d I’d like to go to bed—alone. I’m here to complete the job of promoting the diamond and Jandor and that’s all I’m interested in.’
Zafir’s eyes took on a gleam she didn’t want to interpret. But he just said, ‘Very well, Kat. I’ll see you after lunch tomorrow, then.’
She had turned to walk away again before she stopped and asked suspiciously, ‘The function is in two days. What’s happening tomorrow?’
Zafir folded his arms and looked powerful and dangerous. ‘A little sightseeing tour of my country. I’m making up for the fact that you saw very little of Jandor last time.’
Panic skittered along Kat’s skin. ‘You really don’t have to do that. You’re busy. I can sightsee on my own.’
He walked forward and caught her arm again, escorting her out of the garden in a smooth motion. ‘Your concern for my schedule is commendable—but, yes, Kat, I am doing this. Jasmine will help you pack for the trip.’
Kat pulled herself free. ‘Pack?’
‘I’m taking you into the desert for the night—a unique experience, and one I’d hate for you to miss out on before you leave.’
Before you leave.
Kat stifled the dart of pain. She recognised his look of steely determination. ‘Fine, Zafir,’ she bit out eventually. ‘But don’t think that this changes anything—all you’ll be doing is wasting your own precious time.’
* * *
Zafir watched Kat walk back to her suite of rooms, her slight limp the only hint that there was anything different about her.
When he’d seen her standing in Sara’s garden—as he called it—he’d expected to feel a sense of intrusion. But he’d felt the opposite. He’d felt as if a weight was being lifted off his shoulders. He’d found himself avoiding her eye, embarrassingly afraid of the compassion he suspected he’d see in those amber depths and what it might unleash inside him.
And then, when he’d told her about Salim and Sara and their bond, she’d asked, ‘What about you?’
Her innocent question had impacted on him like a blow to the gut. No one had ever said that to him before—What about you?—because no one had ever really cared.
Zafir’s hands curled into fists now, as if that could halt the rise of something dark and tangled that he didn’t want to decipher.
He turned around and strode back to his rooms, irritation and sexual frustration making his movements jerky. Damn her for throwing up more questions than answers. Damn her for not making this as easy as he’d expected it to be. And damn her for looking so right here...as if she belonged.
She couldn’t belong here. Zafir had closed the door on that possibility comprehensively and for ever. He had a future to build, and Kat was not a part of that future. Very soon she would be in his past and Zafir would have no regrets.
But in the meantime he would use every skill he possessed to make her acquiesce one last time, and then—then—he would be able to let her go, and when he moved on and chose his Queen it would be someone who didn’t look at him and make him feel as though she could see all the way to the depths of his soul...
* * *
Late the following afternoon Kat was in a helicopter, looking down in awe as they flew over the vast Jandor desert. The spiderlike shape of the helicopter’s shadow undulated over high sand dunes as the sun set in the distance. It was magical.
Much as she had intended blocking out Zafir’s far too magnetic presence, it was almost impossible. The space in the back of the helicopter was small, and his thigh was pressed firmly along hers. And she didn’t like the look in his eye—far too intense and determined. As if he knew something she didn’t.
She hated that he’d checked if she’d be okay in the confined space before they’d left, mindful of her claustrophobia. At every point where she was doing her best to rebuild her walls of self-defence, he was just kicking them down again.
After about thirty minutes they landed in a small airfield and Kat saw a fleet of four-by-fours waiting. One for them, and the rest for the security team and entourage. Zafir led Kat to the first four-by-four, and when she was in he got into the driver’s seat. They drove out of the airfield and into the desert, surrounded on all sides by nothing but sand and massive dunes.
Kat was surprised to feel a sense of liberation—as if there was nothing but this in the world. She looked at Zafir’s proud profile and the inevitable stubble shadowing his jaw. She wanted to reach out and touch it but she kept her hands to herself.
‘How do you know where to go?’
Zafir looked up to where the sun was lowering in the sky. ‘The position of the sun tells me where to go...and this...’ He tapped at a navigation dial on the dashboard. He glanced at her. ‘I know this place like the back of my hand. I used to come here a lot as a teenager.’
Kat turned to face him more, curious. ‘What did you do out here?’
Zafir looked away and shrugged. ‘Dune racing with my bodyguards. Meeting the nomads and hearing their stories. Learning how to fight and shoot. Training my peregrine falcon.’
Kat didn’t say it, but she thought it: he’d obviously done all that alone. Her heart ached in spite of her best efforts.