Heart of a Desert Warrior

“Nawar said you named her.”

“Badra had no interest in parenting from the very beginning. Though at the time, I believed she allowed me to name Nawar to make her more my own. I was wrong about that, just as I had mistaken so much about Badra. At first I believed Badra’s lack of interest in my daughter was due to her shame at bearing another man’s child. I told her repeatedly how much I loved Nawar. That I did not resent her.”

“That’s kind of amazing.” And so not what Iris would have expected of the arrogant, proud man.

She’d loved Asad, but she hadn’t been blind to his faults. Or so she had believed. Perhaps she’d been blinder to more things than even their subsequent breakup had forced her to accept.

“I was not there for the birth, as is the custom of our people, but my grandmother brought the babe to me when she was less than an hour old. I looked down into her beautiful little face and fell in love.”

Emotion caught in Iris’s throat. “She’s very lucky to have you for a father.”

“I am far more blessed to have her as a daughter.”

Iris thought maybe it was a draw, but forbore saying so.

“I named her flower after the one woman I knew had more honor than my wife ever would.”

The import of Asad’s words finally registered and Iris gasped in shock. “You named your daughter after me. That’s not possible.”

“I assure you, it is. Though at the time I was unaware of what my brain had done. I only realized it later, but then so did Badra. When she did, it infuriated her. We fought about it and rather than deny it like I should have because I was totally unaware of having done it, I told Badra I wanted Nawar to share your sense of honor, not her mother’s.”

“That’s…” Iris didn’t know what to say. How did you answer a statement like that? “I guess I’m glad to know you think I have strong character.”

“I do, very much so. It made you a good friend and trustworthy lover.”

There was no denying his words. The trust he was showing in her now matched what she had given him the night before, when she’d shared her past shame with him. It came to Iris then that Asad had not realized what he would lose when he dumped her, or how much he would miss her. Another tiny bit of her shattered heart mended at that knowledge.

“Unless I want a distant cousin to take my place, I will have to marry again.”

Well, that came out of the blue and frankly, Iris could have lived without that reminder. Nevertheless, she said, “Yes.” And then the import of what he’d said hit her. “Badra intended to stick you with another man’s child. What if Nawar had been a boy?”

“He would have been the next sheikh of my people. Nawar’s husband may well be my successor.”

Iris believed him. And again…wow. This man was everything she’d believed him to be and then convinced herself he wasn’t, and so much more.

Asad loved his daughter, and he would have loved a son just as well. That was the kind of man he was. Asad had honor and character to spare. Even if at one time she’d maybe thought he didn’t.

“So Badra told you she was pregnant?”

“Only after I figured it out for myself, the day after our wedding.”

Their honeymoon must have been a treat, Iris thought rather sarcastically and then felt bad for thinking at all. Poor Asad.

“Whoever I marry must accept Nawar as completely as I do.”

“Of course.”

He smiled, as if happy with her answer. The man did have a rather well-developed need, or maybe expectation, that the people around him would agree with his opinion. Not that he was great at compromise, or anything. He just liked knowing everyone thought he was right.

Arrogant sheikh. She smiled.

“What is that expression on your face?”

“I’m smiling.”

“I am aware.”

“That’s not exactly a rare occurrence.”

“Less common than I remember from six years ago.”

“I could say the same.”

He shrugged and then pulled her into his arms through the water. “The responsibilities of my position have tempered my humor.”

And maybe learning his perfect princess was anything but had robbed Asad of some of his joy in life. Not that Iris expected him to ever admit it.

She let herself relax against him, enjoying this intimacy almost as much as what they’d shared earlier. “You said that Badra died in a plane crash with her lover. Did she leave you?”

“No. She traveled with him several times a year.”

“And you put up with it?” Iris asked in shock, turning around to face him, water sloshing over the sides of the pool from her agitated movements.

“I had full control of Nawar’s raising. This was the important thing. Badra signed away parental rights to my daughter in exchange for five years of me funding her lifestyle and accepting her choices therein.”

“Five years?” Iris asked faintly.

“Yes. I would have divorced Badra a year ago if she were not already dead.”

“But that’s medieval.”

“It was necessary. She could have taken my daughter and I could not allow it.”

So he’d bought rights to her daughter. “There were other ways.” There had to have been.

“None that guaranteed Nawar, my little jewel, stayed with me here among the Sha’b Al’najid whom she loved and who loved her just as fiercely.”

“So you gave up five years of your life for her.” He really was the most amazing man ever.

“I was prepared to, yes.”

“You’re a Superman, you know that?”

“I am glad you think so, but you did not believe this six years ago.”

“Oh, I did. Just not after you dumped me.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “But that’s in the past. I don’t want to talk, or even think about it anymore. Okay?”

“As you wish. The present is enough to keep us both fully occupied.”

She believed he was right about that.

*

“You slept with him,” Russell whispered in cheeky accusation as they completed their first set of measurements at the initial sampling site.

Iris’s head snapped around. “Shhh…I don’t know why you’d say that anyway.”

She wasn’t going to deny it. Iris was a terrible liar, but admitting she was sleeping with the man who’d broken her heart once wasn’t going to make her look all that smart to her colleague.

“Give it a rest, cupcake. It’s all there in his eyes.”

“What’s in his eyes?” she couldn’t help asking, though she knew she shouldn’t.

The look on Russell’s face said he knew he’d gotten her. “At the palace, and since, he’s watched you with this really intense yearning.” He frowned, sadness entering his gaze. “It’s an expression I understand too well not to recognize.”

Iris reached out and squeezed his arm in silent comfort. Russell’s ex-girlfriend had really done a number on him. And knowing how deeply Asad’s defection had affected her, Iris wasn’t about to dismiss Russell’s love affair gone wrong as a youthful mistake he would get over easily.

“He’s not looking at you like that now, though,” Russell claimed, his voice cheerful, the look of sadness gone.

She waited several seconds for her nosy colleague to explain, but he just went back to work. Finally, in exasperation, she asked, “How does he look at me, then?”

“Like you’re his and anyone thinking to challenge that claim had better protect his balls.”

She burst out laughing, but the man who wore T-shirts with humorous sayings only another geologist would really appreciate—today’s said Don’t Take Me For Granite, Just Because I’m Gneiss—looked as serious as bedrock. “I think you better watch out for your heart, Iris.”

That was one warning she didn’t need. She already knew how hazardous Asad was to her heart.

“What’s so funny?” Nawar asked, skipping up to join the

m, her father only a few steps behind.

Iris had worried that having them along would make doing her job difficult, but Asad was good with his daughter and this mountainous desert was his homeland. They’d kept busy with an impromptu lesson on geography targeted at the four-year-old’s level. Iris had no idea how much the child would remember, but something told her it would be more than she might expect.

“Russell made me laugh,” Iris said with a smile for the little girl.

Asad’s brows rose, his expression this side of dangerous. “Oh?”

“Told you,” Russell mouthed, his head facing Iris and away from Asad.

Iris shook her head.

“He did not make you laugh?” Asad asked.

Iris rolled her eyes. “Does it matter? How are you two doing? Bored?”

“Not in the least, but I believe it is time to take a break for eating and then Nawar will have her nap.”

“Where?” Surely the SUV would be too warm for the little girl to sleep in.

Though it was not as hot here as the desert at the base of the mountains, it was still sunny enough to heat the interior to uncomfortable levels.

“There.” He indicated the other side of the SUV.

And Iris noticed that while she had been working, he’d erected a small single-room goat-hair tent with an awning that created a second area in front open to any light breezes. It said something about how caught up in her work she got that she hadn’t even noticed him putting the tent up. Iris had no doubt the portable Bedouin home would be perfectly comfortable for Nawar’s nap.

“You’re a good dad.”

He shrugged. “I did not want you to feel rushed to return to the encampment.”

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome.” His eyes watched her lips.

She swayed forward, but caught herself before kissing him in front of his daughter and Russell. What was she thinking?