The king’s senior assistant waved Jefri in. One of the wide double doors stood open and several people filed out.
Jefri waited until they’d left before walking inside. He found his father standing behind his desk, flipping through a calendar.
“I’m thinking of visiting Europe,” the king said without looking up. “With Murat taking over most of my state duties and the other work divided between you, Sadik and Reyhan, there is little to keep me here.”
Jefri grinned. “Are you complaining you do not have enough to do?”
“I suppose I am. It is a sad state of affairs when a king is no longer needed.”
Jefri took a seat on the visitor’s side of the desk. “I think it is unlikely you will be beheaded anytime soon.”
His father sat down and smiled. “How you comfort me.” He leaned back in his chair. “So our new air force is off to a positive start?”
“Of course. The Van Horn team is in place. All the instructors have arrived. Billie is in charge of them.”
The king nodded. “A most pleasant young woman.”
Jefri could think of several words to describe Billie, but pleasant wasn’t one of them. It was too bland, too lacking in style. Billie could never be accused of either.
“She assists in the pilot training, both with actual flying and in simulators. The Van Horn people have prepared an intensive eight-week program to forge our pilots into a team. When the initial instruction is finished, they will return to offer refresher courses until we get our own training in place.”
“Very impressive,” the king said. “I would advise you not to annoy her. I would hate to lose you because, to quote the young woman herself, she blows you out of the sky.”
Jefri smiled. “I will not allow that to happen.”
“It sounds as if she is unbeatable.”
“Perhaps.”
But he had a feeling he knew her weaknesses. Last night she had melted in his arms. Whatever her skills in the sky, on ground, she was mere woman. He planned to take advantage of that fact, pleasing them both along the way. He did not believe she could respond to him so easily in the night and then destroy him, however much in theory, during the day.
For now he only needed an edge to best her. In time, he would develop the skills to take her on his own.
“I am glad all goes well,” his father said. “Now on to another matter. I have found you a bride.”
Jefri almost asked “For what?” before he recalled a conversation with his father some months ago, when he had given in to parental pressure and agreed to remarry.
“Perhaps this is not the best time,” he began.
“You are my son. It is your duty to produce heirs.”
“I am but twenty-nine. There is still time.”
“For you, perhaps,” the king said. “But I do not grow younger. You asked me to find you an appropriate young woman.” He pulled a sheet of paper out of a drawer. “You said she was to be docile, reasonably attractive and good with children. That is who I found.”
Jefri wondered what he had been thinking when he had made that particular request. Yes, he had to marry, and an arranged match was as good as any, but now?
“I have other priorities at this moment. The air force takes much of my time.”
“Your bride will require little of you,” the king said. “You were specific when we spoke. You did not want this to be a love match.”
That much was true, Jefri thought. He had already played at that game and lost. Love was not for him. Better to find someone who could do the job and not manipulate his heart. Respect was far more important than love.
Without wanting to, he remembered a woman in the moonlight. The feel of a soft feminine body in his arms and a passionate response to his kiss. Billie was a temptation, but she did not meet any of his criteria save one. While it was possible she enjoyed children, he doubted anyone would ever accuse her of being docile. Worse, describing her as “reasonably attractive” was as much of an understatement as saying the center of the sun was mildly warm.
“I do not wish to be engaged at this time,” Jefri said firmly.
He had no intention of marrying Billie, but that did not mean he could not enjoy her company.
“Arrangements have been made,” his father told him.
“Then they need to be unmade.”
The king stared at him for a few seconds. Jefri braced himself for a battle of wills. While he might be victorious against his father, he had little success against the king.
At last the older man nodded. “As you wish.”
“Thank you, Father.” He glanced at his watch. “I am due at the airport shortly.”
“Then you must go. Be sure to tell Billie how much I enjoyed her company last night.” His father smiled. “Tell her that next time I will ask the staff to prepare a plate for her to take back to her dog. It is not necessary for her to slip food into her handbag.”
So the king had noticed as well. Jefri grinned. “I look forward to passing along the message.”
Billie knew that Doyle had been out until nearly four in the morning, overseeing the equipment unloading. In deference to his late bedtime, she waited until ten before entering his suite and stalking toward the bedroom.
Between the kiss and her fury at what she’d found out, she hadn’t gotten much sleep herself, which meant she’d had plenty of time to work up a head of steam. A tiny part of her looked forward to exploding all over her brother.
As she’d expected he was asleep. She crossed to the windows and pulled open the drapes. As light spilled onto the bed, he stirred, then rolled onto his back.
“What the hell are you doing?” he growled. “Do you know what time I got to bed?”
“Ask me if I care,” Billie said as she moved close to the side of the bed and glared down at her brother. “You are so in trouble. Don’t for one second think you’re going to talk your way out of this. I mean to have your head on a platter. Or maybe a stick. I haven’t decided.”
Doyle stretched and yawned. He looked amazingly unconcerned as he sat up and leaned against the headboard. His sleep-mussed hair fell across his forehead and stubble darkened his jaw.
“You’re sure flapping your lips,” he said with a complete lack of concern for her temper. “But you’re not saying much.”
She picked up one of his boots and tossed it at him. “Don’t you dare dismiss me, you rat. How dare you run my life? You don’t have the right.”
He batted away the flying boot and stared at her. “You’ve gone over the edge.”
“Not yet, but I’m really close.” She picked up the other boot and was pleased to see him duck. “That’s right. Be afraid. Because you have messed with something you’re going to regret.”
“Put that down,” he said, lunging toward her.
She was careful to keep out of reach, knowing she was safe as long as Doyle couldn’t grab her. Like all her brothers, he slept in the nude, so he wasn’t going to be getting out of bed anytime soon. She raised the boot again and glared.
“You’ve been warning men away from me, telling them who knows what so they won’t ask me out. How dare you? What I want to know is what gives you the right? I’ve been an adult for a long time. I’m capable of making my own decisions.”
He winced. “You’re crazy.”
“Am I? I couldn’t figure out why perfectly nice guys who had been flirting with me suddenly showed no interest. I thought it was me. But it wasn’t. It was you guys. And Dad. He’s in on it, too, isn’t he?”
“We just thought—”
“What?” she demanded, threatening him with the boot. “That I was too fragile to take care of myself.”
“After what happened before, we thought it was a good idea.”
Not a surprise, she told herself. “Doyle, that was eight years ago. I’m not happy it happened, but didn’t it occur to you that I’m over it?”
“What if some guy tries to hurt you again?”
“I’
ll deal with it. You can’t protect me. It’s wrong to try.” She set down the boot. Figures, they’d done the wrong thing for the right reason. “This stops right now. You get out of my personal life.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “Or what?”
She stared at him, at the familiar square jaw and blond hair. At the powerful muscles. When she’d been little and the constant subject of their endless teasing, she always thought that when she got bigger she would be able to take them on. But she’d been wrong. They still thought of her as their baby sister. Someone who wasn’t quite big enough or grown-up enough or good enough. It didn’t matter that she could blow every one of them, including her father, out of sky in less than three minutes.
“If you all don’t stop treating me like a child, I’m leaving the business.”
Doyle stared at her. “You’re bluffing. You love it too much to leave.”
She did love it, but she wouldn’t stay somewhere she couldn’t be her own person. “You know I get six job offers a month. I mean it, Doyle. I’ll walk.”
He swore under his breath, then held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Fine. I’ll talk to Dad and the guys. It may take us a while to, you know, act differently.”
“I’m sure you’re more than up to the task.”
He grumbled something under his breath, no doubt calling her names. None of her brothers had ever been especially gracious losers.
“I need to get to the airport,” she said brightly. “I have simulation training this afternoon.” She started to walk out of the room.
“Hey. What about the drapes,” he yelled after her.
“Get up and close them yourself.”
Feeling more than a little empowered, Billie walked back toward her rooms. She still had to collect Muffin before heading to the airport. In her own car with her own driver, she thought with a grin. Ah, it was good to be her right now.
She rounded a corner and nearly ran smack into Prince Jefri. All her breezy confidence drained away, leaving her feeling awkward, silly and tongue-tied.
“You appear to be very cheerful,” he said as he stopped in front of her. “Is there a reason?”
Man, oh man did he look good, she thought as she took in the dark suit, pale blue shirt and striped tie. Princes had the best clothes and some really great tailoring.
“I, ah…” What was the question? Oh, yeah. “I just told my brother off.”
“Did it go well?”
“Not bad. I believe he got the message.”
A smile tugged at Jefri’s mouth. “Did you threaten him?”
“Of course. Isn’t that what sisters do?”
“I don’t recall my sister threatening me much, but she spent much of the time in America. Was there blood spilt?”
“No, although I did throw his boot at him.”
“Impressive.”
She laughed. “He’d worked until early this morning. I think it’s the only reason I got the drop on him, but I won’t ever admit that to him.”
“Of course not. Nor will I.”
Awareness crackled between them. They’d kissed about twelve hours before and she was still experiencing aftershocks. Was Jefri? As a handsome prince was he used to kissing all sorts of women and had theirs been just one in a long line?
“What are you thinking?” he asked unexpectedly.
She felt her eyes widen. “Nothing important.”
“I think it was very important.” He moved closer. “Will you not tell me?”
“I just…” She cleared her throat. “It looks like another great day. Too bad we’ll be doing simulations instead of flying for real.”
His dark gaze settled on her face. “That was a rather poor and obvious attempt to change the subject.”
“I know, but you’re so well mannered, I figured you’d let me get away with it.”
“Hmm, and here I had hoped you would tell me you had been busy thinking about last night.” He lowered his voice. “I enjoyed our conversation and our kiss.”
Holy moly. He was going to talk about it? She wasn’t used to that, but then she wasn’t much used to kisses from princes. Or men in general. Jeez, based on what she’d just found out about her brothers she should send every guy who had gathered the courage to ask her out an award of some kind.
“I had a nice time, too,” she said primly.
He raised his eyebrows. “Nice? I see I must work on my technique.”
Before she could respond, she felt something brush against her bare ankles. She looked down, then scrambled out of the way of a small calico cat.
“Those creatures are everywhere,” she muttered.
Jefri bent over and picked up the cat. It wasn’t much bigger than his hand and as he held it, the cat began to purr. Billie could hear the soft rumble.
“She likes you,” he said.
“She’s trying to lull me into a false sense of security before the attack.”
He petted the cat. “I doubt she weighs more than five or six pounds. You do not appear to be in any imminent danger.”
“So you say.”
She watched as he scratched the feline under its chin. It twisted around to get on its back and nearly fell off his hand.
“Careful,” Jefri said, nestling the cat against his chest. “You are too trusting, I think.”
“Especially around me,” Billie said.
He looked at her. “You would not hurt a kitten.”
“No, but I’d be happy to threaten it forcefully with words.”
“But she has done you no harm.”
“You keep saying she. It could be a boy.”
“Unlikely. Calicos are generally female, much as marmalades are usually male. This one is maybe eight or nine weeks old.”
The kitten rolled onto her back and splayed her paws as Jefri rubbed her tummy.
“Come now,” he said. “Touch her fur. I suspect she is not nearly as horrible as you would have me believe.”
Billie wrinkled her nose, but did as he requested. She touched the white fur under the cat’s chin.
“Soft,” she said in some surprise. She could feel the warmth of its body and the rumble from the purring.
The kitten blinked slowly, as if dozing off.
“She does seem to trust you,” Billie said.
“I’m very good with females.”
“Like that’s a surprise.”
He shifted the cat so it lay on its tummy, then handed it to her. Billie stepped back and shook her head.
“No, thanks. I’ll admit she’s kind of cute, but I’m not interested. As far as I’m concerned, the entire cat population still has a lot to answer for.”
He set down the kitten and shook his head. “You are a most difficult woman.”
“I know. It’s part of my charm.”
Jefri stared down at the instrument panel. Everything was as it should be, but even doing everything correctly did not stop the high-pitched tone-lock he heard in his ears. He tore off the headset, hit the switch to kill the simulation and stepped out of the machine.
Again. She had done it again. At least in his first and second simulation he had lasted nearly three minutes. This time she had nailed him in less than forty seconds.
Annoyance grew to anger. He narrowed his gaze as he swept the room, finally locating Billie stepping out of her simulator. In her denim skirt and tight T-shirt, she looked more like a college coed than a fighter jet instructor. Long blond hair tumbled down her back. She wore impossibly high-heeled sandals. She was walking, breathing sexual desire incarnate and he was not sure if he should strangle her or push her up against the wall and have his way with her.
Wariness darkened her blue eyes. He saw a flash of something that might have been disappointment, then she squared her narrow shoulders, raised her chin and walked toward him.
He recognized her determination. She was prepared to take him on—to endure his ill temper in the name of making him a better pilot.
“I know you’re
pissed off,” she said as she approached. “You got too cocky in that last run and didn’t think. You always have to respect your opponent because up there, the ordinance is real and you can get dead really fast.”
Light spilled in from a window and illuminated her pale skin. Color stained her cheeks, but he suspected it came from her being upset rather than a cosmetic.
“You need to let go of the fact that I’m a woman,” she told him, sounding delightfully earnest. “I have knowledge to share with you. That’s it.”
She continued to speak, expressing platitudes designed to restore a fragile male ego.
Of course, he told himself. This was her world. Every new client had pilots who resented her ability simply because she was a woman. How long had she been apologizing for being the best?
She was the most amazing woman. Bright, determined, talented. Erotically sensual.
He wanted her with every cell of his being, but even more than that, he wanted to make things all right for her.
“Meet me in an hour,” he said, cutting her off in midsentence.
She blinked at him. “Excuse me?”
“Meet me in front of the Van Horn office in an hour.” He glanced over her short skirt and tight T-shirt. “Bring a jacket.”
“I have classes. I have other students who…”
He pressed a finger to her lips to still her words and to feel the warmth and softness of her skin.
“Please,” he said. “I have something I want to show you.”
Chapter Five
Billie walked to the front of the Van Horn office as Jefri had requested. She’d even brought along a jacket, although it had to be close to eighty degrees in the shade. Nothing in her previous work experience had prepared her for this kind of a situation and she was still figuring out how to deal with it when Jefri pulled up in an open Jeep and patted the passenger seat invitingly.
“I understand that you’re the prince and everything,” she said as she climbed inside, “but that’s not important to the rest of my students. I have a responsibility to them as well as you and I can’t disappear on a moment’s notice just because you will it.”
The Sheik & the Princess Bride Page 5