Shackled to the Sheikh

CHAPTER SIX

BLUFF WAS A beautiful thing, when it came off.

Tora got the baby capsule secured and sank into the buttery leather of the limousine and took a deep, calming breath. Because she’d done it, she’d saved the assignment. Sally would have been devastated if she’d lost this contract—and Tora would have found it next to impossible to explain how she’d let it happen. How did one go about explaining that you’d inadvertently slept with the client after meeting them in a bar the night before your assignment? It didn’t bear thinking about.

But Rashid had given himself away when he’d asked to speak to her in private. Clearly he wasn’t too keen on sharing the details of exactly why he deemed her unsuitable to care for his sister. So sure, she wasn’t about to go advertising the way she’d behaved last night, but it seemed she wasn’t the only one with a secret to keep.

Was he married? Was that his problem? She hadn’t thought to ask last night. One night he’d offered and she’d taken it, no questions asked. And maybe it didn’t reflect well on her, but last night had been just about perfect as far as she was concerned, at least until she’d entered that lawyer’s office today and found him lying in wait and in judgement.

He’d been a different man last night. Bold. Decisive. He’d been angry, as she had been—and she’d felt it with his every move, his every thrust. Whereas today he seemed to be on the defensive.

What was that about?

Kareem climbed into the front seat beside the driver and turned to her. ‘Do you have everything you need, Ms Burgess?’

She nodded. ‘Thank you,’ she said as she checked the sleeping infant, a tiny milky bubble swirling in the corner of her mouth. ‘We’re both very comfortable.’

Kareem nodded. ‘Then we shall go.’

Tora looked around. ‘Where is Rashi—? Where is Atiyah’s guardian?’

‘His Excellency is travelling separately. He will meet us at the airport.’

She nodded dumbly and settled back into her seat as the car cruised away. His Excellency?

Exactly who had she spent last night with?

* * *

He was stuck with her now. At least for the next however many hours it took to fly to Qajaran.

Only a few hours, Rashid reasoned as the driver made his way towards the coast, and then she would be on her way home again. It should be easy, given he’d only known her a few hours, but the way they’d spent them, and the way she’d left so abruptly, was it any wonder that he was still aching for more?

But he didn’t want more, he told himself. He didn’t need the distraction. He didn’t need to be reminded of his wanting her every time he saw her. He didn’t need to know she was close enough to take.

A few hours? God, already they felt too long.

Rashid had the driver stop just before the road turned to the right along the cliff face, and climbed out into the full force of the wind blowing off the Pacific Ocean. In front of them the ocean waves pounded against the rocky cliffs, sending the boiling spray high into the air, while to the left sprawled a cemetery as big as several city blocks, the marble headstones and funerary ornaments marching up the hillside to the silent blare of the angels’ trumpets.

It was a wild place, elemental, the blue-skied summer day’s temperature turned on its head as the tiny sparkling droplets of sea water drifted down and conspired with the wind to suck your body heat away. He welcomed it as he turned up the collar of his linen jacket.

It was the perfect place to forget about her.

He started walking, gravel crunching underfoot, towards the place the lawyer had marked for him on a map. He didn’t need to look at the map again, the paths were wide and the way clear, and before long he could make out the fresh mound of earth that marked the grave where his father and his lover had been laid to rest.

He stood there, at the foot of the grave with its two white markers, feeling hollow inside. He had no flowers. He wasn’t here to shed tears. He wasn’t even sure why he’d come, only that he’d been compelled to visit, just once before he left this country.

Wasn’t sure if he’d come to pay his respects to a father who’d cast him adrift when he was but a child, or to rail against him and demand to know why he’d abandoned him. Sure, he’d heard the lawyer’s version of events, and he’d heard Kareem’s, but surely he’d had a right to hear it for himself?