‘In our country intelligence is as great an attribute as physical strength, and both are equally necessary.’ He gave a faint smile. ‘The hunter cannot hunt if he cannot first find his prey, Your Highness.’
Alexa shivered. For the past sixteen years of her life she’d been someone’s prey. She’d thought she’d finally escaped, but looking at the dangerous gleam in Karim’s dark eyes she suddenly felt the fleeting control she’d had of her life slip through her fingers. She had no doubt that he was now the one in charge, and the thought made her desperately uneasy. Did she want to cross the desert with this man for company? No, she didn’t. She didn’t want or need other people in her life. She was so much safer alone.
Trying to control her fear, Alexa checked the mirror again for signs of another vehicle, and then tried to relax by studying the scenery.
Before they’d landed in Zangrar she’d seen the desert as nothing more than a land feature that they were going to have to cross. But as Karim had accelerated towards the highway that led through the desert she’d been astounded and then captivated.
Now, as she looked, she saw endless dunes stretching into the distance, the colours myriad shades of burnt orange.
‘Like my hair,’ she murmured, and Karim glanced towards her.
‘What is?’
‘The desert. It’s the same colour.’ For a moment she forgot about William as she gazed out of the window. ‘It’s astonishing. Fabulous. I never knew that there would be so many colours. I mean, it’s just sand, but—’ She broke off and shaded her eyes as she squinted towards the top of a steep-sided dune. ‘I never thought they’d be that high.’
‘Clearly you have never been to the desert before.’
‘I’ve never been anywhere before.’ Alexa steadied herself as the vehicle bumped over uneven ground. ‘This is a better road than I expected.’
‘Yes, when you can see it. When the wind blows it lies buried under sand.’
‘So how do you find your way when that happens?’
‘Modern equipment. And if that lets me down then I rely on experience and more traditional forms of navigation.’
‘Such as?’
‘The position of the sun, the direction of the wind, the smell of the air.’ He shrugged. ‘The desert tells you much if you are willing to listen. Why are you asking me, when you apparently intended to travel it yourself with no assistance? Presumably you already possess all these skills?’
‘I would have been fine.’ Something on the horizon caught her eye. ‘There’s something moving. I can see something.’ Her heart-rate doubled, but Karim didn’t slow the vehicle.
‘It’s a camel train. It’s how many people still choose to get around in the desert.’
‘Camels?’ Alexa stared, fascinated now that she knew it wasn’t a threat. ‘Can we go closer?’
‘You wish to take a closer look at a camel?’
‘Is that a problem?’
A look of incredulity crossed his bronzed features. ‘No, but it’s surprising. A close encounter with a camel wouldn’t be high on most women’s list of coveted life-experiences.’
‘Maybe not. But most women haven’t been trapped in one place all their lives. Have you any idea what it’s like to see the real thing after staring at a picture?’
‘You are telling me that you’ve never left Rovina?’
Unsettled by her impulsive admission, Alexa clamped her mouth shut. Why had she told him that? She knew better than to confide details of her life to anyone.
Ignoring her lack of response, Karim frowned. ‘Your uncle is clearly extremely protective of you. You should be grateful that he cares so much. Do you not feel that you have betrayed him by running away in the night?’
Protective? ‘If you always take things at face value then you’re not going to be much use as a bodyguard. Let’s just say that my uncle and I seriously disagree about the direction of my future.’
‘You are to become Queen in a year. I expect he feels that you should be in the palace, learning everything you can about your new role.’
Alexa leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. She could have told him the truth, of course, but she’d long ago learned the dangers of confiding in anyone, so she stayed silent.
But the reminder of Rovina and William had extinguished her innocent enjoyment of the desert, and suddenly Alexa felt sick. There was still so much that could go wrong in the few days before her birthday and the wedding.
She glanced sideways at Karim. If it came to a fight, would he help her?
He was certainly capable of it. He was dressed in combat trousers and sturdy boots, and would have looked like a soldier were it not for the dark stubble that hazed his strong jaw after a night of travelling. Part soldier, part bandit, she thought dizzily. His hair gleamed blue-black in the harsh desert sunshine, and his bronzed skin betrayed his desert heritage.
He was strikingly handsome and more male than any man she’d met before, his face all hard angles and bold arrogance. He regarded the world with something that came close to disdain, and she knew instinctively that there would be few situations in life that this man wouldn’t be able to handle.
Alexa wished desperately that they hadn’t shared that explosive kiss. Until that moment she hadn’t known how a kiss could feel, and she wished she were still living in blissful ignorance. At least then she wouldn’t be using all her energy trying not to stare at his mouth.
With the hunger of an addict contemplating the next fix, Alexa’s eyes lingered on his powerful shoulders, slid down to his flat, muscular stomach and settled on the hard muscle of his strong thighs. He had the hard physique of a soldier and there was no spare flesh on his lean, powerful frame. The deadly blade of the knife glinted in his belt, and she had no doubt that the gun was also around somewhere close.
‘Stop staring at me, Your Highness,’ he drawled softly. ‘Or is the heat of the desert firing your blood? It has that effect on some people. To be in the desert is to return to life at its most basic and primitive.’
Colour flooded into her cheeks and she looked away immediately, hideously embarrassed that he’d been aware of her scrutiny. ‘I wasn’t staring.’
‘Once you are married to the Sultan you will need to hide the fact that you are attracted to other men.’ The vehicle lurched suddenly, and he muttered something under his breath and swung the wheel, skilfully compensating for the deficiencies of the terrain.
Clinging to her seat, Alexa felt her face burn, and suddenly the heat in the car seemed increasingly oppressive. ‘I’m not attracted to you.’
‘You were gazing at me as you would a lover. The same way you looked at me last night, when you came to my bedroom.’
She’d never had this type of conversation with anyone before, and the breath jammed in her throat. ‘I came to your bedroom to find my passport. And I certainly wasn’t looking at you as I would a lover. Trust me on that one.’
She’d never had a lover, and after one particularly traumatic experience when she was sixteen she hadn’t wanted a lover. Until this moment.
The thought startled and shocked her, and she rubbed her fingers over her damp forehead, trying to return her mind to its previous state of indifference to romance. The experience of her youth had taught her an important lesson. Once—just once—she’d trusted a man and she’d been paying the price ever since. She hadn’t been so much burnt as fried to a crisp.