My Desert Rose (12 page)

Watching Amira
sit down next to him and link her arm through his was bad enough to
witness, but when she'd pulled his head down and kissed him, well,
that had really got her hackles rising. It wasn't as though she had
any right to get pissed off, as their marriage was a fake one, but
while they were on this journey together, he was hers. Okay, so he
wasn't hers, but he definitely didn't belong to Amira.

The only relief
came was when she saw Tariq push her away. At least the kiss hadn't
been mutual. She knew in her heart that he wasn't interested in
someone who could callously sit back and allow his family's name to
be dragged through the mud, but still, even that truth didn't
detract her from the outrage that she was now feeling.

Turning away
from the balcony, she went into her dressing room and took off the
black teddy, replacing it with a long T-shirt. All the sexual
longing she'd felt for him had now dispersed. Going to the bed, she
once again positioned all the pillows. If he came back now she'd be
too mad at him to get up close and personal. Logic told her that
what she'd just witnessed wasn't his fault, but emotionally she was
peeved. Earlier this evening, she'd been ready to give herself to
him, so why was he out there walking through the garden knowing
that she was up here waiting for him? Curling up on her side of the
humongous bed, she pumped up her pillow in frustration. Tiredness
was now creeping in and she decided that she didn't want to think
about it anymore, but come tomorrow he had some grovelling to
do.

Chapter
Nine

Waking with the
morning light she instantly turned over and peered over the
cushioned wall to find Tariq's place was still empty. There were no
indents in his pillow or mattress, which meant that he hadn't even
come in later. Where exactly had he been all night? Dressing in
linens again, this time in a lemon colour, she tied her hair back
with a matching ribbon. The sound of her empty stomach filled the
room. After breakfast she was going to find some answers.

The living room
of their suite was empty and no breakfast had magically appeared.
Deciding to brave it, she meandered downstairs into the dining
room, but that too was empty. Not sure where to go, she looked into
another room and found the library, nope, no breakfast here, she
thought ruefully.

Hearing voices
from the back of the house, she made her way through a long living
room and into what could only be called a sun room. Everything was
in lemon checks. She laughed to herself, she'd fit right in here
this morning. Walking through the glass doors she found a large
patio area overlooking a Grecian style pool and to her right a
table was set for breakfast. Amira and Hassan were at the table.
Now suddenly nervous, she didn't know whether to turn around and go
back or just say hello, grab a bread roll and make up some excuse.
Before she could decide, she heard Amira call her.

"Come on over
Katie, we won't bite you, I promise."

Katie felt an
undertone of sarcasm in her voice, and she was still pissed off
with Amira's actions from last night, but she'd dealt with far
worse things in her life than people like Amira. Squaring her
shoulders, she headed over and pulled out a seat. "Thank you, I
couldn't find Tariq this morning, so I've been searching for where
you all have breakfast."

"Oh, you won't
find Tariq today," Amira said with an all knowing look.

Katie stilled
her hand as she poured herself a cup of coffee. "I won't?"

Amira's eyes
became cat-like slits. "Didn't he tell you? And here I was thinking
you two were so close to each other."

Katie didn't
want to appear as affected as she felt, so she slowly chose a peach
from the fruit bowl before answering. "Well, he did say last night
that he had an important meeting to attend to."

Amira snorted
and laughed.

It was Hassan
that answered her in a dull tone. "Last night another of our ships
was ambushed."

Katie chewed
the piece of peach slowly and swallowed it past the forming lump in
her throat. "And what about the men on board?" she croaked.

Hassan
shrugged, but darkness crept over his face. "No-one knows the full
details yet. Tariq has driven over to the port and we don't know
when he'll be back."

Katie slammed
down her cup. The appetite she'd had earlier was now gone. "Well,
let's hope Tariq catches the bastards behind the Somali pirates who
are the real ones responsible for these thefts and murders. Those
pirates can't be doing it alone can they?" She directed that
sentence at Hassan, whose eyes had turned to steel. Not taking the
hint to shut up, she turned to the now ashen face of Amira and
continued, "Once caught, I hope they are given the punishment
they're due and much more." Standing up, she pushed the chair under
the table. "I've just remembered an errand that I have to do. Have
a nice day."

Walking back to
her room, she was livid. If they were behind all of this, they
deserved to rot in hell. How had Tariq survived this long living
under the same roof as them? Thinking about Tariq brought a deeper
frown to her face. Why hadn't he come and told her he was leaving?
Picking up her new camera from the sofa, she was about to march out
of the room when an envelope caught her eye on the side table near
the door. It was addressed to her.

Opening it, she
found a hand-written note from Tariq. Immediately, her heart melted
and he was forgiven.

"Little
moheet."

She smiled at
his sentiment.

"Last night
another of our ships was hijacked, so today I shall be at the port
on the west side of Socotra with my father and Murad. We have new
information that may lead us to the perpetrators. I may send for
you.

Tariq.

P.S I sat and
watched you for a while as you slept. I missed the feel of you.
What we began earlier will be finished and it may take a whole
lifetime to perfect."

A warm fuzzy
feeling crept into her belly. The thought of a lifetime with Tariq
no longer seemed to be the problem it had been on the jet when
they'd married. Maybe he was growing on her or maybe it was because
he was so damn hot and hard to resist.

There was a new
spring in her step as she took the stairs two at a time. Reaching
the bottom, she checked in her camera bag for the sun filter lens.
It wasn't there. It must still be in the room that Tariq had set up
as a lab for her, so she raced back up the stairs. As she passed
the doors to her suite, she saw that one of them was open. It
momentarily caught her off guard as she was sure she'd shut both of
them firmly behind her when she'd left. Peeking around the open
door, the lounge area was empty, but one of the bedroom doors was
also slightly open. How odd. Sneaking along the wall, she could
hear someone humming inside. Perhaps it was just the maid?

Feeling a
little silly at sneaking up on someone innocent, she was about to
move away when she caught the back of Amira's head as she passed
across the open doorway. She was heading through the bedroom,
towards Tariq's dressing room. Katie's heart lurched. What was she
doing in their bedroom and private space? Sliding her body as
quietly as she could through the open gap, she followed Amira.

Now standing
with her back to the wall, she could hear Amira rustling about on
the other side. All it would take was a small movement of her head
around the doorframe to see what she was doing. Katie bit her lip.
It was now or never.

Tariq's
dressing room was slightly larger than hers. Along one of the walls
hung his suits and along the opposite wall sat tall units of
endless drawers. Amira was currently fingering his suits, moving
along them and touching them, humming as she went from suit to
suit. How bizarre. Maybe there was a perfectly good explanation,
but it felt creepy. It got worse when Amira began to open a few
drawers, bringing out his T-shirts, holding them up to give them a
once over and then stuffing them back in. It made Katie feel
uncomfortable, as though she was the one intruding. About to cough
and bring attention to herself, so that they could get to the
bottom of whatever this was, she stopped when Amira opened Tariq's
underwear drawer.

No! Now that's
not on!

In disbelief,
she watched with an open mouth as Amira took out a pair of black
briefs and brought them to her nose and sniffed them.

Seriously!
Even she hadn't thought about doing that!

Her heart was
virtually in her mouth. Didn't this constitute as an act of
weirdness? Katie gawped further as Amira folded up the black
briefs, slipped them into her pocket and then turned in her
direction. Instantly, she pulled back out of sight and quickly made
her way along the bedroom wall and through the door that led into
the lounge. She could hear Amira closing in behind her and she knew
that she didn't have enough time left to make the distance to the
suite door without being discovered, so she rushed towards the
sofas and threw herself over the back of one. Holding her breath,
she heard Amira pass by, not noticing her hiding amongst the
cushions. Finally, she sighed in relief as she heard the click of
the suite door closing.

Taking a few
moments to catch her breath, she then left the suite and made her
way back down the stairs. The friendly face of Thebes greeted her
in the foyer.

"Ah, Sheikha
el-Tayeb, I have a message for you. Sheikha Selina el-Tayeb and
Miss Miriam el-Tayeb will meet you in your room after lunch."

"Thank you."
Still a bit bothered about finding an underwear snooper in her
bedroom, she hoped she didn't come across as demanding when she
asked, "Thebes, do you think it would be okay to have lunch in my
room today?" She really didn't want to eat with Amira. It would be
a reminder of Tariq's black briefs stuck to her face.

Thebes laughed.
"Your wish is my every command."

"Can I have a
cup of stars then?" she jibed at him.

He caught the
humour and bounced it right back. "There are enough love-struck
stars in your eyes to light the sky," he joked.

Katie gave him
a wide smile and left him to spend the rest of the morning taking
pictures in the gardens and orchards of the sizeable grounds. It
was a beautiful sunny day, but she kept thinking about Amira.
Surely, after Tariq's rejection of her last night, she'd got the
message that he wasn't interested in her games? Obviously, Amira
wasn't taking the hint. Katie thought about what would cause
someone to go and sniff a person's underwear? Possibly obsession or
the excuse of looking for a clean pair, but the latter could be
ruled out in this case.

Not wanting
thoughts of Amira to steal the beauty of the day, she shoved her
aside by concentrating on the task at hand. She knew that her time
with Amira would come.

Now making her
way back to her room, she found Thebes just leaving.

"I've set it
out on the balcony for you," he said as he smiled and moved to walk
down the stairs.

Sitting on the
balcony in the shade of the midday sun, she munched on tiny salmon
and dill sandwiches, salads and a lemon cake while listening to the
sounds of breaking waves. It was possibly the most peaceful she'd
felt in a long while. As a young child, her world had been full of
this peace. When she'd become an adult, she realised that much of
the joy and safety she'd felt then was due to the love that her
parents shared.

A little judder
of sadness in her heart caused a slump in her mood. The
relationship between her and Tariq was chemically explosive, that
was pretty clear in the way that she wanted to jump his bones every
five minutes, but chemistry alone is not what makes a marriage
work.

The love
between her parents had been equal. Of this she'd been sure,
because as a child she'd felt no fear between them, no fight for
power. This is what she wanted for herself and there was already
fear between her and Tariq. Being taken and forced to give up her
own dreams of love and what marriage meant to her, and to never be
allowed out of the bonds he'd woven around her, freaked her out.
The earlier fuzzy feeling and contemplation of being with Tariq for
life, vanished in the face of reality. It wouldn't work if the root
of their union was based on fear.

The option to
have that bond with someone else had also been taken from her, and
any children she now had with another man would be legally tied to
Tariq. Maybe she would speak with a solicitor once she returned to
England. She knew that between now and then there would be sexual
explosions between her and Tariq, but that was only one part of
what she really needed. Deep down, she wanted to totally let go,
like she'd felt as a child, a complete freedom to be herself. Was
that possible with another human being? She wasn't sure if it was
obtainable for herself, but she knew she'd lived amongst it with
her parents before it was so cruelly taken away from them.

If her father
had remarried since, she wouldn't feel hurt. To have loved like her
parents had and then to lose it under such vicious conditions must
make for a hole inside of you, perhaps one that can never be filled
again. If her father had found comfort in the arms of tenderness
from another, then who was she to judge? It could be the one thing
that would have given him the will to live beyond his heartbreaking
loss, and for that, she'd be grateful.

At some point
between being on the jet and now, it had become very clear that she
was here to do a job. If she was to complete her part in the
bargain and take the pictures, then she would see her father again.
This was the one thing that she'd yearned for more than anything
else. It was incredible to even think that he was still alive and
that she would see him again and have his presence back in her
life.