Halina lapsed into silence, still dazed by the day’s events. To think only moments ago she’d been contemplating how bored she would be, stuck in a desert palace for the better part of a year. Now she didn’t know what to feel.
The jolting movements of the SUV eventually lulled her into an uneasy doze, only to wake when it stopped as Rico cut the engine. The sun was hot and bright above, creating a dazzling sparkle on the undulating sand dunes. In front of them was a helicopter bearing Kalidar’s military insignia.
‘How...?’ Halina began, but then merely shook her head. Should she really be surprised at the extent of Rico’s power? He was a billionaire, ruthless, arrogant and used to being obeyed. She had no doubt that he could get whatever he wanted...including her.
Rico helped her climb into the helicopter and then settled into a seat, putting on her headgear to muffle the powerful sound of the machine’s blades as it started up into the sky.
Halina watched the desert drop away with fascinated disbelief, part of her still blessedly numb as she wondered what on earth her future held now—and how afraid she should be.
* * *
Rico stared straight ahead as the helicopter moved over the harsh and rugged landscape, a mixture of exultation and anger rushing through him. He’d done it. He’d found Halina. He’d brought her with him. Yet despite the triumph he felt at having accomplished that he couldn’t let go of his anger that she would have hidden her pregnancy from him, his own child. Considering the nature of his origins and childhood, the possibility was even more repugnant to him. She would have turned him into a liar, the worst sort of man, without him even knowing.
He glanced at Halina who was sitting still, her hands in her lap, her gaze resting on the horizon yet seeming to be turned inward. Her face was pale, her figure slenderer than when he’d last seen her. In fact, now that he was looking at her properly, she seemed entirely different from the innocent yet knowing siren who had tempted him in Rome wearing a sexy dress and stiletto heels, everything about her lush and wanton.
Now she was wearing a drab tunic and loose trousers in a nondescript beige, both garments hanging on her gaunt frame. Her hair, once loose and wild, was now secured in a simple ponytail low down on her neck. She was as far a cry from the woman he’d made love to as was possible. But despite what she’d done Rico felt an inconvenient shaft of desire as he remembered the feel of her body against his, the silken slide of her limbs and the honeyed sweetness of her mouth. He looked away, determined not to give in to that unwanted emotion right now.
The next time he slept with Halina, it would be as her husband, their relationship made permanent for the sake of their child and the security he intended his son or daughter to know. The next time he slept with Halina, he wouldn’t lose control. Even now the memory of how far he’d gone, how lost in her he’d been, made him grit his teeth with regret and shame. Never again.
The helicopter started to descend, and moments later they touched down in a remote and barren location where he’d arranged for another SUV to pick them up and take them to Arjah, from where they would fly to Rome.
Halina looked startled as she gazed around at the landscape, as inhospitable as at the Palace of Forgotten Sands.
‘Where are we?’ she asked as she took Rico’s proffered hand and stepped out of the helicopter. The wind was kicking up, blowing sand everywhere, and she lifted one slender hand to shield her eyes from the dust.
‘We’re about a hundred miles from Arjah.’
Her eyes widened. ‘So far?’
‘Such measures were necessary.’ He hadn’t been sure how Sultan Hassan would respond, and he wanted to deal with the head of state on his own terms, back in Italy with Halina as his wife, not during some ill-advised skirmish in the desert.
Halina’s lips trembled and she pressed them together. ‘I see.’ Her face was pale, and she swayed slightly where she stood. Rico realised, with an uncomfortable jolt, that she was tired. Exhausted, by the looks of it. And, of course, pregnant.
‘Not too much longer now,’ Rico said, even though it would be another three or four hours at least jolting across the desert in the SUV until they reached Arjah.
‘Okay,’ Halina murmured, and headed towards the car. She fell asleep curled up on the back seat, her dark hair spread over the seat. Rico had dismissed the driver, who had joined the helicopter pilot in a safe return to Abkar. It was just the two of them as the night fell, stars twinkling in an endless sky, until the wind started up again and obliterated nearly everything.
After another hour of painstakingly inching across the rugged sands Rico was forced to stop. He glanced back at Halina, who had risen sleepily as she’d felt the vehicle come to a halt.
‘Are we there...?’
‘No.’ Rico’s voice was terse. This wasn’t part of his plan. This was out of his control, and he didn’t like it. ‘It looks like a sandstorm is brewing.’ He’d known it was a possibility, but he’d hoped they could afford being caught in the crosswinds. ‘We’ll have to spend the night here.’
‘Here? Where?’ Halina pushed her hair out of her face as she looked around. There was nothing to see but dust and dark. ‘But...where are we?’
‘In the middle of nowhere,’ Rico said with a humourless laugh. ‘About fifty miles from Arjah.’ Spending the night in the middle of a sandstorm was not a good idea, but he didn’t have any others. It was too dangerous to keep driving.
‘But it’s a sandstorm,’ Halina said, and she sounded genuinely afraid. ‘Rico, do you know how dangerous these are? People can be swallowed up in an instant—consumed!’
‘I know.’ Grimly he reached for a kerchief and tied it around his nose and mouth. ‘Stay in the car and cover your face when I open the door.’
‘What are you doing?’
‘Going out to make us a shelter.’
‘But shouldn’t we stay in the car?’
‘No, because it will be buried by the sand, and then we’ll never get out.’