That angle forgotten, however, Ruby remained standing stock still to stare out of the tent with a dropped jaw at the view of an alien world that shook her to the core. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but sand and the occasional small bush on a wide flat plain overarched by a bright blue sky and baked by a sun so bright and hot she couldn’t look directly at it.
‘Coffee? You slept soundly,’ Raja commented from the side of the small fire he had lit below the ample tent canopy.
‘Like the proverbial log.’ One glance in his direction and Ruby’s teeth grated together in exasperation. As if it weren’t hot as hell already he had to build a fire to sit beside! And there he sat, infuriatingly immaculate in the same long off-white robe he had donned the day before and seemingly as comfortable living in the desert as he might have been in a five-star hotel. Only the reality that he was unshaven marked his departure from his usual standards of perfect grooming.
‘Where did you get more water to make coffee?’ Ruby was struggling not to care that her hair was probably standing on end and mascara had to be smeared all round her eyes.
‘This is an oasis. I established that last night. An underground stream feeds a pool below the cliff and our water supply is secure.’ He gestured to the other side of the tent. ‘Do you want a drink?’
Ruby flipped round to belatedly note the towering cliff of rock on the far side of the tent. A large grove of flourishing date palms and other vegetation made it clear that a water source had to exist somewhere near by. ‘I’d sooner not take the risk. After what happened on the plane, I’m only drinking water that comes out of a bottle,’ she told him thinly.
The prince compressed his sensual mouth on the laugh he almost let escape. She looked very small, young and unsure of herself, standing there with tousled hair and bare feet, clearly unsettled by her surroundings but struggling not to reveal the fact. She hated to betray weakness and it was a trait he implicitly understood. Dishevelled though she was, however, her hair still glinted like polished silk and her flawless skin had the subdued glow of a pearl. Her beauty was not dependent on cosmetics or the flattering cut and gloss of designer clothing, he recognised, very much impressed by how good she looked without those trimmings. ‘There is no bottled water to be had here.’
‘Yes, I know that … I’m not stupid!’ Ruby snapped back at him in furious self-defence. ‘I just don’t do the camping thing … OK? Never did do it, never saw the appeal of it and don’t want to be roughing it out here now!’
‘That is very understandable,’ the prince responded with the utmost cool.
Far from impervious to the likely impression she had to be making on a guy who had probably majored in advanced desert survival skills during the war, Ruby dealt him a dirty look. ‘I don’t care if you laugh at me!’
Retreating crossly back into the tent because she cared very much indeed, Ruby hauled her case to the ground and opened it. She was grateful she hadn’t bothered to lock it because, like her shoes, her handbag in which she would have stowed a key was missing. Only when she saw the state of the tumbled contents did she realise how naive she was being: their kidnappers had clearly rummaged through the contents before unloading it from the plane, doubtless keen to ensure that she hadn’t packed a phone. She dug out her wash bag and a towel as well as a change of clothing and a pair of sneakers, suddenly very grateful indeed to be in possession of such necessities. A quick inspection of the tent interior warned her that Raja had not been so fortunate.
Donning fresh underwear and tee, she wrapped a sarong round her waist and tried to move more slowly because the heat was making her perspire. She came to a reluctant halt on the edge of the sparse shade offered by the canopy. ‘I have a new toothbrush and a razor you can have and you can share my towel.’
In the mood his wife was in, Raja considered that a surprisingly generous offer. A wolfish grin of appreciation slashed his bold, bronzed features and he looked so ravishingly handsome at that instant that Ruby stared fixedly at him, her tummy flipping like an acrobat on a high wire, the warmth of awareness sending hot colour surging into her oval face.
She climbed up the slope and saw the pool that had formed in a gully densely shaded by the massive bulk of the rock formation behind it. Raja strode up from the tent to join her and fell into step beside her, his hand first at her elbow and then at her spine to help her ascend the rougher ground and to steady her when she wavered. He had incredibly good manners and, unused as she was to that consideration from a man, she could only be pleased that he was willing to make the effort. She was uneasily aware that so far she had not been the most heartening companion. Even worse in so challenging and harsh an environment she could only be at a loss.
They hovered by the side of the palm-fringed, crystal-clear pool formed by the water seeping out from a crack low in the rock face. Ruby moved first, taking off her sneakers to dip her toes in the water. The temperature was deliciously cool on her skin in the intense heat. Lifting her chin and refusing to be self-conscious, she wasted no time in pulling her tee shirt off and untying the sarong. In bra and knickers she reckoned that she was as well covered as she would have been in a bikini. Raja followed suit, stripping off his long tunic and draping it over a rock beside her clothing. Wide-eyed, Ruby watched the sleek muscles working in his strong back and shoulders and then hurriedly averted her gaze, reminding herself how much she had always hated her stepfather leering at her body. It was a clumsy comparison though, she reflected, for she suspected that Raja might well enjoy her admiration.
Standing thigh deep in the pool, Raja watched Ruby wash, his masculine body quickening with hungrily appreciative male interest. Wet through, her underwear was very revealing. He could see the prominent pink nipples poking through the sheer cups of her bra and he wondered how sensitive she would be if he put his mouth to those delicate peaks. As she waded out of the pool again, the clinging fabric of her panties clearly outlined the cleft between her thighs and the forbidden aspect of what he was seeing was a much more stimulating sight than complete nudity. Hard as steel in response, he studied the rippling surface of the water instead. On a very basic level his thoughts were reminding him that she was his wife, that at the very least he was entitled to look while at the same time his brain was recalling their agreement. No sex, no touching. Why the hell had he ever agreed to that? He reckoned that if he touched her the way he was feeling the force of his desire would frighten her.
Ruby walked out of the water and reached for the towel to dab herself dry, moving out of the shade in the expectation that the sun would dry her off more quickly.
‘This is the hottest hour of the day. Cover up or you’ll burn,’ Raja warned her, knowing that he was burning already in an altogether more primitive way.
Reckoning that he was bone-deep bossy in the same unalterable way that holly leaves were prickly, Ruby ignored the stricture and left off her tee. She knotted the sarong just above her bra and began to comb out her damp hair, her attention quite naturally straying to his sleek powerful physique as he stood in the water that had covered her to the waist. His torso was a streamlined wall of muscle, his bulging upper arms, narrow hips and long thighs whipcord taut with lean tensile strength. As he splashed water up over his magnificent body, droplets glistening like diamonds in the bright light, she noticed the revealing fit of his boxer shorts which clearly defined his manhood. Feeling like a voyeur invading his privacy, she quickly looked away but she was shocked.
Was the presence of her only minimally clad body responsible for putting him in that condition? Her face stung with mortified red at the suspicion. What else was she supposed to think? She might not be irresistible as he had quipped the night before but she evidently did have what it took to awaken the most basic chemistry of all. It also occurred to her that she really had not realised until now that an aroused male would be quite so … large in that department.
A heavy ache stirred low within her own body and she was taken aback by the recognition that seeing Raja aroused, and knowing that her body was responsible for that development, excited her. And