CHAPTER FOUR

      ‘YOU READY TO hit the road?’ a deep voice said from behind where she stood examining a Gerhard Richter painting.

      Allegra turned and swallowed a breath of surprise. Added to Rahim’s much more informal tone, he’d shed his ceremonial office clothes for a black cotton abaya, with similar coloured keffiyeh and white iqal. But the combination was somehow more potent. Perhaps it was because the lighter material emphasised the breadth of his shoulders and skimmed his lean hips and thighs.

      Or she was going out of her mind ogling a man she had zero interest in. She drew her gaze from his well-formed chest and redirected her eyes to his face, taking care to pin a neutral smile to hers.

      Sure, with his informal clothes and his easy smile, Allegra could’ve fooled herself into thinking she was about to step out for coffee with a regular Joe.

      But he wasn’t. Rahim was a Dar-Amanian sheikh with a royal bloodline tracing back dozens of generations, and the wealth to match.

      A wealth he hadn’t seen fit to share with his people.

      ‘Yes,’ she responded, a little terser than she’d intended.

      He shot her an assessing look but said nothing as he gestured for her to precede him out of the reception room where she’d been ushered to await his arrival.

      Staunchly vowing to keep her emotions and opinions in check, she cleared her throat as they once again travelled through endless magnificently decorated reception rooms and hallways. ‘How did your meetings go?’

      ‘Are you really interested?’

      She saw the mocking light in his eyes and chose to ignore it. ‘Of course. I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t.’

      ‘The first one went as expected. The two that followed went badly,’ he replied.

      ‘You don’t seem too cut up about it.’

      He shrugged. ‘Because I was prepared for it. I expected them to go badly. I would’ve been more surprised if they’d progressed smoothly.’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Then I’d have known I was being lied to, and the meeting would’ve taken a turn for the very unfortunate.’ The smile hardened, a dangerous light entering his eyes.

      ‘Why?’ she parroted one more time.

      ‘Because I hate subterfuge in every form. I prefer my opponents to be straight up with me, even if the outcome of our confrontation is potentially disadvantageous to me.’

      The thinly veiled warning lanced a spear of ice down her spine. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She just hadn’t had time to fully apprise Rahim Al-Hadi of her reason for visiting his kingdom. But still guilt flared high, because after her bath, while Nura had been busy fetching her tea, Allegra had conducted a thorough search of her rooms to see if by a stroke of luck the box was present. She had no intention of leaving without the box, but the right thing to do was to speak to Rahim as originally planned, not go behind his back searching for it herself.

      ‘Of course,’ she murmured when it became clear he was expecting a response.

      With a tiny compression of his lips, he nodded. ‘Good. Come this way. Our ride awaits.’

      He led her through a wide golden arch straight out of an Arabian Nights tale. Allegra had to content herself with gaping for a few seconds before they emerged into a wide courtyard the size of a football field. The edges were dotted with the ever-present fountains and several sitting areas, but at the end of it, set upon a large stone circle, were sleek helicopters, decorated with the royal colours and Dar-Amanian emblem.

      ‘We’re travelling by helicopter?’ she asked as Rahim made a beeline for the aircraft, followed closely by two bodyguards.

      ‘For most of the way, then we finish the journey by Jeep. Sure you still want to come?’ His gaze seemed to intensify on her face as he said that.

      Allegra summoned a smile, determined not to give Rahim an excuse to postpone their meeting. ‘Of course.’

      She pulled on the hat she carried, thankful that she always made a point of travelling prepared for every contingency, and double-checked that she had her phone tucked into her khaki cargo pants.

      They reached the first large black aircraft. A guard held the door open. Before she could climb in Allegra found herself hoisted up by strong arms. Rahim’s solid, overwhelming presence was a wall of heat at her back, shocking her into gasping when his groin connected to her backside for a searing second. The sensation was so alien she froze for a moment.

      ‘You’re not afraid of heights, are you?’ he asked, his mouth so close to her ear his breath washed over her skin.

      She suppressed a shiver. ‘No, I’m not.’

      His hand tightened on her arm for a second, before he deposited her in the front seat. Then he rounded the chopper to join her. ‘Good, then you’ll enjoy the experience. Fasten your seat belt,’ he instructed after handing her a set of noise-cancelling headphones.

      Allegra did as she was told. She tried not to watch his sure hands as he readied the aircraft, but the elegant grace with which he handled the controls was astonishingly mesmerising. Dragging her gaze away, she saw other guards piling into the remaining choppers.

      Her mouth twisted as Rahim pulled back the throttle and the chopper lifted away from the palace grounds. ‘Do you always travel with such a large contingent of bodyguards?’ she asked, glancing at the other two aircrafts that lifted off behind them.

      ‘I’ve halved my bodyguards in the past three months. I can’t reduce their number any further.’

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘Because that would be breaking protocol.’

      She raised a cynical eyebrow. ‘A protocol that insists you have almost two dozen bodyguards. Isn’t that overkill?’

      He shrugged. ‘I’m good at taking care of myself.’ A shadow clouded his eyes for a second before the hazel