wasn’t some political manoeuvre. This was simply him wanting to be with Elena.
‘I’m taking you,’ he said, choosing his words slowly, carefully, ‘because I want you to meet the people who support me.’
Her eyes widened. Her lips parted and then curved in a tremulous smile. ‘You do?’
Khalil’s hands curled into fists. Everything in him resisted this admission, this appalling weakness. Where was his ruthless determination now? All he wanted in this moment was to see Elena’s smile deepen. ‘I do.’
‘All right,’ she said, and Khalil felt relief and even joy pour through him. He smiled, a wider smile than he’d ever felt on his face before, and she grinned back.
Something had changed. Something was changing right here between them and, God help him, but he couldn’t stop it. He didn’t even want to.
‘We should leave within the hour. Can you ride?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then dress for riding. Leila will find you the appropriate clothes.’ With a nod, he started to leave, then turned back to face her. ‘Thank you, Elena,’ he said quietly, meaning it utterly, and the smile she offered him felt like a precious gift.
An hour later Elena met him on the edge of the camp, where he was saddling the horses they would take. Khalil nodded his approval of her sensible clothing, headscarf and boots, a familiar tightness in his chest easing just at the sight of her.
‘We should waste no time in departing. It is half a day’s ride and I intend for us to arrive before nightfall.’
She glanced, clearly surprised, at the two horses. ‘We’re going alone?’
‘Three men will accompany us, but they will ride separately. We will meet up with the guards before we enter the camp, so all will be appropriate.’
‘Appropriate?’
‘In the desert, a man and woman generally do not ride alone.’
She nodded slowly, accepting, her gaze darting between the horses and him.
Khalil acknowledged he was breaching protocol in so many ways. ‘You’ll be safe with me, Elena,’ he said and she looked back at him.
‘I know that.’
‘Do you?’ He felt a smile spread across his face. ‘Good.’
‘I trust you,’ she said simply, and for a moment he couldn’t speak. He’d kidnapped her, after all. He didn’t deserve her trust, yet she gave it. Freely. Wholly.
‘Thank you,’ he finally said.
She stepped closer to him, so he caught the scent of roses. ‘Are we travelling alone because it’s safer? I mean, so Aziz won’t find us?’
She spoke without any rancour, yet Khalil felt that churning guilt once more, and more acutely this time, because for the first time something felt stronger than his burning need to be Sheikh.
He refused to name just what it was.
‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘Does that...distress you?’
Her clear gaze searched his and she smiled wryly. ‘Not as much as it should.’
He acknowledged her point with a small nod. ‘Things are changing.’
‘They’ve already changed,’ she said quietly, and something in him both swelled and ached.
He shouldn’t want things to change. Change meant losing his focus, losing his whole sense of self. What was he, if not the future Sheikh of Kadar? Everything in his life had been for that purpose. He’d had no room for other ideas or ambitions, and certainly none for relationships.
Yet he knew Elena was right. Things had already changed...whether he’d wanted them to or not.
‘Let’s go,’ he said, a bit more gruffly than he intended, and he laced his fingers together to offer Elena a foothold.
She rode just like she walked or stood, with inherent elegance and pride. Her back was ramrod straight as she controlled the excited prancing of her horse.
‘How well can you ride?’ he asked and her eyes sparkled at him.
‘Well.’
Khalil’s mouth curved. ‘Let’s see about that,’ he said, and with a shout he took off at a gallop. He heard Elena’s surprised laughter echo behind him as she gave chase.
* * *
Elena felt the kind of thrill of exhilaration she hadn’t experienced since she’d been a child riding in Thallia as she followed Khalil. It felt wonderful to be on a horse again, the desert flashing by in a blur of rocks and sand. She had had no time for such pursuits since she’d been queen. She hadn’t ridden like this in years.
The only sound was her horse’s hooves galloping across the sand. She spurred the beast on, eager to catch up with Khalil—or even pass him. Although he hadn’t said, she knew it had become a race.
Glancing behind him, Khalil pointed to a towering, needle-like boulder in the distance that Elena knew must be the finish line. She nodded back and crouched low over the horse as the wind whistled past. She was only a length behind him, and in the last dash to the finish line she made up half a length, but Khalil’s horse still crossed a beat before hers.
Laughing, she reined the animal in and patted his sweat-soaked neck. ‘That was close.’
‘Very close,’ Khalil agreed. His teeth gleamed white in his bronzed face. He wore a turban to keep out the sun and sand, and somehow it made him look more masculine. More desirable. ‘Foolish, perhaps, to race,’ he continued. ‘There is a small oasis here. We’ll let the horses drink before we continue.’
‘A small oasis? I’d thought the next one was a day’s ride by camel.’
Khalil just shrugged and Elena let out a huff of indignation. ‘So you lied to me?’
‘I wanted to discourage you from doing something foolish, something that most certainly wouldn’t end well.’
‘I could have escaped now,’ Elena pointed out. ‘I was on a horse, with water and food in my saddlebags.’
Khalil gazed at her evenly. ‘I know. But you didn’t.’
‘No.’ She hadn’t even thought of it, hadn’t been remotely tempted. The knowledge should have shamed her, but instead she felt almost ebullient.
They led the horses to the oasis, and as the animals drank Khalil gazed at the horizon with a frown.
‘What’s wrong?’ Elena asked.
‘It looks like a storm might rise.’
‘A storm?’ She gazed up at the endless blue sky, hard and bright, in incredulity. ‘How on earth can you tell?’
‘Look
