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He inhaled sharply. ‘Women are not usually overly fond of reptiles.’
‘Maybe I’ve just mixed with more reptiles than most,’ Alexa said lightly, glancing towards the rock to see if the snake had reappeared. ‘Sorry. Bad joke. If you really want me to have hysterics, then it could probably be arranged.’
‘You are unlike any woman I have ever met.’
Unsure whether his observation was a compliment or not, she sighed. ‘I’m just not afraid of snakes. Different things frighten different people, I suppose. Do you want a hysterical female on your hands? Because if not then I think I’ll just get dressed. I feel a bit vulnerable standing here half-naked.’
His burning gaze slid from her face to her breasts, and immediately she wished she hadn’t drawn attention to her state of undress. His eyes lingered before moving down over her waist to her skimpy pants. Aware that her flimsy wet underwear provided her with no cover whatsoever, Alexa turned quickly and pulled on her cargo trousers, ignoring the fact that the material clung to her still-damp body.
A shout from the camp disturbed them.
‘People are coming.’ Karim thrust her shirt towards her. ‘Get dressed.’
‘I’m doing my best, believe me.’ Fumbling with the buttons, her cheeks blazing, Alexa finally secured her shirt. The dip in the water had cooled her, but now she felt uncomfortably hot again and knew that it was nothing to do with the desert heat and everything to do with Karim. He was standing so close that they were almost touching, and she knew that even if they’d been traversing the Arctic Circle she would still have felt hot. All she could think about was her body—his body.
What was it about him?
Or was it her? Helpless to understand what was going on, she almost groaned in despair. Had she been locked up in one place for too long? Had her loneliness made her desperate? Had she developed some sort of fixation on her bodyguard because he was offering her protection? Some women did that, she knew. They were attracted to strong, powerful men. But she wasn’t that sort of woman. Since the death of her father, she hadn’t had a man’s protection, and she no longer expected or needed it. And she wasn’t interested in any other sort of relationship, either.
Yes, she was marrying the Sultan, but only because that was what she had to do.
She owed it to the people of Rovina, many of whom she knew had abandoned hope when her uncle had become the Regent.
Suddenly Alexa felt a flicker of disquiet as the reality of her situation slammed home. Duty or not, she was going to be marrying a man she’d never met, and that had suddenly taken on a new significance.
And she knew why.
Her gaze flickered to Karim. Sex suddenly seemed significant because for the first time in her life she was aware of herself as a woman. Karim had awakened her sexuality, feelings that she hadn’t known existed.
Her fingers shook as they fumbled with the last of her buttons. This was not the time to discover that she had a whole side to herself that she’d never imagined was there. She needed to focus on getting safely to the Citadel and marrying the Sultan, and it didn’t matter if he had four heads and no personality—she would still be marrying him.
She had to.
Her life depended on it.
The future of Rovina depended on it.
‘I will escort you back to the tent. There will be time to rest before we eat.’ His tone icy-cold and discouraging, Karim led her back along the sandy path that led from the oasis through the trees. ‘You should rest now. I’ll call you when it’s time to eat.’
‘I don’t need to sleep.’ How could she sleep when she was her own bodyguard? She needed to keep watch.
‘Then rest, at least.’ Karim frowned, as if her response had annoyed him. ‘I’ll be just outside the tent.’
She made no sense whatsoever.
And his reaction to her made even less sense. At one point he’d been on the verge of stripping off and joining her in the pool, and as if that hadn’t been surprising enough he’d then found himself regretting the fact that he was no longer able to follow such impulses.
Karim frowned. These days his mind rarely strayed from duty and responsibility, and yet there had been moments on the journey when …
He cut the thought off before it could develop and fixed his eyes on the road that stretched into the distance, reminding himself that his objective was to show the princess the horrors of the desert.
But so far he wasn’t doing very well, was he?
The unexpected appearance of the snake had been particularly timely, but her reaction had been especially astonishing. Once she’d ascertained that it wasn’t poisonous, she’d shown interest rather than either the fear or revulsion that he’d anticipated and hoped for.
Off hand, he couldn’t think of a single woman of his acquaintance who would have welcomed the opportunity to take a closer look at a snake, and certainly none who would have chosen to examine it at close quarters.
She’d touched it. She’d bent and stroked it as if it had been a domestic pet, and there had been something about that gentle, almost seductive touch that had sent his pulse-rate soaring into the stratosphere.
Wondering what it was going to take to unnerve her, Karim ran a hand over his face, reflecting on the irony of the situation. For the first time in his life he’d met a woman who seemed perfectly at home in these harsh surroundings. How many times in the past had he dreamed about finding a woman who shared his love of Zangrar?
Staring into the desert, he found himself wondering what it would have been like to meet her under different circumstances, and then he closed his eyes briefly, frustrated by his inability to control his own libido around a woman who possessed virtually no admirable qualities.
Yes, her fascination with the desert was surprising, and might actually have been gratifying in different circumstances—but not these circumstances.
The fact that she seemed comfortable with the heat, the dust and the wildlife was not enough to make ‘the rebel princess’ a suitable wife.
Glancing over his shoulder towards the sealed tent, he wondered what she doing now.
Was she asleep yet again?
Or was she lying on the bed dreaming of the riches that awaited her in Zangrar?
Refreshed after her swim and dressed in a pale blue linen dress that fell to her ankles, Alexa wandered out of the tent and bumped straight into Karim.
Disturbed by how good it felt to know he was there, she just stood there, and eventually he broke the tense silence.
‘Food will be served by the fire. It keeps the wildlife at bay.’ His harsh tone suggested that he wasn’t similarly pleased to see her, and she was appalled by how much that knowledge disappointed her.
‘I quite like the wildlife. It’s very interesting. What sort are we talking about this time?’
His gaze flickered to her clothes and down to her strappy sandals. ‘The sort that would grow excited when faced by a pair of bare feet.’
‘Are you trying to frighten me, Karim? All you seem to do is tell me about the dangers of the desert.’
‘Clearly you’re not frightened.’
‘I love it.’ She looked around her. ‘I love everything about it. The colours, the solitude, the sheer enormity of the place, reminding you how small and insignificant you are—’ She broke off and gave a tiny shrug, embarrassed by her outburst. ‘I have never left Rovina before. I haven’t been in possession of my passport since I was eight years old.’
‘That was when your parents were killed?’
It was a conversation topic that had never come up, and for a horrifying moment her brain was filled with images that paralyzed her.
‘Alexa?’
Hearing Karim’s voice, she pushed through the dark, terrifying clouds. ‘Yes.’ Somehow she persuaded her voice to work. ‘My uncle didn’t want me going anywhere.’
‘As your guardian, he clearly takes his responsibilities very seriously.’
Reminded of the reality of her life, Alexa stood still. ‘What time will we set off in the morning?’
‘Early.’ Karim gestured towards the rug that had been placed next to the fire. ‘Sit. You must be hungry’
‘Not really. I just want to finish the journey.’
‘I guarantee your safety, Alexa. I just hope that marriage to the Sultan is all that you are hoping for.’
In desperate need of distraction, she concentrated instead on the robed man who was placing various dishes on the rug between them. ‘Let’s forget about the Sultan for five minutes. Tell me about yourself. You grew up in the Citadel? Has your family always worked for the Sultan?’
‘We have always been close to the Sultan, yes.’ He listened while the man spoke to him in a low voice, and then shook his head and dismissed him with a wave of his hand.
Alexa watched as the man melted away. ‘Is there a problem?’
‘He wanted to know whether he should fetch you a knife and fork. I told him that you want the full desert-experience. That’s right, isn’t it, Your Highness? That is what you’ve signed up for, after all.’
‘Obviously I’m eager to learn as much as possible,’ she said honestly. ‘Would the Sultan stay in a desert camp like this one?’
‘Occasionally. Sometimes the accommodation would be much more basic, usually it would be more luxurious. It really depends on the purpose of the trip.’
‘And you go with him?’
‘Always.’
‘He must be missing you.’ Alexa took the cup that was handed to her and drank thirstily. ‘It’s good. What is it?’
Karim lay sprawled on the rug, his dark eyes lazily amused. ‘Camel’s milk.’
‘Really? It’s delicious.’ She drank again and saw his surprise. ‘What? It’s rude to stare, Karim.’
‘You are used to drinking fine wines from cut glass. Camel’s milk from an earthenware cup must be an entirely new experience.’
‘But not all new experiences are bad ones.’ She finished her drink and selected some food from the dishes in front of her, following Karim’s lead and eating with her fingers. ‘Did you spend much time in the desert when you were young?’
‘Yes. My family’s roots are in the desert, and many of our people still lead nomadic lives. It’s essential to understand the particular hardships and problems that they face.’
‘So that you can understand the Sultan’s work, you mean? Or so that you can protect him more effectively?’
‘Both.’
‘And now you live in the Citadel itself? In the palace?’
‘Of course. I go where the Sultan goes.’
‘Then I’ll be seeing a lot of you once I’m married.’
Karim stared into the fire, and when he finally lifted his gaze to hers there was a mockery in his eyes that she didn’t understand. ‘If you marry the Sultan, then you will certainly see a great deal of me.’
Alexa felt her heart stumble. The thought of seeing Karim every day was unsettling to say the least. ‘Why do you say if?’
The reflection of the fire flickered in his liquid dark eyes. ‘The Citadel is a fortress, Alexa, not a shopping mall. If the Sultan so
wishes, he can keep you inside his palace and not allow you to see the light of day. Is that truly a life that can make you happy?’
Alexa smiled at the thought. Life in a fortress. With her uncle on the outside. ‘It’s what I want.’
‘You want to be closeted behind high stone-walls with a man you have never even met? It seems a strange choice.’
‘That’s because you know nothing about my life.’
‘Then tell me.’ He leaned towards her, his gaze compelling and his voice surprisingly gentle. ‘Tell me about your life, Alexa. What is it that makes this match so appealing? We are alone, now, just the two of us. Talk to me.’
Alexa stared at him. She’d lived her entire life alone, devoid of love and friendship, and the sudden flicker of warmth in his eyes was enough to draw her out in much the same way as a starving animal would tiptoe towards the promise of a morsel of food.
‘I’ve never told anyone.’
‘Then it is time to confide in someone,’ he urged. ‘Because such introverted behaviour is not natural for a woman.’
Most women hadn’t lived her life.
The past oozed into her brain like a deadly cloud, souring the atmosphere, and she scrambled to her feet quickly. She was doing it again! The urge to confide in him was becoming stronger and stronger despite the fact that she knew the dangers of speaking to the wrong person. ‘The meal was lovely. Please thank them for me. If we have an early start, then I think it’s best if I go to bed now.’
CHAPTER SIX
SHE’D been on the verge of telling him something. The question was, what?
And why was he so interested?
Simmering with frustration at her abrupt departure, Karim stood outside the tent, giving her time to prepare herself for bed before joining her. What confession had been clinging to her lips?
Regret for the life she’d led?
Second thoughts about marrying a man just for status and money?
Wondering if her conscience was keeping her awake, he pushed aside the flap of the tent and strode inside.
One glance told him that she was already asleep, apparently oblivious to the hard, simple bed, the spartan surroundings or the nagging of her conscience.
Her luxurious red-gold hair was spread haphazardly over the pillow like sand blown by the wind, and her mouth was the colour of ripe strawberries. Strawberries just waiting to be devoured.
Even in the depth of sleep she looked like every man’s hottest fantasy, and Karim experienced a monumental surge of desire as he stood watching her. The ache in his loins grew to agonizing levels, and he uttered a soft curse and strode to the far side of the room, vowing to stay as far away from her as possible.
Why had he imposed this ridiculous rule that she was to stay by his side for the entire journey? Just who was suffering most?
He lay down and waited for sleep to claim him, but it was asking the impossible, and he was still staring grimly upwards when the princess gave a frightened moan.
Karim was on his feet with the speed and grace of a panther, the hilt of the knife in his hand as he prepared to defend her.
‘Alexa?’ The fading light of the hurricane lamp was enough to show him that no one had entered the tent without his knowledge, which meant that her distress was caused by something different.
