Diamond in the Desert(15)

'You haven't fallen for him, have you?' Eva said shrewdly.

'No, of course not,' Britt fired back.

There was a silence that suggested Eva wasn't entirely convinced. Too  bad. Whatever Britt might have felt for Emir was gone now. Gone  completely. Finished. Over. Dead. Gone.

'You should have taken him for a roll in the snow so you could both cool down.'

'I did,' she admitted flatly. 'He loved it.'

'Sounds like my kind of guy-'

'This isn't funny, Eva.'

'No,' Eva agreed, turning serious. 'You've made a fool of yourself and  you don't like it. Turns out you're not the hotshot man-eater you  thought you were.'                       
       
           



       

'But I'm still a businesswoman,' Britt murmured thoughtfully, 'and you know what they say.'

'I'm sure you're going to tell me,' Eva observed dryly.

'Don't get mad, get even.'

'That's what I was afraid of,' Eva commented under her breath. 'Just  don't cut off your nose to spite your face. Don't screw this deal after  putting so much effort into it.'

'Don't worry, I won't.'

'So what are you going to do?' Eva pressed, concern ringing in her voice.

For betraying her-for allowing his people to approach her sisters while Britt and he were otherwise engaged?

'I'm going to follow him to Kareshi. I'm going to track him down. I'm  going to ring his office to try and find out where he is. I'll go into  the desert if I have to. I'm going to find the bastard and make him  pay.'





CHAPTER NINE

KARESHI...

She was actually here. It hardly seemed possible. For all her bitter,  mixed-up thoughts when it came to the man she had called Emir and must  now learn to call His Majesty Sheikh Sharif al Kareshi, Britt couldn't  help but be dazzled by her first sight of the ocean of sand stretching  away to a purple haze following the curve of the earth. She craned her  neck, having just caught sight of the glittering capital city. It  couldn't stand in greater contrast to the desert.

Just as her thoughts of the man the world called the Black Sheikh  couldn't have stood in starker contrast to the universal approval the  man enjoyed. How could he fool so many people? How could he fool her?

That last question was easily answered. Her body had done that for her,  yearning for a man when it should freeze at the very thought of him-if  she had any sense.

As the city came into clearer view and she saw all the amazing  buildings she got a better picture of the Black Sheikh's power and his  immense wealth. It seemed incredible that she was here, and that His  Majesty Sheikh Sharif had been her lover-

That she had been so easily fooled.

'The captain has switched the seat-belt sign on.'

'Oh, yes, thank you,' she said glancing up, glad of the distraction. Any distraction to take her mind off that man was welcome.

Having secured her belt, she continued to stare avidly out of the  window. Her life to date hadn't allowed for much time outside Skavanga,  and from what she could see from the plane Kareshi couldn't have been  more different. The thought of exploring the city and meeting new people  was exciting in spite of all the other things she had to face. An ivory  beach bordered the city, and beyond that lay a tranquil sea of clear  bright blue, but it was the wilderness that drew her attention. The  Black Sheikh was down there somewhere. His people had told her this in  an attempt to put her off. They didn't know her if they thought she  would be dismayed to learn His Majesty was deep in the desert with his  people. She would find him and she would confront him. She had every  reason to do so, if only to learn the result of the trials on the  mineral samples he had taken from the mine. She suspected he would agree  to see her. His people were sure to have told him that she had been  asking for him and, like Britt, the Black Sheikh flinched from nothing.

Another glance out of the window revealed a seemingly limitless carpet  of umber and sienna, gold and tangerine, and over this colourful, if  alien landscape the black shadow of the aircraft appeared to be creeping  with deceptive stealth. The desert was a magical place and she was  impatient to be travelling through it. Would she find Sheikh Sharif? The  ice fields of Skavanga were apparently featureless, but that was never  completely true, and where landmarks failed there was always GPS.  Tracking down the ruler of Kareshi would be a challenge, but not one she  couldn't handle.

* * *

Shortly after she reached the hotel Britt received a call from Eva to  say that one of their main customers for the minerals they mined had  gone down, defaulting on a payment to Skavanga Mining, and leaving the  company dangerously exposed. It was the last thing she needed, and her  mind was already racing on what to do for the best when Eva explained  that the consortium had stepped in.

'I think you need to speak to the sheikh to find out the details.'

'That's my intention,' Britt assured her sister, feeling that the consortium's net was slowly closing over her family business.

As soon as she ended the call she tried once again to speak to a member  of the sheikh's staff to arrange an appointment as a matter of urgency.  Audience with His Majesty was booked up for months in advance, some  snooty official informed her. And, no, His Majesty had certainly not  left any message for a visitor from a mining company. This was said as  if mining were some sleazy, disreputable occupation.                       
       
           



       

So speaks a man who has probably never got his hands dirty in his life,  Britt thought, pulling the phone away from her ear. She had been  placing calls non-stop from her bedroom for the past two hours-to  Sharif's offices, to his palace, to the country's administrative  offices, and even to her country's diplomatic representative in the  city.

Okay. Calm down, she told herself, taking a deep breath as she paced  the room. Let's think this through. There was a number she could call,  and this really was a wild card. Remembering Emir telling her about his  love of horses, she stabbed in the number for His Majesty's stables.

The voice that answered was young and female and it took Britt a couple  of breaths to compute this, as her calls so far had led Britt to  believe that only men worked for the sheikh and they all had tent poles  up their backsides.

'Hello,' the pleasant female voice said again. 'Jasmina Kareshi speaking...'

The Black Sheikh's sister! Though Princess Jasmina sounded far too  relaxed to be a princess. 'Hello. This is Britt Skavanga speaking. I  wonder if you could help me?'

'Call me Jazz,' the friendly voice on the other end of the line  insisted as Jazz went on to explain that her brother had in fact been in  touch some time ago to warn her that Britt was due to arrive in the  country.

'How did he find out?' Britt exclaimed with surprise.

'Are you serious?' Jazz demanded.

Jazz's upbeat nature was engaging, and as the ruler of Kareshi's sister  proceeded to tell Britt that her brother knew everything that was going  on in Kareshi at least ten minutes before it happened Britt got the  feeling that in different circumstances Jazz and she might have been  friends.

'As he's not here, I'm supposed to be helping you any way I can,' Jazz  explained. 'I can only apologise that it's taken so long for the two of  us to get in touch, but I've been tied up with my favourite mare at the  stables while she was giving birth.'

'Please don't apologise,' Britt said quickly. She was just glad to have  someone sensible to talk to. 'I hope everything went well for your  horse.'

'Perfectly,' Jazz confirmed, adding in an amused tone, 'I imagine it  went a lot better for me and my mare than it did for you without a  formal introduction to my brother's stuffy staff.'

Diplomacy was called for, Britt concluded. 'They did what they could,' she said cagily.

'I bet they did,' Jazz agreed wryly.

This was really dangerous. Not only had she fallen for the Black Sheikh  masquerading as Emir, but now she was starting to get on with his  sister.

'My brother's in the desert,' Jazz confirmed. 'Let me give you the GPS-'

'Thanks.'

Jazz proceeded to dispense GPS coordinates for a Bedouin camp in the  desert as casually as if she were directing Britt to the local mall.  Britt was able to draw a couple of possible conclusions from this.  Sharif had not wanted his staff to know about the connection between  them-possibly because as she was a woman in a recently reformed and  previously male-dominated country they wouldn't treat her too well. But  at least he had entrusted the news of her arrival to Jazz. She'd give  him the benefit of the doubt this one time. Just before signing off, she  checked with Jazz that the car hire company she had decided on had the  best vehicles for trekking in the desert.

'It should be the best,' Jazz exclaimed. 'Like practically everything else in Kareshi, my brother owns it.'

Of course he did. And he thought Skavanga Mining was in the bag too.  Not just an investment, but a takeover. There was no time to lose.  Having promised to keep in touch with Jazz, she cut the line.