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‘You’ll be fine,’ Khalid assured her as he held out his hand.
Black as night, and as hard-muscled as his master, his stallion was grandly caparisoned in red and gold as befitted the favourite mount of a mighty ruler. And had the temperament of a snake someone had poked with a stick, Millie concluded. ‘He’s a monster. No way. Don’t you have a mule, or a donkey?’
‘Burkan means volcano in your language,’ the monster’s master explained fondly as he caressed his mount’s suddenly pricked-up ears.
‘I see he responds to flattery like most males,’ Millie commented dryly.
Khalid laughed, the sound muffled behind the howli, making it sound like a deep rumble of thunder, while his big black stallion raked the ground and gave her the dead eye. ‘He’s a pussycat,’ he soothed.
‘Of the big cat variety, with a thorn in its paw,’ Millie agreed.
‘I’m right out of donkeys,’ Khalid told her, ‘so are you coming, or not?’
She gazed around at the desert. This might be his home, but it looked like hostile territory to Millie. Resistant though she was to the idea of riding half a ton of power-packed, mean-eyed horse, she took hold of Khalid’s hand. No stallion with a personality disorder was going to frighten Millie Dillinger.
The next moment they were off. There was no slow build up to a flat-out gallop, so she could get used to the stallion’s gait. Burkan only knew one speed, and that was rocket-propelled. She yelped with fear as he galloped on, and for a few moments she was sure she’d fall off, but as Khalid’s arms tightened around her, her confidence grew.
‘Good?’ he demanded as Burkan’s hooves ate up the desert at a pace she could hardly believe.
‘I’m alive,’ she yelled back. And that was enough. But soon she realised it was fabulous. There could be nothing better than this wild ride through the desert in the arms of a desert king.
Dunes rose on either side of them, and Millie had no idea how anyone could navigate their way around when everything looked so similar. Khalid had no difficulty. He spearheaded the troop of men. Seeing the land he loved like this told her more about a complex man than hours of conversation ever could. Khalid might be hugely civilised on the outside, but in his heart, he was a fierce desert warrior.
* * *
Seeing his land through Millie’s eyes was a wonderful experience, like seeing the desert for the first time. Slowing Burkan, he pointed out the signs he looked for in a landscape, that at first sight appeared confusingly similar, and had the added complication of changing day by day as wind shifted both the shape and position of the dunes. He reined in at the top of one of these sand mountains to give Millie a chance to appreciate the extent of the sea of gold surrounding them. Dismounting, he lifted her down. Kneeling, he showed her the animal tracks in the seemingly sterile environment. He could tell she was fascinated as she knelt down beside him, and they were soon fully engrossed in discussing his plans to turn part of the desert into a fruitful garden, and how he intended to expand his nature reserves in order to protect the most endangered species. When he looked at her to weigh her reaction, and saw how intently she was listening, he felt a swell of emotion akin to love. This was dangerous, he thought as he sprang to his feet.
‘Khalifa is so beautiful,’ she said, standing by his side. ‘You’re a very lucky man.’
‘Yes, I am,’ he agreed, striding away to remount Burkan before he said something to make things worse. His growing feelings for Millie were not only inappropriate, but unfair to her. His future was fixed. If not this latest contender who had arrived unannounced at the palace, he must find an appropriate bride soon. It was his duty to settle down and have children, to forge the stable dynasty his people longed for. He could offer Millie nothing in the long-term. He had to content them both with this short desert adventure.
‘Come,’ he said, reaching down from the saddle. ‘We have some miles to cover before we reach the oasis.’
‘The oasis?’ she exclaimed. ‘How romantic.’ She stared up with eyes full of wonder, like a child at Christmas, making his decision to follow duty even harder.
‘It’s where we’ll sleep,’ he said crisply, trying not to think about the moment of parting, which must come soon, when they would both return to stark reality.
* * *
She felt better this time, on the horse, more relaxed, and at one with Khalid. She was excited as they cantered on through the desert towards the promise of a cooling oasis. Having seen this other side of her desert lord, a side that was tender and caring, and deeply committed to the welfare of his country, she loved him more than ever. Yes. Love. There was no other way to describe her growing feelings for Khalid. She didn’t want to leave him, or his country, and she was hungry to know more, about him, about Khalifa. Everything that mattered to him mattered to her.
‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ he asked as they rode on through golden dunes with chocolate shadows.
‘It’s fabulous,’ she said as a hawk soared overhead, calling piercingly to its mate.
Everything she’d seen so far was fabulous in Khalifa. The sun, as it dropped lower in the metallic blue sky, was fabulous. The warm scented air was fabulous. This experience of riding a horse that she’d been so scared of and now loved and appreciated was fabulous. Khalid loved Khalifa and she loved him.
So much, so dangerous, Millie thought. Where did she imagine this was leading? She wasn’t stupid. She’d be going home soon. Her dreams of becoming a marine engineer had been put on hold, but she’d pick them up when she went home, while Khalid’s destiny kept him here, wrapped up in a life of duty, which he would never renounce.
He would need a wife to sit beside him on the Sapphire throne.
She actually shuddered at the thought, and couldn’t bring herself to picture the woman who would support him in everything he did; give him children, live with him and love him. His marriage was sure to be reported in the press, and she would have to be happy for him. It wouldn’t be easy, but was the price she had to pay for this...
She stiffened with misery, and that was enough to alert Khalid to a problem. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked. ‘There isn’t far to go now.’
She’d gone far too far already, Millie thought. How would this highly charged expedition end? In tears? Or triumph? In understanding? Or in the same fog in which she had instigated their meeting when the Sapphire returned to King’s Dock? She had never been happier than she was now. Wasn’t that enough? Some people didn’t have this much. Was she being greedy? Weren’t a few days of true happiness better than none?
Khalid had slowed the pace of his stallion, and his arms were gentle as she rested back against his chest. Did he feel the same need she did to stretch every second remaining to them into an hour, a day, until there were no days left?
Perhaps sensing that her thoughts were racing on into the future, he reined in at the top of a dune, and asked, ‘Why don’t you tell me about your ambitions?’
Millie was speechless as she looked at the view. Miles of rolling sand dunes, with what appeared to be a lush, green park right in the middle of them. And in the centre of that, there was a glittering oasis, like a wide, tranquil, crystalline lake, hidden away in the heart of the desert.
‘Your ambitions?’ he prompted.
It seemed mundane to talk about her college course after that, or the complexities of a boiler and the satisfaction of tinkering with an engine and hearing it throb into life. But that was her life, Millie thought. And she loved her life. This was Khalid’s life.
‘Miss Francine’s been kind to you?’
‘Miss Francine is the best woman in the world,’ Millie exclaimed sincerely. ‘More than a surrogate mother, she’s been the grandmother I never knew, as well as my friend and the special person I confide in, and know I can turn to if ever there’s a problem.’
‘I hear she turns to you.’
‘You hear a lot of things,’ she remarked with amusement.
‘And your ambition to be a marine engineer? You could work on my ships.’
‘How many do you have?’
‘Enough to keep you busy.’
Millie smiled. Khalid truly lived in another world. ‘I love to see the way things work,’ she admitted. ‘Making them run more efficiently is my passion. A new engine is like a new friend to me. I can’t rest until I know what makes them tick, and how I can help them.’
‘A noble career,’ he commented. ‘Lucky friends, lucky engines.’
She laughed. They both laughed. He nuzzled her face in a way that felt so intimate, and then he turned Burkan and rode on.
* * *
Millie was quite open about her hopes and dreams when it came to her career, but what did she do for entertainment? he wondered, having discovered that he cared more than he should.
‘I’m a bluestocking,’ she said when he asked the question. ‘I read, study, read some more.’
‘But you must go out?’
‘Are you jealous?’ she asked, turning in the saddle to stare at him.
Yes, he was, he discovered. ‘Would you prefer me not to be?’
‘I don’t think that’s in your nature. You’re a warrior through and through.’
She was correct. The thought of another man touching Millie roused him to a passion he wouldn’t have believed.
