“You lured me here on false pretences. You had no right.”

“You knew I was the kind of man who would never forgive….” He took a step closer. “You forced my hand over the check. That stung my pride.”

“Your pride!” Frances scoffed.

His voice changed, became harder. “The ruler of a country must be a man of pride. If not, he is unfit to rule. I could not allow an insult to go unpunished. I decided it was time you had a lesson in reality.”

“Reality?” she echoed, hardly able to believe her ears. “Putting me with your concubines? Ali, this has gone far enough. I want my bag, my clothes, and I want to get out of here.”

He laughed softly. “You are wonderful. You are completely helpless in my power and yet you speak with such authority. I tremble in my shoes.”

“I don’t believe this,” she said in a shaking voice. “I’m dreaming, and I’ll wake up soon.”

“I wish you the sweetest of dreams, and I hope they will all be of me. But when you awake, you will still be here. And you will remain here, at my pleasure, until I decide otherwise.”

Lucy Gordon cut her writing teeth on magazine journalism, interviewing many of the world’s most interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Richard Chamberlain, Roger Moore, Sir Alec Guinness and Sir John Gielgud. She also camped out with lions in Africa, and had many other unusual experiences, which have often provided the background for her books.

She is married to a Venetian, whom she met while on holiday in Venice. They got engaged within two days, and have now been married for twenty-five years. They live in the Midlands of the U.K., with their dogs.

Two of her books have won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award—Song of the Lorelei in 1990, and His Brother’s Child in 1998 in the Best Traditional Romance category.

The Sheikh’s Reward
Lucy Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER ONE

HE WAS a prince to his fingertips. Tall, black-haired, his head set at a proud angle, Prince Ali Ben Saleem, Sheikh of the principality of Kamar, drew everyone’s gaze as he walked into the casino.

It wasn’t just his handsome features and his tall body with its combination of power and grace. There was something about him that seemed to proclaim him skilful at everything he attempted. And so men regarded him with envy, women with interest.

Frances Callam watched with the others, but her eyes held a peculiar intentness. Ali Ben Saleem was the man she had come here to study.

She was a freelance journalist, much in demand for her skill at profiling people. Editors knew that she was unbeatable in stories where large sums of money were concerned. And Ali was one of the wealthiest men in the world.

‘Will you look at that?’ Joey Baines breathed in awe, watching Ali’s imperial progress to the tables. Joey was a private detective whom she sometimes hired as an assistant. She’d brought him along tonight as cover while she visited the casino and watched Ali at play.

‘I’m looking,’ Fran murmured. ‘He certainly lives up to the legend, doesn’t he? In appearance anyway.’

‘What’s the rest of the legend?’

‘He’s a law unto himself, accountable to nobody for where his money comes from or where it goes to.’

‘But we know where it comes from,’ Joey objected. ‘Those oil wells he’s got gushing away in the desert.’

‘And a lot of it vanishes in places like this,’ Fran said, looking around her with disapproval.

‘Hey, Fran, lighten up. Can’t we enjoy life among the fleshpots for just one night? It’s in a good cause.’

‘It’s in the cause of nailing a man who doesn’t like answering questions about himself, and finding out what he has to hide,’ Fran said firmly.

Joey ran a finger around the inside of his collar. His short, undistinguished person looked uncomfortable in the black tie and dinner jacket that was de rigueur for the men.

‘I can’t believe you came here looking like a goddess just to work,’ he said, eyeing her slender figure, pale skin and red-gold hair with wistful lust.

‘Down, Fido,’ Fran said amiably. ‘Tonight this is my work outfit. I need to look as if I belong in this place.’

She’d succeeded in her aim. Her dress seemed to be solid gold glitter with a neckline that plunged low, and a side slit that came up to her thigh. She was rather disconcerted by the dress’s frank immodesty, and had hired it only with misgiving. But she was glad now that she’d done so. In the glittering, sophisticated ambience of The Golden Chance, London’s premier casino, this was how to look.

As well as the dress, she’d hired the solid gold jewellery that went with it. Hanging earrings accentuated the length of her neck, heavy gold bracelets weighed down her wrists, and a long gold pendant plunged between her breasts, emphasising her décolletage.

I look like a kept woman, she thought, faintly shocked at herself.

But so did every other woman here, and in that respect the outfit was a success.

Certainly she could have held her own among the women who crowded around Sheikh Ali, competing for his attention, and being rewarded with a smile, or a kiss of the fingers in their direction. The sight made her seethe.

‘Arrogant so-and-so,’ she muttered. ‘Men like that are supposed to be extinct.’

‘Only the ones who can’t get away with it,’ Joey told her wisely. ‘Those who can are as bad as ever.’

‘You’re jealous,’ she said indignantly.

‘We all are, Fran! Look around you. Every man in the place wants to be him, and every woman wants to sleep with him.’

‘Not every one,’ she said firmly. ‘Not me.’

Ali had finished his royal progress and was settling at one of the tables. Fran edged nearer, trying to observe him without looking too interested.

He played for very high stakes, and when he lost he merely shrugged. Fran gulped at the sums he tossed away as though they were nothing. She noticed, too, that once play started he forgot about the women at his elbow. One minute he was flirting madly with them. The next they didn’t exist. Her annoyance grew.

It grew even more when play stopped and he turned on the charm again, clearly expecting to take up with them where he’d left off. Worse still, they let him.

‘You see that?’ she muttered to Joey. ‘Why doesn’t one of them spit in his eye?’

‘You try spitting in the eye of a hundred billion,’ Joey said. ‘See how easy it is. Why must you be such a puritan, Fran?’

‘I can’t help it. It’s how I was raised. It’s not decent for one man to have so much—so much—just so much.’

She’d been going to say ‘so much money’, but Sheikh Ali had so much of everything. From the moment of his birth it had all fallen into his lap. His father, the late Sheikh Saleem, had married an Englishwoman and remained faithful to her all his life. Ali was their only son.

He’d inherited his little principality at the age of twenty-one. His first act had been to cancel all deals with the world’s mighty oil corporations, and to renegotiate them, giving Kamar a far larger slice of the profits. The companies had raged but given in. Kamar’s oil was of priceless quality.

In the ten years since then he’d multiplied his country’s wealth more than ten times. He lived a charmed life between two worlds. He had apartments in both London and New York, and he commuted between them in his private jet, making huge, complex deals.

When not enjoying the high life in the west he returned to his domain to live in one of his palaces, or to visit Wadi Sita, a top secret retreat in the desert, where he was reputed to indulge in all manner of excesses. He never contradicted these rumours, nor even deigned to acknowledge them, and because no journalist had ever been allowed to glimpse the truth the stories flourished unchecked.

‘Does Howard know you’re here tonight?’ Joey asked, naming the man whom Fran usually dated.

‘Of course not. He’d never approve. In fact he doesn’t approve of my doing this story. I asked him what he could tell me about Ali, and he just gave me the PR line about how important he was, and how Kamar was a valuable ally. When I said there were too many mysteries, Howard went pale and said, “For pity’s sake, don’t offend him.”’

‘What a wimp!’ Joey said provocatively.

‘Howard isn’t a wimp, but he is a merchant banker, and he has a banker’s priorities.’

‘And you’re going to marry this guy?’

‘I never said that,’ Fran answered quickly. ‘Probably. One day. Maybe.’

‘Boy, you’re really head over heels about him, aren’t you?’

‘Can we concentrate on what we’re here for?’ she asked frostily.

‘Place your bets, please!’

Ali pushed a large stake out over the board to red twenty-seven, then leaned back with an air of supreme indifference. He maintained it throughout the spinning of the wheel as the little ball bounced merrily from red to black, from one number to another. Fran found she was holding her breath, her eyes riveted on the wheel, until at last it stopped.

Red twenty-two.

The croupier raked the stakes in. Fran watched Sheikh Ali, frowning. He didn’t even look at the fortune that was vanishing. All his attention was for his new stake.

Suddenly he looked up at her.

She gasped. Two points of light pierced her, held her imprisoned.

Then he smiled, and it was the most wickedly charming smile she had ever seen. It invited her into a conspiracy of delight and something in her leaped to accept. She discovered that she was smiling back; she didn’t know how or why. Simply that the smile had taken over her mouth, then her eyes, then her whole body.

Common sense told her that only pure chance had made him look in her direction, but somehow she didn’t believe it. He’d sensed her there. Among so many others, he’d known that she was watching him, and been impelled to meet her eyes.

Ali leaned forward to her, stretching out his hand across the narrow table. As if hypnotised she placed her own slender hand in his. He held it for a moment and she had the unnerving sense of steely strength in those long fingers. There was power enough there to break a man—or a woman.

Then he raised her hand to his lips. Fran drew in a sharp breath as his mouth brushed her skin. It was the lightest touch, but it was enough for her to sense the whole male animal, vibrant, sensual, dangerous.

‘Place your bets, please.’

He released her, reached for his stake and pushed it out onto the table. It stopped at black twenty-two, but he didn’t look to see. He’d forgotten the other women as soon as the wheel spun, but he kept his eyes on Fran, ignoring the wheel. She watched him back, meaning to tear her eyes away, but mysteriously unable to do so.

Black twenty-two.

Ali seemed to come out of a dream to realise that the croupier was pushing the chips towards him. It had been a large stake and with one win he’d recouped almost all his losses. He grinned, showing white teeth, and indicated the place beside him with the slightest inclination of his head.

She edged around the table towards him. The other women pouted and sulked, reluctant to give way to her, but he dismissed them with a faint gesture.

Fran felt as if she was moving in a dream. Luck had fallen her way with stunning suddenness. She had meant to study Ali tonight, and now fate had presented her with the perfect opportunity.

‘You have brought me luck,’ he said as she reached him and sat down. ‘Now you must stay close by me so that my luck remains.’

‘Surely you’re not superstitious?’ she asked with a smile. ‘Your luck will come and go. It has nothing to do with me.’

‘I think otherwise,’ he pronounced in a tone that silenced further argument. ‘The spell you cast is for me alone. Not for any other man. Remember that.’

Arrogant beast, she thought. If this didn’t happen to suit me I’d enjoy taking him down a peg.

‘Place your bets.’

With a gesture of his hand Ali indicated for her to place the stake for him. She put the counters on red fifteen, and held her breath as the wheel spun.

Red fifteen.

A sigh went up from everyone around the table.

Almost everyone.

Ali alone was not watching. His eyes were fixed admiringly on Fran. As the counters were pushed towards him he gave a shrug which said, ‘Of course.’

‘I don’t believe that happened,’ she breathed.

‘You made it happen,’ he assured her, ‘and you will make it happen again.’

‘No, it was chance. You should stop now. Take it while you have it.’

His smile said that it was for petty men to worry about such things. Princes controlled their own fate. Under his hypnotic glance Fran found herself believing it.

‘Put it on for me again,’ he said. ‘All of it.’

Dazed, she piled up all his winnings and went to put them on—on—

‘I can’t decide,’ she said frantically.

‘What day of the month is your birthday?’

‘The twenty-third.’

‘Red or black? Choose.’

‘Black,’ she said recklessly.

‘Then black twenty-three it is.’

She watched in agony as the wheel began to spin.

‘Don’t look,’ he said, smiling. ‘Look only at me, and let the little gods of the tables take care of the matter.’

‘Can you make them do your pleasure as well?’ she whispered.

‘I can make anyone and anything do my pleasure,’ he said simply.

The wheel stopped.

Black twenty-three.

A prickle went up Fran’s spine. This was eerie. Ali saw her startled look and laughed.

‘Witchcraft,’ he said. ‘And you are the most beautiful witch of all.’

‘I—I don’t believe it,’ she stammered. ‘It can’t happen like that.’

‘It happened because you are magic. And I can’t resist magic.’

On the words he dropped his head and laid his lips against her palm. Instantly Fran felt as though she was being scorched, although the touch of his lips was teasingly soft. The sensation started in her skin and swiftly pervaded her. She had a sense of alarm and would have snatched her hand back, but she remembered in time that such gaucheness wouldn’t fit the role she was playing. She smiled, hoping she looked as though such tributes happened every day.

The croupier pushed over the winnings. ‘I’ll take them,’ Ali announced.

A man standing behind his chair counted up and wrote the total on a piece of paper. Fran gasped as she saw it.

While the man went to cash the chips Ali rose and drew Fran away from the table. ‘Now we will dine together,’ he announced.

Fran hesitated. Ancient female wisdom told her that it wasn’t clever to accept such an abrupt invitation from a man she’d known barely half an hour. But she was in pursuit of a story, and she wouldn’t succeed by refusing the first real break she’d been given. Besides, a restaurant was public enough.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Joey, his jaw dropping. She gave him a wink and swept out on Ali’s arm.

His Rolls-Royce was waiting outside, the chauffeur already standing with the door open. Ali handed her gallantly inside. The chauffeur got in and started the car without waiting for instructions.

When they were moving Ali turned to her, smiling mischievously, and reached into his pockets. From one he produced a necklace of priceless pearls, from the other, a diamond necklace.

‘Which?’ he asked.

‘Whi—?’

‘One of them is yours. Take your pick.’

She gaped. He carried such things around with him, in his pockets?

Feeling as though she’d been transported to another planet, she said, ‘I’ll take the diamonds.’ The voice didn’t sound like her own.

‘Turn your neck so that I can remove that gold pendant,’ he commanded. ‘The man who gives you such trumpery baubles doesn’t know how to value you.’

His fingers brushed her neck, and she took a shuddering, uncontrollable breath. This wasn’t how the evening was supposed to go. She’d come prepared to analyse Sheikh Ali, to dislike and despise him. But she hadn’t come prepared to be overwhelmed by him. It had simply happened.

She felt the chill on her flesh as he draped a king’s ransom in diamonds about her neck. His fingertips brushed against her nape and she had to struggle not to tremble at that soft, devastating impact. Then there was another sensation, so light that she couldn’t be sure of it. Had he kissed the back of her neck or not? How dared he? If he had…

‘They were made for you,’ he declared, turning her to face him. ‘No woman has ever looked better in diamonds.’

‘And you speak from a wide experience?’ she said demurely.

He laughed, neither offended nor ashamed. ‘Wider than you can imagine,’ he assured her. ‘But tonight none of the others exist. There is only you in the world. Now tell me your name.’

‘My name—’ She had a sudden inspiration. ‘My name is Diamond.’

His eyes lit up. ‘You have wit. Excellent. That will do for now. Before the night is over you will tell me your real name.’

He held her left hand in both of his and studied the fingers.

‘No rings,’ he observed. ‘You are neither married nor promised, unless you are one of those modern women who scorn to tell the world that you belong to a man. Or maybe you scorn to let yourself belong?’

‘I belong to no man,’ she said. ‘I belong to myself, and no man will ever own me.’

‘Then you have never known love. When you do, you’ll find that your aloof ideas mean nothing. When you love, you will give, and it must be all of yourself, or the gift means nothing.’

‘And who do you belong to?’ she demanded with spirit.

He laughed. ‘That is quite another matter. But I could say that I belong to a million people.’ Kamar had a population of one million. ‘No part of my life is entirely my own. Even my heart is not mine to give. Tell me about the little man with you. I wondered if he might have been your lover.’

‘Would that have made any difference to you?’

‘None at all, since he made no effort to protect you from me. A man who cannot hold onto his woman is no man.’

‘Do I need protecting from you?’ Fran mused, teasing him with her eyes.

He laid his lips against her hand. ‘I wonder if we’ll discover that we each need protection from the other?’ he said thoughtfully.

‘Who knows?’ she murmured, replying as she felt her role required. ‘The pleasure will come in discovering.’

‘And you are a woman made for pleasure.’

Fran drew a slow breath, shocked at how much the words affected her. She was used to hearing her brains praised. Howard admired her looks but was just as likely to acclaim her common sense. And her common sense told her that, while passion mattered, it wasn’t the whole of life. Suddenly she was no longer sure of that.

He listened to her silence and added, ‘You’re not going to pretend not to know what I mean.’

‘There are many kinds of pleasure,’ she fenced.

‘Not for us. For you and I there is only one kind— the pleasure to be shared by a man and a woman in the heat of desire.’

‘Isn’t it a little soon to be thinking of desire?’

‘We were thinking of desire the moment our eyes met. Don’t try to deny it.’

She couldn’t have begun to deny it. The truth was shocking but it was still the truth. She wondered wildly if she could jump out of the car and flee, but he was holding her hand in a grip that was only superficially gentle. Underneath, it was unbreakable.

He touched her face with his fingertips. The next thing she knew, his lips were on hers in the lightest kiss she’d ever known. It was so light that it might not have happened, except that it was followed by another on her chin, her jaw, her eyes, and again on her lips. She barely felt them, but she felt their effects in the tingling excitement they produced all over her body.

This was alarming. If he’d tried to overwhelm her with power she could have defended herself. But Sheikh Ali was an artist, putting out all his artistry to bring her under his spell. And there seemed to be no defence against that.

She moved helplessly against him, neither returning his kisses nor fending him off. He looked down into her face, but it was too dark in the car for him to find what he wanted to know. Nor could she see the little frown of uncertainty between his eyes.

The long, sleek car glided to a halt in a quiet street in London’s most exclusive area. Slowly he released her. The chauffeur opened the door and Ali took her hand to assist her out. Then she was stepping out onto the pavement, and realising what she ought to have thought of before—that he had brought her not to a restaurant but to his home.

She knew this was the moment when she should act sensibly and run, but what kind of journalist ran away at the first hint of danger?

She gave herself a little shake. Of course there was no danger. What had put that thought into her head?

The tall windows of the mansion were filled with light. One on the ground floor had the curtains pulled back, revealing crystal chandeliers and lavish furnishings.

Slowly the front door opened. A tall man in Arab robes and headdress stood there massively.

‘Welcome to my humble home,’ said Prince Ali Ben Saleem.

CHAPTER TWO

AS SHE entered the house Fran blinked at her gorgeous surroundings. She was in a large hallway, dominated by a huge, sweeping staircase, and with double doors on either side. There were exotic tiles beneath her feet, and more of them covering the walls. It was bewildering but gorgeous.

Every set of doors leading off the hall was closed, but at that moment one pair was thrown open and a man emerged. He approached Ali, not appearing to notice Fran, and addressed him in a language she didn’t understand. While the two men talked she glanced through the doors and saw that the room was an office. The walls were covered with charts and maps, there were three fax machines, a row of telephones and a computer unlike any she had ever seen. Fran guessed that it was state of the art. So that was where he did the deals that earned him a million a day.

Ali noticed the direction of her glance and spoke sharply to the man, who retreated into the office and closed the door. Ali put his arm about Fran’s shoulder, guiding her firmly away. He was smiling, but there was no mistaking the irresistible pressure he was exerting.

‘That is only my office,’ he said. ‘In there I do very dull things that wouldn’t interest you.’

‘Who knows? Perhaps I would be interested?’ Fran said provocatively.

Ali laughed. ‘Such a beautiful woman need think only how to be more beautiful still, and to please the man who is enchanted by her.’

How about that? Fran thought, annoyed. Prehistoric, male chauvinist—

Ali threw open another set of doors and Fran gasped at the sight that met her eyes. It was a large, luxuriously decorated room with a bay window, in which stood a table laid for two. The plates were the finest porcelain with heavy gold bands around the edge. By each place stood three glasses of priceless crystal. The cutlery was solid gold.

‘It’s beautiful,’ she murmured.

‘For you, nothing is too good,’ Ali declared.

For me—or for whoever you happened to pick up, Fran thought, determined to keep her wits about her. But aloud all she said was, ‘You’re too kind.’

He led her to the table and pulled a chair out for her like the humblest of attendants. Part of the act, Fran decided, amused. All her journalistic instincts were on full alert, and while she seemed to be merely languidly accepting whatever happened she was actually observing every detail.

At the same time, she couldn’t deny that she was enjoying herself. Ali was simply the most handsome man she’d ever seen. In the casino she’d seen him mainly sitting at the table, or at a distance. Now he was on his feet and close to her she felt the full impact of his magnificence.

He was about six feet two in height, with long legs and broad shoulders. Yet he didn’t give the impression of being heavily built. He walked softly, making no sound, but nobody could have overlooked him. His movements had the lightness of a panther ready to spring.

His face was more than merely good-looking. It was a study in contradictions. At first glance it was European, inherited from his mother. Yet his Arab father was also there. Fran had read about Prince Saleem, a fierce man who inspired terror and devotion among his people. He too was in Ali’s face in the dark chocolate eyes, the curved, stubborn mouth, and the air of proud authority.

Yet Ali had more than looks. His charisma was so strong that it was practically a force field. He radiated strength and intensity. And, while some of it must have come from having been born to rule, her instincts told her that his vibrant, emotional power was all his own.

He showed her to a seat, drawing the chair out and deferring to her. ‘I will serve you myself, if that is agreeable to you?’ he said smoothly.

‘I am honoured to be attended by a prince,’ Fran murmured.

She saw him smile, and guessed what he was thinking: this woman had fallen for his line, just like all the others. Well, if he thought that, he was in for a shock.

A heated trolley stood nearby, and he ladled a pale yellow liquid into a dish. It was thick, like porridge, mixed with rice, and it tasted delicious.

‘Pumpkin soup,’ Ali explained. ‘I have a weakness for it, so when I’m here my chef keeps some permanently ready.’ He served himself and sat facing her. The table was small, so even on opposite sides they were still close. ‘Have you ever tasted Arabic food before?’ he asked.

‘A little. There’s a restaurant I sometimes go to. It has the most delicious chicken with dates and honey, and I can’t resist it. But the surroundings are vulgar. The walls are covered with murals of the desert, with oases that light up in neon.’

Ali winced. ‘I know the kind of place you mean. They make a great play of the desert, but none of them knows what the desert is really like.’

‘What is it like?’ Fran asked eagerly. ‘Tell me about the desert.’

‘How shall I know what to say? There are so many deserts. There is the desert in the evening when the sun turns to blood and is swallowed up by the sand. In England you have long twilights, but in my country it can be broad daylight, and then pitch darkness a few minutes later.

‘Then, in the early hours, dawn lays a cool light on the land for a few moments, then rises in pale glory, and we all give thanks for the renewed blessing. But at noon the desert can be a enemy, and the sun turns to a furnace, driving you back into the sand.

‘But they all have one thing in common, and that is the silence: a deeper silence than you can imagine. Until you have stood in the desert and watched the stars wheel overhead, you have never heard the silence of the earth as it spins on its axis.’

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘That’s what I thought.’

Without her knowing, a dreamy, far-away look had come into her eyes. Ali saw it, and a small frown of interest creased his brows. ‘You thought?’ he asked.

‘I used to dream about places like that,’ she admitted. ‘When I was a child that dream was very important to me.’

‘Tell me,’ Ali said intently. ‘What happened in your childhood?’

‘It’s strange, but whenever I think about that time I remember rain. I suppose it couldn’t have rained every day, but all I can see is grey, drizzly skies, and people to match.’

‘People were unkind to you?’

‘No, I’m not being fair. After my parents died I was raised by some distant cousins on their farm. They meant well, but they were old and very serious, and knew nothing about children. They did their best for me, encouraged me to do well at school. But there was no excitement, and I longed for it.’ She gave a small embarrassed laugh. ‘You’ll probably think this is silly, but I started to read The Arabian Nights.’

‘I don’t think that’s silly. Why should I? I read it myself as a boy. I loved those fantastical tales, with their magic and drama.’

‘There was certainly plenty of that,’ Fran remembered. ‘A sultan who took a new wife every night and killed her in the morning.’

‘Until he found Scheherazade, who teased his mind with fantastic tales, so that he had to let her live to find out what came next,’ Ali supplied. ‘I loved the stories, but I loved Scheherazade’s wit even more.

‘I used to read that book in the desert, looking out at the horizon as the sun blazed its last before dying. How sad for you to yearn for the sun in this cold country.’

She nodded. ‘Yes, and living in a chilly house, watching the rain outside, always short of pocket money because—I quote—“we mustn’t be extravagant”.’

She hadn’t meant to make herself sound quite so deprived as it came out. Her elderly cousins hadn’t been mean, simply determined to teach her the value of money. While rebelling at their frugal standards she’d somehow imbibed them. She’d gone on to achieve a first-class degree in economics, but pure economics had been too dry for her. So she’d switched to journalism, specialising in stories where scandal mingled with money. She’d found the excitement she secretly yearned for through investigating the shady secrets of high-profile figures. But she couldn’t tell Ali Ben Saleem that.

There was a great deal more she couldn’t tell him— like Uncle Dan’s teachings about ‘money and morality’. The God-fearing old man had never bought himself or his family any little treat without donating a similar amount to charity.

His wife had shared his views about thrifty living until Fran was sixteen and had suddenly blossomed into a beauty. Aunt Jean had yearned to celebrate the girl’s looks with a new wardrobe, but it had taken many earnest discussions before Dan could be brought into the right frame of mind. The local charities had done well that summer.

They were both dead now, but their austere, kindly influence lingered. Fran had a passion for lovely clothes, but she never treated herself without also giving to a good cause. It was bred in the bone, and she wouldn’t have known how to stop. It was hardly surprising that Sheikh Ali’s lifestyle roused her to indignation.

‘I know what you mean about restaurants that play up to stereotypes,’ Ali said. ‘I’ve been in places over here called Ye Old English Waterwheel, with waiters dressed as yeomen, tugging their forelocks, and saying, “What be thoy pleasure, maister?”’ His stage yokel accent was so talented that Fran bubbled with laughter. He laughed with her and added, ‘I nearly told them my pleasure would be to have them vanish from the face of the earth.’

‘I suppose we both suffer from that kind of cliché about our countries,’ Fran said.

‘But England is also my country. I have an English mother, I attended Oxford University and learned soldiering at Sandhurst.’

She almost said, Yes, I know, but stopped herself in time. It wouldn’t do to let him know she’d done her homework on him.

They had finished the pumpkin soup and Ali indicated a choice of dishes.

‘If I had known your preference, I would have arranged for chicken with dates and honey,’ he said. ‘I promise it shall be served the next time we dine. Until then, perhaps you can find something in this humble selection.’

‘This humble selection’ stretched right down a long table. Fran was almost overwhelmed with choice. At last she picked a dish of long green beans.

‘It’s very hot,’ he warned.

‘The hotter the better,’ she said recklessly.

But the first bite told her she’d made a mistake. The beans were spiced with onions, garlic, tomatoes and cayenne pepper.

‘It’s—it’s delicious,’ she said valiantly.

Ali grinned. ‘You have steam coming out of your ears. Don’t finish it if it’s too much for you.’

‘No, it’s fine.’ But she accepted some of the sliced tomatoes he pushed over to her, and to her relief they quenched the fire in her mouth.

‘Try this instead,’ Ali suggested, helping her to another dish. It was a cod liver salad and presented no problems. She began to relax even more. It was tempting to give herself up to the night’s seductive spell.

And then, without warning, something disastrous happened. Glancing up, Fran met his eyes and found in them the last qualities she would have expected: real warmth, charm and—incredibly—a sense of fun. He was smiling at her, not seductively or cynically, but as though his mind danced in time with hers, and he was glad of it. And suddenly she suspected that this might be a truly delightful, great-hearted, funny, entrancing man. It was total disaster.

She struggled to clear her mind, but it persisted in lingering on the curve of his mouth, which was wide and flexible and made for kisses. It was smiling at her now in a special way that started a glow inside her.

And when she forced her attention away from his mouth his eyes were lying in wait to tease and entice her. There was a wicked promise in them and it was tempting to speculate what would happen to a woman who called that promise in. Of course, that could never be herself. She was here on serious business. But some lucky woman…

She pulled herself together.

‘You have a lovely home,’ she said, sounding slightly forced.

‘Yes, it’s beautiful,’ he agreed. ‘But I’m not sure it could be called a home. I have many dwellings, but I spend so little time in each one that—’ He finished with a shrug.

‘None of them is home?’ Fran asked.

He gave a rueful smile. ‘I feel like a small boy saying this, but wherever my mother is feels like my home. In her presence there is warmth and graciousness, and a sense of calm benevolence. You would like her very much.’

‘I’m sure I should. She sounds like a great lady. Does she live in Kamar all the time?’

‘Mostly. Sometimes she travels, but she doesn’t care for flying. And—’ he looked a little self-conscious ‘—she doesn’t approve of some of my pleasures, so—’

‘You mean like going to the casino?’ Fran supplied, laughing.

‘And other small indulgences,’ he said outrageously. ‘But mostly the casino. She says a man should have better things to do with his time.’

‘She’s right,’ Fran said immediately.

‘But how could I have spent this evening better than in meeting you?’

‘You’re not going to start telling me it was fate again, are you?’

‘Have you suddenly become a cynic? What about all that Arabian folklore you used to enjoy? Didn’t it teach you to believe in magic?’

‘Well,’ she said thoughtfully, ‘it taught me to want to believe in magic, and that’s almost the same thing. Sometimes, when life was very dull, I’d dream that a flying carpet was going to come through the window and carry me off to the land where genies came out of lamps and magicians cast their spells in clouds of coloured smoke.’

‘And the magic prince?’ he teased.

‘He came out of the smoke, of course. But he always vanished in the smoke again, and the dream ended.’

‘But you never stopped hoping for the flying carpet,’ Ali said gently. ‘You pretend to be very sensible and grown-up, but in your heart you’re sure that one day it will come.’

She blushed a little. It was disconcerting to have him read her thoughts so well.

‘I think that for you,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘the carpet will come.’

‘I don’t believe in magic,’ she said, with a little shake of her head.

‘But what do you call magic? When I saw you standing there tonight, that was magic far more potent than casting spells. And from that moment everything went well with me.’ He gave her a wry smile. ‘Do you know how much your witchcraft made me win? One hundred thousand. Look.’

Ali reached into his inside pocket, drew out a cheque book and calmly proceeded to write out a cheque for the full amount.

‘What are you doing?’ Fran gasped.

‘I am giving you what is rightfully yours. You won this. Do with it as you will.’

He signed it with a flourish, then looked up at her, his eyes teasing. ‘Who shall I make it out to? Come, admit defeat. Now you will have to tell me your name.’

‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ she mused. She raised the glass, letting her eyes flirt with him over the rim. ‘I’d be very foolish to give in right this minute, wouldn’t I?’

‘But I must have a name to put on the cheque.’

She shrugged.

‘Without a name I can’t give it to you.’

‘Then keep it,’ she said with an elegant gesture. ‘I didn’t ask you for anything.’

His eyes showed his admiration. ‘You’re not afraid to play for high stakes.’

‘But I’m not playing for anything,’ she said with a laugh. ‘I’ve lived very happily without wealth and I can go on doing so.’

He cast a wry glance at her neck which wore a fortune in diamonds. Without hesitation Fran removed the necklace and set it beside him. ‘Just so that there’s no misunderstanding,’ she said. ‘I seek nothing from you. Nothing at all.’

It wasn’t strictly true, but what she wanted from him would have to be told at another time, and another place. And then she would call the shots.

Their eyes held for a moment. His held bemusement that she should take their duel right up to the line. Finally there was a glimmer of respect.

With a shrug that mirrored the ones he’d given at the gaming tables, he pushed the cheque over to her, with the name still blank. Then he rose to his feet and made as if to fasten the necklace back in place. But Fran prevented him.

‘You keep that. I’ll keep this,’ she said, indicating the cheque. ‘After all, I don’t want to be greedy, do I?’

Ali returned to his place opposite her and raised her hand to his lips, watching her all the time with eyes that were heavy, yet curiously alert. They were always alert, she realised, no matter what he was saying.

‘Not many women can claim they’ve bested me,’ he confessed. ‘But I see you’re used to playing games, and very good at it. I like that. It intrigues me. But what intrigues me even more is that smile you’re giving me.’

‘Smiles can convey so much more than words, don’t you think?’ she asked innocently.

‘But what is conveyed without words can so easily be denied. Is that what you’re doing, Diamond? Protecting yourself against the moment when you’ll want to deny what is passing between us?’

It was like being naked, she thought, alarmed. He saw too much.

To divert his attention from the dangerous point she put the cheque in her purse. ‘It would be very hard to deny that that has passed between us,’ she observed.

‘How true. I was sure a sharp wit lurked behind those innocent eyes.’

‘You don’t trust me, do you?’ she asked impulsively.

‘Not an inch. But we’re equally matched, for I have the strangest feeling that you do not trust me.’

Fran’s wide-eyed stare was a masterpiece of innocence. ‘How could anyone doubt Your Highness’s probity, rectitude, virtue, morality, righteousness—?’

He laughed until he almost choked, his eyes alight with real amusement, and he kissed her hand again, not seductively this time, but with a kind of vigorous triumph, as though he’d just seen his best hope romp past the winning post.

‘What man could resist you?’ he asked. ‘Certainly I cannot. But stop calling me “Your highness”. My name is Ali.’

‘And mine is—Diamond.’

‘I wonder. I begin to think I shall call you Scheherazade, for your wit, which is beyond the wit of all other women.’

‘I’m cleverer than quite a few men too,’ she riposted, and couldn’t resist adding, ‘You wait and see.’

He nodded. ‘The waiting is half the pleasure. Will she say yes or no? And if she says no will her voice contain a secret invitation nonetheless?’

‘I can’t believe you ever have that problem. Don’t tell me that any woman denies you.’

He shrugged. ‘A man can have all the women in the world, yet not the one he wants. If that one denies him, what are all the others?’

Fran regarded him with wry amusement, not fooled by this. The words were humble but the tone was arrogant. Implicit was the fact that no woman refused him, but he felt it was polite to pretend otherwise.

‘I’d have thought all the others were a good deal,’ she said. ‘They’d leave him no time for pining.’

‘You speak like a woman who has never had her heart broken. I wonder if that can really be true?’

‘It’s true.’

‘Then you have never loved, and that I find impossible to believe. You are made for love. I saw it in your eyes when they met mine in the casino.’

‘You weren’t thinking of love. You were thinking of money,’ she said lightly.

‘I was thinking of you and the spell you cast. It was that spell that turned my luck.’

‘Oh, please! That’s very pretty talk, but it was just chance.’

‘For some there is no chance,’ he said seriously. ‘Whatever is written in the book of fate is what they put there themselves. I try to discern my fate through the smoke that surrounds it, and I see your handwriting.’

‘And what—what else do you see?’ she faltered.

‘Nothing. The rest is hidden. There is only you.’

As he spoke he drew her to her feet and straight into his arms. Fran had believed herself prepared for this moment, but when it came her well-laid plans seemed to fall away. His little teasing kisses in the car had carried the promise of what was to come, and now she knew that there was no way she could ever have left Ali tonight, without discovering if the promise would be kept.

It was kept magnificently. He enfolded her in his arms in a way that shut out the rest of the world, as though only she mattered. That alone was a seductive experience. Fran bestowed a brief thought on Howard—the man in her life as far as there was one. Howard was a banker, and he kissed like a banker, as though estimating profit and loss. Strange that she’d never thought of that before. Then Ali Ben Saleem’s lips moved decisively over hers, and there were no thoughts left for any other man.

She told herself that she was merely laying the ground for the piece she would write, but her honesty wouldn’t let her get away with that. This was the kind of experience a woman dreamed of, and it was irresistible.

His mouth was curved, strong, yet immensely subtle, and it knew what she wanted it to do before she knew it herself. He lightly caressed her mouth before brushing his lips over her eyes, her jaw, her neck. With unerring precision he found the little spot beneath her ear where she was unbearably sensitive and drew a soft, whispering line down the length of her neck. Nothing could have made her repress the sigh of pleasure she gave.

Her head was cradled on his arm while he searched her face, seeking there the answer to some question that was beyond words.

‘Are you playing with me now?’ he growled.

‘Of course. A game that you don’t understand.’

He liked that. ‘When will I understand?’

‘When it is ended.’

‘When will it be ended?’

‘When I have won.’

‘Tell me your secret,’ he demanded.

A smile touched her lips. ‘You know the secret as well as I do.’

‘With you, there would always be a new secret,’ he said huskily, and covered her mouth again.

He half urged, half carried her the few steps to the couch by the window. She felt the cushions beneath her back and the moonlight on her face. He was caressing her with his lips while his hands began a gentle exploration of her body. She gasped at those soft touches. She hadn’t known that she had such a body until his reverent fingertips told her, and told her also what it was for.

It was for giving and taking in an ecstasy of pleasure, and she hadn’t suspected until this moment, when he made her understand what was possible beyond anything she could have imagined.

Her mouth moved feverishly against his, not receiving now but seeking and demanding with an urgency that astonished him—delighted him too, if his response was anything to go by. His insistence became fierce, and suddenly she could feel the hot breeze of the desert against her skin, see the dark red sun in its last moments before oblivion. He carried these things with him and no woman could lie in his arms without being aware of them as part of his soul.

All through the grey, chilly years this had been waiting for her, and now she had found it there was no turning back. He had said she was made for pleasure, and he was showing her that it was true.

She gave a long sigh, part acceptance, part apprehension. This was a very dangerous man. He could kiss, and kiss, until she no longer knew what was happening to her, or even who she was. And after that? Faintly, as if from a great distance, her pride was calling to her to save herself, because soon it would be too late…

But it was something else that saved her. A buzzer on the wall sounded faintly but persistently. Ali drew back with a small sound of annoyance, picked up a telephone nearby, and snapped something into it.

Almost at once his voice changed. Obviously the message was urgent, for he sighed and rose.

‘Forgive me,’ he said courteously. ‘Important business calls me away.’ He indicated the table. ‘Please, pour yourself some wine. I shall be with you as soon as possible.’

He hurried from the room.

Still in a daze, Fran couldn’t, at first, understand what had happened. At the height of a sensual experience such as she had never known before, he had simply brushed her aside. Business called and she had ceased to matter, or even to exist.

But when he returned he would expect her to be instantly available, she realised.

Well, now I know, she thought, seething. I came here to learn about Ali Ben Saleem, and I’ve already learned his priorities. Oil wells, one. Women, nil.

As her pulses slowed and she came out of the erotic dream he had induced with such infuriating ease, her anger grew.

‘Who does he think I am?’ she muttered.

No, not who? What? A doll to be put back on the shelf until he was ready to take her down again. And, as with a doll, he would expect to find her lying in the same position.

It would teach him a lesson not to find her at all.

She was on her feet in an instant, groping around for her sandals and trying to remember when and how she’d lost them. It brought home to her how far this man had lured her, how easily he’d made her lose control. She must escape.

She looked cautiously out into the hall.

A man, evidently a porter, sat by the front door. Fran wondered nervously if he had instructions to prevent her leaving. There was only one way to find out.

Taking a deep breath, she strolled across the marble floor, a picture of supreme confidence. The porter rose to his feet, uncertainty written all over his face. But, as Fran had hoped, none of his orders covered this unprecedented situation. Her heart thumping, she made an imperious gesture, and he bowed low as he opened the door for her to sail out into the night.

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