He dipped his head in greeting.
‘Miss Marchant is coming with us,’ Khaled said. ‘Take her to the car. I’ll be there in five minutes.’
If Rais was surprised by that announcement he didn’t show it. He simply waited for Lily to get to her feet and politely stood aside to allow her to walk out of the suite.
At a private side entrance a car waited, its rear door held open by the guard she’d encountered earlier. The heavy thud as it closed, trapping her inside, felt so ominous it took her three fumbling attempts to fasten her seat belt.
Minutes later Khaled joined her. Now in a grey suit and blue shirt, he looked composed and ridiculously handsome, and in with him had come that scent of citrus and spice.
As it swirled around her an odd excitement fluttered low in her belly. She edged closer to the door, to ease that unsettling sensation and to put more space between her and the figure beside her. She’d thought the car impressively large, but now Khaled had climbed in it seemed filled with him.
As they pulled away she cast him a sidelong glance. He was checking messages on his phone. In the darkness its glow cast eerie shadows across those impossible cheekbones. Lily knew it was a trick of the light, but where before he’d appeared stern, now he had that infamous air of melancholy about him.
Maybe there was still a chance to reason with him.
‘Perhaps we could come to a compromise?’ she said.
No response.
‘I admit hiding in your rooms doesn’t look good. I’m actually quite embarrassed about it.’
A thumb scrolled upwards, scanning new messages.
‘If I can go home tonight, I promise I’ll meet you wherever you want in London tomorrow.’
Now he looked up. ‘London?’
‘You said you have business in the capital,’ she said haltingly. Something in his expression had set alarm bells ringing.
‘I have. But I meant the capital of my country.’
‘Your country?’ It was barely a whisper.
‘After the stunt you pulled, did you think I’d simply let you go? Whilst your faithless stepbrother remains at large? No, if he wants to gain your freedom he’ll give himself up. Until he does, I’m keeping you close. And as I’m going home you, Miss Marchant, are coming with me. To Nabhan.’
CHAPTER TWO
IFAMANcould be made to combust from a mere look then Lily Marchant was doing her damnedest to send him up in flames. From her seat on the opposite side of the cabin, as far from him as it was possible to get on a Gulfstream V, she glowered at him.
The mood he was in, Khaled could have glared right back. They’d almost missed their flight slot because of her nonsense back at the house. She’d had every opportunity to confess, and yet insisted on dragging out that ridiculous charade.
A lost bona fide guest? Did she imagine he was a complete idiot? Perhaps she did—her duplicitous stepbrother apparently had.
Khaled’s rage welled up at the reminder of Nate Marchant’s duplicity. His closest friend, whom he’d elevated to director of his new charity because of his ability to schmooze millions from the wealthy. He’d never imagined the man would help himself to those millions.
The excuses he’d had to make tonight to cover for his absence...
But beneath the rage lay true hurt: the cold shock of betrayal by a friend who’d become like a brother to him.
A flutter of movement drew his attention back across the aisle. They’d hit air turbulence and Lily fingers had convulsed around the armrest. Had she’d never flown before?
‘This is perfectly normal,’ he said kindly. ‘We’re quite safe.’
His reward was another fulminating glare.
Perhaps she was still smarting from the way she’d been manhandled aboard. Well, he’d make no apology for that. There’d been mere yards between the car and the jet, and still she’d managed to make a fuss. Yelping as a piece of grit dug into the soles of her bare feet, hopping about, making a show of trying to brush it away.
She’d demanded her shoes but, feeling vengeful, he’d ordered that they be disposed of, and he’d told her so, adding that they’d still be on her feet if she hadn’t been intent on breaking and entering. When she’d sent him an evil look, as if he was the villain here, the last of his patience had evaporated and he’d hitched her beneath his arm like a piece of baggage and toted her the final few paces to the plane.