My Desert Rose (4 page)

"There'll be no
funny business between us," she declared in a firm voice.

The temptation
to kiss her was rising. "Funny business?" he repeated, shaking his
head slightly at her words. "What is funny business?"

"It means no
sex."

"Ah,’ he
laughed, "I promise you this. I will not make a move on you. In
fact, you are the leader, so when you want to have some funny
business, you just let me know, okay?" He secretly wondered how
long her resistance would last with this growing intensity of
sexual awareness between them, but he would allow her the space to
make the first move, as long as she didn't take too long.
Otherwise, he might just have to push a few buttons to speed her
up.

A cough behind
them caused him to drop his hands. A man was standing there in full
Islamic regalia.

"You brought
the imam?" she asked in disbelief.

Tariq bent over
to untie her ankles. "Yes, we have to be married before we land. I
have sent a message to my father to say I am bringing my new wife
home. Normally, you would need a member of your family present, but
I can provide the two witnesses, Rob, my security manager, who you
called Mr. Pump Iron Bodyguard and my personal aide, Murad." He
pointed to someone behind Katie.

She turned to
find a small thickset man pop his head out of the doorway at the
back and wave cautiously at her. She nodded in response. "Am I
allowed to clean up before we begin?"

Tariq smiled in
earnest. "Yes, of course. I know this has come as a shock and at
such short notice, but my parents will insist on a full ceremony
when we arrive, so the imam will recite the religious vows now and
we'll sign the certificate. We'll do a full family wedding in
Socotra."

Katie looked
down at her gold maid of honour dress that she was still wearing.
It was now severely rumpled. "I suppose this will have to do."

Following Rob
to the bedroom at the back of the jet, she tided herself up in the
adjoining bathroom. Looking at herself in the mirror, she realised
how pale and drawn she looked. Actually, she looked downright
shell-shocked. Yesterday was Saturday and she'd been a single
woman, sighing about her non-existent love life. Now it was Sunday
and she was about to marry a stranger. There would be no fanfare,
no planning and no family or close friends present. Not even her
dear aunt and uncle would know about it until after the event. Even
Annabelle, who was possibly on her way to her own honeymoon,
wouldn't be here to hold her hand. For the second time in her life
she felt completely alone. Inwardly, she reprimanded herself for
drinking the pink champagne. How many times had she told herself
never to allow a stranger to buy her or bring her a drink?

Quickly, she
cleansed her face, brushed her teeth with a spare toothbrush that
she found in a drawer and pinched some colour into her cheeks.

Knowing that
you can only hide behind a bathroom door for so long, she took a
deep breath and went to turn the door handle. Panic gnawed at her.
Everything was moving so fast. What if she went out there and told
Tariq it was off? Would he allow her the freedom to change her
mind? She wasn’t sure. The only carrot at the end of the rope was
the promise of seeing her father again. It wasn't fair of Tariq to
hold back information and allow her to see him only when his part
of the deal had been completed. Over the years she’d relived that
last moment with her parents a thousand times. For Tariq to tell
her that he was still alive was almost too much to take in.
Trusting that Tariq was telling the truth was a gamble and she was
about to take the biggest risk of her life.

At the age of
six she'd been brought to England from Turkey to live with her
English mother’s sister and her husband, but those first six years
of her life had been spent in a close-knit Muslim environment. Her
roots meant that once she signed the certificate today, she would
be bound by its faith and its laws. Tariq knew this. It scared the
hell out of her. That way of living was a long time ago and she'd
had to let it go for the sake of her sanity. It would have been
harder to heal the pain had she kept her old identity. None of her
friends, not even Annabelle knew about her life before living with
her aunt and uncle. How could they, she was so young when she
arrived in their little village of Edingthorpe. The only thing that
Annabelle knew was that her parents had died in a tragic
accident.

The two
identities of Katarina and Katie were about as similar as the Earth
and the Moon. They were two completely different worlds. Tariq was
about to take her back into the world of Katarina, and after
twenty-two years of being Katie, she didn't think the ride was
going to be a smooth one. Her mind as a woman was too liberal and
western in its thinking, and in its demand for equality, to go back
to her Turkish roots. On the other hand, Tariq's world was rich in
respect, family and culture, and those were the things she'd sorely
missed.

Breathing out
her panic to calm her nerves, she opened the door. There were so
many unanswered questions and time was short. The urge to go out
there and demand that Tariq answer some of her queries about her
father before she was legally bound to him was so strong. Had her
father remarried? Was he well? Was he happy? Did she have any
siblings? Walking towards a waiting Tariq, she knew by the shake of
his head as she approached him that he would not give her any
information until he'd put his own demons to rest.

He held out his
hand.

This was it.
There would be no going back after this was done. No future
marriage, no children. A little sob caught in her throat as she put
her cold hand into his warm one. All those dreams of creating her
own happy family ended here, but she would have her father back and
that was worth more than life itself.

Chapter
Three

The jet landed
on the runway of the private airstrip, but Katie hadn’t noticed the
azure ocean, white sands, long stretches of desert or the lush
green of the mountains as they'd come into land. She was too numb.
The ceremony had taken as little as fifteen minutes and one
signature later, she was now Sheikha Katarina Turan el-Tayeb. It
was all so surreal and matter-of-fact. There were no tears of joy
or whopping great happiness, just a huge diamond ring that weighed
heavily on her finger and a peck on the cheek from Tariq. Was it
only twenty-four hours ago when she had been standing in beautiful
autumn scenery watching a wedding filled with love take place?

Warm fingers
entwined with her stiff ones on the armrest. It took her a moment
to lift up her head and look into two concerned brown eyes. They
looked so edible that she could have plucked them out and let their
chocolate gooeyness melt in her mouth. This was exactly what her
problem was. Tariq was so mind-bogglingly yummy, that she wondered
if she'd been duped. It took her back to a memory of buying an
Easter egg, which had looked so colourful against the others, but
one bite and you were spitting out dud, sickly chocolate.

His eyes
crinkled slightly at the corners as he smiled. "It will be okay,
little moheet."

Katie raised
her eyebrows at his use of the Arabic word for ocean. "Just so you
know, I can still speak fluent Arabic."

A look of pride
flashed in his eyes. "I know. Your aunt kept her promise to your
father and allowed you to continue learning the spoken side of the
language."

Eagerness and a
thirst for more information on her father nearly spurted out of
her, but she was cautious about pushing him, so she enquired in a
cool voice, "Is there anything you don’t know about me?"

He gave her a
small, seductive smile. "Oh, I think perhaps there is much to learn
about you."

Heat pooled in
her belly at his double meaning and she quickly turned away. Yum,
she thought, as a picture of a tiered chocolate mousse popped into
her mind, I bet there are many layers of you to uncover. The image
soon dissolved when she realised that this wasn't a fantasy, it was
real. She was now a married woman. How was she going to live for
the next forty plus years without sex when she couldn't even last
five minutes without turning him into some sort of chocolate every
time she looked at him? The thought of living a life without
intimacy was completely overwhelming. Tariq had promised her she’d
be the only woman in his life. That meant exclusive rights,
right?
She shivered at that thought and pulled her hand away
from underneath his. Remember Katie, she chided, too much chocolate
isn't good for you.

The jet came to
a stop and they moved to disembark. A black limo was waiting for
them on the runway. Tariq caught her elbow at the top of the
stairs. "I have asked for privacy on arrival and for this evening,
so that you and I can dine alone, but tomorrow evening there'll be
a family dinner in our honour. I know all about you, but you know
nothing of me, so it’s only fair that you have this time to get
prepared to meet the family."

Katie nodded at
his thoughtfulness. The thought of being in a room alone with him
made her heart skip a beat. Feeling the need to remind him of their
deal, she replied, "But no funny business during this dinner,
okay?"

Tariq put back
his head laughed. "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

A pink flush
climbed up her neck and into her cheeks. Huffing at him, she turned
and descended the stairs and climbed into the waiting limo.

The road
through the desert was full of sharp bends. Out of the window,
Katie could see glimpses of turquoise waters over the flat parts of
the land. "When you mentioned Socotra, I’d never heard of it
before. I wish I had my camera as it’s so breathtakingly
beautiful."

"Yes, it’s a
relatively unknown island with only a few towns. My family live
mainly in the north in the capital city of Hadiboh, but I have a
private home in the south at Aomak Beach. Most of the ships dock on
the west at Qalansiyah."

She quickly
glanced at him and then turned back to the window. "I don't think
I've seen this kind of contrast before between the ocean, white
desert and green mountainous ranges. They're so conflicting, yet
they live in perfect harmony. They would make rare images for my
photo collection."

Tariq felt
relaxed for the first time in months. Leaning back, he took in the
full profile of his new wife. Childish awe was currently infusing
her delicate facial features and her ample chest was rising and
falling in time with her excitement. The second he'd signed the
certificate, he'd breathed out a sigh of relief. All he needed now
was a plan of action. He knew she was worried about her new role as
his wife. The diamond ring he’d purchased just last week glittered
on her finger. Over the last hour he’d caught her looking at it
numerous times and nervously twisting it around. Taking his eyes
from her he looked out of the window and pointed to a passing tree.
"Do you see that tree over there?" he asked her.

"Yes," she
answered.

"It’s called
the dragon blood tree and you won’t find it anywhere else in the
world. As a matter of fact, one third of the species on this island
can be found nowhere else."

"That's
incredible," she whispered, as she looked over at his animated
face. Suddenly, a thought dawned on her. "I’ve just realised that I
have none of my belongings with me, not even my mobile phone or my
passport!"

"Don’t worry."
He smiled lazily at her. "I had Rob pick up your passport from your
room." He patted his breast pocket. "And I’ve requested everything
for you, from shoes, clothes, toiletries, even your own
photographic equipment and processing lab."

She immediately
saw red on hearing his words. "How long?" she asked him in an icy
tone.

Confused, he
replied, "How long what?"

"Just exactly
how long have you been planning this abduction?" The scenery was
now forgotten as she crossed her arms and looked pointedly at
him.

For the first
time in as long as he could remember he actually blushed. "Since
mid-June," he answered truthfully.

"So basically,
you've been researching me and planning all this out for
four
months
?" Clearly, the man was either desperate or obsessed.

He nodded.

"How confident
were you that I'd do it?" Now that they'd started down this track,
she wanted the whole truth.

"Well, I
approached you at the wedding and asked you for your help and when
you said no, I acted on option two, so either way..." he trailed
off as he saw sheer anger pass over her face.

"And here I was
thinking that I had a choice, but the truth is I didn't, did I? You
planned all of this months ago. There I was living in oblivion
while some nutcase was having wardrobes kitted out with clothes for
me, ready for when I was kidnapped."

What could he
say? Everything she'd said was true, but he couldn't let the
hijackings of his ships go on any longer. The Somali government
weren't interested. The open waters belonged to no-one and the
police on Socotra were handling as much as they could at their end.
Who was he going to turn to? He'd thought about doubling his men,
but without guns they still wouldn't be able to protect themselves.
Firearms were against the law on flammable tankers.

Sometimes he
did stop to think about what he was doing bringing in a woman to
get him the proof, but his family were a closed unit to outsiders.
The only way was to bring in someone whom they'd consider as
family, and Katie fitted the bill. At the time it seemed perfectly
logical to him. It still did, and he was reminded of it when he met
the dead men's families. He sighed heavily into the interior of the
car. "This decision has not been made lightly, Katarina. I know
what I stand to lose."