‘She is not being obedient, Miss Bennett,’ the man beside her said, ‘she’s simply gawking at the sights.’
Joanna swung towards him. He was looking straight ahead, intent on the road.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘That couple.’ He glanced at her, an insolent smile curled across his mouth. ‘You were thinking the wife was following her husband out of custom, but I assure you, she wasn’t.’
He was right, but what did that matter? Joanna gave him a frigid look.
‘Do you make a habit of reading people’s thoughts, Mr Hassan?’
‘It isn’t difficult to read yours. You seem convinced we classify our women as property in this part of the world.’
She smiled tightly. ‘Your definition, not mine.’
He laughed. ‘A diplomatic response, Joanna—but then, your father would not have sent you on such a delicate mission if he hadn’t been certain of your ability to handle yourself well.’
Some of the tension flowed from Joanna’s posture. He was right. This had been a delicate mission, and she’d carried it off successfully. Let the Hassans and Khalils of this world have their baksheesh and bribes. What did it matter to her? She’d set out to snatch success from the jaws of defeat and she’d done it, despite the arrogant high-handedness of the man next to her.
‘You’re quite right,’ she said pleasantly, folding her hands neatly in her lap and watching as the dimly lit streets spun by, ‘he wouldn’t have.’
‘He has no sons?’
‘No.’ Her smile grew saccharine sweet. ‘I know you must think that makes him quite unfortunate, but—’
‘I suspect it simply makes him all the fonder of you.’ He glanced at her, then looked back to the road. ‘You must be very important to Sam Bennett, not only as vice-president of Bennettco but as the jewel of his heart.’
Joanna looked at him. She was neither, she thought with a little pang, not the vice-president of Bennettco nor even the jewel of her father’s heart. It was Bennettco itself that was his love, it always had been, but now that she’d pulled this off...
‘Am I right, Joanna?’
She swallowed. ‘Yes,’ she said quickly, ‘I’m as important to him as you are to Prince Khalil.’
His head swung towards her. ‘As I...?’
‘I mean, you must be very important to Khalil, for him to entrust you with negotiating such important matters.’
‘Ah.’ He smiled. ‘Of course. You are wondering if my word is Khalil’s bond.’
‘No. I wasn’t. It never occurred to me to doubt—’
‘I promise you, he will abide by my judgement.’ He looked towards her, and suddenly his smile fled. ‘I will not repudiate anything I do this night.’
Joanna’s brows rose a bit. ‘I’m sure you won’t,’ she said politely.
The man wasn’t just arrogant, he was contemptuous as well. ‘I will not repudiate anything I do this night‘! It was almost laughable. How could he say that when he was only the Prince’s minister?
Khalil would be even worse, Joanna thought with a sigh, rigid and imperious and completely egotistical. It was probably a good thing he hadn’t agreed to meet with her. As it was, she’d had difficulty holding her temper with Hassan. Heaven only knew how she’d have been able to deal with someone even ruder.
But she didn’t have to worry about that any more, she thought, permitting herself a little smile. She’d done the impossible, pulled the coup that would set her firmly on a path she’d always wanted, and if she’d have been happier managing it without pushing a bribe under Hassan’s nose, well, so what? If that was how things were done here, who was she to ask questions? She had succeeded, and now she and Hassan were going to drink a toast to their agreement.
Joanna settled back in her seat. Where was he taking her, anyway? Somewhere far from the streets she knew, that was obvious. In fact, they’d left the streets behind completely. The car was racing along a straight, narrow road that disappeared into the night.
Perhaps he was taking her to some place less Western than the restaurant where they’d dined. Perhaps, for all his seeming urbanity, he’d been uncomfortable in its sophisticated setting.
‘You’ve become quiet again, Joanna.’ Hassan stepped down harder on the accelerator and the car seemed to leap forward. ‘Have you nothing to say, now that you’ve got what you wanted from me?’
His tone was nonchalant but Joanna sensed the underlying derision in his words. She shifted into the corner of her seat and smiled politely.
‘I think we’ve each gotten something from the other,’ she said.
‘Of course. You have my promise of co-operation and I—’ He looked at her, his teeth showing in a swift smile. ‘I have the bribe you offered me for it.’
It was what she had just been thinking but hearing it from the man on the receiving end made it different. Surely people who demanded you buy them off didn’t go around admitting it, did they? And, just as surely, they didn’t make it sound as if you were the one who’d done something vile—yet that was what his tone had clearly suggested.
Joanna caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Was he still smarting over the clumsy way she’d handled the bribe offer? She knew she hadn’t done it with any subtlety, that she’d come within a breath of insulting him, something that was not done anywhere but especially not in this part of the world.
‘Everyone benefits,’ he said softly. ‘Khalil is bought off, Bennettco turns a handsome profit—and Abu Al Zouad grows fatter.’ He looked at her, his eyes unreadable in the darkness. ‘All in all, a fine arrangement, yes?’
Joanna shifted uneasily. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘I don’t know what it is between your Prince and the Sultan, but—’
‘Everyone benefits,’ he said again, his tone hardening. ‘Everyone—except my people.’
As if he or his mighty Prince really gave a damn, she thought angrily. But she bit back the words and offered ones that were only slightly more diplomatic instead.
‘It’s too late to have second thoughts, Mr Hassan. You gave me your word—’
‘If you intend to speak to me of honour,’ he said coldly, ‘you are wasting your time.’
Their eyes met and held. All at once, Joanna wished she were anywhere but here, in this fast car tearing through the darkness to some unknown destination.
‘I was only going to point out that we agreed on—’
‘What would you have done if I’d turned down your bribe money?’
‘Listen, Mr Hassan, if you’ve a problem with Prince Khalil’s accepting money...’ Joanna clamped her lips together. What was needed here was a touch of diplomacy, not anger. ‘I wasn’t suggesting that you were—that you should...’ She shook her head. ‘It’s not my place to make judgements, but—’
‘Of course it is. You and your estimable father both make judgements. You judged Abu Al Zouad worthy of Bennettco’s largesse, you judged Prince Khalil a man to be easily bought off—’
‘Easily?’ His supercilious tone made Joanna bristle and she spoke sharply, before she could stop herself. ‘Who are you kidding? I know how much is waiting for him in that Swiss bank account, remember?’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Wait a minute. Is that what this is all about? Are you going to try and hold us up for more?’
‘And what if I did? You’d pay it. You’d pay whatever you must to get what