When she was finished, she surveyed the rest of the room, aware that she hadn’t made the bed but only one side was messed up. And even that, barely. Each night after running around the city trying to talk to anyone who might know something about her father’s whereabouts, she’d curled up into a ball, mentally and physically exhausted.
“You’re not a neat freak,” he observed drily.
She walked into the bathroom and quickly gathered up the items in there. The bathroom wasn’t as messy, but she still had several bottles of lotion, body wash, shampoo, and conditioner to collect. She loved to spoil her skin and hair. Dumping everything into her makeup bag, she tossed that on top of her clothes, then zipped the suitcase closed. “Fine. I’m finished.” she announced.
“Excellent,” he told her and lifted her suitcase from the bed. Opening the hotel room door, he handed the case to one of the waiting guards who whisked it off …somewhere.
Arianna watched and tried to hide her panic as her clothes and toiletries disappeared. She shouldn’t have packed up everything, she thought. She should have stood her ground and told him to get out of her hotel room. As long as she was paying the bill, she deserved to be here.
Unless he was kicking her out. Which…yeah, he had the power to do. Arianna had to keep reminding herself that this man literally had the power of life and death over everyone in the country. An awesome thought, but one she couldn’t dwell on at the moment.
“Okay, so where are we going?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest because…well, because her breasts were still tingling from his touch. Still wondering when she would get another chance to feel his strong fingers against her nipples.
That was such a crazy notion, she had to banish the thought from her mind. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately, and it occurred to her that this might be a horrible, miserable nightmare.
She reached down and pinched herself, then cringed when it hurt.
“What did you just do?” he asked, sounding as if he wasn’t sure if he should laugh or put her in a straight jacket.
She sighed and looked around. “Nothing. Just being silly,” she told him. Yep, this was a nightmare. One that just kept going on and on.
“You’re a stunning woman, Arianna, but you have some strange notions.” He put a hand to the small of her back again and led her out of the hotel room. “But that’s okay. I’m still fascinated. I can’t wait to learn more about you.”
She sighed as she walked slightly ahead of him, not sure what he meant by that. And not sure she wanted to know either. Ignorance could be bliss, she told herself firmly.
“So, where are we going now?” she asked as she stepped into the SUV. He came in right after her, and again, he was too close. His strong thigh was touching hers but as soon as she tried to move away, he pulled her right back against his side.
“We’re going to find out what happened to your father,” he told her, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world.
Arianna stilled, her body running cold. “Really? You’re still going to help me?” she asked, her voice choked as emotion swelled up inside of her.
He nodded his head and looked at the guards, both of whom nodded right back, as if some sort of signal had been conveyed. Both of the guards stepped into the front seats and she took that to mean she shouldn’t discuss this any longer.
Looking out the window of the SUV, she wondered what was going on. Was he really going to help her or was he still teasing her? Or worse, stringing her along for some strange reason?
Her blood chilled, thinking about all of the possibilities. About the weeks, months that it had taken her to get over her anger and humiliation the last time. Now she had her father to worry about and he…was he…?
No! He wasn’t that kind of a man. Was he?
As the beauty of the desert flew by outside of the air-conditioned SUV, Arianna knew that it was entirely possible that she was just along for the ride. But that was okay, as long as Rhys helped her find her father.
There had been the oil leaks. The damaged pipes. And hadn’t her father mentioned something about an explosion? Or maybe just the potential for an explosion. Was Rhys right about this being more than just her missing father?
As soon as she asked that question in her mind, she knew the answer. An explosion could mean that someone was trying to hide something more than just leaky rigs. That someone else had done something, or acted in a way that could cause damage. Her father had been the victim, but who had been the perpetrator?
She looked up at Rhys’ hard profile. What had she missed? Her mind went over all the pictures she’d studied, then she thought through the results of the chemical reports, the metal stress tests, all the various reports she and her father had discussed over the past few months.
But reports could be falsified. And she could be a victim as well.
Was she putting herself in danger? Was Rhys in danger now that she’d asked him for help?
It was entirely possible. In this world, where oil and money were powerful motivators, and money could buy someone’s silence as well as falsify a report…yes, it was possible.
Had her father been kidnapped, or even worse, silenced, because he’d discovered something wrong in the reports? And yeah, she was wimping about the “silenced” verb. She simply couldn’t think of her father as gone. No way! He couldn’t have been murdered.
“You seem to be having a very heavy conversation with yourself,” Rhys observed, interrupting that conversation. “What are you thinking about?”
Arianna looked over at him. Maybe he could connect the issues that weren’t very clear in her mind. “During our conversations, my father had been talking about something, some report that didn’t add up.”
His eyes immediately sharpened with that news. “What report? And what about it didn’t add up?”
Rubbing her forehead, she wished that she’d been able to sleep a bit longer this morning. She hadn’t been able to turn off her mind last night, what with worry over her father’s disappearance and the added stress of being near Rhys again.
“Arianna?”
She realized that he’d been patiently waiting for her to answer his question. “Sorry,” she groaned and looked out the window again. “I don’t remember much about the reports,” she admitted with a mental castigation. “I was too focused on my own job and,” she paused for a moment, wishing that she could have those conversations over again. “Well, I didn’t pay attention to him as I should have,” she sighed. “I’m sorry.” Turning her head, she conveyed her apology through her eyes as well as words.
“You had your own life to live, Arianna. Don’t beat yourself up for that.”
Her hands fisted in her lap as frustration and disloyalty hit her hard. “But it was my father! And he was telling me something.”
“You couldn’t have anticipated this happening to him.”
She looked into his eyes and realized something. “This kind of stuff is just part of your normal day, isn’t it?” she asked softly. “You deal with this kind of violence and mystery all the time.”
This was just part of his life. He knew the worst that was happening in the world and had to make life or death decisions based off of that information. “Life isn’t always pretty,” was his only response.
Reaching out, she laid her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
His warm fingers covered hers and immediately the tension shifted. She felt the heightened awareness as if it were a physical force. She looked down at his fingers covering her own and she was startled by the differences in their hands. Hers were pale and small compared to his, which were almost twice the size and tanned, his fingers strong and scarred.
Turning his hand over, she traced several of the scars. “Where did these come from?” she asked softly.
“Different activities,” he answered and she understood that he wasn’t going to discuss them. That only made them more fascinating and her imagination went wild tryi
ng to come up with explanations. “Nothing that interesting,” he told her with a soft chuckle, eyeing her curious expression.
Arianna blinked, looking up at him. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to. I can see where your mind was going. And trust me. The scars aren’t anything important.”
She didn’t believe him, but she also realized that the subject was closed. Looking out the window again, she thought back to the conversations she’d had with her father. “He mentioned something about piping being wrong,” she told him, startled that she’d remembered that because it was so mundane. “There was something loose. Something that was of lesser quality. The rigging on the oil site…” she frowned down at her knees, her mind whirling with the effort to remember. “The rigging wasn’t right. It was breaking and didn’t fit the other parts correctly. There were leaks and…something else was going on.” She looked over at him. “Your new oil minister, was he cutting costs in different ways?”
“Nothing that I’ve been told about,” Rhys replied, looking at Arianna carefully. From the moment they’d stepped out of the palace, she’d been much more introspective.
No, that wasn’t quite accurate. From the moment he’d almost kissed her, she’d been…different. He’d seen the heat in her eyes and had known that she could feel the mutual attraction. He understood why this concerned her. The woman was focused on finding her father and, being attracted to someone at a critical time like this would be an enormous distraction. He respected the issues that were most likely pinging around in her head. She was smart, cautious, and worried about her father, as any sane person would be.
And yeah, he respected her so much more because of her dedication. He would resolve this mystery soon. It was all a puzzle Rhys was determined to unravel.
He heard her sigh and could almost feel the tension build up in her slender body, then noticed her shoulders deflate. He didn’t like the resignation he saw in her beautiful, golden eyes now. Gone was the fire, the determination and the daring. Replacing those strong emotions was…defeat.
“You said this was bigger than just my father’s disappearance, but it’s even more complicated than I thought, isn’t it?” she asked, biting her lip and turning her head away to hide her face.
Rhys watched her carefully, struck by the sensitivity in that question. He wanted to see those eyes. They truly were a window to her soul, to her thoughts and feelings. She hadn’t learned how to hide her emotions, he could sense her dejection and he wanted her to fight. He loved that she was a strong advocate for her father. Even fighting him was better than her feeling…and looking…lost.
“Talk to me, Arianna,” he urged. He leaned forward, pressing a button, which lifted the divider between the back seat and the guards in the front of the vehicle. “We’re alone now. What’s bothering you?”
He watched as she looked down at her hands and he noticed that she wasn’t the kind of woman who regularly manicured her fingernails. He wasn’t sure why, but that seemed to lighten his mood. She was different in so many ways.
Rhys had to restrain himself from pulling her onto his lap so that he could wrap his arms around her. He thought about yesterday, about how slight she’d felt as he’d held her exactly like that while she cried on his shoulder. And even that, her tears and the memory of the way her body shook with the emotion racking her body, made him want to protect her. He didn’t think she’d allow that from him right now. And possibly not for a long time. He’d have to earn her trust.
So, why was he even willing to do that? For a woman! It was so incredibly outrageous. Women never showed their distrust around him. The only emotion they ever revealed in his presence was laughter, good humor, and…well, desire. He loved all three of those, but with Arianna, he wanted honesty, even if he didn’t like where that honesty led.
Crazy!
But so it was. Arianna was different. He’d known that from the moment she’d stepped into the ballroom months ago on her father’s arm. And every moment since then, she’d reinforced that impression.
She pressed her lips together for a long moment and he thought she might not share with him. But then she turned those golden eyes his way. “I’m trying to remember other conversations, trying to remember what he’d told me.”
“I know you said that you weren’t paying attention, but think hard. Can you remember anything about the reports your father discussed? Even a small detail would help me narrow down some questions. I wasn’t informed that there were any problems with equipment on the oil rigs or any budget cuts.”
She looked up at him, startled. “Why would you be informed? Even if the equipment failures ended in an injury, would that information really make it to your desk?”
His eyes sharpened with that question. She didn’t understand him or the way he ruled so he took a moment to explain. “Accidents happen. Working on an oil field, on a rig, is a dangerous job. But I take pride in ensuring that every precaution is put in place to prevent accidents. So if someone was hurt or died, I should have been informed of it.”
She stared up at him, feeling a sense of wonder at his devotion to his people. “What would you have done if you’d been informed?”
He didn’t hesitate. “I would have looked into the situation.”
Despite his forceful response, Arianna wasn’t convinced. Her cynicism reared its ugly head. “Personally? Or would you have delegated the task to someone else?”
He shrugged. “The action would have been delegated.”
Aha! Point made! “I don’t think anyone was looking into the equipment failures. And my father brought it up to his superiors, but nothing was done about it. Except that now, he’s missing.”
“How do you know?”
Victory was sweet in the face of his arrogance. “Because I was given information.”
His eyes narrowed and Arianna felt a shiver at the intensity of that look. “What information? Nothing was forwarded to my office.”
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Rhys, you’re a busy man. Equipment purchases might have made a footnote in one of your morning briefings, but admit it, you probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it.”
“Perhaps. But I don’t like not being informed.”
At least he was willing to concede that there might have been an issue and wasn’t willing to sweep it away or hide it. But something in his voice, or maybe it was the words he used, triggered a memory. “Well, someone looked into the issue. An investigation was started, reports were submitted, and the issue closed. Inferior materials were used, materials that weren’t up to normal standards and couldn’t withstand the pressure of the pumping process. An explosion broke off metal shards from the rig. I don’t know if anyone was hurt, but with something like that, it would seem likely that someone probably was. Profits were demanded, mistakes made, and now….”
He stared at her silently for a long moment. Arianna admitted that she didn’t know him well enough to discern what he was thinking, but she could see the intelligence in his eyes.
“If there was an explosion, then I should have been informed immediately. Any sort of fire on an oil rig triggers an emergency response. It’s just too dangerous, especially with the methane fumes all over the area. Any explosion, even a small one, would be a pretty major event.”
She paused before going on, not sure how he might take her next statement. “It would seem to be a good protocol to have in place. But there was an explosion,” she insisted, sure of the conversation now that they were talking about it. “So I understand why you think that the investigation is bigger than just a missing engineer.” She ignored the arrogant lift of his eyebrow to continue, “If the results prove that your orders were the impetus that caused the failure, then what?”
He didn’t have an answer for her since he hadn’t ordered inferior materials be used. So instead, he said, “Arianna, I monitor the top line of the profits carefully, but my focus is more on establishing an overall cost for the oil exports.
My oil minister is responsible for the profits of each oilrig, each section of the country. So your assertion that I ordered the cost cutting measures…it didn’t happen. I know that you’d like to paint me as the bad guy in this, but…”
She pressed her lips together. “If you didn’t order the project manager to use the lower line of steel joints to be used for replacement parts, even though the memo came from your desk, then who did?”
She didn’t believe him, he realized. He almost laughed at her skepticism, but didn’t. He was so used to everyone believing him immediately, that the idea of a woman daring to not believe him was outrageous. And such a turn-on that it was hard to keep his hands off of her. Even that reaction felt completely bizarre.
Once more, his eyes dropped to her lips and he remembered what it was like to kiss someone so defiant. And beautiful.
Rhys kept his amusement to himself, but only because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She was hurt and angry, lashing out to ease the pain over her worry about her father. He wasn’t going to compound the problem by making her think that he was too callous to care about her feelings or her beliefs.
“Let us just follow the evidence and see where it leads us, shall we?” he offered. He glanced out of the window and nodded at something. “We’re here.”
She looked around, startled by his announcement as well as by the determination in his eyes. She didn’t know what either meant, and was even more disconcerted by his look. But the man knew how to hide whatever he was thinking so she turned her attention towards the “we’re here” statement. Looking around, she realized that they were parked in what looked to be a very exclusive shopping mall.
“Why are we here?” she asked, but he was already getting out, his guards surrounding both of them.
He took her hand to assist her in stepping out of the SUV. “You can’t go traipsing around an oil rig in a silk dress and heels.”
One Night With the Sheik (Friends Forever Book 4) Page 8