To Tempt a Sheikh(22)

"I feel I lost them simultaneously, even though they died seven years  apart. Okay, let me start at the beginning." She let out a shuddering  exhalation, let him draw her closer into him, then began. "I never knew  my biological father. I knew of him, but he didn't want a wife and a  kid, let alone two. We had our mother's family name until she married  the man I consider my father when Todd and I were two. As I grew up and  learned the whole story, I thought my mother the luckiest woman on earth  and my father-the man whose name I carry now-the best man in existence.  I never saw anyone more in love or right for each other than they were.                       
       
           



       

"The only problem was, my father was almost thirty years older than my  mom. He'd never been married before, always said he'd been waiting for  her. For all of us. When I was in my second year in med school, right  before his eightieth birthday, he passed away in his sleep, beside my  mom. She never recovered. Seven years later, she overdosed on a  concoction of the prescription meds I'd been begging her for years not  to take. I could have saved her if I was there, but only Todd was home.  By the time the ambulance arrived, it was too late."

For long moments after she fell silent, Harres said nothing. Then they  entered their cottage, and he pulled her into his embrace, pressed her  head against his endless chest.

They stood like that, sharing, savoring, her body throbbing to the tempo of the powerful heart beating below her ear.

Then he kissed the top of her head. "Ana aassef, ya nadda jannati. I'm sorry."

He said nothing more. Then they went about their bedtime routine. Once  in bed, hearing him moving in the other room, she had a sudden  realization. Why she'd always given up on any attempt at a relationship  so early, so easily.

With her parents' example, she'd set her own bar high. Every connection  she'd attempted had fallen miles below it. She'd soon given up on  trying, had been resigned that she'd never have anything like they'd  had, and that if she couldn't, she'd rather be alone. She'd become  content with a life full of activity and purpose.

Now there was Harres.



"It's … huge."

At Talia's exclamation, Harres pressed his hard body to her back, murmured in her ear, "Yes, it is."

She nestled back against him, cast her gaze over the depression of el waha-the oasis that sprawled below them.

It had taken the past four days to cover the place on horse back. Now,  on top of Reeh-or Wind, the white horse Harres had ridden on his charge  back to save her-she had the best vantage point yet to appreciate it all  from.

It seemed the explosion of life among the barrenness of the desert fed  the conditions that fueled its proliferation in an endless cycle of  balance and symbiosis. Date palms and olive trees numbered in the  hundreds of thousands. Wildflowers and cacti were impossible in beauty  and abundance. Farmed fruits and vegetables, especially figs, apricots,  berries and corn, were astounding in size and taste. And besides horses,  camels, sheep, goats, cats and dogs, there were innumerable  representatives of the animal kingdom, all like the residents,  unstressed and unthreatened. Deer and foxes let her walk up to them, a  few let her pet them. Even reptiles and birds humored her when she cooed  to them and presumed to offer them food and seek their acquaintance.

She sighed her pleasure again. "Scratch huge. It's endless. It goes on forever."

Harres chuckled as he unwrapped her from his arms, jumped off the horse  and reached up to carry her down. His effortless strength and the  cherishing in his glance and touch as she slid down his body sent a  current through her heart.

"We can see about three miles to the horizon if we're on the ground,  farther the higher up we go. Since we're three hundred feet up, we can  see for about twenty miles. And since the oasis measures more than that  on its narrowest side, you can't see its end from any point, making it  look endless."

She whooped, loving his explanations. "You should consider a career as a  tour guide, if ever princes are no longer in demand … ." She bit her  tongue. Not something to joke about with a dethroning conspiracy going  on in his kingdom. He only grinned at her, showing her he knew she'd  meant nothing, enjoyed her joke. Grinning back in relief, she said, "I  can now see how this place earned its mystical reputation."

"So it's worth the ordeal I put you through coming here, eh?"

"I would have welcomed a trash dump if it had water and shelter. But it  isn't because this place meant life to us that I find it amazing. It is a  paradise, like you said. Mostly because of its inhabitants. Everyone is  so kind and bright and wise."

She left out the main reason why she found this place enchanting. The present company.

For minutes, as sunset expanded its dominion over the oasis, boosting  the beauty to its most mind-boggling, he guided her to a spring of  crystalline water enclosed within a canopy of palms. The air was laden  with sweet plant scents and heady earth aromas, its temperature seeming  to be calibrated for perfect comfort, all year round as he'd told her.

As they stopped by the spring, she said, "It would be so easy to live here forever."

If Todd was with her, she amended inwardly, or at least out of prison.                       
       
           



       

Harres spread a rug at her feet, looked up. "Wouldn't you go out of your mind without modern conveniences?"

She sank down on the rug, reached for their food basket. "Sure, I'd miss  a few things. Hot showers for one. And the internet. Uh … I'm sure  there's more I'd miss, but I'm drawing a blank right now."

He got out glasses. "How about medicine?"

"Oh, I'd practice it here like I have been so far. I'd probably do far  more good in the long run than I do patching up people who go out and  drive recklessly or OD again."

He raised a slice of apricot to her lips. "But you're a very complex  being, ya nadda jannati, a product of dozens of centuries of human  evolution. I am best qualified to judge how sturdy and tenacious you  are, but beyond the comforts you'd substitute with the pleasures of  healthy living and labor, you'd itch for what the people here can't  conceive, need challenges they can't provide."

He knew her too well. And she could say the exact same of him. She  nodded. "Probably. It's just the simplicity, the contentment and  tranquility that breathes in this place is enchanting. If I had my way,  this would be normal life and the bustle of the twenty-first century  would be the vacation."

"Then you will have your way."

It felt like a pledge. As if he never meant this to end.

Yet she had no illusions, no hopes. Oceans of harsh realities, mountains of obstacles existed between them.

She was a commoner from another country and culture and he was a prince  with a binding duty to his people. Then there was Todd's ordeal. She had  no idea what securing his freedom would mean, to Harres, to his family.  Even if there could be a solution that didn't end up harming them and  making her Harres's enemy, he was probably-like that woman her brother  had fallen in love with-intended to marry for king and kingdom.

Not that she'd ever put Harres and marriage together in a linear thought where she was concerned.

She now watched as he braided palm leaves into an ingenious basket for  her fruits. Then she said, "You know, I came here thinking all of you  Aal Shalaans were pampered perverts, mired in excess, useless at best,  and helpless without your guards and gadgets, that all there was to you  was unearned wealth and inherited status."

His nimble hands had stopped midway through weaving his own basket, his  eyes becoming somber, contemplative. Then he inhaled. "So what did you  think of me specifically?"

She owed him the truth, no matter how ugly it was. Feeling shame surge  into her cheeks, she said, "When I first heard the tales of your valor  and victories? I thought you were the most obnoxious of the lot, playing  at being a hero, taking credit for the achievements of the true but  faceless heroes, or at best relying on the safety net of your men's  lives and your endless resources to play the role of Zohayd's Guardian  Prince. I thought you'd show your true colors when you were stripped of  your force field of assets."

He put a palm over his heart. "Ouch. And now you think all that plus a few more choice put-downs and denigrations?"

She cast him a reproachful glance. "You know what I think now."

"Tell me."

The way he'd said that. The way he looked at her. As if he couldn't live without this vital knowledge.

Breath left her. "You know what you are. You have a whole kingdom who revere the dirt beneath your feet."