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She jumped. “Why do you have to be stealthy?”
“We are close to the village. It’s less than twenty miles by horseback, although nearly fifty in the truck. The trucks require a road. I will be riding the rest of the way. Would you care to join me?”
“Sure. Thanks. Give me ten minutes to change my clothes.” She glanced around. Tents weren’t put up in the middle of the day, which meant privacy was an issue. Maybe she could climb in the back of one of the trucks.
“Why do you need to change your clothes? You’re even wearing sensible boots.”
She glanced down at her authentic cowboy boots. “I know. They’re so cool. I got them on sale. But I have a riding outfit.”
“Do you have different clothes for every event?”
“Of course. It’s a girl thing. Although I was challenged by the whole ‘you’ll be my mistress.’ That was a stumper. They don’t cover it much in the fashion magazines. I think they’re missing a real market.”
He was much taller than she and had to look down to meet her gaze. “You hide your emotions behind humor,” he said.
It was all she could do not to roll her eyes. “Well, duh.”
One corner of his mouth twitched. An actual twitch, which was nearly a smile. She wasn’t sure why making him smile or laugh would make her feel better, but she believed that all the way down to her toes.
“What you are wearing is fine,” he told her.
“But the outfit is really cool.”
“You can show me later.”
“You just don’t want to wait while I dig through all my luggage.”
“There is that, as well. Be ready in five minutes.”
“There aren’t any horses.”
“There will be.”
Kateb walked away. Victoria watched him go, not sure what to make of him. On the one hand, he’d taken her for his mistress for six months and that couldn’t be good. On the other hand, he’d given her electricity for her curling iron and taken care of her, albeit from a distance. Which meant this was the strangest semi-relationship she’d ever had in her life.
Four minutes and thirty seconds later, a man rode up leading two horses. Kateb spoke with him, then brought the horses to her.
“How well do you ride?” he asked.
“Isn’t it a little late to be worrying about that?”
He looked at her.
So much for the lip twitch. “I do okay. I’m not an expert, but I’ve been riding every couple of days for nearly two years.”
One of the men walked over and laced his fingers together to form a step. Victoria glanced back at the trucks holding all her things, including her purse. Was she just going to ride away and leave them all behind? Did she have a choice?
She stepped in the man’s hand, pushed off the ground, then swung into the saddle. After three days of driving, it felt good to be on a horse, out in the fresh air. Kateb got on his horse and moved the animal next to hers.
“We’ll be heading northeast.”
“Do I look like I know what direction that is?”
He pointed out into the wilderness, toward rolling hills dotted with low shrubs and grasses growing out of the sand. Like that would help.
He urged his horse forward. Hers moved into step without her doing anything, which meant it was probably going to be an easy ride. Her favorite kind.
“If you try to escape, I won’t look for you,” he told her. “You’ll wander for days before dying of thirst.”
“Oh, please,” she said, before she could remember he was royalty and sometimes it was better not to say everything she was thinking. “That’s so much crap.”
He didn’t bother looking at her. “You think so?”
“You’re not going to leave me out here to die.”
“Do you want to test your certainty?”
“Probably not.”
He smiled then. A real lip-moving kind of smile. His eyes crinkled at the corners, his expression relaxed. His face was transformed from unreadable and stern to approachable and handsome.
Somewhere deep inside, her stomach tightened, but this time it had nothing to do with fear or apprehension and everything to do with the man. She felt a little tingly and light-headed. Those reactions were quickly followed by a different kind of panic.
No, no, no, she told herself. There was no way she could be attracted to Kateb. None at all. Talk about the danger zone. She knew better than to give her heart to a man. That road led only to ruin. And falling for a sheik who was going to toss her aside in six months was a whole new level of stupid.
She drew in a breath. She had to get a grip. Finding Kateb attractive didn’t mean anything. It was biology. Okay—there’d been a tingle, but a tingle was a long way from love. She was completely safe. All it meant was that when he finally wanted her in his bed, the experience might not be icky. That was a good thing.
“What?” Kateb demanded. “Are you sick?”
“No. Why?”
“You look odd.”
Which was probably prince-speak for “you have a strange look on your face.” At least that was her assumption. Not that she was going to answer the implied question of “what were you thinking?”
Diversion seemed like a good idea. “How long have you lived in the desert?”
“Since I graduated from university.”
“Why the desert?”
“When I was ten, my brothers and I spent the summer in the desert. It is a traditional for the king’s sons to learn the ways of the nomads. I had always found the palace and rules constricting. For me, being in the desert was like coming home. I came back every summer, living with different tribes. One year I lived in the village and knew that was to be my home.”
“You didn’t want to spend all your time visiting Paris and dating supermodels?”
“I have been to Paris. It is a beautiful city. Just not for me.”
“And the supermodels?”
He didn’t bother answering.
The sun was hot, but not oppressive. Victoria adjusted her hat and was grateful she’d used her five minutes to slather on sunscreen.
“What do you do in the village? I can’t see you selling used camels.”
“I am working with the elders and business owners to develop a more stable financial infrastructure. There is plenty of capital flowing through the area, but no one is capturing it and using it effectively.”
“Let me guess,” she said. “You have a degree in finance.”
“Yes.”
“It shows.”
He changed tactics. “How did you come to work for Nadim?”
“He was in Dallas for several weeks. His assistant had a medical emergency and had to fly back to El Deharia. I’d worked with his assistant and apparently got a good review. Nadim asked that I be assigned to him and when he went back, he offered me a job.”
“Was it love at first sight for you?”
While there wasn’t exactly a sneer in the question, there was definite tone.
“I never claimed to love him,” she said primly.
“Does that make it better or worse?”
“I did my job well. Nadim had no complaints about my performance. As to the rest, arranged marriages are still a tradition in this part of the world. I was just trying to arrange my own.”
“So you could be rich.”
He still didn’t get it.
“It’s not about money.”
“So you have said.” He sounded as if he didn’t believe her.
She looked out over the desert. She couldn’t see anything resembling a village, but she wished they would get there quickly. Suddenly riding with Kateb wasn’t that much fun anymore.
Annoyance bubbled inside of her until it spilled out. “You haven’t got a clue,” she told him. “You can’t know. You grew up a prince, in privilege. You never worried about having enough to eat. You don’t know what it’s like to see your mom crying because there’s no food for dinner because your dad took all the money. He would do that—come in and take every cent she had. Sometimes he would sell stuff, like our TV. One time he sold her car and she had to walk to work for nearly a year while she saved enough to get a down payment for a new one.”
Victoria drew in a breath. “I was poor. Dirt poor. My clothes came from the church ladies who brought them by. While I appreciate their intentions, it was humiliating to be given clothes their daughters had already worn at school. To have to walk into class the next day and listen to the laughter and whispers. You’ve never had to stand in a different line at lunch because your food was paid for by the state and everyone knew. You don’t understand what it’s like to be a charity case.”
She hadn’t been paying attention so she hadn’t noticed how big the past had grown until it overwhelmed her. The need to get away made her kick her horse, then lean forward in the saddle as the gelding raced toward the horizon.
Kateb watched her go. She was riding in the correct direction so he didn’t worry about her getting lost. If she gave her horse his head, he would find his way back to the stable.
Victoria moved well in the saddle, although her shoulders were slumped forward, as if weighed down by a heavy burden.
Did she speak the truth? He didn’t know her well enough to trust her word, but the shame in her eyes had been real, as had the pain in her voice. If she had grown up as poor as she said, perhaps he could understand why security was so important to her. It also explained her obsession with clothes and finding things on sale.
She rode up to the slight rise, then reined in her horse. He joined her.
“Is that the village?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes.”
“You have to work on your definitions.”
Victoria had imagined a few tents, a primitive barn, maybe a lean-to. What she saw instead was a thriving rural city, with streets and houses and barns and fields.
“They farm?” she asked.
“Yes. There are several underground rivers that provide irrigation. In the desert, water is life.”
She couldn’t take it all in. “How many people live here?”
“Several thousand.”
“Hardly a village.”
“It has grown.”
The fields were outside the structures, stretching out along the edges of the valley and up the hills in terraces. There were several open-air markets, a larger building that could have been a church or a school. A road wound down into the valley. She could see the trucks slowly moving toward the village. At the far end of the valley, up against the cliffs, a stone structure seemed to dominate the landscape.
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing toward it.
“The Winter Palace.”
“Palace for whom?”
“In ancient times, the King of El Deharia would spend a few months here each year. When that stopped, the elders’ council established a leader for the people. He is nominated and serves a twenty-five-year term.”
She remembered hearing about that. Kateb was supposed to be on the short list for that job. “Twenty-five years is a long time. They don’t want to make a mistake.”
“If they do, there are ways to unseat him.”
“And it always has to be a man, right?”
He flashed that killer smile again. “Of course. We are progressive, but we do not yet support the idea of a woman ruling.”
“That is just so typical,” she muttered. “So the leader gets the palace and all that goes with it?”
“Yes. The previous leader, Bahjat, died a few months ago, causing the new search. He graciously allowed me rooms in the palace when I was in residence.”
“Because you’re the king’s son.”
“Partially. We were close. He was like a grandfather to me.”
“Then you must miss him.”
