by Valerie Parv
"It isn't a sample. It's for a sculpture of my father, Sheik Ahmed," Nadia said in a voice with an edge that Gage thought the merchant would do well to heed. Although the merchant had recognized the princess on sight, he obviously didn't know her very well. Addressing his remarks to the male in the party was probably automatic, but wasn't going to get him anywhere with her.
"I think you'd better talk to the princess," Gage advised, keeping his voice low.
The merchant looked flustered but did as bidden, eventually promising to supply a piece of marble of the size and quality she required. The stone would be shipped to the palace without delay.
When Nadia began to discuss chisels and hammers with the expertise of a stonemason, Gage saw his chance and excused himself from the discussion. He didn't think she saw him leave, so caught up was she.
Slightly breathless, he returned to the party just as she and Tahani emerged from the marble seller. Nargis and the twins rose as one, and rejoined them.
"Did you get everything you needed?" he asked.
Nadia inclined her head. "Of course, Your Highness."
For a moment alarm bolted through him. Had she discovered the truth about him? The sparkle in her eye told him she was only mimicking the marble seller. He concealed his relief behind a shrug. "What can I say? The man recognizes quality."
"The man recognizes another man," she snapped.
He caught her wrist. "Hey, it was hardly my fault."
She looked coldly at his hand, but he didn't release her. "I note you didn't mind."
The pulse he felt racing under his fingers was a potent reminder of how he had made her feel last night. How she had made him feel. He pulled his hand away as if burned. "I told him to talk to you, didn't I?"
Her face gave nothing away, but he saw her rub her wrist as if feeling something similar. "Precisely. You had to tell him to."
"I don't make the laws, Princess." If he did, she wouldn't be surrounded by attendants and they would be miles from here, lying on a beach somewhere, sharing an intimate meal and then... He snapped himself out of the reverie. Nothing of the sort was going to happen, and as long as he didn't know how much she knew of Dabir's affairs, it never would.
The thought left him feeling edgy and unsatisfied, in no mood for more shopping and, saints forbid, more coffee.
Nadia evidently agreed. She directed Nargis to locate the rest of their party and have the cars fetched for them. While the attendant was gone and the others window-shopped, Gage slipped a velvet box into the princess's hands.
She looked at it in confusion. "What is this?"
"I guessed you wouldn't have time to go back for it, so..." He left the explanation hanging as she opened the box. Inside was the tiger necklace.
She closed the box with a snap, her expression clouded. "You bought me a gift. Why?"
He wasn't sure. He still didn't know which side she was on, and he had almost no control when he was around her, breathing in her heady jasmine scent. Why he should feel motivated to give her anything was beyond him. But he did.
"You remind me of a tigress," he said, explaining to himself as much as to her. "Outwardly you're subservient to the males in the pride, but you're actually the huntress who takes care of everybody."
She gave him a look that said she didn't like being known more than she wanted to be. "You presume a great deal, Mr. Weston."
"That name again. In my country, once two people have kissed, they're usually on first-name terms."
Her hunted glance found Tahani and the twins, but they gave no sign of having heard. "I thought we agreed not to speak of that," Nadia hissed.
"You agreed not to speak of it, Princess. Yet today you've spoken of it with every look."
"Then I shall try not to look at you."
"The way you're not looking at me now?"
His huskily voiced challenge made her lift her long lashes and face him, as he had intended. His loins tightened as he felt himself drowning in her lambent gaze. Her lips curved into a reluctant smile. "You are an impossible man, Gage."
Better. Now all he had to do was prove that she was one of the good guys, deal with Butrus Dabir and whisk her away from all this, so he could taste more of the passion he knew simmered beneath that compliant exterior.
Which of the Herculean tasks would he find most difficult? he wondered. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, but was afraid he already did.
Chapter 10
A few minutes later Nargis returned, shepherding the other members of the party. The petite, black-haired attendant was frowning. "A thousand apologies, but your car is proving difficult to start, Your Highness."
The man Nargis had rescued from buying the fake carpet stepped forward. "Please take our car, Your Highness. We can wait until the second car is fixed."
Before she could answer, Gage offered, "I'd be delighted to drive the princess back to the estate in my car —with her attendant, naturally."
Nadia schooled the turmoil out of her expression. "Thank you, but I'm sure my car will be ready soon. I don't mind waiting a little longer."
"Not afraid of riding with me, are you?" he asked her in an undertone.
She bristled, furious that he could think she was afraid of him when she had an entire army at her command if she so wished. Not that she needed one to handle such a presumptuous man. To prove it, she said through gritted teeth, "Rather than inconvenience my fiance's guests, I shall accept your offer. Tahani will attend me."
Nargis looked as if she would prefer to accompany her mistress, but Nadia quelled her with a fierce look. Bad enough to have to ride in the same car with Gage, without having Nargis reading omens into every word that passed between them.
She saw Gage's mouth twitch as she said as regally as she could, "Come, Tahani."
She swept ahead of him to the waiting Branxton, but somehow he reached it before her, opening the rear passenger door for her with all the aplomb of a professional chauffeur, although no servant would dare look at her so boldly as she brushed past.
At least he had the sense not to expect her to ride in front, Nadia thought. It was unthinkable for her to travel beside any man not her husband. Equally unthinkable for her to be alone in the car with him. So why did she feel a faint sense of disappointment that Tahani was sharing the journey?
She needn't have worried. Tired after the long shopping expedition, Tahani began to nod off almost as soon as they were under way.
"Looks like you wore out the hired help," Gage said, watching them in the rearview mirror.
She glanced at Tahani. "She told me she was troubled by bad dreams last night and didn't get much sleep." Nadia didn't add that the maid's dreams had worried her or that Gage himself had figured in them. He didn't seem like a man to believe in what he couldn't see, feel, taste or touch, so the premonitions were unlikely to impress him.
"I didn't get much sleep, either," he admitted. "Guess I don't need to tell you why."
She pursed her lips. "Dare I hope that your conscience was troubled?"
He shook his head. "Not a bit, Princess. Was yours?"
"It should have been."
"Which doesn't answer my question."
She summoned her voice with difficulty, unable to be less than truthful. "No, my conscience wasn't troubled. But my mind was uneasy." She had been kept awake last night, not because she felt guilty for having kissed Gage, but because she hadn't regretted it.
In truth she had wanted much more and had lain awake long into the night suffering from a bad case of frustration. Her penance for being disloyal to Butrus. Unfaithful was more accurate. Not only had she lost herself in Gage's embrace and enjoyed it, she had craved more of his attention. What kind of wife would she make when it took so little to turn her thoughts away from her duty?
"Don't look so troubled, Princess," Gage said softly, his gaze darting from the winding cliff road to her and back to the road again. "Lots of people succumb to a moment of curiosity. It doesn't mean you're bey
ond redemption."
"Perhaps not where you come from." And probably not in Tamir. It was Nadia herself who was letting the moment of weakness disturb her, mainly because she knew it was becoming far more than a moment. Every time she was near Gage, her thoughts turned in directions they shouldn't be going.
Could she really blame her response on curiosity? If it had been, surely the kiss would have satisfied her. Instead, it had set up a hunger that was becoming a fever in her blood.
She saw Gage's smile reflected in the mirror and thought she saw a tinge of sadness there. "You'll marry your attorney and have lots of kids," he said, "and look back on this as a test that you passed with flying colors."
He didn't sound happy, she noticed, her spirits lifting in spite of herself. "Do you enjoy wreaking havoc in people's lives?" she asked, well aware of how much havoc he wreaked in hers.
"Only the ones whose beauty takes my breath away."
Did she really do that? Heat radiated through her, although she tried to subdue it. "You mustn't say such things. And you can't give me gifts, either. You must take back the necklace."
"Sorry, the style wouldn't suit me at all."
She wished he wouldn't mock her. "Is there no one in England you could give it to?"
"Fishing, Princess?"
"No!" She knew her denial sounded forced. "You mentioned your sister..."
"If I start giving Alexandra jewelry, she'll think I've lost my mind."
Nadia tried to tell herself she didn't care that there was no other woman in his life, but her feeling of elation argued against it. "What kind of gifts do you give her?"
"Horse-riding gear, painting equipment. She's an artist like you."
"And a sportswoman, from the sound of it."
"She was part of the British equestrian team at the last Olympics."
The pride in his voice was unmistakable. "What about your parents? What do they do?"
He hesitated. Somehow she sensed it wasn't because he needed to give the hairpin turns his full attention. She could almost hear him trying to decide what to tell her. Why? Was he afraid the truth would repel her? She didn't care if his father was a street sweeper and nearly said so, until she stopped herself, not wanting to betray any more interest in him than she had already.
As the road straightened a little, he said over his shoulder, "My father advises our government on policy."
Hardly a street sweeper, so why the hesitation? She wished she could shake off the feeling that Gage was being secretive. "Like Butrus?" she said.
"Hopefully with a little less self-interest."
"You don't like Butrus, do you."
She saw his fingers tighten around the steering wheel. "Why do you ask?"
"You never mention him without sounding disapproving."
"Has it occurred to you there could be a good reason for that?"
Thinking of what the reason might be, she turned away, feeling her cheeks heat. They were approaching the steepest part of the road, she noticed. Her attention had been too focused on Gage for it to register before.
She remembered that Tahani's dream had concerned a road and cliffs, although she had been unable to specify where they were. Nadia became aware that Gage's attention had become totally fixed on the driving. The rigid set of his back and neck told her something was wrong.
"Aren't we going too fast?" she asked, fear gripping her as she saw the cliff face hurtling past much, much too close.
He didn't take his eyes from the road. "I don't want to alarm you, Princess, but you'd better brace yourself. We don't seem to have any brakes."
Tahani was awake and upright now, the car's swaying movement disturbing her doze. She looked at Nadia with wide frightened eyes, "Are we going to die, my princess?"
Gage heard her. "Not if I have anything to do with it. Hang on."
Gage knew his confident words belied the empty sensation that had hit him when he felt the brake pedal sink all the way to the floor without affecting the car's speed.
Instinct made him pump the pedal rapidly several times to try to build up brake-fluid pressure, but it was useless. Praying, he downshifted to the lowest gear and groped for the parking brake, easing it up. Just as well he kept a hold on it, because the car skidded into a four-wheel slide that took them perilously close to the crumbling shoulder. He had to spring away from the brake and put all his muscle into keeping the car from becoming airborne.
Loose stones skittered away from their wheels as he wrenched the car out of the careering dive at the last second. Then he braced himself for the screech of tortured metal as he deliberately sideswiped the stone of the cliff side.
Sitting closest to that side, Tahani screamed and scrambled to the center of the seat, hunching away from the stone fragments peppering her window. "What is he doing?"
Struggling for calm, Nadia wrapped her arms around her attendant and friend. "I don't know, but I trust Gage."
"I'm using the friction of the cliff against the car to scrub off some of our speed," he ground out, steering against the stone again. Metal screamed and stone chips rained on the car. They slowed a fraction. Not nearly enough for Gage's liking, and he wasn't sure how much more of this the car could take before the body ripped open like a sardine can.
"The roadwork," Nadia remembered. "We shouldn't be far from it."
He nodded grimly, wondering if they would last that long. In the corner of his mind that wasn't fully occupied with keeping them alive, he had to admire her courage. The princess must be as terrified as her maid, but she was the one comforting Tahani and assuring her that Gage would get them out of this if anyone could.
He wished he shared her confidence.
Two more encounters with the cliff slowed them a little more. There was no time left to lose. Gage's arm muscles screamed with the effort of keeping the car on the road, instead of letting it launch itself into the space over the rocky shore.
With each catapulting turn his shoulders felt as if they would be wrenched from their sockets. It was becoming a race to see which would come apart first, car or driver.
Nadia's life and that of her attendant were in his hands, he reminded himself. It was his fault the princess was in the car with him. If he hadn't persuaded her to let him drive her home, she would be safely back at the souk. He wasn't about to let her die as long as he had breath left in him to prevent it.
He set his teeth against the pain in his arms and shoulders, and fought the car with everything in him, and a bit more besides. He couldn't have said how far they'd hurtled down the mountain. At each turn he expected to meet someone coming the other way and thanked providence when the road remained clear. How long could their good fortune hold?
The emptiness of the road started to make sense when he saw a blur of yellow filling his vision. Automatically he rode the brake pedal, then cursed himself for the futile gesture. They had reached the roadwork. If he ploughed into the giant machine blocking the road ahead, they were all finished.
Seconds before impact seemed unavoidable, he spotted the red-earth furrow of track off to the side, which the workers had gouged out to give them somewhere to park their machinery so they wouldn't obstruct traffic.
Saying a prayer to the gods that protected intelligence operatives, he steered for the side track, slewing past the machine close enough to hear the driver let loose with a string of colorful Arabic expletives.
"I'm with you there, pal," Gage muttered. The tires clawed for purchase on the earthen surface, the incline of the track further slowing them. Ahead was one of the yellow machines, the cabin empty this time.
Just as well, because they were still moving fast when the Branxton plowed into the yellow monster, coming to a shuddering stop that Gage felt in every muscle in his body. He slammed against the seat belt with bruising force, but wasted no time releasing it and swinging around. "Are you two okay?"
White-faced, Nadia fumbled for her own seat belt. "We're all right, thanks to you."
The attendan
t was slumped across Nadia. "Tahani?"
"She fainted when we were about to hit the yellow machine, but her seat belt saved her from harm."
As they spoke, Tahani began to stir, her eyes turning luminous as Nadia assured her they were all still alive. Gage heard her mutter a prayer of thanks and added his own. Nadia continued to murmur encouragement, and Gage was pleased to see a little color seep into the women's faces.
He needed all his strength to open the damaged door and climb out. Nadia was struggling with her door and smiled her appreciation as he grappled it open for her. Relief swept through him as he saw she was uninjured. He reached in and lifted her out, reveling in the feel of her living body in his arms. She gave a cry of surprise, but clung to him as if to reassure herself that he, too, was in one piece.
He had a momentary glimpse of a different scenario, one in which he cradled her lifeless form and her eyes were closed forever. The vision had come so close to being a reality that his heart almost stopped.
She was having similar thoughts, he saw, as her arms linked around his neck and she held on for dear life. Dear life. Suddenly it was more than a trite phrase.
Her huge eyes looked moist, but she didn't give in to tears and even managed a brave smile. "You saved my life. Thank you," she said in a husky voice.
He glanced at the car. "I still have to work out why it needed saving." Brakes sometimes failed without warning, but he couldn't shake off the suspicion that there was more to it this time. Dabir had insisted Gage go to the souk. While he was inside, Dabir could have arranged to have the brakes tampered with, ensuring that the culprit couldn't be connected with him.
Nadia shivered. "You think this wasn't an accident?"
"I don't know, but I intend to find out."
Sorely tempted never to let her go again, he made himself set her on her feet, leaning against the car, while he assisted Tahani. The attendant was quivering like an injured puppy. She had recovered from her faint, but was still paler than Gage liked. Shock most likely, Gage concluded. He knew just how she felt.