Читать книгу The Billionaire's Legacy Collection - Дженнифер Хейворд, Кейт Хьюит - Страница 34
ОглавлениеBY THE TIME the helicopter landed back on the rolling green lawns of Dar-Aman Palace, Allegra was near-ready to jump out of the charged atmosphere. Rahim had barely made conversation, only answering direct questions she posed. His answers weren’t monosyllabic, but from the terse responses, they may as well have been.
‘Why were you meeting with the elders?’ She asked the question that had been hovering on her lips since they took off from Nur-Aman.
For a second, she thought he wouldn’t answer her. But Rahim glanced down at her as they neared the hallway that led to her suite. She breathed a sigh of relief when his steps slowed to match hers. She dismissed the part of her that mocked her for delaying the return to the crassly named women’s wing. Or that she was searching for further redeeming qualities of the man who’d run his kingdom to the ground while keeping himself draped in priceless arts and fast cars.
‘Did you notice the abandoned pipelines that were laid close to the tribe encampment?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ she answered.
‘That mountain was where my first ancestor discovered the malachite that Dar-Aman is renowned for. In the valley below Nur-Aman is where we struck our first crude deposit. Those pipes were laid almost twenty years ago. It was a bold and brilliant plan that should’ve brought jobs and sustainable revenue growth to the Nur-Aman people.’
The deep pride in his voice enthralled her, while making her wonder why he’d remained blind to the needs of his people until recently.
‘But?’
‘But they haven’t been touched for over fifteen years.’
‘I could tell. Why not?’
Rahim’s expression showed mingled displeasure and bitterness. Wondering where the latter emotion had come from, she waited for him to answer.
‘Contracts were renegotiated and the oil drilling concerns sold off to faceless foreign corporations.’
‘Aren’t there laws to prevent that from happening?’
He shrugged. ‘They were bent far enough but not broken.’
She pursed her lips. ‘I’m surprised you would freely admit something like that.’
‘I have nothing to hide, Allegra. Especially not about something as important as this.’
‘What are you going to do about it?’
‘There’s only one course of action. I intend to get back, and keep, what is mine.’
Staring into his eyes, Allegra grew hot all over, absurdly affected by words that pertained to oil rights and furthering his riches.
But it was there all the same, fuelling a whole heap of confusion.
They reached the doors of her suite, and Rahim threw them open. Nura was nowhere to be seen and Allegra’s heart began a discordant hammer as she walked into the living room, followed closely by Rahim, and his overwhelmingly masculine presence.
‘Well, thank you for bringing me along. It was certainly an eye-opening experience,’ she said when she’d ran out of places to direct her attention and finally looked in his face to find him watching her with an intensity that dragged more heat through her stomach.
It took monumental willpower to tear her gaze from the sensual curve of his mouth.
He prowled to where she stood and caught an errant curl that had escaped her ponytail. Thoughtfully, with unhurried movements, he rubbed the strands between his fingers before tucking it behind her ear.
The electrifying touch, though it whispered over her skin for a few seconds, sent wild and fiery currents racing through her. Allegra’s stomach clenched in reaction to the arrows of fiery arousal lancing her. She forced herself to swallow when her mouth filled with a longing she couldn’t describe. When his hand fell to his side, it was all she could do not to catch and pull it back up to repeat the caress.
‘I’m glad your eyes have been opened.’
‘Are...are you?’ she asked vaguely, still yearning for his touch with a hunger that scared and surprised her.
As if he’d read her thoughts, his hand slowly lifted. This time he caressed her cheek, then her jaw, his touch almost reverent as it traced her skin. When he reached the corner of her mouth, Allegra held her breath, almost too afraid to move in case he removed it. ‘Of course. It would please me even more if you applied your observations fruitfully. Can I count on you to do that, Allegra?’
Knowing she should be giving this conversation better attention, she tried to focus, but his thumb, now tracing her lower lip, threatened to send her reasoning into free fall. ‘I’m not sure...what...’
He placed a stalling finger on her lips. ‘I have a proposition to make to you, Allegra. One I sincerely hope you’ll be receptive to.’ His eyes burned as he looked down at her.
She’d seen that look once, in a movie when the male lead actor had made an indecent proposal to the actress. At the time, she’d silently scoffed at the improbability of it all. Now, with her breath lodged in her throat, Allegra waited, an almost forbidden excitement racing through her blood. When he said nothing after a few minutes, she cleared her throat. ‘What...what sort of proposition?’ she asked huskily, every sensitive nerve ending on her mouth reacting to the brush of his finger.
His beautiful eyes darkened, the hunger that clawed through her emblazoned boldly in his gaze. ‘One that I hope will align our goals now that you’ve spent some time in Dar-Aman.’ Once again his finger trailed over her skin. This time it wove a path down her jaw to her shoulder, then drifted down her arm to capture her hand. Catching her fingers with his, he brought her hand to his lips to kiss her knuckles. A smile tilted the corner of his mouth when she gasped. ‘We will talk further this evening. The banquet starts at eight. I will collect you shortly before then.’
He turned and walked out, leaving her in a state of sensual confusion and hyped excitement. And despite telling herself she was a fool to fall into such an obvious trap, Allegra couldn’t summon a practical enough argument to calm her racing pulse as she walked into her bedroom in a daze to undress.
* * *
Rahim strode away from Allegra’s suite with a burning in his bloodstream and the knowledge that the game had altered significantly. Not enough to sway him from what he needed to do for his people. More like the dimensions of his intentions had grown, while the prototype remained the same.
It wasn’t a dynamic he altogether welcomed, because he’d never been one to mix business with pleasure. Or let his personal urges get in the way of his ultimate goals. Sex with Allegra, no matter how detached he would choose to view it, would be personal enough to jeopardise what she and her foundation could do for Dar-Aman.
Because to put it simply, he wanted to bed Allegra Di Sione. He’d known it from the moment he looked into her enthralling eyes this morning. Even through her wild and unfounded tirades, he’d found himself pulled closer to the powerful attraction that tugged fiercely between them.
For a while this afternoon, though, he’d been sure he’d made a mistake in thinking she could be the answer to his problems. He’d been set to send her packing the moment they returned, but then she’d started asking him questions on the chopper. Even then he’d been sceptical. Her interest in what he was doing at Nur-Aman had been the convincer he needed to slam the brakes on putting her on the first plane out of Dar-Aman. Perhaps his trip hadn’t been fruitless after all. She’d taken an interest, and that was something he could work with.
Rahim knew without conceit that, with further work, he could knock a few holes in her preconceived notions about him, and he planned to use that leverage to his every advantage.
As for the crackling attraction between them... He let out a frustrated groan at the tightening in his groin.
Despite the intelligence that shone from her eyes and the monumental public success of her foundation, Allegra Di Sione had all the hallmarks of a high-maintenance woman in private. Beneath her practical and stoic demeanour, he’d glimpsed a passionate temper, one that could flare out of control if not handled correctly.
Rahim didn’t intend to be the one to handle her in that capacity. He’d had enough experience of high-maintenance women to last him a lifetime. His footsteps slowed as he neared his private rooms. All around him were signs of his mother—in the wide alcove overlooking her favourite garden where she’d kept exotic birds for her amusement, to the sitting rooms decorated with priceless rugs, tapestries and cabinets full of delicate trinkets. Everywhere he looked memories flooded him of her huge, all-encompassing smile when her father presented her with a jewelled ornament after a business trip, or her diva tantrum when a whimsical wish wasn’t fulfilled immediately.
It was a failing to nitpick his mother, but while Rahim had known he was loved with absolute devotion as a child, he’d experienced a period of abject fear of what his life would be like were that the love be taken away when he’d had a taster of it on his eleventh birthday.
His first vow not to allow love or any emotions resembling it into his life had been uttered that night. It had grown to spurn any overtures remotely resembling it as he grew older. Sex he could deal with. Hell, he’d made it a life choice to indulge in affairs of the flesh even while he conceded that his earliest forays into his shocking lifestyle had been mostly to get his father’s attention.
A sad and bitter truth he still had a hard time swallowing.
Another truth he didn’t want to admit was that if Allegra was to be his saviour, then sex had to be taken off the table.
The pressure in his groin protested at that edict. Ignoring it, Rahim walked through the carved double doors that led to his bedchamber, and out onto his private terrace. He glanced to the left to where the women’s wing was located. His fingers tingled in wild recollection of Allegra’s silky skin and luscious mouth beneath his touch. The need to taste her had been urgent in the extreme. But it was a weakness he had to master.
Perhaps in the future, once his kingdom was on firmer ground and his leadership wasn’t in doubt, he could pick things up with her...
He shook his head and fisted the tingle from his fingers.
Turning abruptly, he strolled to the west wing, the parts that overlooked the grand ballroom, where preparations were being made for the banquet tonight. Exhaling, he accepted that there was really no choice, not when it came to his people.
Their welfare came first and foremost. Selfish needs of the flesh, no matter how bone-crushingly desperate, would have to take second place.
Rahim scrambled to find that keen sense of duty when Allegra opened the door to his knock ninety minutes later.
Fire swept through his veins as he fought to control his breathing. Dressed in a fitted floor-length gown of the deepest azure that almost exactly matched her eyes, and heels that brought her height to his chin, she was a vision of regal beauty that stole his breath away.
‘Good evening,’ she murmured.
He returned the greeting; then, because he couldn’t seem to help himself, he uttered the words burning on his tongue. ‘You look exquisitely beautiful.’
Colour flared beneath her skin in a delicate blush, and she smiled. Rahim’s fingers tingled again with the need to touch, to caress.
‘Thank you. You don’t look so bad yourself.’
Her hair was styled in layered waves caught on one side by a diamond pin, flowing over her shoulder on the other. The curls he’d spotted in her ponytail earlier were more pronounced now and he had to fight every instinct not to plunge his hand into the rich tresses and test their silky luxury for himself. Preferably a prelude to pulling her close to plunder the peach-coloured gloss that sheened her luscious mouth.
Cursing the gods for the ill-timed bout of lust he couldn’t suppress, he forced a smile, thankful his robe concealed the evidence of his arousal.
‘As we’re a little early, we’ll take the more picturesque route to the ballroom.’
He tensed in expectation of her protest. When she readily nodded, Rahim breathed easier. ‘I’d like that. I’ve been reading a bit more about the fascinating history of the palace, especially the interior decorations. I’d really love to see more of it, if you don’t mind?’
Rahim told himself he should be pleased she was taking a keener interest, and yet the somewhat superficial request made him grimace inwardly, reminding him of past female conquests who’d attempted to impress him with their knowledge of all things Dar-Aman, unknowingly triggering their swift exit from his life. Besides that, Allegra’s furtive glance sparked something within him that he couldn’t put his finger on.
Brushing the feeling away, he reminded himself of the bigger picture. ‘Of course. We’ll start in the bazaar room. I’m told it’s the most photographed room in this part of the world.’
Relief tinged her voice, prompting the spark to escalate, but her words seemed harmless enough. ‘Thank you. I had hoped you wouldn’t hold my earlier lack of grace against me.’ Her smile was wide and alluring and Rahim cautioned himself not to be drawn into it.
‘I would be a fool not to forgive, especially if I hope for you to leave with a better impression of me than you arrived with.’
She glanced at him, her lower lip caught between her teeth. Rahim fought to suppress a groan.
‘The night’s still young. Let’s not be too hasty,’ she replied wryly.
Rahim sighed with a touch of melodrama. ‘Here I was hoping to enthrall everyone with my utterly adorable personality by the time the appetisers were served.’
Her laugh lit up a dark and cold place within him, and it was all he could do not to stop and drink in the sound.
‘Next you’ll be calling yourself cute and cuddly.’
One arrogant brow quirked, he shook his head. ‘You’re right, let’s not be too hasty.’
It seemed the most natural thing in the world then to offer her his arm. Her hesitation was brief but she slid her slender arm through his and fell into step beside him.
The delicate scent of her perfume engulfed them as he walked her out of the east wing. They were approaching the bazaar room when she stopped. ‘That’s incredible.’
Following the direction of her gaze, he smiled at her reaction to the centrepiece in the atrium, which sat directly underneath the central golden dome.
The solid white marble statue of the horse was surrounded by twelve cherubs wielding large flutes that spewed water into the fountain. The Arabian stallion was displayed in all his magnificent male glory, its wild and thick mane flowing in powerful abandon as it reared out of the water on its hind legs.
When she started to drift towards the fountain, Rahim lifted a hand and dismissed his trailing bodyguards. Their footsteps faded away until the only sound in the space was the splashing of the water.
‘That was my mother’s favourite horse,’ Rahim found himself confessing. ‘When he died in a racing accident, my father had this memorial built for her.’
She walked around the statue, examining it with wide-eyed fascination. When she reached the front of it, her fingers caressed the words carved in stone. ‘What does this mean?’
‘It translates loosely as Cherished One.’
A small smile lifted her mouth, one tinged with sadness a part of him recognised and commiserated with. ‘Every inch of this place is unbelievably breathtaking, almost like a fairy tale.’
Rahim tried to hide his bitterness as he answered. ‘That was the purpose behind the design. My mother wanted a fairy-tale palace. My father made sure she got exactly what she wanted.’
‘It is truly beautiful. A magical place.’ Her words were genuine, and Rahim saw her soft smile as she traced her fingers over the words once more. ‘Your father must have loved her very much if he moved heaven and earth to give her what she wanted?’
The seething sadness and underlying anger he felt when he thought about his father rose higher. ‘I guess you could say that.’
Allegra paused in her examination of the statue and glanced at him. ‘Oh? You didn’t see it that way?’
He shrugged. ‘Some would see it as love, I guess. Others might see it as an obsession that was detrimental in the long run.’
‘And you’re one of those who believe in the latter?’
Words he didn’t want to say locked in his throat. But the moment seemed to take over, the urge to share, to unburden surging from nowhere and catapulting the words from him.
‘Come with me.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Where?’
Rahim shook his head. ‘It’ll only take a moment.’ He caught her hand, his gut tensing at the sizzling contact.
His footsteps slowed as he reached the double doors that led to the north wing. Throwing it open, he flicked on the light and watched it bathe the plum and gold decor. Like elsewhere in the palace, the sweeping marble staircase was the centrepiece, designed for a princess to descend in grace and elegance.
‘Wow, I really can’t get over this place.’
Rahim, beginning to doubt his sanity in exposing himself to such disturbing memories, only nodded.
Perhaps alerted to his altered mood, Allegra completed the full admiring circle and faced him. ‘Why did you bring me here, Rahim?’
He let himself glance at the stairs. ‘You know why this wing is closed?’
‘No, there was no mention of it in the book...’
‘Of course not. That book is made for believers in fairy tales.’ She frowned at his thick cynicism, but didn’t interrupt. Only watched him as Rahim was assailed with the sudden need to pace.
‘My mother was rushing down those stairs to show my father a new ornament she’d bought when she tripped and fell. She suffered a concussion and a broken ankle and fell into a brief coma.’
He barely heard Allegra’s murmur of horror, caught up in the memory of those harrowing days and the real fear struck into his heart when he’d seen just how love could weaken a strong and noble man, a man he’d hitherto thought invincible.
‘Overnight, my father became a useless mess, neglecting everything and everyone, including his own confused and frightened son, as he’d mounted a vigil at my mother’s bedside.’
‘How long was she ill for?’
‘She was in hospital for six days. During that time I was allowed to visit her only once for five minutes. My father was terrified she could get an infection, despite the doctor’s assurances otherwise. He shut the whole world out, completely. The times when he was forced to partake in affairs of state, he would go through the motions with almost zombie-like animation. I heard some of his aides whispering about his mental state more than a few times in that week.’
‘But your mother got better?’
He whirled away from her, from the stairs that symbolised so many things he wanted to forget.
‘She came home. And aside from my father closing the north wing so he didn’t have to see where she fell, yes, things got better. But things were never the same.’
‘Because you witnessed the depth of your parents’ love?’ Allegra ventured, a gentle but haunting understanding on her face as she stared at him.
‘No. I saw the destructiveness of my father’s obsession.’
Rahim’s eyes had been wrenched wide open to the debilitating effects of love. The emotion he’d basked in and taken for granted had suddenly been what he’d feared would be his own and his beloved homeland’s eventual downfall.
‘But even then I hoped I was wrong. That what I’d witnessed from my father that week had been a temporary aberration.’ Because surely his father’s love was supposed to envelope his son and every single one of his subjects, not just his beloved wife? And that love should empower him to be a better ruler and father, not a hollowed-out wraith the moment it was threatened?
‘What happened?’ she asked from behind him.
‘My mother died four years later and my father proved to me just how much worse things could get.’
One hand slid over his bicep, pressing, surprising him with its strength. Surprising him with how much he wanted it to remain there. ‘You must have both been devastated.’
‘My father’s life ended that day.’ Khalil Al-Hadi had stopped living the moment his wife and unborn second child had died. ‘And as soon as I was able, I moved to Washington, DC.’ It was the place he’d forced himself to call home. The place he’d used the next fifteen years to forget his father and his homeland.
At first, Rahim hadn’t wanted to believe what was playing out before his very eyes. But with each day, he’d seen his reality alter alarmingly and his life slip into a frightening hell that triggered unfortunate reactions in him. By the time he’d realised his attempts were futile, that his father could see no further than his absolute grief, Rahim’s hedonistic lifestyle had become an addiction he hadn’t wanted to shake. He’d seen no reason to put the brakes on the heady freedom that came with little or no responsibility with matters concerning Dar-Aman. After all, if his father couldn’t be bothered to take an interest in what Rahim did, Rahim would reciprocate by cutting himself off totally from his homeland.
He rubbed absently at the pain lodged beneath his collarbone, his soul mourning just how effective his self-imposed exile had been. So much so he hadn’t known how bad things got...how badly his people had been neglected.
‘There’s more to it than that though, isn’t there?’
His mouth twisted in a caricature of a smile as he turned to face her. He stared into her clear blue eyes, wondering what it would feel like to drown in them. Collecting himself, he stalled for time. ‘There always is, habibi, as I believe there is for you too. But this is where I cop out and say I don’t wish to speak ill of the dead.’
‘Or this is where you show a chink in your armour that says you’re human.’
‘Why would I want to display such a flaw?’
‘Aren’t heroes with flaws the ones who always win the girl in the end? Or am I misquoting popular fiction?’
‘We’re not fictional characters, Allegra,’ he stated matter-of-factly. ‘Blind obsession can be harmful to the giver and the receiver. I prefer to live in reality, no matter how unpalatable it can be at times.’
His observation blew away the last of the lingering wistfulness in her eyes. He watched, fascinated, as her practical façade slid into place. ‘You’re right, we’re not living in a fairy tale. Shall we continue with the tour?’
Like a true diplomat, she made the right noises, and admired the rich frescoes and endless rows of jaw-dropping chandeliers once they reached the bazaar room, but after examining a few ornaments set on the long sideboards lining the walls, she was ready to move on. The library that had been his grandfather’s pride and joy also received praise, but it wasn’t until they reached the throne room, where all the coronations in Dar-Aman had taken place, that her eyes lit up with true interest.
‘All the crowns from the very first ruler of Dar-Aman are kept in this room.’
‘If I remember correctly, it’s also the room that holds your mother’s most extensive collection of antique treasure boxes, correct?’
He smiled. ‘Correct, although there’s another smaller, private collection,’ he replied.
Before he could give a further history, she let go of his arm and moved to the first cabinet. Rahim watched her carefully examine each ornament, enquire as to its pedigree before moving to the next.
He offered further snippets of information, but she seemed oblivious to him, her engrossment in the cabinets complete.
When a discreet cough alerted him to Harun’s presence, he turned. Nodding at his advisor’s silent signal, Rahim turned to her. ‘Your presence as guest of honour is required.’
She hid her disappointment well, but he saw it. ‘Can we return later?’
‘If you wish,’ he murmured, his instinct sending a veiled warning he couldn’t quite decipher yet. She didn’t take his arm again, and she seemed almost reluctant to leave the throne room.
When they reached the Mariam Ballroom, named after his grandmother, he made it a point to introduce her to as many dignitaries as possible. Allegra conversed intelligently, but through it all Rahim could sense her distraction, like she was wearing a mask that she was growing weary of donning.
Puzzled, he tried harder to engage her, to steer her round to what he wanted to discuss with her. It was only when he mentioned the women of Nur-Aman that she focused fully on him.
‘Are you going to put a new system in place for their education?’ she demanded after taking a bite of her sweetened fig dessert.
‘It’s in my plans to make that happen within the year. I’m also in talks with other communities in and out of Shar-el-Aman too.’
‘I’m glad to hear that,’ she said.
Rahim nodded, thankful she’d finally got on track. ‘Not just the women, but for the children especially. But before I do that I need to attend to my personal...image overhaul.’
She frowned. ‘What has your personal image got to do with anything?’
Rahim paused, knowing he’d reached the delicate part of his negotiations. ‘A lot, as you probably know.’
Her spoon clattered to her plate. ‘Only if you intend to put your self-interest above that of your people,’ she replied sharply enough to turn a few heads.
Rahim smiled at their audience through gritted teeth, then rose from the table. The sign that the banquet was officially over sent his guests rising to their feet. Unfortunately, it also meant a slight prolonging of his hosting duties as he put an end to the celebration.
By the time he finished making sufficient rounds to satisfy protocol, Allegra stood stiffly to one side, a plastic smile stretched across her face. When he reached her, he bent low and whispered tersely in her ear.
‘Let’s go and have that talk now.’
At her stiff nod, he steered her out of the ballroom, aware that they were the cynosure of numerous eyes, but frankly uncaring too much of what they thought. He’d been right in thinking she was high maintenance. Already he’d grown tired of walking on eggshells around her, and the certainty that he needed her to help restore his image was fast being chipped away by the frustration eating at him.
His office was the nearest private room. He dismissed the aide who was stationed in the outer office and ushered Allegra into his large office.
Shutting the door behind him, he led her to a leather sofa grouped before a window overlooking his private courtyard. Once she was seated, he paced before her, suddenly at a loss at how to handle this without it blowing up in his face.
He was so lost in composing the right words in his head that he didn’t realise minutes had gone by.
‘Rahim?’
His name on her lips stopped him in his tracks. Inhaling deeply, he said, ‘It is clear that your reasons for coming to Dar-Aman don’t seem to collide with mine, but there’s no reason why we can’t make this work.’
A frown gathered between her brows. ‘I... What? I don’t understand...’
Rushing forward, he sat down next to her, then immediately acknowledged what a mistake that was. This close, he could see the rise and fall of her chest beneath the band of her bodice and the shadow of her cleavage was a sight he couldn’t drag his gaze from.
He forced his eyes up, and continued. ‘I know it’s not what you normally do, but I’m willing to foot the bill for that aspect of your work.’
Her frown intensified. ‘Sorry, I really have no clue what you’re getting at.’
Rahim gritted his teeth. ‘I’m not sure whether you’re deliberately being obtuse or...’ He stopped and took a breath. ‘You’re here on behalf of the Di Sione Foundation. I’m aware of the broad parameters of the foundation’s requirements. All it would take is a little streamlining to include PR work. If it’s payment you’re worried about, I’ll see to it that you’re fully remunerated for all your efforts.’
Her mouth dropped opened in a bewildered O, then firmed again as she fought to find the words. To refuse him most likely. A wave of futile anger spread through Rahim but he pushed it down. His personal feelings didn’t matter here. All that mattered was that she agreed to help him to help his people.
Before he could plead his case further she blurted, ‘I came to Dar-Aman because you have a box in your possession. A Fabergé box. I wish to purchase it from you. That’s my only reason for being here. If you would be so kind as to name your price, I’ll arrange for payment before I leave tomorrow.’
