not for much longer. Presumably she would shortly be escorted to the gates and told to disappear. She didn’t know where to, or even how, but she had to accept that her mission here had failed. Her attempt to seduce Sheikh Zayed, to persuade him to take her virginity and then marry her out of honour, had failed miserably. Far from building the framework to try to find peace between their two nations, all she had done was antagonise the man she was trying to seduce and humiliate herself into the bargain.
And as for her family... Was there any possibility that she could return home and keep from them what she had done? Come up with some plausible story for her absence?
For that was her only hope now, all she could cling to. Because one thing was for sure: if her father and brother ever found out that she had even visited the kingdom of Gazbiyaa, let alone prostituted herself in the sheikh’s bed, she would be dead to them now. And that was in the literal use of the word.
Some clothes had been mysteriously laid out for her: a demure outfit of a knee-length skirt and a cream silk blouse. Hardly what she would have chosen, but certainly a darned sight better than yesterday’s costume, whose gems still winked at her from the corner of the room where she had hurled it last night. She was just getting dressed when there was a tap on the door and a servant entered.
‘I come with a message from His Royal Highness.’ The servant’s eyes were respectfully cast down. ‘His Highness wishes to speak with you. I am to accompany you to his quarters.’
Nadia hesitated. To be honest she had assumed that she would be the last person he would want to see. By the look of disgust on his face last night it had appeared that if he never saw her again it would be too soon, and only the fear of her being raped or murdered on the night streets of Gazbiyaa had prevented him from having her evicted from the palace there and then. But then, the feeling was mutual. Having to face the handsome sheikh in the cold light of day after the way she had behaved was more than she could bear. No, this was a new day and there was no reason why she should have to take orders from him.
‘Please inform His Royal Highness that I have made other plans.’ As if to demonstrate those plans, as much to herself as to the elderly servant, she straightened her skirt and arranged the collar of her blouse. ‘I’m afraid a meeting this morning will not be possible.’
The servant shifted uncomfortably. ‘His Royal Highness is expecting me to accompany you now.’
Nadia felt herself bristle with indignation. While she had no desire to get this servant into trouble, at little more than five feet tall and old enough to be her grandmother, she hardly looked as if she was going to be able to force Nadia to go against her will. But just as this thought was taking hold two burly guards appeared from nowhere, flanking the servant, the rippling muscles of their folded arms providing all the proof she needed that, actually, she probably would do as she was told.
* * *
Zayed was sitting at the far end of a vast conference table when Nadia was borne forward in her bodyguard sandwich. She scowled as she found herself sinking into a chair opposite him.
‘Good morning.’ He dismissed the guards with a curt wave of his hand. ‘I trust you slept well?’
Nadia’s scowl deepened. As if he would care how well she slept. She had no intention of swapping false pleasantries with him. ‘Perhaps you would like to tell me what I am doing here.’ She tossed back her head.
‘Interesting.’ Sitting very upright now, Zayed fixed her with a piercing stare. ‘I had rather assumed it was going to be you telling me what you are doing here.’
Nadia shifted on the leather seat beneath her, all hope that she might have been allowed to just disappear and not face the embarrassing inquest into last night’s behaviour now fading fast. She let her eyes quickly scan the man at the far end of the table. Darkly, dangerously handsome, he still exuded the same confident authority as before, only now a calm determination replaced yesterday’s more heated manner. And a crisp white shirt concealed the broad expanse of muscled chest. ‘I can’t see that it matters now.’
‘It may not matter to you, but I am not accustomed to finding strange young women hiding in my bed. Perhaps you will at least indulge my curiosity.’
It didn’t look as if she had much choice. Zayed’s voice might be softly coaxing, but the steely sarcasm beneath was all too clear.
‘Okay, fine.’ Taking a deep breath, Nadia straightened her shoulders and tipped her chin. She could tell him part of her story, at least. Hopefully that would be enough to satisfy his irritating curiosity and she could get away from here. ‘I came here to escape an arranged marriage.’
‘An arranged marriage?’
‘Yes.’ She took another breath. She really didn’t want to go into this. ‘My father has arranged a marriage for me, but I don’t want to marry him so I decided to run away.’ She shrugged her shoulders in a ‘that’s all there is to it’ sort of way.
At least this part of her story was true. Her father had arranged a marriage for her. After she had stubbornly refused the string of suitors that had been paraded before her over the past few years, he had finally lost all patience and announced the choice had been made for her; she was to be the second wife of the sheikh of a neighbouring kingdom, a man nearly thirty years her senior, and she was indeed fortunate this sheikh was prepared to take her on, considering her advanced age, all twenty-eight years of it, and her reputation for speaking her mind.
It was at this point that desperation had turned to a wild recklessness and Nadia had known that she had to seize the chance to do something with her life before it was too late. And to do that she had to use the only weapon she had in her armoury: her virgin body. A plan had formed in her head. If she had to marry, then she was going to make it count. She would use her marriage to heal the divide between Harith and Gazbiyaa and try to prevent war.
‘Forgive me if I am being stupid here—’ Zayed’s eagle-eyed stare showed him to be anything but ‘—but if this is true, I fail to understand why escaping an arranged marriage necessitates creeping into my bed and offering yourself up to me.’
Nadia fiddled with the pearl button on her cuff. He was obviously quite determined to pursue this. ‘Because if you had...if we had...then we would have had to marry and then I couldn’t be forced into marrying anyone else.’
‘Whoa!’ His derisory laugh cut right through her. ‘Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself here?’ He leaned back, relaxed now, as if beginning to enjoy himself. ‘At the risk of appearing ungallant, why would you assume that one night of passion with you would be enough to convince me that I should marry you on the spot? You obviously rate your attributes very highly.’
Nadia lowered her eyes. ‘Because I would have given you my honour. And surely that is the most precious gift of all?’
Zayed frowned at her. Well, that had told him. Suddenly he felt as if he were the one in the wrong here. By not taking her up on her offer he had scuppered her plans and besmirched her character at the same time. How had that happened? He looked down the length of the table to where Nadia sat, her mirror image reflected in the polished wooden surface, like a playing-card queen. Sitting very upright, her head held high, the thick weight of black curls pushed back over her shoulders, she looked both imperious and vulnerable. And still remarkably sexy, despite the conservative outfit that so primly covered the tempting body he knew was underneath. He cleared his throat.
‘So let me get this straight. You flee from an arranged marriage to the bed of a
