She had an hourglass figure, and the flare of her full hips was perfectly balanced by her long shapely legs. The skin his brother’s fingers touched in the photograph was milky pale.
Her skin would be warm and smooth under a man’s touch, infinitely delectable … Tariq put aside the distracting image, his expression instantly hardening. That man was not going to be Khalid.
His little brother was clearly not thinking with his brain. If Khalid had gone out looking for the most unsuitable bride alive he could not have found one who fitted the bill better than this redhead.
She had no family; there was not even a father’s name on her birth certificate. And, while he did not hold her background against her, it was to him highly significant that after the death of her mother, she had never settled with any of the numerous foster families she had been placed in. This was a pattern that had continued into adulthood, and she had travelled the world working. Tariq could not fault her work ethic, but she had never accumulated any money or possessions, and she had never stayed in one place long enough to put down roots.
It was totally inconceivable that such a woman could fill the role of Royal Princess.
Tariq returned his attention back to the lawyer. ‘The redhead,’ he said, dispensing the blatantly unnecessary information with impatience as he slid the photo back into his breast pocket.
Dragging his long brown fingers over his bare dark head, he slid his dark pewter-flecked gaze to the window. It was closed and he was conscious of the feeling of claustrophobia he often felt when in London, or in any other major city for that matter.
At home his office windows would be flung wide open, allowing the warm desert breeze to circulate. Set in the oldest part of the palace complex, his office was located in the highest tower, and it offered panoramic views out over the old town, stretching as far as the new town, with its shiny glass-fronted buildings, then out further to the desert and mountains beyond.
Almost imperceptibly he felt some of the tension in his shoulders lessen. Tension that had been gradually building since he had providentially discovered his brother was about to make a disastrous marriage.
Tonight he would return home and be standing in that room, watching the sunset.
He had been looking at spectacular sunsets over the desert all his life, but familiarity had not bred contempt. The flame sky never failed to move something deep inside him, reminding him of the connection he felt to the land and its people, both of which his family had held in trust for many generations.
Some men might have termed the connection spiritual, but Tariq felt no need to put a name to it. It was just an integral part of him.
‘Just show her through when she arrives,’ Tariq informed the departing lawyer. Time was of the essence, and the sooner he nipped this sentimental and unsuitable romance in the bud the better.
Pressing a long finger to the indentation above his aquiline nose, Tariq felt that tension between his shoulderblades creep back. Damn Khalid! The planes of his strongly sculpted face tautened as he dwelt on the secret plans of his normally cautious and cooperative brother.
When their own English mother had chosen her freedom over her children, Khalid, who had been three at the time, had crept into his big brother’s bed each night for months after to cry himself to sleep. How, Tariq wondered, could a child of such a disastrous union, who had suffered so much as a child, not now realise that it was impossible to combine two cultures?
Maybe, Tariq brooded, it was some genetic defect? Their father was a man whose actions had always been characterised by strength and rational thought; he had shown inexplicable weakness and lack of judgement in only one thing—love.
Well, if this was a genetic flaw, and the weakness surfaced in him, Tariq, he had no doubt that he would be able to subdue it. Tariq was a man who prided himself on his iron control. It would not even occur to him to follow such selfish impulses. He had no immediate marriage plans, but when he did eventually commit himself Tariq knew his choice of consort would not be a woman who had split loyalties. Not for him a woman who could not or would not adapt to her new life in a foreign land.
No, he would marry a woman—when the time came—who would stand beside him as he continued the onerous task of bringing modern reforms to their ancient kingdom and its rich diverse cultural heritage. Love, too often in his opinion, was used as an excuse for inappropriate behaviour, and would be very low down the list when he came to look for a suitable bride for himself.
The lawyer guided her through a series of interconnected rooms, and when they reached the last he stood back and indicated to Beatrice that she should go inside.
In the doorway she turned to call out to the retreating figure. ‘Look, what is this all about …?’
A stranger’s rough velvet voice from inside the room cut across her bemused protest.
‘Just come in, Miss Devlin.’
Cautiously Beatrice responded to the terse instruction and stepped into the room. Her inspection of her surroundings only got as far as the figure seated behind the desk. He rose as she stepped forward: a seriously tall man, lean, long of leg and broad of shoulder.
He was also young and sinfully good-looking, if you liked the dark fallen angel look, and frankly, Beatrice thought staring, who wouldn’t?
‘Take a seat.’ He commanded, in that velvet voice again.
‘I’m sorry—I don’t know who you are, or—’
‘I doubt that …’ His long lashes brushed against the sharp angles of his chiselled cheekbones as his midnight glance dipped, skimming the lush contours of her body.
By the time his attention returned to her face Beatrice knew her cheeks were burning in reaction. There was something of a calculated insult in his insolent scrutiny.
Later she might be bewildered by his attitude, but right now Beatrice was too furious for analysis. Was he trying to make her lose her temper? Or was he always this obnoxiously rude? Well, either way she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of responding.
Beatrice lifted her chin, raised her brows in a quizzical fashion and gave him a calm smile. ‘Manners really aren’t your strong point, are they …?’ She murmured amusedly before pulling out a chair. ‘I’m assuming I wasn’t summoned here just so that you could insult me …?’
She was rewarded by a perplexed frown that twitched his strongly defined sable brows into a straight line above his hawkish nose. The frown stayed in place as he watched her settle herself in the chair and casually cross one slender ankle over the other. It was a scrutiny that Beatrice was painfully conscious of. She was equally determined not to betray the fact.
This was not a person to show weakness to. The man was clearly a barbarian, she decided, and no amount of tailoring could disguise the fact. As mad as she was with him, for looking at her as though she were a piece of meat, she was madder with herself for responding on some primal level to the raw sexual challenge in his stance.
Cut yourself some slack, she counselled herself, as she slowed her breathing to a less agitated level. The man does have more undiluted blatant sexuality in his little finger than the average male has in his entire body. Her eyes skimmed the long lean length of him again, and she stifled an internal sigh. Whatever else the man was, there was nothing about him physically that she could find fault with.
Finally
