrong.

It was totally irrational, but she felt she should be there. He might not want a shoulder to cry on, especially hers, but she’d be someone to yell at if nothing else.

‘Sorry, Princess, I don’t quite understand …’

‘No.’

A wary light appeared in Tariq’s dark eyes.

‘The Prince has asked you to keep me out of his hair.’ She arched a brow. ‘Am I right?’

Tariq, looking nonplussed by the comment, let his arm fall back to his side. ‘The Prince is anxious that you are comfortable, that you have what you wish.’

‘I wish to see him.’ He might not want to see me.

‘I’m afraid that that will not—’

‘Look, I’m not sure what your job description covers, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include manhandling a royal princess, and that’s the only way you’re moving me from here.’

She held her breath, not totally sure what she’d do if he called her bluff.

She thought she saw the glimmer of a smile in his eyes as he inclined his head and said, ‘This way.’

The room that Tariq showed her to was on the top floor. He spoke to the two men who stood outside and they bowed and stepped aside.

She gave them a smile as she walked past, thinking, What are you doing, Eva? The man doesn’t need you. He is more than capable of looking after himself. He’ll just think you’re interfering.

On the threshold she paused uncertainly, bracing herself for Karim’s reaction when he saw her.

He didn’t react because he didn’t see her. Her glance moved from the tiny waxy-faced figure in the bed, so slight that her arm seemed too fragile to hold all the tubes that protruded from it, to the tall man standing by the window looking blindly out at the city below.

She saw the moisture on his cheeks and empathy so acute it hurt swelled in her chest.

Her heart aching for his grief, she moved towards him, her hand outstretched. ‘I’m so sorry, Karim.’

At the sound of her voice he turned his head. ‘Eva?’

She saw then that it was not grief and pain that shone in his eyes, but joy and relief.

Her hand fell away self-consciously. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude but—’

‘It is working,’ he said, his eyes on the figure in the bed. ‘She’s going to be all right.’

The expression on his face as he looked at his daughter brought a lump to her throat. ‘I’m so glad, Karim,’ she said softly.

‘You’re here?’ he said as if just registering her presence.

Feeling like an intruder, she absently rubbed her fingers across the ring on her left hand and nodded. ‘I just thought I might be able to do something to help, but I can see—’

‘You want to help?’ he said, his voice low and gravelly.

Unable to read his expression as he advanced with panther-like grace towards her, Eva shook her head. ‘It was just a thought.’

He stopped just in front of her. The tension she could feel rolling off him in waves made her senses spin. His deep-set eyes glittered as he looked down at her. ‘You can help.’

‘I …’

He hooked a finger under her chin, growling, ‘Don’t talk.’ And brought his mouth down hard on hers.

Her shocked gasp was lost in his mouth as her lips parted under the sensuous pressure. She had not known a kiss could be like this: raw, possessive, passionate and hungry. Molten heat seared her nerve endings as she melted into him with a sigh and kissed him back, sliding her fingers deep into his hair and groaning at the first stabbing intrusion of his tongue inside her mouth.

When he finally lifted his head they were both breathing hard. ‘Oh!’ She sighed, unpeeling her arms from his neck as he placed her back on her feet.

‘Indeed!’

‘Did that help?’ she whispered, staring at him with starry stunned eyes. She could still taste him in her mouth.

The voice in her head warned she was wildly overreacting to a kiss that had obviously been an outward release of his tension, but she couldn’t help it.

If that was him using her, she couldn’t wait for him to do it again.

‘It hurt.’ Dragging his mouth from hers had been one of the hardest things he had ever done. ‘It hurt to stop …’ he clarified in response to her bewildered expression.

‘Oh!’

He studied her flushed face. ‘You look like a girl who has never been kissed before.’

Never like that, she thought, unable to think of a single thing to say that wouldn’t come out as, Please do it again.

Eva cleared her throat. ‘It was unexpected.’ She wanted him so badly her bones ached with it. The intensity of what she was feeling simultaneously shocked and excited her. ‘Like getting married,’ she observed with a nervous laugh. ‘I was thinking more along the lines of a cup of tea or a sandwich.’

‘You taste better than a sandwich.’

The smouldering heat in his eyes sent a fresh pulse of longing through her body. ‘So do you.’

‘I think it might be a good idea if you went with Tariq now.’

She felt a stab of hurt that fell away as he added, ‘This is not the place or time for us to continue this … conversation.’

The frustrated glow in his eyes was a soothing balm to her ego. ‘You’re staying?’

‘Amira wakes in the night and the nurses struggle to settle her.’ Karim pulled a chair across to his daughter’s bedside and lowered himself into it. ‘Love for a child is something that tears your heart out.’ He slid a sideways glance towards Eva as he added softly, ‘When you have children of your own you will understand.’

Eva blinked at the comment. ‘I hadn’t thought about children.’

His frown made her realise it might have been an idea to censor her response. ‘Well, think about it now, Princess, because I am duty-bound to provide an heir.’

Eva tensed as the word duty sent a chill through her body. She shivered; it sounded so clinical.

‘An heir?’ she echoed.

‘There has been impatience in some quarters. The news I am married will be greeted with a sigh of relief.’

‘You expect me to have your children?’ She looked at him in horror.

A nerve clenched along his jaw. ‘Whose children did you expect to have?’ he asked, seeing the handsome blond academic.

‘No one’s … that is, children are meant to be the result of love, not …’

‘Empty sex?’ he suggested, not quite sure why her reaction made him so angry, but totally sure she was in the wrong. ‘Are you looking for love, Eva?’

She flushed and bit her quivering lip. ‘No, I’m not.’