Читать книгу Desert Rogues Part 1 - Сьюзен Мэллери, Susan Mallery - Страница 24

She was back, and she was never going to leave!

After four years of college and two years of finishing school—in Switzerland of all places—Heidi McKinley had finally been allowed to return to the one place on earth where she felt at home. El Bahar. Land of mystery and beauty, where past and present blended in perfect harmony. She wanted to dance down the main street of the souk and buy pomegranates and dates and clothes and all the wonders available at the marketplace. She wanted to put her feet in the sea and feel the heat of the sand. She wanted to breathe in the scents of the beautiful gardens within the palace grounds.

With a burst of laughter, Heidi raced to the window and pushed open the French doors. Her three-room suite in the guest wing of the palace opened onto a wide balcony. Instantly, the heat of the afternoon sucked the air from her lungs. It was June, the hottest time of the year. It would take her a few weeks to acclimate to the temperature, but even the sensation of freeze-drying like a mummy couldn’t dull her bright spirits. She was back. She was really and truly back.

“I had hoped you would become sensible as you grew up, but I can see my wish was a futile one.”

Heidi turned at the sound of the familiar voice, then smiled broadly as Givon Khan, King of El Bahar, stepped onto the balcony.

The old king, as much a grandfather as her father’s father had been, held open his arms. “Come. Let me welcome you.”

Heidi flung herself in his arms. She pressed against the suit jacket he wore and inhaled the familiar scents of her childhood. Sandalwood, oranges and something indefinable…something that belonged only to El Bahar.

“I’m back,” she murmured happily. “I have my degree, and I even completed two years at that silly finishing school, just as I promised. Now may I work here?”

King Givon drew her into her suite, then closed the French doors. “I refuse to discuss anything of importance out in that heat. We have air-conditioning for a reason.”

“I know, but I love the heat.”

Givon was nearly six feet tall, with the weathered features of a man who has spent much of his life in the sun. His wise brown eyes seemed to see all the way down to her soul, much as her grandfather’s gaze had done. She’d spent her whole life trying to please both men. Now, with her grandfather gone, there was only Givon, and she would have moved the world for him.

He was still a ruler known for both his wisdom and his patience. She’d heard stories that also reminded her that he could be cruel when it was necessary, but she’d never seen that side of the king.

“Why do you speak of work?” he asked, cupping her face in his right hand. “You’ve only just arrived.”

“Oh, but I want to work. That’s been my dream since I was little. You promised,” she reminded him.

“So I did.” He drew his eyebrows together. “Whatever was I thinking?”

Heidi sighed but didn’t try to cajole the king. She knew better. Besides, female tricks of the trade weren’t her specialty. She could translate ancient El Baharian text with a degree of accuracy that impressed scholars, but flirting…not her, not ever. She didn’t get either the process or the point. Except for the king and her grandfather, males of the species were little more than an annoyance.

“You are a lovely young woman,” the king told her. “Too lovely to be locked up in dark rooms all your life. Are you sure about this?”

She closed her eyes briefly. “Please don’t start the ‘wouldn’t you rather be married’ speech, Your Highness. I don’t want to be married. You told me that if I worked hard in school and learned all I needed, including attending that hideous finishing school, then I could have a job inside the palace, translating the old texts. You can’t go back on your word now.”

King Givon seemed to grow even taller. He stared down at her with a ferocity that made her instantly regret her words, even if she didn’t actually retract them. Bushy eyebrows drew together. She thought he might start yelling at her, and while the prospect wasn’t thrilling, she wasn’t going to cower from him, either. Her grandfather had raised her to be a McKinley and that meant being proud.

“Minx,” the king said at last with a sigh. Then he touched her cheek. “All right. You may work on your precious texts.”

“You won’t be sorry,” she said quickly. “There are so many to translate. We have to capture the information quickly before the papers are all destroyed. Time and the elements have weakened many of the fibers. I want to get everything photographed, then stored in a computer data bank. If we—”

He held up a hand to stop her. “Spare me the technical details. It is an ambitious project. One I’m sure you’ll do well. In the meantime, I have something else I wish to discuss with you.”

He moved to a sofa opposite the French doors and sat down. When he patted a cushion next to him, she did as he suggested and settled next to him.

He took her hand in his. “How old are you now?” he asked, staring into her face.

What an odd question. Still, it didn’t occur to her not to answer. He was the king after all. “Twenty-five.”

“That old.” He nodded. “You’ve never married.”

Heidi laughed, then shook her head. “Not me, Your Highness. I’m not the type. I’m far too independent to be happy as someone’s wife. I have no interest in cooking or cleaning. Worse, I refuse to let decisions be made for me by someone simply because he’s male. It’s ridiculous.”

She paused, carefully withdrew her hand from his, then cleared her throat. Oops. The king was a man and he would not approve of her thoughts on his gender. King Givon might have successfully steered his country into the new millennium, but he was in many ways the essence of El Bahar, which meant some of his world was still anchored in the past.

“I mean no disrespect,” she added hastily. “Your Highness isn’t like other men, and he would—”

The king held up a hand to stop her again. “I understand. You were raised in the West, which means you have different ideas about many things. Your grandfather allowed you to make your own decisions much of the time. Your thoughts about marriage are not unexpected.” He glanced at her, then looked out the French doors.

Heidi followed his gaze and found herself caught up in the magical view. She could see clear to the horizon. The deep blue of the Arabian Sea stretched out before her. It was the most beautiful vista imaginable, she thought dreamily. So perfect, so heavenly, so—

“What about children?” the king asked.

Heidi blinked. “Children?”

“How will you have them without a husband?”

There were probably dozens of ways to do that, Heidi thought, but she knew that wasn’t what the king meant. Would she be comfortable being a single mother? Heidi rubbed her bottom lip as she thought. Maybe…probably not. That required a strength of character she wasn’t sure she possessed. And she did really want children. They were the only upside to marriage that she could see.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I haven’t thought that much about it. Why do you ask?”

“I have a problem,” Givon told her. “One only you can help me with.”

He paused just long enough to let her know this was a most delicate issue. Which was also long enough for her to remember how much she owed the king. He had always been a wonderful friend to her and her grandfather. As a child, she’d spent part of every summer in El Bahar. When her grandfather had died six years ago, King Givon had been the one to make all the arrangements, to hold her while she cried, then to help her get ready for college. He’d had a kingdom to run, yet he’d taken her to New York so she could shop for clothes. Then he’d personally seen her settled into her dormitory. He was the one—the only one—who now remembered her birthday and made sure she knew she was always welcome in El Bahar.

“I will do anything,” she told him and meant it.

King Givon smiled. “Very good. I was hoping you would say that. You see, I would like you to marry my son, Jamal.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Jamal Khan asked as he leaned back in his leather office chair.

His older brother, Malik, stretched out on the sofa at the far end of the room. He propped his feet on the armrest and stared gloomily at the ceiling. “You don’t want to know.”

Jamal glanced at the clock. The U.S. stock exchange was about to come on-line, and he wanted to check his stock portfolio. The market had been a little volatile in the past couple of days.

The middle of the king’s three sons, Jamal was in charge of the personal fortune of the Khan family. In the past five years, he’d tripled their net worth. Some of their increase in wealth was due to a growing world economy, but it was also due to his own philosophy of investing.

“I have work to do,” Jamal reminded his brother.

Malik glared. He was the oldest and crown prince of El Bahar. If anyone had more to do than Jamal, it was Malik. Still, he couldn’t resist tweaking the tiger’s tail from time to time.

“She’s back,” Malik said, returning his attention to the ceiling.

“Who is back?”

“Heidi the Horrible. Grandmother told me the bad news. This means she’ll be with us for dinner. Dear God, what if I have to sit next to her again? She has that way of looking at a man. As if he’s slightly less appealing than a worm with sores.”

Jamal laughed. “A worm with sores? She said that?”

“She doesn’t have to. She gets this kind of pinched expression in her eyes, and her nose gets all scrunchy. And then she’s oh so polite.” He shuddered.

Jamal stared in disbelief. Malik was acting out of character. “You’re afraid of a woman?”

Malik sat up and glared again. “I’m not afraid. I don’t like her. There’s a difference.”

“She makes you feel inadequate?”

“Don’t go there, little brother,” Malik warned him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jamal could not believe a mere woman had his imperious brother running scared. He didn’t remember much about Heidi McKinley. She’d been around on and off most of his life. Something about her grandfather and the king being friends. “She’s a child. Father only pays attention to her because he never had any daughters.”

“Easy for you to say. You’ve been gone during her most recent visits. She’s not a child anymore. She’s in her twenties. Grandmother always sits her next to me. As if I’m going to suddenly fall in love with her and want to marry her.” Malik stilled. “Do you think that’s it? Are they trying to arrange a match?”

“I hope not for your sake,” Jamal said honestly. “Especially not if she’s as horrible as you say.”

“She’s worse. A prim and proper virgin who knows too much about everything. She’s studied El Baharian history and likes to talk about it endlessly. Her goal in life is to translate texts, if you can believe it.”

He could not. “Is she unattractive?”

Malik hesitated. “I don’t know.”

“You have to know. You’ve seen her.”

“Yes, but it’s not that simple. She wears these clothes.”

Jamal didn’t remember ever seeing his brother this disconcerted—and by a woman, no less. “Most females wear clothes. It’s tragic but true.”

“I don’t mean that,” Malik told him. “Her clothes are different. I’d say she dresses like a nun, but I don’t want to insult the fashion sense of the holy sisters. She’s fussy and wears high collars and glasses. She has her hair in a bun.” He threw up his hands. “Heidi McKinley is a dried-up, old spinster whom I will never sit next to again.”

Jamal leaned back in his chair and chuckled. “I must see this frightening female who has the crown prince running scared.”

Malik rose to his feet and reached into his trouser pocket. “You, my brother, are the most successful with the ladies, but even you won’t be able to seduce this one. Fifty dollars says you can’t make the Prune Princess crack a smile at dinner.”

Jamal rose to his feet as well. He leaned forward and pressed his hands against the desk. “I have a better bet. Your new Ferrari for a week.”

“In your dreams,” Malik scoffed.

“Your new Ferrari for a week,” he repeated, ignoring Malik. “If I kiss her tonight.”

Malik’s eyebrows drew together. “If you don’t, I get your new stallion to cover six of my mares.” He grinned. “One for each day of the week with Sunday to rest, of course.”

Jamal considered. The mysterious Heidi McKinley must be formidable indeed if his brother was willing to consider putting his new car on the line. But Jamal wasn’t concerned. He hadn’t met a woman yet who was able to resist his considerable charm. Both he and his stallion would be safe.

“Done,” he agreed and held out his hand.

“On the mouth,” Malik added, pressing his hand into his brother’s.

Jamal tightened his grip and grinned. “Leave it to a professional.”

“M-marry?” Heidi repeated, convinced she’d heard the king incorrectly. “You want me to marry…?” Her voice trailed off.

This wasn’t happening, she told herself as she shakily got to her feet. The room that had been so wonderful just a few short minutes before seemed to spin and bend. Marriage! She’d never thought of marrying. She wasn’t the type. She didn’t find men all that interesting, and to be completely honest, they didn’t seem to find her appealing either.

“Are you so very surprised?” Givon asked. “You’re well into your twenties, and you’re certainly sensible.”

Old and sensible. Two fine reasons to marry, she thought, trying to find humor in the situation. Trying to find something—anything—to keep herself from losing her mind.

“I am surprised,” she managed to say at last. “I never thought…”

“Then you should think about it now. You and Jamal have much in common. Granted, he’s a few years older, but that’s a good thing in a husband. You both love El Bahar. Jamal is a great one for history. You both like to ride.”

“I haven’t been on a horse since I was twelve,” she murmured, as if that would make all the difference in the world. Of course we would have married , she would say years from now. But I didn’t ride .

“So you’ll learn again,” he said. “It’s not so difficult.”

Heidi paced to the far wall, the one with the mural of the Garden of Eden. The tiny pieces of tile formed a perfect picture of Eve being tempted by the serpent. The red tiles of the fruit seemed to gleam with an inner brightness. Was she being tested as well? Was Givon the serpent, or was he the answer to her prayers?

“Jamal needs you,” the older man continued, his tone low and persuasive. “His life is empty. It’s been nearly six years since his wife died, and in all that time he’s been alone.”

Heidi didn’t know which comment to address first. Jamal might need something, but she doubted it was her. As for him being alone, talk about a joke.

“Your Highness, Jamal has dated every attractive woman between here and the North Pole. He’s a womanizer.”

Jamal preferred his women busty, beautiful and blond. Actually the hair color wasn’t specific. He liked them all. The more glamorous, the more famous, sexy and available, the better. Gossip columns batted his name around like balls at a tennis match. He was rumored to be a spectacular lover. Not that she cared about that sort of thing. And she didn’t really look at the gossip magazines either. But when she was getting her hair trimmed, there wasn’t much else to read.

“As I said,” Givon told her, ignoring her previous comment. “His life is empty. He gets involved with these bubbleheads. Yes, he finds them appealing, but does he marry them? Does he bring them to El Bahar?”

He answered his own question with a shake of his head. “No. They are nothing to him. He uses them and tosses them aside.”

“There’s a character reference for a future husband,” she muttered.

“He needs a wife,” the king continued, as if she hadn’t spoken. “Someone he can care about. Someone he can love and who can love him in return.”

“That’s all very interesting, but it has nothing to do with me.” Heidi turned to face him. “I don’t want to marry Jamal or anyone. I have my work. I’m back here in El Bahar. That’s all I need.”

“You need more. You need to be married so you can have babies.”

She refused to think about children. She would not be seduced by the promise of a family.

“You can’t tell me you don’t like him,” Givon said. “I think he’s your favorite.”

She told herself she was not going to blush. The heat on her face was just…well…from being outside. That was it. She didn’t believe in blushing, mostly because she never got embarrassed. Her life didn’t lend itself to embarrassing moments. She was sensible.

“Your sons are all very nice,” she said with as much sincerity, not to mention diplomacy, as she could muster. “I don’t have a favorite.”

One of the princes? Was he kidding? They were all imperious and outgoing and far too bold for her. Khalil, the youngest, seemed to have settled down with a very nice wife. But Malik and Jamal were still wild, and they made her nervous. She didn’t especially want to marry, but when she did—for the sake of those imaginary children—it would be to a gentle man. Someone intellectual and kind. Someone who didn’t get into a lather about passion and touching. Someone with whom she could share a spiritual and mental relationship that was far more important than the physical.

“But you think Jamal’s handsome.”

Heidi drew in a deep breath. “He’s not unattractive. None of your sons are.”

How could they be? All taller than six feet. All with dark hair and burning eyes. Sort of a combination of James Bond and Rudolph Valentino. And she might have had one or two fantasies about Jamal when she was younger…much younger, but she’d outgrown that sort of thing.

Givon stood up and walked over to stand next to her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her close. “Good. Then you’ll sit next to him at dinner and consider what I’ve said. He needs to marry. You need to marry. It’s perfect.”

“It’s not perfect.”

But Givon wasn’t listening. “Fatima wants this, too,” he said. “You know my mother. When she gets her mind set on something, it’s impossible to talk her out of it.”

Heidi groaned. “Not Fatima, too. I can’t resist you both.”

The king grinned. “You’re right, so don’t even bother trying.” He kissed her cheek and was gone.

Heidi sank onto the floor, her back pressed against the mural. Fatima had been a second mother to her. With her Chanel clothes and her gracious manners, she was royalty personified. Elegant, intelligent, warm-hearted. Heidi had always thought that Fatima was the most perfect queen to ever grace El Bahar.

But behind the gracious manners and just-right makeup lurked a spine of steel and a resolve that could withstand an army.

Married? Heidi?

“I don’t even date,” she muttered aloud.

She’d tried it twice and had experienced exactly two disasters. She’d attended an all-girls high school, so her first date hadn’t occurred until college. She’d been invited to a frat party on a neighboring campus. No one had warned her that the fluffy coconut concoction had contained more rum than was healthy. After consuming three icy drinks in less than an hour, she’d found herself on her hands and knees, throwing up in the closest bathroom.

It had been her first experience with alcohol. Amazingly enough, her date had assumed her sickness meant she would be that much easier to force into bed. Before she’d realized what he was doing, she’d found herself on her back with her skirt up to her waist. Fortunately for her, if not for him, she’d thrown up yet again…all over him, herself and the bed. It had squashed his mood, and she’d made her escape. Her second attempt at dating had been worse.

No, she wasn’t interested in dating, let alone marriage, and she would make both very clear the second she laid eyes on Jamal Khan, Prince of El Bahar.