The Sheikh's Convenient Bride

“I’m sure you—”

“Tell him not to bother.”

Caz turned around. Megan glared at him, eyes hot with anger. So much for his thinking that what had happened had left her shaken. He glared right back at her.

“Be quiet,” he hissed.

“I heard you telling your flunky to round up the things you think I’ll need for this trip, and—”

Caz caught her wrist. “Silence!”

“You cannot talk to me that way! I’m not one of your servants. I don’t take orders from—”

His hand closed over her mouth. Megan gasped, struggled, sank her teeth into his flesh. Caz winced at the pain but kept his voice steady as he spoke a few last words to Hakim before snapping the cell phone shut.

Then he let go of Megan.

A mistake, he thought grimly, as she came at him with both hands balled into fists. He caught her wrists again and tugged her hands behind her back.

“You insufferable son of a bitch!”

“I was in the middle of a conversation,” he said coldly. “When I am, you are not to interrupt.”

“You were in the middle of snapping out orders,” she said, her face livid with fury, “and I’ll interrupt whenever I please!”

“Not me,” he said through his teeth. “Do you understand?”

“What I understand is that your boy doesn’t have to bother rounding up those things you told him to buy.”

Caz raised his eyebrows. “You won’t need a portable computer?”

“No more than I’ll need the printer and fax, or the files from my office. I’m not going with you.”

“You are.”

“No, I’m not. I’d sooner go to the jungle with Tarzan than to a—a backward pile of sand with someone like you.”

Caz took a quick step toward her. “You are not to speak that way about my country or me.”

“I’ll speak any damned way I like, and if you grab me again, so help me, I’ll scream!”

She would. He believed her. That was all he needed. It was another tabloid headline in the making.

“Listen to me, Megan. If you treat me with disrespect, you’ll ruin what I’m trying to do.”

“What’s that? To be even more loathsome than you already are?”

“And you’ll endanger yourself. My people will not tolerate such behavior toward me from anyone, especially a woman.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’ll never meet your people.”

Caz gritted his teeth. “We reached an agreement. You’re going with me to Suliyam.”

“In a pig’s eye!”

“A most inelegant expression.”

“I know others you’ll like even less.”