Never Seduce a Sheikh(16)

She didn’t look away or respond to the faint taunt. “The rumors about your father . . . Were they true?”

Tension pulled tight inside him but he ignored it. “The rumors? Yes, they were true. All of them. He was a violent, abusive bastard. And that is being kind.”

The expression in Lily’s dark eyes didn’t change. “Is that why you’re selling the oil then? Because Sheikh Khalid kept the reserves locked up for years?”

He didn’t miss the way she named him Khalid and not ‘your father’ and he liked that she’d done so. Had that been deliberate?

“You seem very interested in my motivations. Any particular reason?”

“Because, knowing as much as I can about a situation is the way I do business. Knowledge is power.”

Oh she was astute, this woman. And perceptive. Far too perceptive. “This is true.” He paused. “If you’re asking whether selling Dahar’s oil is some kind of knee-jerk response to Khalid, then no, it is not. I am selling Dahar’s oil because of the benefits it will bring to my country. Jobs. Better health care. Better schooling.”

Lily’s dark eyes didn’t waver. “How can they think you’re like him?”

The tension pulled tighter in his gut. “As I told you last night, Khalid left scars on Dahar. Scars that will take years to heal.”

“Surely they can’t imagine you’ll be the same?”

“They fear it.”

Lily frowned. “But that’s ridiculous. Just because you’re his son, doesn’t mean you’ll end up being a tyrant too.”

Ah, but she had no idea. No idea about the dark part of him, the little piece of Khalid that had taken root in his soul. The part that had to be controlled. And some of the older people of his court, the ones who had been here when he’d been a child, they’d heard the rumors about him. They knew about that part too.

Isma’il gave her a smile, the charming mask. “No, of course it does not. But, it is a fact they will measure me by.”

But her frown didn’t let up and he knew she was trying to see behind his smile. See what lay beneath it. She shouldn’t. She wouldn’t like what was underneath. No one would.

A brief flash of frustration crossed her face before she glanced away from him, lifting her scarf and wrapping it around her head again. Her movements made the seat shift beneath him, made him slowly aware of how close she sat to him, her thigh nearly pressing against his. The blue of the headscarf brought out the gold in her skin, the darkness of her eyes. So unusual with her blonde brows and gold tipped lashes.

Even in a long-sleeved white shirt, a long pair of utility pants, no skin on show whatsoever, she was beautiful. And despite his best intentions, the slow, lazy heat of desire stretched out inside him.

“What made you change your mind, Sheikh?” Lily asked after a moment.

Irritated with the way his body insisted on reacting around her, Isma’il shifted slightly in his seat. “Last night? Well, isn’t it obvious? As you pointed out to me so eloquently, I need Harkness.”

“You don’t strike me as a man who does what a woman tells him.”

“I do not do what anyone tells me. It is not specific to women.”

“Then, why did you last night?”

“Because my country is more important than my dislike of being told what to do.”

The tight look around her mouth relaxed. Almost became a smile. “That’s very noble of you.”

“It is not nobility. A good ruler should always put his country’s needs ahead of his own.”

“And you see yourself as a good ruler?”

So quick. So sharp. But if she wasn’t careful she was going to cut herself. “I see myself as a better ruler than Khalid ever was.” He studied her. “Tell me, Lily,” he went on, using her first name with a certain amount of deliberation, wanting to unsettle her the way she seemed bent on unsettling him. “Do all your potential business partners get this third degree?”

Her hands went to the waistband of her shirt, pulling at it as if adjusting it. “I was just curious. Men like you don’t change their minds at the drop of a hat like that.”

“And who exactly are men like me?”

“Men who won’t take no for an answer.” For the briefest moment, the poised mask dropped and he caught a glimpse of something burning in her dark eyes. An intense emotion he couldn’t read. And he wanted to ask her what she meant by that, because he had a feeling she wasn’t talking about being a good ruler now. She was talking about something entirely different. But although his instinct was to push for answers, to know more about this fascinating, complex woman, he wouldn’t. Lily Harkness was not why he was here. He was here for his country, for Dahar. And that’s all.