Lost to the Desert Warrior

She stood rigid, thrown by that news. ‘But you don’t think that. I know you don’t. On that first night you left the tent because you felt guilty about what we’d done.’

‘No. I felt guilty because the sex was incredible. I agreed to this marriage because of what it meant for Tazkhan, but what we shared that night went well beyond duty and I couldn’t pretend otherwise.’

Shocked into silence by his honesty, Layla tilted her head and stared up at him, feeling a shift in their relationship. ‘I didn’t know—’

‘That I felt that way? I would have thought it was obvious.’

His dry tone made her blush and the look in his ebony eyes made her stomach flip.

‘Your Highness—’

‘Raz.’

He was standing so close to her she could hardly breathe. She lifted her hand and placed it on his chest, feeling the steady thud of his heart under her fingers. ‘Raz.’ It felt strange to say his name. Strange to be this close to someone.

He cupped her face in his hands. ‘Do you realise that, despite the intimacies we have shared, that is the first time you have spoken my name?’

‘It felt wrong to use your name. You were a stranger.’

There was a prolonged silence. His eyes dropped to her mouth. ‘But I’m not a stranger now.’

His self-assurance was in direct contrast to her own mixed-up, tangled emotions.

‘You hate me.’

‘No. But I admit it’s a complicated situation.’ A wry smile tugged at his sensual mouth. ‘You are a person who likes facts, so I will tell you that the facts in this case are that nothing is going the way I thought it would go when you turned up at my camp that night.’

She wanted to reach up and sink her hands into that glossy dark hair. She wanted to pull his head down to hers and see if his kiss felt as good in daylight as it did in darkness. She wanted to give herself up to the emotion and the confusion and stop trying to rationalise the mess in her head.

‘It’s not going the way I thought it would go, either.’

‘I owe you an apology for ordering you to stay away from my daughter. You should know that I am very overprotective where she is concerned and the past week has been a particularly unsettling time.’

Standing this close to him, it was a struggle for her to concentrate. ‘I would never criticise any father for being overprotective.’

‘Please understand that my reluctance to allow you near her was less about you as an individual and more about my determination to keep life as stable as possible for her. I thought Nadia was the perfect person to care for her. It seems I may have been wrong.’

‘Maybe you weren’t. As you said, there is probably some perfectly reasonable explanation for her absence.’ What right did she have to comment on the behaviour of another person when she didn’t even understand her own?

‘Possibly, but at the current time we are unlikely to find that out.’ There was an edge to his tone. ‘She has gone missing, along with one of my guards. I suspect that when they both should have been with Zahra they were together. We are trying to find them. In the meantime I must thank you for being so incredibly kind to my daughter when she was upset.’

His apology was as unexpected and unsettling as it was touching.

She’d craved distance, but instead she had closeness and a new sense of understanding that simply intensified the feelings inside her.

‘She is very sweet and good-natured. And I love her sense of mischief. She reminds me so much of Yasmin.’

‘The people here have noticed your kindness to her and it has done much to make them warm towards you. What are these stories you’ve been telling Zahra that make her so desperate to go to bed at night?’

‘One Thousand and One Nights. I read them to my sister.’

His eyes glittered. ‘So now you think you are Scheherazade?’

‘Hardly. But I thought if I could relax Zahra before she sleeps she might be less likely to wake.’

‘It was a good plan. Did it work?’

‘It’s too soon to know. I just wish I’d brought the book with me instead of leaving it at the first camp.’

‘That was the other book you brought with you?’

‘Yes. It’s one of my favourites. I decided I could only carry two, because of the weight, so I picked that one.’

His hands were still on her face, his gaze intent on hers. ‘And the Kama Sutra.’

‘It was a matter of priorities.’ She knew her face was hot against his palm. ‘And ignorance.’