The Call of the Desert

Julia swallowed painfully. “There’s more to it than that, Kaden. We have a past together. Something you seem determined to ignore.”

Kaden turned more fully in his seat, and Julia felt threatened when she saw how cynicism stamped the lines of his face. And something else—something much darker. Anger.

“I fail to see what talking about the past will serve. We had an affair aeons ago. We’re different people now. The only constant is that we still want each other.”

Affair. Julia cursed herself for opening her mouth. Kaden was right. What on earth could they possibly have to talk about? She was humiliatingly aware that she wanted him to tell her that he hadn’t meant to reject her so brutally. She didn’t feel like a different person. She felt as if she was twenty all over again and nothing had changed.

Incredibly brittle, and angry for having exposed herself like this, she forced a smile. “You’re right. I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”

Kaden frowned now, and his eyes went to her throat. “Why do you keep doing that? Touching your neck as if you’re looking for something?”

Julia gulped, and realised that once again in an unconsciously nervous gesture her hand had sought out the comforting touch of her necklace. Panic flared. She wasn’t wearing it, but she’d broken her own rule and brought it with her, like some kind of talisman. She blushed. “It’s just a habit … a necklace I used to wear. I lost it some time ago and I haven’t got used to it being gone yet.”

His eyes narrowed on her and, feeling panicky, Julia put down her glass and started to recline her chair. “I think I’ll try to get some sleep.”

Kaden felt the bitter sting of a memory, and with it an emotion he refused to acknowledge. It was too piercing. He’d once given Julia a necklace, but he had no doubt that wasn’t the necklace she referred to. It was probably some delicate diamond thing her husband had bought her.

The one he’d given her would be long gone. What woman would hold on to a cheap gold necklace bought in a marketplace on a whim because he’d felt that the knot in the design symbolised the intricacies of h

is emotions for his lover? His lover. Julia. Then and now.

He cursed himself and turned away to look out at the inky blackness. He should have walked away from her in London this morning and come to Al-Omar to make a fresh start. He needed to look for a new bride to take him into the next phase of his life. He needed to create the family legacy he’d promised his father, and an economically and politically stable country. It was all within his grasp finally, after long years of work and struggle and one disastrous marriage.

He glanced back to Julia’s curved waist and hips and his blood grew hot. He still wanted her, though. She was unfinished business. His hands clenched. He couldn’t take one step into the future while this hunger raged within him and it would be sated. It had to be.

Arriving in B’harani as dawn broke was breathtaking. The gleaming city was bathed in a pinky pearlescent light. It was festooned with flags and decorations, and streets were cordoned off for the first wedding procession, which would take place later that day.

Kaden had barely shared one word with Julia as they’d sped through the streets to the imposing Hussein Castle.

There, they’d been shown to their opulent suite, and Kaden had excused himself to go and see his sister.

Now Julia was alone in the room, gritty-eyed with tiredness and a little numb at acknowledging that she was back on the Arabian Peninsula with Kaden. She succumbed to the lure of a shower and afterwards put on a luxurious towelling robe. The massive bed dressed in white Egyptian cotton was beckoning, and she lay down with the intention of having a quick nap.

When she woke, some time later, the sun was high outside and she felt very disoriented when she saw Kaden emerge from the bathroom with a tiny towel slung around his hips. He was rubbing his hair with another towel, and he was a picture of dark olive-skinned virility, muscles bunching and gleaming.

Julia sat up awkwardly. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

He cast her a quick glance. “You were exhausted. There’s nothing much happening till this evening anyway. The civil ceremony took place this morning, and Sultan Sadiq and Samia are doing a procession through the streets this afternoon. This evening will be the formal start of the celebrations, with more over the next two days. On Sunday they will marry again in a more western style.”

“Wow,” breathed Julia, while trying to ignore the sight of Kaden’s half naked body, “That sounds complicated.”

Kaden smiled tightly, seemingly unaware of his state of undress. He flung aside the towel he’d been drying his hair with, leaving it sexily dishevelled. “Yes, quite. In Burquat things are much more straightforward. We just have a wedding ceremony in front of our elders at dawn and then a huge ceremonial banquet which lasts all day.”

Against her best effort to focus on what he was saying, Julia couldn’t stop her gaze from dropping down Kaden’s exquisitely muscled chest. He really had the most amazing body—huge but leanly muscled. The towel around his hips looked very precarious, and as she watched, wide-eyed, she could see the distinctive bulge grow visibly bigger.

Her cheeks flamed and her gaze jumped up to meet Kaden’s much more mocking one. His hand whipped aside the towel and it fell to the floor along with the other one. Gulping, she watched as he walked to the bed. He lay alongside her and pushed aside the robe, baring her breasts to his gaze. Once again Julia was a little stunned at this much more sexually confident Kaden and how intoxicating he was.

Weakly, she tried to protest, “What if someone comes in?”

“They won’t,” he growled, and bent his head to surround one tight nipple with hot, wet, sucking heat.

Julia moaned and collapsed back completely. Kaden’s other hand slid down her belly, undoing the tie on the robe as he dipped lower and between her legs, to where she was already indecently wet and ready.

He removed the robe and within seconds she was naked too, with Kaden’s body settled between her legs, his shoulders huge above her. She could feel him flex the taut muscles of his behind and widened her legs, inviting him into more intimate contact. When he thrust into her Julia had to close her eyes, because she was terrified he would see the emotion boiling in her chest. As he started up with a delicious rhythm Julia desperately assured herself that this was just about sex, not emotion. She didn’t love him any more. She couldn’t … Because if she did, the emotional carnage was too scary to contemplate.

Later that evening Julia paced the sitting room, barely aware of the gorgeous cream and gold furnishings, carpet so thick her heels sank into it.

She’d been whisked off that afternoon to be pampered in readiness for the banquet—something she hadn’t expected. And while there she’d had a selection of outfits for her to pick from. Too unsure to know whether or not she could refuse, she’d chosen the simplest gown. Deep green in colour, it was halter-necked, with a daringly low-cut back. She’d been returned to the suite and now, made-up and with her hair in an elaborate chignon, she felt like a veritable fashion doll.