‘I can’t stay…’ He breathed thickly.
She swayed, passion-glazed eyes locked to him. ‘You can’t stay?’
‘I found you asleep and carried you to bed but I only came home to change. I have Majilis to attend this afternoon.’ Stunning eyes fully screened by his lush black lashes, he was already endeavouring to straighten the clothing she had disarranged and smooth his tousled black hair.
Faye breathed in so deep she thought the top of her head might fly off to release the surplus air. Disbelief held her fast but she didn’t even know what he was talking about. ‘You…you have Majilis…you’re going out?’
Tariq flashed her a rather sardonic look of amusement. He shrugged back his wide shoulders with sensual cool. His slow-burning smile mocked her. ‘Only minutes ago you told me you didn’t want to be here. You change direction like the wind. Even I did not expect a single kiss to win the battle…’
Faye might as well have been turned to stone by that speech. She closed her eyes: she dared not look at him lest he saw her raging mortification. She was drowning in self-loathing but still she could feel the pulsing ache of the hunger he had roused in her. How dared he speak to her like that? How dared he gloat?
‘So you think you’re irresistible?’
‘No…you make me feel irresistible. Small distinction,’ Tariq contradicted on his fluid passage to the door. ‘You’re hot for me. I’m sure other men have enjoyed the same response. But, right now, you’re mine alone.’
‘Do you know how much I hate you?’ Faye snapped, her hands knotting into defensive fists.
‘Why would I care? What is that to me?’ Arrogant head thrown back, his dark deep-set gaze pierced her like an ice dagger. ‘I want to possess you. I want to lie with you all through the night and make love to you as and when I want. But that is all I want from you.’
CHAPTER FOUR
LONG after Tariq had gone, Faye stared at the door, her fingernails still biting sharp crescents into her palms. His honesty had devastated her. Sex was all he wanted. For goodness’ sake, had she expected him to confess to a tortured longing to know her heart and her mind instead? And why on earth did she feel so hurt by that admission of his? It was not as if she still cared about him. In fact, it was ridiculous for her to still be so sensitive!
A light knock sounded on a door at the other side of the room and she spun round. A pair of smiling young girls, who bore little resemblance to the crushed individuals in little Prince Rafi’s retinue, entered.
‘We are Shiran and Meyla. Your lunch is ready, my lady,’ one of them informed her shyly.
Faye discovered that through that second door lay a whole host of other apartments, each as exquisitely appointed as the next. Was she in the harem? It scarcely mattered. Now that her adrenalin was leaping again, all she could think about was escape. Presented with a fabulous array of dishes all laid out on a low table in a superb reception room next door, Faye sat down to eat. Checking her watch and seeing that it was almost two in the afternoon, she then asked for a phone.
Once again, she dialled the number of her stepfather’s portable phone.
‘Faye? Adrian’s out!’ Percy sounded immensely cheerful. ‘We’re at the airport—’
‘Good. How soon will you be on a flight home?’
‘Another half-hour. Look, I can’t talk long. Adrian’s in a shop but he’ll be back in a minute. I told him that you flew back home this morning. He wouldn’t agree to leave Jumar if he knew the truth,’ Percy admitted without a shred of embarrassment.
‘You’re really worried about me, aren’t you?’ Helpless bitterness tinged Faye’s unusually sarcastic response.
‘Come on, Faye. It’s my bet you’re in the lap of luxury right now and it’s not like His Royal Highness is some bloke you don’t fancy! Let’s face it, you’ve been a right wet weekend ever since he dumped you—’
Faye closed her eyes and said, ‘I just don’t believe I’m hearing this—’
‘Well, now you finally got your prince, so I don’t see why you should be complaining or feeling sorry for yourself.’ Percy was warming to his theme, having rationalised events to his own satisfaction. ‘I think our Adrian has done you a favour.’
‘Thanks…thanks a bundle!’ Riven with resentment, Faye slung aside the phone in disgust.
Escaping from the Muraaba palace would be a challenge. She had two options, neither of which struck her as that promising. Borrow a horse and try to sneak out in disguise or conceal herself in a car that was about to leave. First, she asked Shiran if the palace had stables and where they were and then she made a series of requests. The maids’ eyes widened in surprise and confusion at the items she asked to be brought to her but they went off to do her bidding.
Her suitcase arrived, along with the food and bottled mineral water she had requested and the set of male robes and the headdress. Those last two demands were fulfilled with a great deal of giggling curiosity. Maybe the maids thought she was going to try and dress up as a man and spring some stupid childish prank on Tariq, not to mention a less than inviting midnight feast of bread and water.
Finally alone, Faye changed into trousers and a shirt and crammed the supplies along with her passport into her capacious backpack. A courtyard lay outside her bedroom. Using the elaborate wall fountain there as a foothold, Faye climbed the perimeter wall. Never having had the slightest fear of heights, she could have walked the wall blindfold. Traversing it, she continued along the walls of the eerily empty courtyards next to her own. Forced to climb higher at one point, she crossed a balcony so that she could ease herself down onto the flat parapet surrounding a giant domed roof.
Progress was slow but only twice did she have to risk touching ground level again to cross between buildings. Perched on the low sloping stable roof, she watched a couple of grooms leading a magnificent black horse out into a big flashy motorised horsebox. Bingo! She dropped down onto the cobbles in a shadowy corner and donned the robes she had in her backpack. Then she waited for a chance to board the horsebox.
When the men paused to talk, she made a run for it. Hurrying up the ramp into the box, she saw there was only that one horse on board. Startled by her entrance, the stallion threw up his head, his hooves clattering and banging on the boards. Faye dived into the furthest stall and crouched down to hide herself as best she could.
The ramp went up with a hydraulic hiss and minutes later doors slammed and the engine fired. The horsebox rocked over the cobbles, making the stallion fuss even more. Halting, presumably for the gates to be opened, the vehicle then turned, not towards the city as she had hoped, but in the other direction. Oh, great, she thought in exasperation. So now she would most probably have to take the horse as well. No way would she try hitching a lift in a country where, outside of the city, absolutely nobody seemed to walk.
How far would Tariq go in an effort to retrieve her? Might he simply shrug with fatalistic acceptance and just let her go? Faye recalled the look on his face when he’d mentioned those cold showers and felt hot all over. No, Tariq would not be cool about her vanishing act. All over again, she would be damning herself in his eyes. Refusing to concede that she was welching on their agreement, she grimaced at the noisy fretful movements of the stallion. Arabians were highly strung and this was the horse she was planning to steal and ride if need be?
The horsebox ground to a slow, jolting halt. Of course, they were stopping; the stallion was becoming frantic. Standing up, she approached his stall, talking in a low, soothing voice, calming him with confident hands. He was very responsive. She heard the ramp being unbolted. Holding the stallion’s reins with one hand, she undid the gate of his stall. Was she mad to take such a risk? But the stallion was already surging forward, eager to leave a confinement he clearly hated, and without further hesitation Faye threw herself up into the magnificent leather saddle.
What happened next was just a blur. The hydraulic ramp went down and full daylight flooded in, momentarily blinding her. She had a
fleeting impression of startled dark faces but by that stage the stallion was already plunging out past them, heading like a bullet for the flat salt plain that bounded the layby in which the horsebox had parked.
Faye gave the beautiful animal his head and let him gallop. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know where she was for she had studied that map in detail. Basically all she had to do was stay out of sight of the road and skirt the edge of the desert until she reached the city limits. At some stage she would have to pass the horse over to someone to be returned to the palace but that was really her only source of concern.
She was surprised by the strength of the breeze that blew her hair back from her face. However, it felt wonderful after the claustrophobic interior of the horsebox. Even so, it was still incredibly hot and she stopped to open her backpack and, disdaining the male head covering, she covered her head with a scarf. She noticed then that there was a faint haze over the sun.