Roark nodded. “And powerful. Sheikh Mallik Khouri of Rayas.”
Elizabeth’s head spun. “Doesn’t his family own the missing Gold Heart statue?”
“Yes.”
“Is this just a huge coincidence, or…” Elizabeth was gripped by a strong sense of foreboding.
Roark’s expression was grim. “I don’t know.”
She mulled the situation, sensing there was something Roark was holding back.
“But Fadira’s not married yet,” she insisted, rooting for Darius to get his heart’s desire. “There’s still a chance for love to conquer all.”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
Elizabeth could see she was wasting her breath trying to convince Roark that love wasn’t a crazy, imprudent emotion. Her attention shifted back to Darius, and discovered Sabeen’s gaze on her. Contempt flickered in their dark depths.
To feel that much hostility from a stranger put Elizabeth on full alert. “What about Sabeen?” Elizabeth cursed the tight tone in her voice.
“What about her?”
“Is there a reason why she looks as if she’d like to crush me like a bug?”
“Don’t read anything into it. She can be volatile. I’m sure all you’re seeing is that she’s annoyed with me for springing this engagement on her.”
Elizabeth searched his bland expression, sensing that he wasn’t telling her everything. Did Sabeen’s antagonism stem from jealousy? How close were she and Roark? What had Elizabeth gotten in the middle of?
“Why didn’t you ask for her help?”
His lips twitched. Amusement brightened his eyes as his gaze captured hers. He lifted her hand to his lips. “Because I can’t trust her.”
The implication being he could trust Elizabeth. Her traitorous heart skipped in delight until his next words.
“She’s far too passionate. She’d get swept up in the romance. I’d never get her to accept that the engagement was a business arrangement.”
“She’s in love with you.” Elizabeth’s spirits dipped.
He shrugged, but didn’t deny her claim. “I knew her father for twenty years. He taught me Arabic and Persian. He was a brilliant man. Everything I know about Middle Eastern antiquities I learned from him. Before he died, he asked me to look after his children.”
Only they weren’t children. They were a passionate, sultry woman ripe for love and an adventure-seeking young man who looked like he was bursting with boredom at such a tame event as this.
“They don’t appear as if they need looking after.”
Roark’s lips quirked. “Looks can be deceiving. Earlier this year I chased off a fortune hunter. She loses all common sense when it comes to love.”
“Good thing she has you around to teach her how to be sensible.” Elizabeth rolled the engagement ring around her finger.
“Are you trying to tell me something?”
“Only that you seem to have an overabundance of skepticism about falling in love.”
“It’s not skepticism,” he retorted. “It’s practicality. Few women are going to be happy with a man who’s gone most of the year. They need constancy, want a partner. I can’t provide either.”
Was he warning her off? If so, he was wasting his breath. S
he recognized his type. Exciting. Challenging. But in the end, unavailable.
“And I’m not in the market for a man in my life,” she spoke more to herself than him.