by Lucy Monroe
He’d already alluded to the fact his wife had not been faithful—an eventuality Iris simply could not comprehend. What woman would want another man when she had Asad in her bed? But this latest revelation pointed to only one conclusion: the perfect princess had been a perfect idiot.
Because the woman would have to be absolutely brainless not to realize how foolish it would be to give up the herds of a Bedouin tribe.
“Marrying the virginal princess did not turn out to be all it was cracked up to be, I guess.”
“If that odd English idiom means it was not what I expected it to be, you are correct. Does that please you?” he asked darkly.
“You probably won’t believe me, but no. Losing what I thought I had with you hurt more than I believed anything ever could, but I never wished you ill.” Her own honesty surprised her a little, but with only a couple of glaring exceptions, she’d always found it far too easy to reveal her deepest thoughts and emotions to Asad.
Perhaps because in the past, he’d proven himself a worthy and safe confidant. It was hard to change that viewpoint despite the pain he’d put her through, maybe because he’d walked away and she hadn’t had a chance to shore up her defenses against him in person.
Whenever she’d revealed a fear or disappointment in the past, he did his best to alleviate it. She’d told him she was worried about passing a difficult class and though it was not in his discipline, he’d helped her study and even write one of her papers. She’d admitted to feeling awkward in the way her body moved and he’d talked her into ballroom dancing lessons.
Asad stopped before they entered the strangely isolated tent and looked down at her. “You are a very different sort of woman, little flower.”
He’d used to call her that, too, a play on her name that was just silly enough to be endearing. Somehow, his using it again didn’t hurt with nearly the pain the betraying aziz had done.
“I don’t think so. When you love someone, you want them to be happy. Even when it’s not with you.” That truth had sustained her through some of the darkest nights of her soul.
He jolted as if she’d hit him with a cattle prod. “You love me?”
“I loved you,” she emphasized.
“And that prevented you from hating me?” he asked in a curious tone. “Even though you considered my leaving a betrayal.”
“It was a betrayal of my love. But no, I don’t hate you.”
She never had, even in her darkest moments of pain. A love as deep as the one she felt for him simply had not allowed for that emotion, no matter how devastated she’d been.
He went as if to touch her face, but then let his hand drop after a quick glance around. They were not alone, though no one was close enough to hear the subject of their conversation. It would not do for him to be seen taking such liberties with a single woman, even one from the West.
The tribe might be part of the small percentage of Bedouins that had not converted to Islam in the seventh century, but that did not mean that such behavior would be any more culturally acceptable in this place.
“Your love for me was true,” he said as if just realizing that.
“And you really didn’t love me. Life is peppered with little inconsistencies like that,” she said with a wry twist to her lips.
She was really proud of the insouciance of her tone and stance. Maybe seeing him again had been for the best. Perhaps once this assignment was over, Iris would be able to move forward with her life…and maybe even fall in love with someone who would return her feelings.
Though trusting someone else with her heart was not something she was sure she ever wanted to do again.
“So, what is this place?” she asked, indicating the isolated tent.
“Let me show you,” he said as he led her inside.
She gasped out in shock as they passed under the heavy tent flap that operated as the door.
The interior of this particular structure was nothing like the others. An undeniably modern office, either side of the main area, was taken up by two desks facing each other, all manned by people clearly at work. In the center, there was even a secretary/receptionist speaking into a headset while typing at a laptop on her desk.
No one sat on cushions on the floor, like in other Bedouin tents. In fact, there were no cushions. They all used leather office chairs and the receptionist had a small grouping of armchairs covered in Turkish damask in front of her desk. The potted plants to either side of her desk looked real and native to the desert, and the desks were made from dark wood with a definite Middle Eastern vibe, but other than that, this room could pass for any office in corporate America or Europe.
The receptionist looked up at their entrance, nodded at Asad in acknowledgment and gave a small smile to Iris, but then went back to her phone conversation. He didn’t seem bothered by the lack of formal greeting.
“What is this? Command central?” Iris asked.
That surprised a laugh out of Asad that sounded quite genuine and she had to stifle her own grin in response.
“I suppose you could call it that. Come.” He led her through the busy room to a curtain similar to that in any other Bedouin tent, except this one had an arched opening cut out in the center that led to a hall.
On the right side, they could see through the opening to a room with a bevy of monitors on one wall. Two men and a woman watched, taking notes and calling out observations to each other, or speaking into headsets as they did so.
“This is where we monitor our caravans, the encampment and other business interests.”
The room to the left proved to be Asad’s office. She had no doubts as to who it belonged as soon as they entered. For one thing, it had the equivalent of a door, heavy fabric that fell into place cutting off the sound of the others working within the tent office.
For another, the space was decorated with dark wood and rich colors similar to those in his home. And it simply felt like it belonged to Asad.
“I thought Bedouin sheikhs conducted business over the campfire,” she remarked, still a little flabbergasted by this modern hive of corporate activity in the midst of a Bedouin camp.
“We are not so primitive, though I still settle most disputes among our people over a traditional cup of tea.”
“That’s good to know. I wouldn’t want to think you’d abandoned your old ways completely.”
“I have not abandoned them at all. I’ve simply made them work in a modern age as you guessed earlier.”
“You’re a very wise man.” She didn’t mind giving the compliment. It was well deserved.
But that was all he was getting from her. No matter how heated his dark gaze had gotten since their arrival in the private room. She didn’t miss the fact that there was a low divan that could easily be used for sleeping when he did not return home at night.
“You’re just as much of a workaholic here as you were at university, aren’t you?” She’d bet even more so.
Asad shrugged. “I have the welfare of many people on my shoulders. It does not make for long nights of sleep.”
“If I remember right, you weren’t fond of sleeping as a student, either.”
“But for entirely different reasons.” The look he gave her could have melted iron.
But she wasn’t going to let it melt her heart. “Get that look off your face. I’m here to do a geological survey for Sheik Hakim, nothing more. And we were enjoying this tour. Don’t ruin it.”
“I assure you, that is not my intention.” He moved closer and being smarter than she had been six years ago, she backed up.
Only, when her thighs hit his desk, she knew she was trapped. She put her hands up. “Stop. What happened to having enough emotional drama for one day?”
“I have no intention of indulging in drama. I have something else entirely in mind.”
She shook her head, doing her best to look firm while her body yearned for his touch with a reawakened and near-terrifying passion. “We aren’t doing this.”
; “Are you certain?” he asked, his muscular legs coming to a stop only a breath of air away from hers.
“I am. I mean it, Asad. I’m not here for a dalliance. I’m here to work.”
“A dalliance.” He reached up and caressed the outer shell of her ear exposed by her hair pulled back in a ponytail. “An interesting and strangely old-fashioned word for a modern-day geologist.”
“Maybe I’m a little old-fashioned.”
“The woman who allowed me entrance to her body on our first date? One who had others before me? I think not.”
She shoved at him, hard, his words a better deterrent to her giving in than anything she could have come up with. “You don’t know anything about me.”
He actually stumbled back a step; maybe in surprise at the strength of her attack. He might be playing, but she wasn’t. She slid away from him quickly, stopping only when she was near the door and could make an instant escape if necessary.
The arrogant assurance in his stance and demeanor did not change at all. “I think I know some things about you very well.”
“You knew me six years ago. Things change. People change.” Please God, let her have changed enough.
“If that were so, you would not be afraid of what you would reveal with my nearness.”
Oh, he had more nerve than a snake oil salesman and was just as trustworthy to her heart. She had to remember that. “Maybe I simply don’t enjoy being sexually harassed on the job.”
“You do not work for me.”
“I work for your cousin.”
“But not for me. You and I both know your job with Hakim in no way relies on what happens between us.”
“Or doesn’t happen?” she taunted.
But he nodded decisively. “Or doesn’t happen. You want me, Iris. I can see it in the flutter of your pulse here,” he pointed to his own neck. “And the way you lose your breath when I am near.”
She slapped her hand over her neck, as if she could hide the evidence, but knew he was right. “I am not controlled by the urges of my body.”
“So, you admit you desire me? I will take that as a start.”
“You’re a fantastic lover, Asad, but you’re lousy odds for a relationship and I’m not interested in a brief sexual encounter.”
His nostrils flared, like they used to when he was particularly turned on. “When we make love, it will be anything but brief.”
“And anything but love.” Regardless of the corresponding heat pooling in her womb. “It’s not going to happen.”
“You are lying to yourself.”
“You go right on believing that and while you are at it, leave me alone.” She fled from the office and then the tent, heading back into the encampment toward the one Asad had pointed out earlier that housed both Russell and their equipment.
Asad had refused to stop and let her explore then, saying there would be plenty of time for her to spend in that particular dwelling. She intended to make that true.
She didn’t care if her hasty exit and walk through the city of tents was considered dignified. She didn’t have to be a general to know when all-out retreat was called for.
She was only surprised when Asad did not pursue her, but then perhaps he was more aware of his own dignity than she was of hers.
Russell evinced no surprise at Iris’s arrival and commenced a steady stream of chatter regarding his own observations of the encampment while they set up their equipment and portable lab. All he required from Iris was a noise of agreement every now and again.
While most of the analysis of the samples and measurements they took would happen back in the real lab, some things were best handled in the field. And she was lucky enough to work for a firm that could afford the latest in portable geological lab equipment.
She reminded herself of that pertinent fact as her fight-or-flight instincts prompted her toward booking the next plane seat back to the States.
“So, what’s the deal between you and the sheikh?” Russell asked when he’d exhausted the topic of the city of tents.
“Sheikh Hakim?” she asked, trying for ignorance.
“Get a grip, Iris. It doesn’t take a scientist to interpret the facts. You and Sheikh Asad have some kind of history.”
“We went to the same university.”
“Right. My freshman year, a CEO of one of the newer dot.coms attended my school. We even met, but that doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
“Asad and I were friends.” At one time, she’d considered him her very best friend.
And then he’d betrayed her love and her belief in their closeness.
“A whole lot more than that, I’m guessing, or the guy wouldn’t have such an effect on you.”
“It doesn’t matter. The past is exactly that and we’re here to—”
“Work. Yeah, yeah, I know.” Russell fiddled with a microscope. “You can’t blame me for my curiosity. Everyone at CC&B thinks you’re more interested in rocks than people, especially men.”
He gave her a probing look.
She tried to ignore the pang in her heart that his words gave her. It was true that she hadn’t gone out of her way to make friends, and well…rocks couldn’t hurt you. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t interested in people at all.
“I date.”
“Really?” he asked with clear disbelief.
Bringing up the one dinner she’d shared with a fellow rock hound in the past year probably wasn’t going to count, particularly since all they’d talked about was, well…rocks. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does when you’re acting like a woman, not a scientist.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’m always a scientist first.”
“Sure, until we got here. You offered to let Sheikh Hakim bring in a male geologist if it would make him more comfortable.” Russell’s tone gave that fact the inexplicability it deserved. “This Sheikh Asad had you on the run and he’d only spoken a few words to you.”
“I’m not on the run.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“You’re being annoying.”
“I’m good at that. You don’t usually mind.” Russell stopped looking at his microscope and gave his attention solely to her. “I’m being a nosy friend. So, spill.”
It went against the deep sense of privacy she’d always lived with, but then that privacy had left her lonely. Perhaps it was time to make more friends, true friends…not just work acquaintances.
She’d clicked with Russell on both a working and friendship level when he’d first begun his summer internship with CC&B three months ago. She’d been pleased when the college student had been assigned the role of her assistant on this survey.
“Asad and I were together for a few months in my sophomore year,” she admitted.
“Together together?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.”
“You didn’t suspect?”
“Hell, no. You’re not exactly the kind of woman who ends up in a sheikh’s bed.” The other redhead had the grace to blush at that observation. “I don’t mean you’re a troll or anything.”
“He wasn’t a sheikh then.”
“I bet he was the same in every other way, though.”
“No. He used to smile a lot more.”
“Oh-ho.”
“Now what?”
“Nothing.”
“Stop being cryptic. What is oh-ho?”
“You’re sad he’s not as happy as he used to be. I can tell.”
“Don’t be an idiot. I didn’t say he wasn’t happy.” But that’s what she’d meant and hadn’t realized it until Russell brought it up.
“But he’s not, is he?”
“His wife died two years ago.” And the pampered princess Badra had been nothing like what he’d expected her to be. “He’s probably still mourning her.”
“Not the way he looks at you, he’s not.”
She didn’t ask what way that was because she already knew and wasn’t up to false protes
tations.
Russell told her anyway. “Like he wants to devour you. If a woman looked at me like that, I’d have a heck of a time staying out of her bed.”
“Right.” That at least, deserved some proper skepticism. From what she’d seen over the summer, Russell didn’t have any more of a social life than she did. “You’re as wrapped up in your work as I am.”
“But I’d take time away from my precious rocks for something that intense.”
“That’s why you go clubbing every Saturday night, because you’re looking.”
“I never go clubbing…oh, you were making a point. I still say if I walked into it like you have here, I’d go for it.”
“You wouldn’t. You’re every bit as gun-shy as I am. You’re just being an idiot,” she said fondly.
Russell should know just how damaging such a course of action would be to her. He’d had his own broken heart, as he’d confided to her over a bottle of potent wine on their first assignment in the field together.
“You’ve said that before. Good thing I’ve got such a high IQ, my confidence in my own intelligence is bulletproof.”
She snorted. “IQ measures your ability to learn, not your common sense.”
“You saying I lack common sense?”
“If the fossilized fragment fits…”
“Aren’t you the clever one?”
“How far from here to our first sampling site?” she asked.
“According to my satellite GPS, about an hour in a Jeep, provided we can travel pretty directly.”
She nodded.
“We should ask Sheikh Asad. After all, he is our guide while we’re in country.”
“He’s a sheikh. I’m sure he’s got someone else we can go to.”
“And you call me an idiot.”
“What does that mean?”
“The sheikh’s not leaving our guiding up to anyone else and you know it. He wants to handle you…um, I mean this little geological expedition personally.”
CHAPTER SIX
IRIS rolled her eyes, but didn’t reply to Russell’s obvious innuendo.