The Balfour Legacy

by Various

  ‘You just can’t help it, can you? You have to flirt. I’m tempted to give you seven veils just to see how far you’re prepared to go to get what you want.’

  Distracted by how seriously attractive he was when he laughed, Bella stared at him. ‘Do women really dance for you? Using veils?’

  ‘People do whatever I want them to do,’ he said silkily, and she felt her stomach perform a series of elaborate acrobatics.

  ‘More fool them. I wouldn’t dance for you.’

  His smile was supremely confident. ‘I’m the ruling sheikh. If I order you to dance, you’ll dance.’

  ‘And if I refuse?’ It was weird, she mused, this combination of raw fear and shocking chemistry.

  His smile faded and he looked at her with disturbing intensity. ‘You are wilful and reckless.’

  ‘Absolutely right.’ Abandoning the helpless woman act, Bella tried a different approach. ‘You don’t want me around. As you say, I’m more trouble than I’m worth. So why don’t you just lend me the friendly horse that isn’t likely to kill me and I’ll go and be wilful and reckless somewhere you can’t see me.’

  They stared at each other for a long, tense moment.

  Then he surprised her by taking her face in his hands.

  His fingers were firm and strong on her face and Bella wondered if he could feel the frantic beat of her heart. Did she have a pulse anywhere near his fingers?

  A slow, heavy weakness spread through her limbs but she knew that the lethargy had nothing to do with her recent spell in the desert and the feeling shocked her because she never felt anything for men. She used them, the way they used her.

  His gaze held hers. ‘I’ll escort you back to the city—’

  Hypnotised by his velvety dark eyes, Bella felt a rush of relief. ‘Thank you so much, you’re a really wonderful person. I knew it the moment you walked into the tent. I knew that all that scary warrior stuff was all an act. And that dagger is obviously ornamental. I bet it isn’t even sharp—’

  ‘Do you always interrupt people?’

  ‘Often,’ Bella breathed, distracted by the beauty of his eyes. ‘Sorry, what were we saying? Oh, yes…interrupting—it’s one of my many faults. But I’m working on it.’

  ‘Then you might like to work a little harder.’ His thumb traced a circle over her cheek. ‘I said that I’ll escort you back to the city—’

  ‘I heard you. And I—’ Bella felt his fingers cover her lips and she felt the instant response of her body.

  ‘—at the end of my stay here,’ he said softly, a trace of mockery gleaming in his eyes as he finished his sentence. ‘Once a year I am given the chance to be alone. I will not relinquish that luxury for anyone. I will not change my plans for a woman.’

  Bella made a sound in her throat but his fingers still covered her lips.

  ‘Which gives you two choices.’ He spoke in a deceptively gentle voice. ‘Either you can try and make your own way on foot—and if you do that I calculate you’ll be dead in an hour or so—or you stay here with me until it suits me to return you to Al-Rafid.’

  Chapter Three

  ZAFIQ withdrew his hand from her lips, fighting an inexplicable temptation to replace it with his mouth. ‘Those are your options. Pick one.’

  Anger flared inside him but the anger was directed towards himself and his own weakness.

  Despite her ordeal, she was more alluring than any other woman he’d ever encountered, and his jaw tightened because she was a woman who knew how to use her gifts and he despised the fact that he was susceptible to her practised flirtation.

  The rigid self-control and discipline on which he prided himself suddenly seemed like a flimsy, fragile thing. It was like going into battle and discovering that your armour was made of paper.

  Perhaps, he mused grimly, he’d never been really tested before.

  Was that what this week of reflection and personal time was going to be about? His own weakness?

  Was he about to discover that he was, after all, just like his father?

  His initial suspicions that she was part of the conspiracy to steal his horse had been eliminated by her explanation. It was galling to acknowledge that he might actually have to be grateful to her because it seemed that she’d inadvertently foiled a serious crime. By ‘borrowing’ Amira she had clearly prevented the threatened kidnap by a matter of minutes. Contemplating the reaction of the criminals who had been planning to steal his horse, he gave a grim smile. They must have had a shock to discover that someone had already done the job for them.

  He was determined to keep his precious mare safe in his care until he was due to return to the city.

  Which meant keeping the girl too.

  Zafiq watched as various emotions flickered across her beautiful face.

  Even with sand in her golden hair she was gorgeous. She reminded him of a princess from one of the fairy stories he’d read to his younger sisters when they were small. Only less sweet natured. A sulky princess. Now that he’d thwarted her plans to escape from the desert, he could see her struggling to hold back her temper. She was fiery and full of fight and he wondered what she was hiding.

  Her hands clenched and she glared at him. ‘Don’t put yourself out, will you?’

  Accustomed to receiving the appropriate degree of respect at all times, Zafiq was taken aback by her lack of deference. ‘Generally people put themselves out for me,’ he drawled softly. ‘That’s the way it works.’

  ‘You say “jump” and they say “how high?”’

  ‘Something like that.’

  She tilted her head and studied him with perfect blue eyes that had undoubtedly been designed by nature to bring a man to his knees. ‘If that’s how you expect people to behave around you, then you definitely don’t want to keep me here. I’m honestly not great at doing as I’m told. In fact, I’m rubbish. That’s why I’ve been banished to the middle of the desert. I’ll drive you mad if you make me stay.’

  Zafiq almost laughed.

  She was already driving him mad, but he had no intention of revealing that.

  ‘You seem anxious to become better acquainted with the inside of a prison cell.’ His remark appeared to register because her face coloured.

  ‘Look, I know it was wrong to take the horse, OK? But—’

  ‘Not for taking the horse.’ Reluctant to reveal that he was actually grateful to her for that part of her escapade, Zafiq trod with caution. ‘For speaking to me with such a lack of respect.’

  ‘At least prison has bars, which would be a step up from the Retreat,’ she quipped, quickly regaining her spirit. ‘Alcohol is banned. You have to get your highs from herbal tea.’ She studied his reaction and then rolled her eyes. ‘I liked you better when you laughed. You should do it more often.’ Tense and edgy, she paced to the other side of the tent. ‘What am I supposed to call you, then?’

  ‘Your Highness.’

  ‘Wow. No formality, then! And I’m supposed to do everything you tell me, Your Highness?’ Her mouth curved into a mocking smile that challenged his already straining self-control. ‘So I’m your slave, is that right? Sorry, I should have said, Is that right, Your Highness?’

  Zafiq had a disturbing image of this blonde, defiant beauty dressed in thin veils and bound at the wrists and ankles, awaiting his pleasure. ‘I hadn’t considered that option, but I will bear it in mind.’

  His reply seemed to unsettle her. The dangerous gleam in her sexy eyes was almost enough to make Zafiq rethink his ultimatum.

  She was the most alluring, tempting woman he’d ever met.

  ‘We will get along very well together,’ he said in a cool tone. ‘As long as you obey certain basic rules.’

  ‘And what are those?’ She flicked her hair out of her eyes in an unconsciously graceful gesture. ‘I just have to do everything you say, Your Highness?’

  ‘Yes.’ He watched as she swayed slightly and suddenly he remembered how long she’d been exposed to the sun. She must be feeling awful and
yet she was determined to hide it from him and it was impossible not to admire that. ‘You’re still suffering from dehydration. Drink something.’

  ‘You might be a sheikh, but could you stop ordering me around? It brings out the worst in me.’ But she sank back onto the mattress and reached for the glass, her hand shaking as she sipped the water. ‘I feel filthy. My hair is full of sand. Does this tent have an en-suite bathroom or anything?’

  For some reason he found her sense of humour every bit as disturbing as her more obvious charms. People were usually stilted and formal around him. They didn’t crack jokes. ‘As it happens, there is an en-suite bathroom. Outside the tent. This is an oasis. There’s a pool.’

  ‘I hope it’s an infinity pool with a bar serving iced drinks in the corner and a changing room. Or am I supposed to strip off in public?’

  ‘It’s not public. I’m the only person here.’

  ‘Well…’ She took another sip of water and then put the glass down. ‘In that case, no peeping. And what about the creatures you mentioned before? Am I likely to be eaten while I’m bathing?’

  He refrained from admitting that she was probably the most dangerous creature in the area. ‘I doubt you’ll be eaten.’

  ‘Good, because I don’t have a particular desire to be tonight’s takeaway for some hungry camel.’

  ‘Camels are herbivores.’

  She shuddered and lifted her hands, palms towards him like a stop sign, but there was a twinkle of mischief in those eyes. ‘Don’t mention herbs to me again—after a week at the Retreat, I never want to hear about herbs again. I don’t want to eat them, and I don’t want to drink them.’ Her cheeks dimpled and a smile burst across her face like the sun emerging from behind a cloud. ‘And I don’t want to ride on one either. If there’s herb in the word, count me out. I suppose it’s useless to ask if you have a change of clothes? Mirror? Hairdryer?’

  ‘Wash your clothes in the oasis.’ He was irritated by how much that smile affected him. ‘They’ll dry quickly if you put them on a rock.’

  ‘And in the meantime I’m supposed to walk around naked?’

  ‘In the meantime you wear a robe.’ It might be a good for his sanity, Zafiq thought grimly, to cover her up from head to foot. The mere mention of the word naked was enough to make him consider jumping back in the pool himself simply for its cooling effects on his overtaxed libido. ‘And stay out of the sun.’

  Bella sank under the still surface of the water. Her skin was burning from the sun exposure; she felt hot, grubby and unattractive but she did feel better now that she’d cooled off, and it was bliss to wash off the sand that appeared to have stuck to every part of her skin. There was no mirror in the tent but the Sheikh’s indifference to her as a woman told her everything she needed to know.

  Clearly she looked a complete fright. Like some sort of alien sand monster. If she’d been thinking clearly she would have bathed in the pool before trying to talk him into taking her to the city.

  Still unable to believe that he was going to make her stay here with him, she glared at the outside of the large white tent.

  Where was he anyway? Meditating?

  Bella frowned as she tried to see her reflection in the water.

  No, a man with muscles like that had to do something more physical than meditate.

  Was he watching her?

  The thought made her shiver and she dipped under the water again and did her best to remove the sand from her hair, methodically working on it section by section.

  ‘Never again am I taking shampoo for granted.’ Despite her disappointment at not being back in the city, she had to admit that the pool was beautiful. Shaded by palm trees, the calm, glassy surface of the water reflected the perfectly blue sky, and beyond the palm trees the dunes rose steeply, turned to a shade of pinky orange by the late-afternoon sun.

  It wasn’t the city, but it was better than being trapped in the Retreat. Better than having to meditate or contemplate or whatever, Bella mused as she cleansed the last section of her hair and then turned onto her back. Floating in the peaceful pool, staring up at the sky, she felt unusually tranquil.

  In fact, the whole situation was surprisingly relaxing.

  The Sheikh had no idea who she really was. He knew nothing of the latest Balfour scandal. They’d probably never even heard of the Balfours out here in the desert.

  Which suited her perfectly.

  Although she’d hated the Retreat, Bella knew she couldn’t go home.

  What was there to go home for?

  They didn’t want her there.

  She’d made a hideous mess of her life.

  Feeling tears prick her eyes, Bella dipped her head under the water, feeling more alone than she’d ever felt.

  Feeling the water ripple around her she spluttered to the surface, realising that she wasn’t as alone as she’d thought.

  The Sheikh’s stallion stood on the edge of the oasis, drinking from the water.

  ‘Hi, there.’ Bella grinned at him, admiring the powerful muscles of his neck and legs. ‘Are you really as dangerous as he says you are? You don’t look it.’

  At the sound of her voice, the horse reared up, showing the whites of his eyes as he pawed the air.

  ‘All right, I get the message,’ Bella said drily, ‘you’re dangerous. And moody like your master. Calm down, will you? I’m harmless.’ She swam across from the centre of the pool and swept her dripping hair out of her eyes. ‘What else can you do? Any other tricks?’

  The horse flattened his ears to his head and stared at her suspiciously.

  Bella was about to reach out her hand to stroke him when a masculine voice stopped her.

  ‘Don’t touch him—he has a very uncertain temper. He could hurt you.’

  Bella froze, but the sudden tremor of her limbs wasn’t caused by fear of the horse. ‘Have you been watching me?’

  ‘I was watching the pool. As you seem to have the most astonishing propensity for attracting trouble, I thought it might be the simplest way to keep you alive.’

  ‘I’m not your responsibility.’

  ‘I know. But if you die out here in the desert I will have to take your body back to the city and that doesn’t fit in with my plans.’

  ‘Oh, thanks!’ Her tone sarcastic, Bella waded into shallower water, forgetting that she was naked from the waist up.

  She heard his sudden indrawn breath and saw his gaze linger on her body in an unmistakably masculine appraisal.

  Bella resisted the inexplicable urge to cover herself. ‘Stop staring.’

  ‘If you didn’t want me to look, you wouldn’t have removed your clothes.’

  ‘I only have one set,’ she said tartly. ‘It’s either naked in the water, or naked all evening. Take your pick.’

  ‘You have no modesty.’

  ‘If you don’t like it, don’t look, Your Highness.’ But she saw the unmistakable gleam of admiration in his eyes as he scanned her curves reluctantly. Reluctant was good, she told herself. Reluctant meant the emotion he was feeling was more powerful than he wanted it to be. And there was no better confidence booster than a man who wanted her despite himself. Starved of affection—deeply wounded by the rejection of her family—Bella couldn’t help enjoying that admiration.

  She stepped out of the water and twisted her hair into a thick rope, squeezing out the water, not bothering to cover herself. Although she didn’t look at the Sheikh, she was hyperaware of him as she stretched out her hand to the snorting stallion.

  She could feel him looking at her.

  ‘You need to calm down,’ she cooed. ‘There’s no need to be all macho and dominating. I know you’re stronger than I am.’ She talked to the animal in a low voice and the horse blew through his nostrils, watching her all the time.

  His head snaked forward in a rapid movement and in an instant the Sheikh was between her and the horse.

  Controlling the stallion with a single, abrupt command, he closed his hand round Bella’s wrist a
nd dragged her towards the tent.

  ‘You are the most provoking, wilful, obstinate—’

  ‘Irresponsible, thoughtless, selfish,’ Bella added helpfully, and he growled deep in his throat and hauled her against his hard, powerful body. Without hesitation or warning he brought his mouth down on hers and she felt his strong hands slide down her bare back, holding her captive. Her damp skin burned against the pressure of his fingers and sexual excitement consumed her body like a ravenous beast.

  As his mouth plundered hers with raw, unrestrained passion all she was aware of was heat. The heat of his tongue, the heat of the tent and the scorching heat that seared through her body like a flaming lance.

  It was like nothing she’d ever felt before.

  Like nothing she’d ever imagined—

  And then he released her, thrusting her away from him as if she were infectious.

  Suddenly unsupported, Bella swayed, dizzy and disorientated from his kiss and wondering why he would want to stop doing something that felt so good.

  Up until that point in her life if anyone had asked her if she’d ever been kissed, she would have said yes. Only now did she realise that she would have been lying.

  She’d never been kissed.

  Not like that.

  Everything that had happened to her before this moment had been a pale imitation of the real thing.

  Where had he learned to kiss a woman like that?

  ‘Cover yourself!’ His voice harsh, he kept his back to her and Bella stared blankly at his wide shoulders, wondering why he was so angry. She was feeling a thousand different emotions, but anger certainly wasn’t one of them.

  But she didn’t argue. She saw the white robe that he’d spread on the bed, picked it up and slipped it over her head. It fell to the ground and she pulled a face.

  ‘Great. Right on trend. Do you have a pair of scissors or something? I’m going to break my neck if I wander around in this.’ She was surprised that her voice sounded so normal, because inside she felt anything but normal. That kiss had left her feeling as though she’d been mixed in a cocktail shaker.