скачать книгу бесплатно
Claimed For The Desert Prince's Heir
Heidi Rice
From desert seduction… …to carrying the sheikh’s baby! Kasia’s thrilling encounter with Prince Raif rocked her to the core. As did his marriage proposal! Yes, she’d given him her innocence after his daring desert rescue. Yes, their chemistry had been intensely strong. But independent Kasia didn’t need or want a husband. She reluctantly fled, thinking she’d never see him again… Until weeks later at a lavish party he’s right there, looking furious—and dangerously sexy! Kasia can’t hide the truth…she’s pregnant with his royal heir. And this time it’s clear, Raif won’t let her go!
From desert seduction…
…to carrying the sheikh’s baby!
Kasia’s thrilling encounter with Prince Raif rocked her to her core. As did his marriage proposal! Yes, she’d given him her innocence after his daring desert rescue. Yes, their chemistry had been intensely strong. But independent Kasia didn’t need or want a husband. She reluctantly fled, thinking she’d never see him again…
Until weeks later at a lavish party he’s right there, looking furious—and dangerously sexy! Kasia can’t hide the truth—she’s pregnant with his royal heir. And this time it’s clear Raif won’t let her go!
USA TODAY bestselling author HEIDI RICE lives in London, England. She is married with two teenage sons—which gives her rather too much of an insight into the male psyche—and also works as a film journalist. She adores her job, which involves getting swept up in a world of high emotion, sensual excitement, funny and feisty women, sexy and tortured men and glamorous locations where laundry doesn’t exist. Once she turns off her computer she often does chores—usually involving laundry!
Also by Heidi Rice (#u97093d80-abb7-53fa-adde-057f842e2a39)
Vows They Can’t Escape
The Virgin’s Shock Baby
Captive at Her Enemy’s Command
Bound by Their Scandalous Baby
Carrying the Sheikh’s Baby
Claiming My Untouched Mistress
Contracted as His Cinderella Bride
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Claimed for the Desert Prince’s Heir
Heidi Rice
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09787-1
CLAIMED FOR THE DESERT PRINCE’S HEIR
© 2019 Heidi Rice
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Note to Readers (#u97093d80-abb7-53fa-adde-057f842e2a39)
This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:
Change of font size and line height
Change of background and font colours
Change of font
Change justification
Text to speech
To Daisy.
Thanks for the fabulous brainstorming session that
turned Raif from a desert rogue into a Modern hero!
Mwah! xx
Contents
Cover (#u692789df-899a-568f-8946-af8a9cb4ef7b)
Back Cover Text (#u043e0e69-12b4-5499-8696-56d86a8abb59)
About the Author (#u34873a29-28a5-53ca-829d-244d61e6b953)
Booklist (#u6dfe902d-1a55-56c7-8750-27236252e538)
Title Page (#u9efb1354-00e5-5e5c-b8c7-3b9ed2679607)
Copyright (#u9cfc4ddb-0aa5-5c93-b409-e3e3d07d9a10)
Note to Readers
Dedication (#uab938e35-e827-51b9-aa33-2b1ecb0afe7c)
CHAPTER ONE (#uda33e533-bd23-5ab2-bacb-a141489784c6)
CHAPTER TWO (#ube925eee-4110-5de5-bb06-134a240e351a)
CHAPTER THREE (#u216f5de2-e6dd-5989-9732-bde5ea04db46)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ubee6845b-ebdf-57d1-9c06-47eb8afb7b44)
CHAPTER FIVE (#uce74e19c-2178-5ded-b36e-a7282430f200)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u97093d80-abb7-53fa-adde-057f842e2a39)
KASIA SALAH SQUINTED at the heat haze on the horizon and the ominous cloud of dust that shimmered above it, then glared at her mobile phone.
No service.
She breathed the swear word she’d learned during her years at Cambridge University as sweat collected on her upper lip and trickled down her back beneath her T-shirt and the voluminous robe she wore to stave off the heat and dust of the desert landscape. It was the sort of swear word she would have been punished by her grandmother for even knowing—let alone saying—once upon a time. She tucked her smartphone into the back pocket of her shorts, taking several more frustrating moments to locate it under the miles of fabric. Then transferred her glare to the engine of the black SUV—and swore again, louder this time. After all, there was no one within a fifty-mile radius to hear her—and it felt empowering, even if it wasn’t going to help.
Why hadn’t she thought to take a satellite phone with her before leaving the palace for this research trip? Or a companion? Preferably one who knew a bit more than she did about car mechanics? She sighed and kicked the tyre of the broken-down Jeep.
It had been reckless, over-confident and overly optimistic…her three favourite flaws.
Then again, she hadn’t intended to break down in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal.
Sheikh Zane Ali Nawari Khan, her best friend Catherine’s husband, the ruler of Narabia and, nominally, her boss, had worked long and hard to bring internet connectivity and a cellphone network to large parts of the kingdom. But she suspected she was too close to the borderlands here—an undeveloped desert, flanked by the mountain region in the south, populated only by the Kholadi nomads. From what she could remember, the Kholadi didn’t even have running water, so the chances of them needing a phone signal were fairly slim.
Using the robe to cover her hands, so she didn’t burn them on the hot metal, she unhooked the defunct vehicle’s bonnet. It slammed down, the sound echoing in the febrile air. Luckily, she had given Cat and her assistant Nadia a detailed itinerary of her day trip, so when she didn’t return this evening they would send out a search party.
But that still meant spending a night in the Jeep.
Wasn’t that going to be fun, especially when the temperature plummeted as soon as the sun dipped below the desert floor.
The hot, dry wind swept a sprinkle of sand into her face. Tugging the robe’s head scarf over her nose and mouth so she didn’t inhale the gritty swirls, she peered towards the horizon. The cloud she had spotted earlier had grown, spreading across the land in both directions and blotting out the shimmering heat haze like a malevolent force.
Adrenaline kicked at her ribs like one of Zane’s thoroughbred Arabian stallions. And the anxiety she’d been keeping a tight rein on rippled down her spine.
Was that a sandstorm?
And was it headed her way?
She’d never experienced one before, having been cloistered in the luxurious safety of the Golden Palace’s women’s quarters for most of her life.
But she’d heard about the sandstorms. The carnage they wrought could strike terror into the hearts of grown men and women. Her grandmother had whispered about them in hushed reverential tones; how the worst of them had laid waste to the kingdom, turning farmland back into desert and causing numerous fatalities.
She swallowed down the panic threatening to overwhelm her.
Stop being a drama queen.
It was another one of her flaws. Seeing everything too vividly.
Her grandmother, for all her innate wisdom, had been a drama queen, too. Kasia had been only four years old when she’d gone to live with her, eventually becoming part of the palace staff herself when the old Sheikh had died, and the new Sheikh, Zane, had hired Catherine Smith, a Cambridge scholar, to write a book on the kingdom.
Getting a job as Catherine’s personal assistant at the age of nineteen had changed her life—especially when Cat had married Zane and become Narabia’s Queen, opening Kasia’s eyes to an exciting world beyond the palace walls. She wasn’t that over-eager, over-imaginative and overly romantic teenager any more—hiding all her insecurities behind a veil of unfulfillable dreams. She was a grown woman now with dreams she was already achieving of becoming an environmental scientist who would save Narabia’s agricultural land from the desert that threatened to consume it.
Some sand and a night in a Jeep wasn’t going to faze her…much. In fact, a night spent in the desert might afford her some useful research data.
And who said this was even a sandstorm? There had been no reports of any adverse weather, because she’d checked both the local and the satellite reports before she’d left the palace. She might be reckless, but she was not an idiot.
She repeated the reassuring words, but her gaze remained superglued to the horizon.
The dark, impenetrable cloud grew, blocking out the sun. It had to be at least thirty or forty miles wide, and although it was still a mile away it was advancing fast. The noise cut through the desert silence. Tiny creatures—a lizard, a snake, a rodent—scurried and slithered past her boots, rushing to burrow into the ground. The bright, cloudless sky darkened.
Fear clawed at her throat as her mind tried to engage. Should she get into the SUV? Should she get under it?
