PROLOGUE
IT WAS Cade Landon’s twenty-eighth birthday, and his gift from the Sultan of Dumai had been delivered a few minutes ago.
Her name was Leilia, and to say she was beautiful was to say that stars were simply lights in the desert sky.
There’d been a discreet knock at the door to Cade’s suite. He’d opened it and something straight out of the Arabian Nights had entered: two robed Bedouins clutching flutes and drums, a serving boy staggering under the weight of a tray laden with what seemed to be every Arabian delicacy imaginable, including a notso-Arabian bottle of vintage Krug champagne, and a mysterious figure swathed from head to toe in silk.
Cade was puzzled, but only for a second. He’d been granted the honor of a suite on the same floor as the Sultan’s private rooms. An error had been made, obviously. This was the Sultan’s entertainment for the evening, arrived at his door by mistake.
The Bedouins offered the traditional greeting, touching their hands to their lips and hearts as they bowed low before him.
“Masa el-kheyr, my lord,” said the man holding the flute.
“Good evening,” Cade said, politely returning the greeting. “But I’m afraid there’s been a mix-up.”
“My lord?”
Cade glanced at the silk-draped figure. The veiling had slipped an inch or two, enough so he could see that he was being watched by a pair of enormous, kohl-rimmed eyes. It looked as if the Sultan was going to have a very pleasant evening indeed, Cade thought, and smiled.
“You’ve come to the wrong place, my friend.” He nodded toward the far end of the elegant corridor, its magnificent mosaic floor and carpeted walls lit by enough crystal chandeliers to put the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles to shame. “The Sultan’s apartment is—”
“Are you not my Lord Landon?”
“I’m Landon, yes, but—”
“Then we have come to the right place.” The little entourage brushed past him and made its way into the sitting room. The boy deposited the tray and scurried out the door. The musicians and the silk-draped figure remained.
Puzzled, Cade thrust his fingers into his sun-streaked chestnut hair. “Look,” he said, “I don’t mean to be rude, but—”
The sounds of the flute and drum drowned out the rest of his words. Openmouthed, he listened to what sounded like the cries of a cat with its tail caught in a wringer before he realized he was hearing a Mid-Eastern version of “Happy Birthday.”
“Dear God,” he muttered—and all at once, the music became soft and sensuous.
That was when the lady with the kohl-rimmed eyes had slithered into action, stepping forward and slowly shedding rainbow-colored layers of silk until she’d stood before him wearing a sleeveless silver vest that ended just beneath her breasts, a long, gauzy skirt that began dangerous inches below her jeweled navel, and a smile that promised she intended to be the best damned birthday present a man ever had.
“I am Leilia,” she’d purred, “and I am yours to command, my lord.”
Now she was circling Cade gracefully, her hips swaying to the music. Tiny bells on her fingers and ankles tinkled as she danced; her hair streamed over her golden skin like an ebony waterfall.
The drumbeat quickened and the girl’s movements grew more provocative. Cade watched for a moment and then he turned, popped open the Krug and poured some into a crystal flute. Jesus, he thought, downing the chilled wine in one long mouthful, what was he going to do with her when she finished dancing?
Laughter rose in his throat and he bit it back.
He sure as hell knew what he was supposed to do with her.
She was gorgeous and sexy and, he was sure, well-trained in the art of love.
But Cade had never taken a woman whose favors had been bought. It had never been necessary. Women came easily to him, and always had.
Maybe it was the element of danger that seemed to emanate from him. The broad shoulders and lean, hard body, honed by years spent working on oil rigs, the dark blue eyes that could turn almost black with passion or anger, even the nose that had been broken in a brawl on an offshore rig and left to heal on its own—all of the things that made other men look at Cade with respect made women look at him with longing.
Cade knew it, but there was nothing immodest in his self-assessment. It was simple logic, and he was nothing if not logical when it came to women. He had no time for the foolishness of emotional attachments. His life was far too full for such nonsense.
It suited him that the women he spent time with were invariably beautiful, eager to share his bed and as uninterested in tying themselves down as he was.
Did a woman sent to a man as a gift fall into that category?
Leilia brushed lightly against him as she whirled past. Cade looked at her. Her arms were outstretched, straining the tiny silver vest to its limits. Their eyes met, and she gave him a dazzling smile.
Hell, he thought, and grinned back. No matter how the evening ended, this was going to be a birthday to remem
ber.
And suddenly, incongruously, his thoughts flew back in time to another birthday celebration, seven long years before.
He had been twenty-one, and his father had insisted on throwing a party at their Colorado ranch.
“It’ll be the biggest shindig anybody’s ever seen, boy,” he’d said.
It was that, all right, the sort Denver had come to expect of Charles Landon, just four or five hundred of his closest friends, a full orchestra, a performing magician, a trained chimpanzee that smoked cigars and enough lobster, oysters and caviar to feed a small country.
At midnight, Charles had directed all the guests to the front windows. A hush had fallen over the crowd as a spotlight, mounted for the occasion on one of the mansion’s turrets, blazed to life, illuminating a cherry-red Corvette in the curving driveway. It was tied with an enormous silver bow.
“Yours,” Charles said brusquely. “Do you like it?”
“Like it? I—I…” Cade shook his head, speechless. He’d dreamed of a car like this since getting his driver’s license at sixteen. That his father had bought the ‘Vette stunned him. Not the sheer extravagance of the giftCharles was big on extravagant gestures. It was just that the things he gave his youngest son were never quite the things Cade would have chosen for himself.
The party, for instance. Cade hadn’t wanted it. He’d wanted a quiet evening with the girl he’d fallen in love with that summer, an evening he hoped would end with Stacey smiling and saying yes, oh yes, she would marry him and build a life with him, one that would not be dependent on Landon power and money.
Instead, he’d ended up with a bunch of strangers, all intent on cozying up to the richest, most powerful entrepreneur west of the Mississippi—and, to make matters worse, Stacey was nowhere in sight. She’d promised to come to the party, even though Cade knew it would displease his father, who had not hesitated to say what he thought of his youngest son becoming involved with a girl who worked at Landon Enterprises.
“A common employee,” was Charles’s phrase, meaning she had no background, no money and no connections. “She’s not for you, boy,” he said a dozen times over, which only made Cade all the more convinced that she was.
“Well?” Charles demanded. “Is the Corvette what you wanted?”
Cade swung toward the older man, a sudden tightness in his throat. The car was surely a symbol of something. His father was recognizing him as a man. Maybe, just maybe, they were finally going to begin to understand each other.
“Yes,” he said, “yes, it is. Thank you, Father. Thank you very much. I never expected—”
“Make the most of it, boy.”
Cade smiled. “I will.”
“You’ve only got this next semester to play with it.” His father chuckled as if he were about to tell a joke. “You won’t want to take it to New York with you, after graduation. There’s no point in having a car like the ‘Vette in that city.”
“New York? But I’m not going to New York. Why would you think—”
“We’re opening a new office there. You’ll work with Switzer, learn how to run it, soon as you graduate.”
Cade’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t study petroleum geology so I could sit behind a desk. You know that. You agreed—”
“I changed my mind.”
“It’s too late to change your mind,” Cade said sharply. “I’ve already made plans. I’m going to ask Stacey—”
“Stacey?” his father said, and laughed. “Stacey is on her way to San Francisco.”
The tightness in Cade’s throat changed, became an iron band that threatened to clamp off his breath.
“What are you talking about?”
“I promoted your girlfriend. I gave her a spot in our West Coast management program, effective immediately.”
“No!” Cade’s fists clenched, and he took a step toward his father. “Stacey loves me. She wouldn’t—”
“Stop being a fool, boy! The girl knows opportunity when she sees it.” Charles thrust the Corvette’s keys at Cade. “It’s time for you to show the same good sense.”
It was all a blur after that. Cade could only remember someone—Zach, maybe, or Grant—grabbing his arms and holding him back before he could make a bigger fool of himself than he already had.
Just before dawn, he’d scrawled hasty notes to Kyra, Grant and Zach. Then he’d slipped from the house, leaving behind the red Corvette and his father’s determination to rule his life. A bored trucker had picked him up on the highway and taken him as far as Albuquerque. From there, he’d thumbed a ride east to Oklahoma and his first job on an oil rig—if you could call washing greasy dishes for the crew a job on an oil rig, he thought with a tight smile and poured himself some more champagne.
It had been a long, hard road from that night to this one, but he’d traveled it his way. Oh, he’d gone back home to visit eventually, but not until he’d made his first big strike in the Texas oil fields. Charles had greeted him with casual indifference, almost as if he’d never been away. As for what had happened the night of Cade’s twenty-first birthday—neither man had ever mentioned it.
Cade’s mouth twisted. In a way, he supposed, his father had done him a favor. He’d saved him from ever again confusing love with lust, from tying himself down to one woman when the world was filled with so many, all of them eager to share his bed for as long as their mutual passion lasted.
The music was building to a wild crescendo. Cade’s gaze swept over the veiled woman dancing before him. The curve of her breasts was lush, the rounded convexity of her belly alluring. His body tightened. This was what life was all about, he thought, a beautiful woman waiting for you and a job well done.
Yesterday, rich black gold had come shooting out of the earth that had hoarded it for millennia. The Sultan, in his gratitude, had instantly doubled Cade’s already outrageous, agreed-upon fee.
Tonight, if he wished, this woman would be his.
The music came to an abrupt halt. Leilia dropped gracefully to the floor at Cade’s feet, her forehead pressed to the intricate tilework. He waited a moment, then bent and touched his hand lightly to her hair.
She leaned back and rose to her knees, smiling, her dark eyes filled with promise. The tip of her pink tongue slid slowly across her lips.
“My lord,” she whispered, “I am yours.”
The door clicked softly shut after the departed musicians. Cade offered the woman his hand. She took it and came slowly to her feet.
“You’re very lovely,” he said. “And very desirable.” He smiled, regretfully knowing what his decision must be. “But-”
“But my lord does not want a woman who has been paid to warm his bed,” she said with a little smile.
“It isn’t that,” he said, although, of course, it was. “I’m tired tonight, that’s all, and—”
She moved closer and splayed her hand across the front of his shirt. The bells on her fingers tinkled softly.
“No one has paid for me, my lord. I have watched you these past weeks, working shirtless with your men in the hot sun, and I grew more and more determined to find a way to meet you.” A scent rose from her as she moved closer, a heady mix of wild jasmine and woman. “The Sultan arranged for the dancer, Fima, to come to you tonight,” Leilia whispered, linking her hands around Cade’s neck. “I gave her my favorite necklace so that she would permit me to don her veils and come to you in her place.”
Cade felt his body quicken. “Did you?” he murmured.
Leilia laughed softly as she drew his head slowly to hers. “Yes, my lord. I did.”
The knock at the door was like a peal of thunder. Cade cursed under his breath as he stepped away from the woman.
“Yes?” he growled. “What is it?”
The door swung open and the Sultan of Dumai stepped into the room. Leilia gasped, dropped a quick curtsy and rushed past the Sultan’s bulky body into the hallway, but the man paid no attention to her.
“Your Highness,” Cade said. He touched
his hand to his lips and heart, determinedly ignoring the tension still coiled within his muscles. “I am honored by your presence, sir. My thanks for your gracious gifts.”
“Cade, my friend.” The Sultan’s moon face was wreathed in sorrow. “I fear that I am the bearer of unhappy news.”
Cade’s eyes narrowed, all thoughts of the woman quickly forgotten.
“The well,” he said sharply. “Is it—”
“The well is fine. The oil flows from it, as you said it would.”
Cade blew out his breath. “Hell,” he said with a little laugh, “for a minute there I thought—”
“There has been a wire for you, from America.” The Sultan put his hand on Cade’s arm. “I am afraid your father has passed away.”
Cade blinked. “My father? Dead?”
“I am sorry to bring you such news, my friend.”
Charles Landon, dead? The old man had been ill for a couple of months but it hadn’t been anything serious, Grant had said….
“Is there something I can do to make things easier?”
Cade looked up, cleared his throat. “I, ah, I can’t think of—Well, actually… Yeah. I, uh, I’d be grateful if you could arrange for me to get a flight out, as quickly as possible.”
“That is not a problem. My private jet will take you home. May I be of assistance in any other way? Do you have calls to make? Arrangements to take care of?”
“No, no, thank you, sir. My brothers will have seen to everything, I’m sure. I just—I can’t believe that—that—”
The Sultan nodded. “It is fate,” he said softly. “In Sha’allah. We are only men, after all, and subject to the whims of God.”
He turned and left the room, shutting the door quietly after him. Cade stood still after he’d gone, and then he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his trousers, walked slowly to the windows and stared blindly out into the blackness of the desert night.