‘It’s disgraceful!’ she stormed.
‘You think so?’ His voice was dangerously soft.
‘I know so! Women in this country died to have the right to vote and to call themselves equal!’
‘And you think that makes them happy?’
Her eyebrows shot up. ‘I can’t believe you could even ask me a question like that!’
He smiled, savouring the rare flavour of opposition and conflict. ‘I just did.’
Rose very nearly threw her pen across the room in a fit of pique, before remembering herself. Since when had she taken to hurling missiles? She steadied her voice with a deep breath instead. ‘Of course equality makes women happy! What woman worth her salt wants to spend her life living in a man’s shadow?’
The woman he would marry would be only too glad to. His mind skipped to the women currently being vetted as eligible wife material, then thought how unlike them this woman was. Their very antithesis. He felt the thrill of the forbidden, the lure of the unsuitable, and it heated his blood unbearably. ‘You should not judge without all the facts available to you, Rose,’ he remonstrated softly. ‘Women in Maraban are very highly respected and they are treated with the utmost reverence—because they are seen as the givers of life. Come and see for yourself whether the women of Maraban are happy.’
She stared at him, furiously aware that wild hope was vying with indignation. ‘What do you mean?’
In that moment, he had never rejoiced in his position quite so much. How perfect that whatever he desired should be granted to him without effort. And he desired Rose Thomas more than anything in his life to date. He gave a cool and glittering smile. ‘You will accompany me to Maraban,’ he purred.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘YOUare kidding, Rose?’
Rose stared at her flatmate, still slightly reeling from Khalim’s unarguable statement. ‘I wish I was!’
Lara cocked her head to one side and grinned. ‘Oh, no, you don’t! What other woman do you know who wouldn’t want to be whisked off in a private jet with a prince—a prince, no less, who looks like Khalim does? And acts like Khalim does!’
‘High-handed!’ grumbled Rose.
‘Masterful,’ sighed Lara.
Of course, Lara wasn’t entirely wrong—not about Khalim, nor Rose’s attitude to being whisked off in such an extraordinary fashion. Because if she examined her feelings honestly, wasn’t there a part of her—and quite a large part of her—which was feeling almost sick with excitement at the thought of being taken to Maraban by its overwhelmingly attractive prince and heir? Any minute now she would wake up and find that the alarm had just gone off!
‘So tell me why you’re going again,’ said Lara, screwing her face up, as if she hadn’t understood the first explanation, which Rose had blurted out. ‘Just to find out about how women in Maraban live, compared to their Western counterparts? Is that it?’
Rose shook her head. ‘No. That was just the provocative way he phrased it.’ Along with the even more provocative look which had gleamed with such dazzling promise from those inky eyes. ‘But the fact is that I’ll probably be recruiting from within Maraban itself, or the surrounding countries if that fails. There are two possible candidates there already, so I really do need to go.’
‘Oh, you poor thing!’
She’d phoned Kerry to broach the subject of her journey, and her boss had sounded bemused.
‘Of course you must go, Rose. You’re in charge of the job, aren’t you?’ Kerry had said, her voice sounding slightly puzzled. ‘Go where you need to go; the prince is paying.’
Oh, yes, the prince was paying all right, and in paying the prince was also managing to demonstrate just how wide-reaching were his influence and power.
And power was, Rose had to concede with a guilty shiver, a very potent aphrodisiac indeed. She must remember that. Khalim would not be blind to that fact either, which meant that she would have to be very, very careful not to let it all go to her head. She thought back to how she had greeted his suggestion.
‘Where will I be staying?’ she demanded, not caring that Philip had sucked in a horrified breath at the tone she was using. ‘In a hotel, I hope?’
Khalim stilled. She really could be most insolent! If she were not quite so beautiful, he really would not have tolerated s
uch disrespect. ‘Maraban has internationally acclaimed hotels,’ he told her smoothly. ‘But as my guest you will naturally stay in my father’s…’
Rose looked up as she picked up on his hesitation—the last man she would have expected being stuck for words. ‘Your father’s what?’
‘Palace,’ he said reluctantly.
Rose widened her eyes. His father’s palace, no less! Well, of course he would have a palace, wouldn’t he? Royal families did not generally live in trailer parks! She looked at him with interest, her indignation dissolving by the second.