My Desert Rose (3 page)

Bringing the
glass to his mouth, he caught her watching him from the mirror on
the wall above the bar. There was something he wanted her to do and
the reward for doing it was priceless. A little flutter of guilt
rolled in his gut. The decent thing to do would be to give her the
one thing she probably wanted more than anything else in the world,
but he needed her to help him first.

Katie stared at
him as he sipped on his water. His white shirt was rolled up at the
sleeves, exposing his muscles as they flexed in his lower arms.
Beautiful, she thought, like a lithe cat. She wouldn't mind running
her hands all over his back. The train of her thoughts shocked her
and she shook her head disbelievingly. Here she was, tied to a
chair on a jet to God knows where, thinking lustful thoughts about
her captor. The oddity of it all was that she didn’t feel
intimidated. There was a deep knowing that he wouldn’t actually
hurt her.

Putting down
the glass, he spoke to her through the reflection, "I am Sheikh
Tariq el-Tayeb, owner of the el-Tayeb oil refineries in the south
east of Yemen and owner of the island Socotra. And you, Katarina
Turan, are here to help me."

Inside, she was
reminded of that quiet moment before the storm. "Help you? How
exactly am I going to help you?"

Turning slowly,
he looked deeply into those troubled blue eyes and smiled before
adding, "By taking some much needed photographs."

Bam! Just like
that, memories came flooding into her brain of their conversation
at the wedding. He'd requested her photographic services to help
him take some pictures of a group of Somali pirates that were using
his island as a refuelling stop for stolen ships. Not just any
ships, oil ships that in fact belonged to him.

It had been
tempting, but she already had too many unfinished commissions, so
she'd politely turned down his offer.

Not easily
deterred, he'd told her that in exchange for her assistance, he had
some valuable information about her parents.

The shock from
him bringing her family into the conversation had made her want to
forget just how gorgeous he was and flee from his side, but he'd
apologised and told her to forget he'd said anything. It had
unnerved her, but she'd decided that any information he had could
never
undo the past, so it probably wasn't worth listening
to. Taking a glass of pink champagne from him, she nodded to him in
her acceptance of his peace offering.

That’s it! The
pink champagne!

"You drugged
me!" she spat at him accusingly.

He raised an
eyebrow. "So, you're beginning to remember? For the record, you
were only given a mild sedative." When she'd turned him down, he
knew then that option two had just come into play.

Of all the
cheek! "You’re an arrogant piece of shi –"

"Stop it with
the foul language, Katarina! When I asked you for your help it was
not quite a request. More like an appeal with very little room for
it to be refused."

"So, you just
decided to kidnap me and do what? Force me to take pictures for
you? Are you nuts? Do Annabelle and Tristan know about this?" She
was hoping for a look of self-reproach, but he stood up straighter
and stared her right in the eyes.

"They know that
I’ve ‘borrowed’ your services."

She laughed
hysterically. "That’s one way of putting it."

"I won't hurt
you if that's what's worrying you."

It was said so
very quietly, but something important was niggling away at her.
Cocking her head at him, she tried to remember a question he'd
asked her at the wedding, but it was eluding her. "Tell me, Tariq,
how do you plan to pull this off with an unwilling photographer by
your side?" The smile he gave her sent a shiver of warning down her
spine.

"You won’t be
an unwilling photographer?"

Confusion
buzzed in her brain. "Oh and why’s that?" she asked.

"You’ll be an
unwilling wife."

Now she
remembered the question.

Chapter
Two

The sound of
her laughter rang out around the interior of the luxury jet. Katie
couldn’t believe his boldness. "You may be able to kidnap me and
hold me on this plane against my will, but there’s no way you can
force me to say, 'I do.'"

Tariq smiled
pleasantly at her before nodding a signal to Mr Pump Iron
Bodyguard. Then he knelt down in front of her. "Just hear me out,
okay?"

She scrunched
her eyes at him in distrust. "Okay."

"My ships are
being taken by the pirates as they leave Yemen. Many ships coming
from the north use Socotra as a refuelling stop before moving along
the coast of Africa and into Europe, but mine are the most targeted
for theft."

The close
proximity of his body made her stomach jolt and her heart beat just
that notch faster.

"Do you know
what happens to my men once the pirates board the ship?"

She shook her
head and breathed in his scent as he leaned in even closer. The
intensity of the swirling chocolate colour of his eyes made her
lick her lips. They looked like two big round Maltesers.

Fascinated, he
watched her tongue for a moment as it slowly lubricated her bottom
lip. "They take them down into the bowels of the ship..." What he
was about to say next brought his eyes sharply back up to hers and
he wondered whether or not to go on, but he felt compelled to make
her see how serious his problem was. "Some are raped and most are
tortured before being killed."

The intensity
of his words caused a ripple of outrage to move through her. "Why
would they hurt and kill innocent men?"

"For money, for
power," he replied sadly. "But, what they destroy more than
anything is families, and you know how that feels, don’t you?"

A surge of deep
grief hit her hard in the chest. "Yes," she whispered.

"On the last
ship that was taken as it left Yemen, one of my men survived and
when they landed on Socotra, he escaped. What he told me has led me
to take the drastic action of having you here as my guest
today."

Katie smirked
at him. "I wouldn’t exactly say you’re the most gracious host I’ve
ever encountered."

Tariq gave her
a small smile that spoke of such sorrow. Katie suddenly yearned to
reach out and run a finger down his face. At the wedding he'd held
such humour in those eyes and right now she’d do anything to bring
that humour back. "So, how does having me as your wife and taking
pictures help you?"

Tariq looked
into the depth of those oceanic blue eyes. They were now open and
genuinely enquiring. "I have reason to believe that my younger
brother and sister-in-law are the instigators behind the Somali
pirates."

She gasped,
"Your brother?" The idea that someone close to you could be
responsible for the deaths of innocent people was unthinkable to
her.

"Yes, and if
you come into the family fold, we will stay with them on Socotra as
part of our honeymoon trip, giving you access to his wife, who is
the real power behind my brother."

"And the
pictures?" she asked breathlessly.

"If I can prove
their involvement then I can deal with Hassan and Amira through the
right channels. At the moment I only suspect them, and so I cannot
speak of anything until I hold the proof."

Now knowing the
full details of why he'd kidnapped her, she was moved to help him,
despite the fact that she was still tied up, but she had a request
that needed to be addressed. Clarity right from the beginning was
important if they were going to work together. "This marriage of
ours, I want it in name only. Once the job is done, I will need to
ask you for a divorce or an annulment."

"Ah, yes, about
that." He gave her a worried look.

"What about
it?" A siren was going off inside of her head.
Please don't say
no
. There was no way she was taking on a marriage that she
couldn't get out of.

"My family come
from a long line of important Sheikhs and it's frowned upon to
divorce, so I won't be seeking to end the marriage. For you to
initiate a divorce under Sharia law by khula would be very
difficult, as you would need to prove my sexual inability, neglect
or cruelty, and I won't give you any grounds for those to
happen."

"Frowned upon?
Difficult?" she choked out.

He ignored her
choking and continued, "But, once the job is done, I will seek to
have it annulled if nothing sexual has taken place and if you
declare yourself to still be a virgin." He winced, as if getting
ready for her reply.

Disbelief laced
her voice. "A virgin! If you know everything about me Tariq, then
you’ll know I’m no virgin."

"Yes, during my
research that little point did reveal itself, so under the
circumstances of not being able to obtain either one of those, I
have a proposition for you?"

"What? Another
one?" she retorted as she once again struggled against the binds on
her wrists. "I won’t agree to anything or answer any further
questions until you untie me."

"Okay," he said
softly. Instead of standing up and going around to the back of her,
he leaned forward and put his arms around her, bringing his face a
mere inch from hers. Not taking his eyes off her, he touched her
wrists to undo the thin ropes while watching her eyes widen in
awareness of his close proximity. The chemistry between them was
unmistakable. Perhaps his next proposition wouldn’t be too bad
after all.

Katie breathed
him in, pure male. Every hair on her body stood to attention and
she could quite easily allow him to close the tiny gap between them
and kiss her. If he'd been anyone else she would have said a firm
'No thank you', headbutted him and hijacked the plane, but he was
Tariq, all testosterone, sexual chemistry and so very hot. The mild
sedative had evidently addled her brain.

The binds fell
to the floor behind her with a thud and her exhausted arms dropped
to her sides. She sighed in relief, but he didn’t move out of her
space.

"We won’t be
able to divorce and I won't stand in your way if you want to live a
separate life, but you won’t be able to remarry. I can promise you
though that you'll always be well looked-after."

He was so close
that if she slipped out her tongue, she could run it along his
lips. "And what if I meet someone else and want to have children?"
she enquired lightly.

A funny feeling
sliced through his gut. "I can give you children!" he protested.
The thought of her having children with someone else was not an
image that he wanted to entertain. If they were to do this, he
wanted to be the one who gave her everything, including any
children. Why go elsewhere when the chemistry was so right between
them? Unless of course she was holding out for love, and he wasn't
sure he could give her that. Sex yes, but love was a whole
different ball game.

She laughed at
his objection. "But I don’t love you and maybe I won’t want them
with you." Her belly gave a funny flop at the vision of a little
boy, a complete miniature of Tariq.

Now scowling,
as her words had just confirmed his thoughts, clearly, there would
be no offspring between them without love playing a part in their
conception. Resigning himself to the fact that the probability of
remaining childless was high, the only thing left for him to do was
to deliver the line that he knew would seal the deal. "If you do as
I ask and help me, help my men, you will get to see your father
again."

Hearing those
words caused a vast hole to open up inside of her, revealing a
stark agonising pain which had been lying dormant in the pit of her
stomach. The pain rippled through the hole and rushed out, clawing
at her veins for entry. Seeing red, she swung her aching arms in
front of her and angrily pushed him backwards, not caring if he
fell against the seat behind him. "My father died twenty-two years
ago." Her voice wobbled, revealing the hurt underneath.

"No he didn’t
Katarina, he lives."

Chaffed skin
had formed pink circles around her wrists and she was now furiously
rubbing at them. A desperate, raw longing for her father was
charging through her and she didn't know if she could speak without
strangling her captor. "I watched him die, you bastard! How dare
you manipulate me and lie to me just to get what you want!" Right
now he was lucky her legs were still bound by ropes, otherwise she
would have kicked him where it hurt.

Tariq bounced
back from the hard shove and took her head in the palm of his
hands, forcing her to look into his eyes. The anguish he saw there
nearly made him forget his plans and take her straight to her
father, but he'd seen that same look on the wives of those dead
men. He was caught between a rock and a hard place. "He lives,
Katarina and once we have proof of my brother and Amira’s
treachery, I will bring him to you."

A sob burned in
her throat. "If you’re lying to me, Tariq, I swear, I will kill
you." To say such things just so she would dance to his tune, only
to find out at the end that it wasn't true, was more than she could
ever bear.

"If we’re going
to do this together, Katarina, daughter of Sheikh Allah Turan and
Sheikha Lorraine Turan, then I promise you this. I will never lie
to you. I’m willing to give up a normal married life, even to
sacrifice having an heir, all to stop people from dying. I will
never betray you or bring another woman into the marriage. This is
my solemn vow."

A moment of
silence ensued as she frantically searched the depth of his eyes
and into the light of his soul. What she found there was a profound
integrity and a wealth of compassion. Slowly, she nodded her head.
"I will do it on one condition."

Relief flooded
across his face and he dropped his forehead onto hers. "You name it
and I will do anything." He watched a slight smile form at the
corners of her lips.