Oasis of the Heart

by Jessica Hart

  'Decided you prefer me to the scorpions?' He had glanced over his shoulder, and for a moment his expression was arrested as he caught sight of Cairo bending over her rucksack. Her legs were long and slender beneath her T-shirt, and her hair caught the firelight as it fell forward to hide her face.

  'Marginally,' she said coldly, without looking at him.

  He watched her as she shook out her sleeping sheet and laid it on the mat. It looked flimsy and very close to the ground, she thought nervously. There wouldn't be much between her and a scorpion, not to mention the snakes and the spiders.

  'Why on earth didn't you bring a sleeping bag?' asked Max sharply, almost as if he could read her mind.

  'I didn't think I'd need one. This is the Sahara, after all.'

  'And in all the famous research you supposedly did before you came, did you never come across the information that the Sahara gets very cold at night?'

  'I can't believe it gets that cold,' said Cairo, on the defensive.

  Max pinched the bridge of his nose in a gesture of despair. 'You've got no idea, have you? If you're an example of your consultancy's planning, I dread to think what's going to happen when you're responsible for other people. On present form, you couldn't organise a day at the seaside, let alone a complex trip to one of the most inaccessible parts of the world!'

  'Look, I'll be perfectly all right,' Cairo said crossly.

  But as the hours passed, it got colder and colder. Earlier that day, as she had climbed up the furnace-like gorge, she had decided that what she wanted was to spend the rest of her life in the cold, but now she tossed and turned in an effort to get warm. This was an awful place! Everything was so extreme, and it was impossible to get comfortable. Every muscle in her body ached, and the fact that she was shivering didn't help.

  If she turned on her side, she could see Max, warm and sound asleep in his sleeping bag, only a few feet away. It was all right for him, she thought resentfully, but she couldn't help wishing she had laid her mat a little closer.

  The darkness was so intense that every sound was magnified. She could hear Max breathing, and the mules shifting their hoofs among the stones.

  Mosquitoes whined annoyingly around her head and she pulled the sheet over her face, but that made her feel even more vulnerable. What if she didn't see all those snakes and scorpions creeping stealthily towards her?

  Suddenly, the night was rent by a blood-curdling howl. Cairo sat bolt upright with a gasp, her heart pounding and her eyes wide and terrified. The howl was answered by another, and soon the darkness was filled with eerie yelping. How could Max sleep through it? She debated waking him up, but lost her nerve at the last minute. He would only be sarcastic. It was a wonder the sound of her teeth clacking like castanets hadn't woken him up already.

  Cairo clutched the sheet around her. What was she doing here in this godforsaken place? Max was right. She should have found herself a proper job. She had been made to let Piers talk her into this crazy consultancy idea.

  She wanted to go home.

  She was shaking with cold and fright. Too scared to get out of her sleep sheet, she leant over and managed to haul her rucksack towards her so that she could scrabble around for Max's shirt. Another layer might help.

  'Can't you keep still?' Max demanded in sleepy irritation out of the darkness, making her jump. 'You've been thrashing around all night. The desert used to be a peaceful place before you came along.' ' 'Peaceful?' said Cairo bitterly between chattering teeth. 'How can you possibly call this... this nightmare of a place peaceful? I've had to put up with snoring, and mosquitoes dive-bombing me, all sorts of horrible creatures scuttling around on the ground and now werewolves howling for blood!'

  'They're only jackals,' Max said with infuriating calm, and Cairo's voice rose to a squeak.

  'Jackals? Wonderful!' She was teetering on the edge of hysteria. 'Not only are there millions of poisonous insects lining up to bite me, but I'm likely to be torn from limb to limb by a pack of scavenging jackals as well!'

  'They're not interested in you,' said Max, exasperated. 'Scorpions and snakes will only attack in self- defence, so if you stay still you won't come to any harm.' He rolled back on to his side and closed his eyes once more. 'Just lie down and be quiet.'

  Cairo lay back gingerly, but she was still freezing. She might as well put that shirt on now that she had got the pack. Sitting up once more, .she began pulling things out of the top pocket. Where had she put it?

  'What are you doing now?' Max sounded as if he was controlling his temper with an effort.

  'I'm looking for your shirt,' she said sulkily.

  'My shirt? Surely you're not cold?' His sarcasm was unmistakable and Cairo cast him a look of loathing.

  'Yes, I am! You'll be delighted to know that I'm frozen, exhausted and scared stiff. I ache all over and I wish I'd never heard of you or your rotten desert!'

  She was struggling with the zip on the lower pocket. 'Why won't this...?

  Agh!'

  Max sat up with a muttered exclamation. 'Now what?'

  "I've broken a nail!' Cairo wailed, and burst into tears. It was the last straw.

  Swearing fluently, Max disentangled himself from his sleeping bag and, after a wary shake for scorpions, thrust his feet into his shoes. He strode over to Cairo who was snuffling miserably into her sleep sheet, and picked her up bodily.

  'What are you doing?' she spluttered, her flailing hands clutching instinctively round his neck and brushing against the warm skin of his shoulders. She was a tall girl, but he held her easily against his bare chest.

  She hadn't realised quite how strong he was.'I am trying to get some sleep,'

  said Max distinctly, depositing her, sleep sheet and all, on his sleeping bag.

  'And I'm not going to get any with you fussing and fidgeting away over there.' He threw her sleeping mat down beside his and moved her over as if she was a parcel. Then he unzipped his sleeping bag all the way round to make an eiderdown, lay down beside her, pulled her into the warmth of his body and threw the bag over both of them.

  'If I'd known that tearing one of your nails was enough to break your spirit, I'd have broken one back at the camp,' he said.

  Cairo found herself held against his hard body, enclosed by his arms. Her cheek was resting on his bare chest, and she was excruciatingly aware of the warm, matt texture of his skin. He had evidently been quite unmoved by carrying her scantily clad body close to his bare skin, but her heart was still thudding painfully against her ribs.

  'My spirit isn't broken,' she said, rather muffled.

  'Then why were you bawling your eyes out?'

  'I wasn't bawling,' she said, trying to sound dignified. 'I was just... tired. I'm perfectly all right.'

  Max loosened his hold on her. 'Oh, well, if you want to go back...'

  'No,' said Cairo quickly. It felt safe and warm in his arms, and she didn't want to leave them. 'I mean, I don't want to disturb you again,' she added lamely.

  'Good. In that case, will you please shut up and go to sleep?'

  'I bet you say that to all the girls,' she muttered sourly, and felt rather than saw his reluctant smile above her head.

  She was so cold that it took some time for the shivering to subside, but Max rubbed his hand rhythmically up and down her arm, and as his warmth seeped through her gradually her tired muscles began to relax. She could hear the steady, reassuring beat of his heart, and look over the broad chest at the still, black outlines of the rocks against the sky. Their silent looming presence no longer seemed threatening, and even the yippering jackals seemed to have faded away.

  For the first time, Cairo noticed the stars. She had never seen so many. They crowded together, blurring the inky blackness of the sky with starlight. Why hadn't she seen how bright they were before?

  She thought about Max, who must have stared up at them like this on countless nights. How remote her world must seem to him! Even after her world had fallen apart, she had still stayed in the
city, where she felt at home.

  Max was right, Cairo admitted to herself. Her life was narrow. She could have claimed that London was a vast, cosmopolitan place, full of interest and activity, but, if she was honest with herself, her life was as limited as if she lived in a small village. She always went to the same places, saw the same people, they all lived in the same sort of houses. How long was it since she had met someone different? A few minutes' chat at a party, perhaps, but until she met Max she hadn't realised quite how restricted her experience had been.

  For the first time, Cairo felt a pang of regret that she couldn't have met him under other circumstances. Lying in his arms, she felt as if all her senses were preter- naturally heightened. Strange that a man who made no secret of his dislike of her could make her feel so safe. With the security of his body beside her, she felt as if she could see everything very clearly. Would things have been different if she had met Max in London? Would she have started to notice the shadows of the trees on the pavement, or the exuberance of the summer windowboxes, or the pink haze of a winter sunset over the Thames?

  Was the truth that she had never bothered to stop and look before because she knew they were there for free and had no exclusive cachet to make them worth her attention?

  Cairo grimaced at the stars. She hadn't come to the desert for a course in self-knowledge. That was far too uncomfortable. She was here to do a job, even if it wasn't exactly what she had expected.

  She smiled sleepily as she remembered how excited she had been when Piers had first proposed that they go into business together. 'We may not have qualifications,' he had said, 'but between us we've got loads of contacts.

  You've been jaunting around Europe for years; it'll be easy for you to set up social programmes, and even if we concentrate on the business angle you'll know lots of people who'll be able to point you in the right direction.'

  Cairo had been enthused, lured by the glamorous picture of life Piers had painted for her. She had imagined herself jetting between Paris and Milan, perhaps running around Madrid with a clipboard, or coolly sorting out transport problems in Frankfurt. She had never dreamt that she would end up on top of a plateau in the Sahara, sleeping with a man she had only met for the first time yesterday, a man for whom she wasn't beautiful, capable Cairo Kingswood, but a thorough nuisance, and not a particularly attractive one at that. His heartbeat was slow and steady. His senses weren't careering out of control just because she was lying in his arms.

  Unconsciously she sighed and nestled closer. At least she was warm and comfortable. Max was asleep. She could feel his chest rising and falling beneath her cheek, and she shifted slightly, so that her face was turned into the warmth of his throat. Her eyelashes feathered against his jaw and her lips were almost, almost, touching his skin. If she moved just a fraction, she would be able to taste him ...

  Cairo's eyes, which had been closing slowly, flicked open. What was she thinking of? This was Max.

  But she was too tired to wonder what tricks her body was playing on her.

  She would just lie here quietly as Max had instructed, and worry about it all tomorrow. Tomorrow she would be herself again, and there would be no strange yearnings to kiss the skin so tantalisingly close to hers.

  Drifting in and out of consciousness, she felt Max stir in his sleep, and mumble something indistinct into her hair. It seemed the most natural thing in the world for Cairo to turn then, and press her lips to the pulse in his throat with a tiny sigh of release. She was vaguely aware of Max's arms tightening instinctively around her, and, giving herself up to a sense of infinite security, she slid at last into a deep sleep.

  When Max shook her awake just before dawn, Cairo mumbled in protest and tried to draw the sleeping bag over her head.

  'Leave me alone!'

  The next moment, the comforting warmth of the bag was jerked away and Max was stirring her roughly with his foot. 'Come on, get up!'

  Cairo struggled upright, rubbing her leaden eyes. 'It can't possibly be time to get up,' she yawned. 'I've only just gone to sleep.'

  'If you'd spent less time making that appalling fuss last night, we might both have had a longer sleep,' Max pointed out, and she shifted uncomfortably, remembering how she had burst into tears over the broken nail. It wasn't like her to behave so hysterically.

  'I wasn't myself last night, and you know it,' she said coldly.

  'On the contrary,' said Max with an ironic look. 'I'd have said you were behaving quite in character, although even I didn't expect that a broken fingernail would provoke quite such a tragedy!'

  Cairo flushed. 'It wasn't the nail. It was just the accumulation of events that got to me when I was tired, that's all.'

  'What events?' Max asked with a glint of amusement. Last night's fire had been reduced to a circle of cold, white ashes, and he was busy setting up a small paraffin stove to boil some water. 'It was an ordinary, peaceful night in the desert. You were the only one creating a disturbance. I'd have thought if you could sleep in London you could sleep anywhere. You must be used to cars and sirens and pubs and televisions and people quarrelling next door all through the night. Last night should have been absolutely silent by comparison!'

  'They were different sorts of noises,' Cairo said sulkily.

  'Well, you'd better get used to them,' said Max, straightening, and regarding her with a complete lack of sympathy. If anything, he seemed to be positively enjoying her suffering, Cairo thought bitterly.

  'Don't tell me,' she said. 'There's no five-star hotel to look forward to tonight, either.'

  Unexpectedly Max grinned. 'Got it in one, Cairo! And since you will have noticed the lack of room service here, I suggest you get up and keep an eye on the stove while I go and have a word with the caretaker.'

  Cairo eyed his back with resentment as he walked off. She didn't like the way he found her discomfort so amusing. If he had had any sense of decency, he would have been trying to make things easy for her instead of watching her with that mocking look in his eyes and making barbed comments about how out of place she was. She didn't like the way her heart lurched when he grinned either.

  She had a rather uneasy memory of snuggling into his arms last, night. She had been cold, of course, she reasoned, and it was natural to seek his body warmth. It had absolutely nothing to do with wanting to feel his arms around her or the solid strength of his body close to hers. She could remember looking up at the stars too, and being glad that she had met Max, and as for that bizarre compulsion to touch her lips to his skin.. .she must have been dreaming, or so tired that she had been delirious! Thank heaven Max had been asleep, or he would have got quite the wrong idea. Attractive he might be when he smiled, but he was just not the kind of man she would ever want to kiss!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CAIRO extricated herself with some difficulty from her tangled sleep sheet.

  A narrow strip of sky was just beginning to lighten over a line of weirdly shaped boulders as she pulled on Max's shirt and buttoned it with chill fingers. She had been too tired to behave normally last night, but she had herself well under control again now. She didn't care how ridiculous Max Falconer thought her. She would never be able to turn herself into his ideal woman, so she might as well carry on just as she was.

  When Max came back, she was sitting cross-legged on her sleeping mat, peering into a tiny handbag mirror as she smoothed moisturiser over her face. 'I've made some coffee,' she said without looking at him. 'The mug's over there by the stove.'

  After an incredulous stare when he noticed what she was doing, Max picked up the mug with a grunt. 'I thought I told you to leave all that stuff behind?'

  'You did.'

  'So you deliberately ignored my advice?'

  'This isn't the Army, Max.' Cairo lowered the mirror and looked up at him with truculent green eyes. 'You gave me some advice, and I chose not to take it, that's all. I'm quite capable of making my own decisions. Contrary to what you think, I've got a perfectly good mind of my own.'<
br />
  'I haven't seen much evidence of it so far,' Max pointed out.

  Studiously ignoring him, Cairo finished moisturising her face and began carefully applying sunblock.

  'How many lotions do you need, for God's sake?' He scowled down at her as he drank his coffee.

  'I don't want to get sunburnt. You may be happy to have a skin like old leather, but I certainly don't intend to have one.'

  'I sometimes wonder if you've appreciated just where you are, Cairo,' Max said in a tone of exasperated resignation. 'The paparazzi aren't up here waiting to jump out and take a snap of you not looking at your very best, so I hardly think you need to bother with full make-up!'

  'I'm not putting on any make-up,' said Cairo, screwing the top back on the sunblock. 'I'm just taking care of my skin.'

  'And in the meantime you expect me to stand here waiting patiently while you fuss over yourself?'

  'I haven't noticed you being particularly patient,' she snapped. 'Surely it's not the end of the world if I spend five minutes giving myself a bit of protection.

  You'd be the first person to complain if I collapsed with sunstroke.'

  Max chucked the dregs of the coffee away with an irritable gesture. 'Your hat's all the protection you should need. You don't seem to appreciate that I've got a job to do up here. I haven't got all day to hang around waiting for you.'

  'I thought time "takes on a different meaning in the desert",' Cairo quoted him nastily as he glared at her.

  'Believe me, it seems twice as long when it has to be spent with you! Now, hurry up!'

  Cairo was still stiff and aching from yesterday's walk, and she grimaced as she hoisted the pack on to her back. Max had made her take another large container of water, as well as some food, and she staggered at first under the extra weight.

  'I'll never be able to carry this!'

  'If you can carry all those cosmetics as well as your Filofax, you can carry food and water that might well save your life,' said Max bluntly. 'If you want to leave something behind, I don't need to tell you what it should be!''Cairo lapsed into sullen silence and plodded after him. After a while, her muscles loosened up with the renewed exercise," and as she got used to the weight on her back she began to look around her.