The Desert Sheikh's Innocent Queen: King of the Desert, Captive Bride

“Why don’t they?”

“They don’t have the power.”

“I didn’t have any power,” she said, voice soft.

“No. But I did.”

“You’ve done this before … helped people like me?”

“Yes.”

Her lips parted to ask him more, to find out who he was, and why he’d risk his own safety to help others, but he’d turned his head away to stare out the tinted window and the hard set of his features discouraged further conversation.

Almost everything about him discouraged conversation. Dark, big and powerfully built, she found him incredibly intimidating.

Sheikh Fehr had towered over her when they stood side by side waiting for the car and she had to believe he was at least six feet tall, if not taller. He was also quite broad-shouldered, with an athletic build. His skin was deeply tanned, with strong, rugged features that spoke of sun and wind and hot, stinging sand.

“We’re approaching Hafel, the capital city of Jabal,” Sheikh Fehr said. “Did you see any of the city before your arrest?”

Liv shook her head and, glancing down at her lap, she glimpsed the inside of her wrist where yellow and blue bruises remained. She also had more bruises high on her arms, but her robe covered those. “I never got as far as Hafel.”

“Where were you arrested?”

“On the main road between the border and Hafel.” She made a faint sound, part misery, part disbelief. “One moment I was on the bus, and the next I was on my way to Ozr.”

When the sheikh didn’t answer Liv looked up at him. “Are we stopping in Hafel now?”

“No,” Khalid answered as the capital city, a city thousands of years old, appeared before them. The city boasted relatively new modern office buildings that rose over and between crumbling Roman ruins. “Although it’s a fascinating city, a city most of the Western world knows nothing about.”

“Have you spent much time here?” she asked.

“Once upon a time.”

“What changed?”

“Everything.” He hesitated. “When I was a boy my father had a close friendship with the Jabal king, but the king was overthrown twenty years ago and the country is ruled by someone far different now.” His lips twisted cynically. “This is the first time I’ve been here in four years and until last night, I wasn’t even sure they’d allow me in.”

“Why not?”

“I get people out of prison, whisking them off to safer places. The government here doesn’t like it.” He shrugged. “They don’t like me.”

Liv’s stomach did a peculiar somersault. “So why did they let you in?”

He briefly glanced out the window, his shoulders shifting carelessly before glancing back at her. “I paid off several high-up officials.”

Drawing a quick breath she felt her stomach fall again and wondered if she’d ever feel safe again. “You bribed them?”

“Didn’t have much of a choice.” He dark eyes rested on her face, his expression grim. “It was either that, or allow you to go before the Ozr Prison judge in two days’ time, and believe me, you wouldn’t have survived the sentence.”

Liv bit her lip and looked away, out the window. They were approaching the city center, which was far more cramped than the modern neighborhoods. Smoke rose from food stands on the street corners. “It would have been harsh,” she said.

“It would have been deadly,” he agreed.

“And I just wanted to have an adventure,” she said, her voice low. “I never imagined this nightmare.”

The driver slowed, then braked to a complete stop. The sheikh’s wireless phone suddenly rang and he answered it, his eyes on the line of police cars ahead.

“The nightmare,” he said, echoing her words as he hung up the phone, “isn’t over yet.”

Liv leaned forward to get a look at the police officers ahead. “What’s happening?”

“We’re to be questioned,” he answered shortly, his features hardening. Turning his head, he looked at her, a close, ruthless inspection that was as thorough as it was critical.

“Pull your headscarf forward,” he directed. “Hide all your hair and wrap the fabric across your mouth and nose so that as much of your face is covered as possible.” He retrieved the sunglasses from the seat and handed them to her. “And keep these on. Don’t take them off unless I tell you to.” Then he opened the car door and stepped out, slamming it shut behind him.

CHAPTER TWO

THE nightmare isn’t over yet.

Sheikh Fehr’s words rang in her ears as he walked from the car. The driver had locked the car doors the moment the sheikh left the vehicle and she watched Sheikh Fehr now, heart in her throat, as a group of uniformed officers approached him.

From inside the car she could hear their muffled voices outside. The officers practically surrounded the sheikh, but he appeared unruffled.

They were speaking Arabic and she understood nothing of what they were saying other than there seemed to be a problem, and from the way the officers kept gesturing to the car, their voices growing louder, she had a sick feeling that the conversation had something to do with her.

Several long minutes passed and then Sheikh Fehr turned to the car and opened the back door. Liv ducked her head as the officers crowded around to get a look inside. Terrified, she kept her head down, her eyes closed behind the oversized pair of sunglasses.

After what seemed like eternity the car door slammed shut and shortly after the sheikh climbed back in the car. The chauffeur immediately started the ignition and pulled away.

Liv nervously laced and unlaced her fingers. “Is everything okay?” she asked, as they left the narrower, old city streets behind for the wide boulevard that ran along the North Africa coast.

“Yes.”

When it became clear he didn’t intend to say more she added, “What did they want?”

“They wanted to know if I’d legally entered their country and if I’d done anything illegal while here.”

“Have you?”

“No and yes, but that’s not what I told them. I couldn’t tell them that or you’d be in one of their cars heading straight back to Ozr.”

“So what did you tell them instead?”

He hesitated a moment, then plucked the sunglasses from her face, calmly pocketing them inside his robe. “That I was escorting a female member of my family home.”

But he wasn’t, she thought, her uneasiness growing. “Did they believe you?”

His expression turned mocking. “They know who I am, and they saw I had the proper paperwork. There wasn’t much they could do at that point.”