The sheikh's chosen wife(12)

'Get up and get dressed,' he instructed as he walked towards the door.  'Breakfast will be served on the sun deck in fifteen minutes."

As she watched him reach for the door handle the shade of reality sank  that bit deeper into her skin. 'Nothing has changed, Hassan,' she told  him quietly. 'When I leave this room I won't be coming back to it  again."

He paused, but he did not turn to glance back at her. 'Everything has  changed,' he countered grimly. 'You are back where you belong. This room  is only part of that.' Then he was gone, giving her no chance to argue.

Leona returned to watching the sun inch its way across the cream carpet  for a while. Then, on a sigh, she slid out of the bed and went to get  herself ready to face the next round of argument.

In another room not that far away Hassan was facing up to a different  opponent. Ethan Hayes was standing there in the clothes he had arrived  in minus the bow tie, and he was angry. In truth Hassan didn't blame  him. He was wearing a bruise on his jaw that would appeal Leona if she  saw it and he had a thick head through being encouraged to imbibe too  much alcohol the night before.

'What made you pull such a crazy stunt?' he was demanding.

Since Hassan had been asking himself the same thing, he now found  himself short of an adequate answer. 'I apologise for my men,' he said.  'Their...enthusiasm for the task got the better of them, I am afraid.'

'You can say that again.' Ethan touched his bruised jaw. 'I was out for  the count for ten minutes! The next thing I know I am stuck on a yacht I  don't want to be on, and Leona is nowhere to be seen!'

'She's worried about you, too, if that is any consolation.'

'No, it damn well isn't,' Ethan said toughly. 'What the hell was wrong  with making contact by conventional methods? You scared the life out of  her, not to mention the life out of me.'

'I know, and I apologise again.' Not being a man born to be  conciliatory, being forced to be so now was beginning to grate, and his  next cool remark reflected that. 'Let it be said that you will be  generously compensated for the... disruption.'

Ethan Hayes stiffened in violent offence. 'I don't want compensation,'  he snapped. 'I want to see for myself that Leona is okay!'

'Are you daring to imply that I could harm my wife?'

'I don't know, do I?' Ethan returned in a tone deliberately aimed to provoke. 'Over enthusiasm can be infectious.'

Neither man liked the other, though it was very rare that either came  out from behind their polite masks to reveal it. But, as the sparks  began to fly between the two of them, this meeting was at risk of being  one of those times. Leona might prefer to believe that Ethan Hayes was  not in love with her. But, as a man very intimate with the symptoms,  Hassan knew otherwise. The passion with which he spoke her name, the  burn that appeared in his eyes, and the inherent desire to protect her  from harm all made Ethan Hayes' feelings plain. And, as far as Hassan  was concerned, the handsome Englishman's only saving grace was the deep  sense of honour that made him respect the wedding ring Leona wore.

But knowing this did not mean that Hassan could dismiss the other man's  ability to turn her towards him if he really set his mind to it. He had  the build and the looks to turn any woman's head.

Was he really afraid of that happening? he then asked himself, and was  disturbed to realise that, yes, he was afraid. Always had been, always  would be, he admitted, as he fought to maintain his polite mask because,  at this juncture, he needed Ethan Hayes' cooperation if he was going to  get him off this boat before Leona could reach him.                       
       
           



       

So, on a sigh which announced his withdrawal from the threatening  confrontation, he said grimly, 'Time is of the essence,' and went on to  explain to the other man just enough of the truth to grab his concern.

'A plot to get rid of her?' Ethan was shocked and Hassan could not blame him for being so.

'A plot to use her as a lever to make me concede to certain issues they  desire from me,' he amended. 'I am still holding onto the belief that  they did not want to turn this into an international incident by harming  her in any way.'

'Just snatching her could do it,' Ethan pointed out.

'Only if it became public property,' Hassan responded. 'They would be  betting on Victor and myself holding our silence out of fear for Leona's  safety.'

'Does she know?' Ethan asked.

'Not yet,' Hassan confessed. 'And not at all if I can possibly get away with it.'

'So why does she think she's here?'

'Why do you think?' Hassan countered, and gained some enjoyment out of  watching Ethan stiffen as he absorbed the full masculine depth of his  meaning. 'As long as she remains under my protection no one can touch  her.'

Ethan's response took him by surprise because he dared to laugh. 'You've  no chance, Hassan,' he waged. 'Leona will fight you to the edge and  back before she will just sit down and do what you want her to do simply  because you've decided that is how it must be.'

'Which is why I need your support in this,' Hassan replied. 'I need you  to leave this boat before she can have an opportunity to use your  departure as an excuse to jump ship with you."

He got it. In the end, and after a bit more wrangling, he watched Ethan  Hayes turn to the door on a reluctant agreement to go. And, oddly,  Hassan admired him for trusting him enough to do this, bearing in mind  the year that had gone before.

'Don't hurt her again.' Almost as if he could read his thoughts, Ethan issued that gruff warning right on cue.

'My wife's well-being is and always has been of paramount importance to me,' Hassan responded in a decidedly cooler tone.

Ethan turned, looked him directly in the eye, and for once the truth was  placed in the open. 'You hurt her a year ago. A man gets only one  chance at doing that.'



The kid gloves came off. Hassan's eyes began to glint. 'Take a small  piece of advice,' he urged, 'and do not presume to understand a marital  relationship until you have tried it for yourself.'

'I know a broken-hearted woman when I see one,' Ethan persisted.

'And has she been any less broken-hearted in the year we have been apart?'

Game, set and match, Hassan recognised, as the other man conceded that  final point to him, and with just a nod of his head Ethan went out of  the door and into the capable hands of the waiting Raflq.

At about the same time that Rafiq was escorting Ethan to the waiting  launch presently tied up against the side of the yacht, Leona was  slipping her arms into the sleeves of a white linen jacket that matched  the white linen trousers she had chosen to wear. Beneath the jacket she  wore a pale green sun top and she had contained her hair in a simple  pony-tail tied up with a green silk scarf. As she turned towards the  door she decided that if she managed to ignore the throbbing ache  happening inside her then she was as ready as she ever could be for the  battle she knew was to come with Hassan.

Stepping out of the stateroom, the first person she saw was a bearded  man dressed in a long white tunic and the usual white gutrah on his  head.

'Faysal!' Her surprise was clear, her smile warm. Faysal responded by  pressing his palms together and dipping into the kind of low bow that  irritated Hassan but didn't bother Leona at all simply because she  ignored it. 'I didn't know you were here on the boat. Are you well?' she  enquired as she walked towards him.

'I am very well, my lady,' he confirmed, but beneath the beard she had a  suspicion he was blushing uncomfortably at the informal intimacy she  was showing him.

'And your wife?' she asked gently.

'Oh, she is very well,' he confirmed with a distinct softening in his  formal tone. 'The-er-problem she suffered has gone completely. We are  most grateful to you for taking the trouble to ensure she was treated by  the best people.'

'I didn't do anything but point her in the right direction, Faysal.'  Leona smiled, 'I am only grateful that she felt she could confide in  me.'

'You saved her life.'

'Many people saved her life.' Daring his affront, she crossed the  invisible line Arab males drew between themselves and females and  reached out to press her hands against the backs of his hands. 'But you  and I were good conspirators, hmm, Faysal?"

'Indisputably, my lady.' His mouth almost cracked into a smile but he  was too stressed at having her hands on his, and in the end she relented  and moved away.

'If you would come this way...' he bowed '...I am to escort you to my lord Hassan.'                       
       
           



       

Ah, my lord Hassan, Leona thought, and felt her lighter mood drop again  as Faysal indicated that she precede him down the steps she had taken a  tumble on the night before. On the other side of the foyer was a  staircase which Leona presumed led up to the deck above.

With Faysal tracking two steps behind her, she made her way up and into  the sunlight flooding the upper deck, where she paused to take a look  around. The sky was a pure, uninterrupted blue and the sea the colour of  turquoise. The sun was already hot on her face and she had to shade her  eyes against the way it was reflecting so brightly off the white  paintwork of the boat.