wrong?”
“No, mademoiselle. Don’t be concerned. You’re perfectly safe.”
The pilot put the helicopter down next to a sprawling one-story building at what looked like a mining site.
“If you’ll follow me,” Nazir said after she’d jumped to the ground. He was so polite when he knew he’d left her with no choice. He led her inside the modern, air-conditioned interior. It was a well-decorated office building with every convenience.
“This way, mademoiselle.” He showed her around one corner and opened a door for her to step inside. It was a CEO’s suite, to be sure. “Please be seated.” She sat down on one of the leather chairs. Nazir disappeared, then came back with a bottle of cold water and handed it to her.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. If you need a restroom, it’s through that door.”
Once he’d gone, she removed the bottle cap and drank while she awaited her fate. When Rafi walked in through a connecting door, the bottle slipped from her hand and fell to the floor. What little liquid was left spilled on the rug.
He retrieved it before she could, and set it on the desk. “Don’t worry. It will dry soon enough.” She stared up at him. “This is where I spend the majority of my time.”
He’d dressed in typical Arab garb, white top and white pants. He’d tucked them into his leather boots. Rafi was all male; whatever he wore, he looked spectacular.
“Your job covers a lot of territory. It makes a woman’s head spin. Why didn’t you let the helicopter fly me to El-Joktor?”
His eyes smoldered, sending another delicious shiver down her spine. “Because there’s a matter of unfinished business.”
“I was afraid of that.” She had the pleasure of watching the muscles harden in his striking face.
“Close your eyes and lower your head, Lauren.”
If this was some kind of a test, she was determined to meet it with a brave face. “They’re closed.”
Even before his hands encircled her neck, her heart had jumped to her throat. She felt his legs press against hers while he fastened something at her nape. After he stepped back he said, “You can open them now.”
As she lifted her head, she felt something dangling against her chest. She looked down, not believing her eyes. “My medallion!” Her gaze flew to his. She discovered him lounging against his desk with a strange gleam in his eyes.
He nodded. “The second Dr. Tamam saw it, he took it off the chain and informed me. While you were still unconscious, I removed the chain from your neck and pocketed both for safekeeping.”
Lauren could hardly breathe. “All this time you’ve had it, yet you flew me to the site of the sandstorm in my pathetic hope to find it?” She covered her mouth with her hand. “Since I was brought in, you’ve known everything!”
“Not quite.” He folded his arms.
“Until the other night, I didn’t realize the ancients of your tribe worshipped the moon. The medallion had much more significance than I’d realized.” She shook her head.
“I’d hoped you’d tell me the whole story behind it so I wouldn’t have to resort to these extreme measures. This is your last chance to come clean. Why didn’t you give me the complete description of the medallion when I asked you?”
She unconsciously ran her thumb over the relief. “Because I needed to protect certain people from being hurt in case they saw it and made a connection.”
“Certain people at the Oasis, you mean.”
Lauren looked away. “Yes.”
“And what connection would that be?”
“I thought you knew—” she cried out, jumping to her feet.
“I do, but I want to hear you say it.”
There was no help for it. “To the royal family.”
“Be more specific.”
It was no use. Lauren couldn’t take any more. “Oh, all right! To King Malik.”
He straightened from the desk. “Why single out King Malik? The medallion is the symbol of the entire royal family who’ve been in power for centuries.”
“Because he was the one who gave it to … someone I knew,” she mumbled, but he heard her.
The second the words were out of her mouth, she watched in fascination the way his chest rose and fell, as if he’d sustained a shock. “But that’s impossible.”
She blinked, totally confused. “Why?”
“Only when a new male member of the royal household is born is one minted. He wears it for life and is buried with it.”
The king’s love for her grandmother must have been beyond comprehension. “Did anyone see if King Malik was buried with his?”
Rafi went so quiet, she knew he didn’t have an answer for that question. It was probably the only time in his life he’d been thrown by a mystery he couldn’t solve.
Dark lines etched his arresting features. “Tell me the name of the person he gave it to. According to you, they’re dead. You don’t have to worry since you’ve already broken your promise to them.”
Tears pricked her eyelids. “Because you tricked me—”
“Not tricked. I only held off showing you the medallion until I could see that nothing else would work. It’s my job to protect the royal family. I had to be certain you weren’t working for a hostile entity sent to spy on the king or the acting sheikh.”
“You mean Prince Rashad.”
“That’s right. You and I are both on the same side, Lauren.”
Put that way, she realized they were, but she couldn’t forgive him for what he’d put her through. She bit her lip. “H-he gave it to my grandmother,” she said in a tremulous voice.
More silence. “When?” he eventually demanded.
“I’m sure if you went back far enough in the official documents of the kingdom, you would see that she traveled here alone, unmarried, when she was twenty years old.
“Someone told her about the Al-Shafeeq Oasis that blossomed like a rose in the desert. Being an adventurous person, she decided she wanted to see it.”
Rafi stood there still as a statue. “She met Sheikh Malik?”
Lauren nodded. “He was twenty-six at the time. He saw her walking in the palace garden. She had hair my color, but she wore it down her back to her waist. He was so drawn to her, he had her brought to him. One thing led to another. At one point he took her to see the Garden of the Moon.”
A
