Desert Kings Boxed Set: The Complete Series Books 1-6 Read online

  “You can also see how I fell into it. My horse was as surprised as I that another world existed down here. Since then I’ve been obsessed with wanting to live here and enjoy it every day, but without destroying it. That’s the challenge.”

  “I see what you mean. It’s a delicate, self-sustaining ecosystem in the middle of an arid desert.”

  “So I need a house that supports the ecosystem and becomes a part of it rather than sucking it dry.”

  She pressed a finger to her lip. “That certainly is an intriguing challenge.” Her brain spun with ideas. How could you create a house that would gather water from the environment and release it back, in a purer state than before, the way a living plant would? It must be net-zero energy, of course, utilizing the abundant solar power beaming down on them in Ubar. The design must complement the beauty around them, not compete with it, and all materials used must be non toxic and sustainable.

  “You’re interested. I can tell.” Zadir lifted a brow.

  “Who wouldn’t be?”

  “I suspect a lot of architects would be scared off by such a formidable setting.”

  “True.” She glanced at the steep grassy sides of the ravine. “Is it possible to get down there?”

  “Of course.” He offered her his hand. She took it, gritting her teeth and promising herself she wouldn’t feel any physical reaction to touching him. “It’s really not that steep at all.”

  He led her down the ravine at an angle, walking across the slope. The security staff remained at the top, as she descended with him feeling like Alice venturing down the rabbit hole.

  “It smells wonderful down here.” The honeyed scent of wildflowers filled the air. She tugged her hand from his, relieved that the contact had created only a slight tingling sensation that she could pretend to ignore. “And I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many butterflies outside of a botanical garden.”

  “Ubar used to be known for its butterflies. The country became more arid in recent centuries and a lot of them disappeared. Or at least people thought they did. Now I think we’ve found them.”

  “And no one knows this is here?” She gazed up and down the length as far as she could see before the green strip undulated around a corner like a lazy river.

  He shook his head. “There’s no road. It’s too far from any inhabited area for people to bother grazing their livestock here. I suspect the area was lived in and appreciated at some point in the distant past, when our people were nomadic, but in recent years it’s been completely forgotten.”

  “What a find. There are probably varieties of plants and animals here that don’t exist anywhere else on earth.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” He smiled, obviously pleased that she seemed so entranced with the place. “I’m glad you appreciate its beauty.”

  “I think you need a house that almost hovers above it, like a butterfly, drawing from it and giving back, but not trampling or leaving a big footprint.”

  “Sounds good to me.” His blue eyes sparkled. “And all the materials and supplies have to somehow come across the mountain pass. Unless they can be airlifted in.”

  “Or found right here.” Her brain was scrambling. She loved using materials found on site, but that was obviously easier when you were converting a warehouse full of old sewing machines rather than a mysterious and delicate valley in the middle of nowhere. “It would have to be built very slowly and carefully.”

  “Of course.”

  “Using craftsmen who really care about the project.”

  “Indeed.” He looked totally serious, like he was listening to every word and not thinking at all about how to get into her panties. She’d rather assumed all along that this house-building project was simply a pretext to get her into his bed. Now she realized this had the potential to be a once-in-a-lifetime commission with a dream client, whose unlimited budget and unfettered imagination could allow her to create something truly original.

  Why did his mouth still look so kissable? Maybe her excitement about the project was migrating to other parts of her body. She should be thinking about engineering and seismic issues, and instead she was wondering why he hadn’t even tried to kiss her today.

  He didn’t try to sleep with her last night, either. Which could be a display of restraint on his part. Or perhaps he just wasn’t interested? She had a weird and uncomfortable feeling that she’d initiated the kiss. She couldn’t be sure, as it was kind of a blur, but it was a distinct possibility.

  After the kiss he’d vanished, leaving her alone. Maybe all the talk at dinner with Zahaina made him think he should get serious about choosing a royal bride. She wasn’t a candidate for that role for any number of reasons. He probably didn’t want to lead her on and get her excited, then let her down.

  Yes, he’d paid big money to bring her here, but maybe the whole endeavor was to get revenge on her for blowing him off. He wanted to seduce her, toy with her emotions, then send her back home with her heart in pieces.

  “I can hear your brain working.” His deep voice interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up, startled. “I can’t wait to see your ideas.”

  If he had any idea of what was running through her head right now, he’d be shocked. Possibly even appalled. She must have a very big ego to think that he flew her here at extreme expense just so he could kiss her and bed her.

  “I’ll start working on the drawings tonight.” She didn’t want him thinking that she assumed she’d be otherwise busy.

  “Great.”

  See? He did expect her to work here. “Let me take some pictures so I’ll have it clear in my mind when I get back home.” It was sad to think that she’d be on her way home at this time tomorrow. She felt like she’d only just got here.

  Zadir spoke a few words in his language to one of the men, who must have been listening from the top of the little valley. In a few moments he climbed down with the camera and handed it to her. She took some views in either direction, and a few close-ups of the plants and rocks.

  “I’d like to take a picture of you.” He leaned against a rock, watching her.

  “I told you before, I’m very unphotogenic.”

  “Why don’t you let me decide? I’ll take a picture and show it to you, and if you don’t like it, you can delete it.”

  “Okay.”

  Zadir took the camera, and the sparkle of excitement in his eyes gave her a flash of hope that he still was interested in her.

  What? Now she wanted him to be interested in her? Obviously she was losing her marbles.

  Unlike her, he took some time composing the shot by moving her around and angling her face a certain way to the light. His thumb under her chin even aroused her, though she tried not to let it show. He took four or five pictures, then examined them in the viewfinder.

  “Can I see?” She was sure they’d be awful and he’d regret taking them.

  He handed the camera to her, a confident expression on his face. She flipped through the pictures, then flipped back. “Is that me?”

  “Who else would it be?”

  “I look…different.”

  “I tried to capture the way you look in real life, rather serious and contemplative, rather than smiling at the camera. I think I succeeded.”

  She frowned at the images. Instead of a squinty-eyed blob, she actually looked good. He’d used the natural light to highlight her cheekbones and chin, and her face looked sculpted and interesting. “Okay, you can keep them. I wish I did look like that.”

  “You do. You can use them for publicity shots if you like.”

  “Thanks. You have a gift.”

  He laughed. “One of many that don’t get out much. I do take all the pictures of the properties I sell for the real estate listings. That’s about as artistic as I’ve been the last couple of years.”

  “Maybe you should create a portfolio of this landscape before we alter it. Though I would suggest altering it as little as possible. It’s perfect the way it is.”

  �
�I know. I should probably find somewhere more prosaic to put up a structure.”

  She liked his thoughtfulness. A lot of men would have been ready to bring in the bulldozers, without a thought for the delicate ecosystem they’d destroy. “I think it can be done, and to be honest I relish the challenge.”

  “So you’ll design the house?” He lifted a brow slightly.

  “Why don’t I come up with some ideas, and we’ll see what you think of them.” She didn’t want to commit to anything she might regret. She should be reassured by the lack of sexual overtures. But what if she designed the house and it turned into a love nest for him and Zahaina, or another woman much like her? She didn’t think she could stand that after the intimacy they’d shared.

  This was killing him. Zadir squinted into the hot noon sun, hoping for some inverse equivalent of a cold shower. He hadn’t realized when he bought that outfit for Veronica that the white fabric was quite sheer, and the outline of her gorgeous body tantalized him with every move she made.

  When he’d tilted her face to the light to capture a photo, he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and kiss her senseless. But he managed to keep his gestures brusque and businesslike.

  And it was working. Or at least he thought it was. She’d gone from keeping him at arm’s length to looking at him curiously as if his behavior was unexpected. She anticipated flirtation and fast moves for her to rebuff, and now he wasn’t making them she was confused.

  Of course, he didn’t want her feeling hurt or rejected, so his most powerful instinct was to tell her how much she entranced him and how he’d give half his kingdom to kiss her and the other half to make love to her.

  But deep down he knew that would catapult them right back to where they’d started—with her running for the hills.

  He let out an audible sigh. Women were so complicated, and Ronnie seemed to be an especially complex and intriguing specimen. He couldn’t wait to delve further into all her little idiosyncrasies and get to know her intimately. Shame he’d have to move as slowly as the turning of the earth or he’d scare her off.

  “Is there anywhere in particular you’d like them to erect the tent?”

  Her eyes widened at the word erect. Which shook him and made him think about other things that would soon be erect if he didn’t take his eyes off her right now. Her gorgeous mouth quivered slightly as if she wanted to say something.

  She surveyed the landscape to the left and right. “You’re setting it up by the rim, right?”

  “Yes, the valley itself doesn’t have a large enough level area.”

  She pointed to the east, lifting an elegant arm. “How about right past this little bend in the valley?”

  “Sounds good.” He climbed up to the top of the valley and told the men where to put the tent. He also quietly told them that he’d like some privacy so they could pitch their own at some distance. He didn’t think Ronnie could understand the language, but he kept his voice down all the same.

  Because surely this torture of keeping his hands and mouth to himself couldn’t go on forever.

  CHAPTER NINE

  They ate a picnic lunch that the staff laid out on a colorful blanket, then Ronnie followed Zadir on a small exploration of the valley. The deepest part lay no more than thirty feet below the floor of the plain above, much of it was less than ten feet deep. All of it was lush and green, obviously nourished by an underground source that sustained this thin strip of paradise slashing through the austere desert.

  “Let me take a close-up.” Zadir took the camera from her, brushing her fingertips with his and making her catch her breath. He took a close-up of a tiny white flower, then turned the camera on her and leaned in to take a picture of her right eye.

  “My eye?” She half expected him to say something cheesy about it being the window to her soul.

  Instead he turned the viewfinder to her and showed her the dramatic shot he’d taken of her eye in profile filling half the screen and tree branches spreading out behind. “That’s cool. Let me try one.”

  He handed her the camera, and she looked around for a similarly interesting composition. Her gaze fell on Zadir’s broad hand where it wrapped around the branch of a small tree. “Don’t move.” She zeroed in and captured the veined, tanned back of his hand—so masculine in its size and shape—surrounding the delicate shoot with its two tiny green leaves. The result in the viewfinder pleased her. He could have seemed to be strangling the little branch, but instead he appeared to be nurturing it. She showed him the picture.

  “Damn, I have big hands.” He examined them like they might belong to someone else.

  All the better to hold and caress me with. She kept her thoughts to herself. Zadir was a big man from every angle, powerfully muscled, tall and broad, but there was nothing ungainly or heavy about him. He moved with the lithe grace of the black leopards she’d seen at the palace. “Your hands are just right for you.”

  And just right for me, too. She wondered if she’d ever feel them on her again. He showed no sign of wanting to touch her. He’d focused the camera on a cleft in a rock filled with colorful moss. He showed her the picture and she admired his eye aloud while silently admiring everything else about him. How did he always smell so good? Did that mean their chemistry was compatible or something?

  “What would you like to do now?”

  Her mind produced a number of answers to his rather innocent question. Most of them involved removing his clothes and pressing her body against his. “What do you mean?” If he dropped a hint along those lines, she might be inclined to encourage him. He might be holding back because he thought she wasn’t interested and would want to focus on business.

  “I think we should drive around so you can see more of this part of the country. It’s very remote and has a unique quality of light quite different than where the palace and the town of Nabattur are. I can’t quite figure out why, but I suspect it has to do with all the high mountains around us.”

  Ronnie blinked. He still showed no interest in kissing her. He really did want her to focus on taking notes and refining her plan. “Okay.”

  It was foolish to be disappointed. Wasn’t this what she wanted? She knew a relationship was impossible and a casual affair would only leave her frustrated and possibly hurt. Really, this was for the best.

  She followed him back to the car, trying to ignore the easy roll of his hips as he strode across the uneven terrain. He stopped to help her over a small pile of rocks, and another time over a fallen tree, and each time she smiled brightly as he took her hand and tried not to focus on the way a simple touch from him set her skin humming.

  Zadir drove, and they explored a vast area of the region’s varied terrain while she let her mind spin with plans for his house and other buildings that would complement the rugged and austere environment. They talked about where to build a town, or even a small city, should the need arise. The countryside was hauntingly beautiful, so remote and unpeopled that sometimes it was more like traveling through a panoramic film set than a real place. Plains flooded by ancient rivers, peaks thrust out of the earth’s crust, tiny flowers brought to bright life by the merest breath of rain. Ronnie had a feeling that the imagery she’d seen here would haunt and inspire her work for the rest of her life.

  When they arrived back, the servants had erected a large blue tent right where she’d suggested. They’d also put up another one, presumably for themselves, a fair distance away, so they could stand guard overnight. They built a fire and barbequed chickens that had probably been pecking the ground that morning. The air filled with the fragrant scent of roasted vegetables and spiced rice, as she and Zadir cooled off inside the tent with fresh water tapped from the ground and poured into decorative brass bowls.

  Well, Zadir cooled off. She, unfortunately, felt her body temperature rising as she watching him sponge water over his bare neck and shoulders. Trickles traced the hollow of his spine and the nooks and crannies between his impressive muscles. Was he
trying to torture her?

  She modestly dabbed a damp sponge around her neck and arms without disrobing. He didn’t even look at her. He was polite and solicitous, offering her refreshing drinks from a high-tech cooler and pulling up the photos they’d taken on a large laptop screen.

  But no flirtation, no touching, no suggestion at all that anything exciting would happen in this tent that night.

  Which was exactly how she wanted it—yesterday.

  Dinner tasted as delicious as it smelled. They ate it outside, sprawled on colorful rugs and cushions, with the food arranged on ornately pattered plates.

  “My ancestors probably ate like this for thousands of years.”

  “It’s hard to imagine why anyone would eat any other way.” The food had more flavor in the open air. Or maybe that’s because it was so fresh and cooked by a method that only enhanced its taste. “I’m starting to dread going back to D.C. I’m getting spoiled by all this open space and fresh air.”

  “Then stay longer.” His blue gaze challenged her.

  If only. “I can’t. I have a face-to-face meeting on Wednesday with the library committee. I’m already staying as long as I possibly can.”

  “Are you ready for that meeting?”

  “As ready as I can be. I’ve been in contact with my assistant, who’s prepared all the final blueprints. All I have to do is show up and sound convincing.”

  “And this meeting could win you the commission?”

  “Yup. It’s just me and two other architects at this point.”

  “You’ll get it.” He stared over the rim of his glass through narrowed eyes.

  “Don’t say that! You’ll jinx it.” She fiddled with the base of her glass.

  “You’re too sensible, and too talented, to believe that.”

  “The other architects are far more established than me.”

  “That’s why you’ll win. They’ll want something fresh.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” She shrugged. She was trying to stay calm about the whole thing. She wanted to win it, but she didn’t want to be devastated if she didn’t. It was a delicate balance between enthusiasm and restraint. Obviously, it was completely insane of her to have flown to the other side of the world right before the most important meeting of her life, but Zadir had made it hard to say no.