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She gave him a quick side glance then muttered something under her breath he didn’t quite hear.
“I’m sorry?” Raheem said. “I didn’t catch that.”
“I said I haven’t exactly told him yet.”
He blinked at her a moment, not sure how he felt about that. Most people, when offered a deal by him or his family, either fell at his feet in gratitude or shouted their joyous news from the rooftops. Miss Bliss had done neither. “You are still working for your production company then?”
“Afraid so.” She exhaled and stared out the window, her expression thoughtful. “I just don’t want to deal with the bitching and complaining that will surely go along with my resignation. Also, there’s that little part of me that still thinks this whole thing with you is too good to be true. If you change your mind and cancel our deal, that leaves me high and dry.”
“And you expect me to leave you high and dry?” Irritation swelled inside him. He’d shown her nothing but hospitality and kindness since her unexpected arrival in his camp, and this was how she repaid him? With mistrust and wariness? He straightened and crossed his arms. “I have never broken a promise and I do not intend to start now.”
“I’m just saying that my track record with men and loyalty isn’t the greatest, that’s all.” She stared resolutely out the window, seemingly ignoring Raheem, for the rest of their drive out to the caves.
By the time they arrived, he was feeling restless and ornery, wanting nothing more than to go for a good long run on the sand to relieve some of his unbearable tension. He’d wanted to ask her more about this history of misplaced male loyalty, but of course she’d not wanted to talk. That left him on edge and frustrated.
He got out of the SUV and stretched his stiff muscles before turning to help Laura from the vehicle. She stared around the impressive landscape and looked sufficiently dumbstruck. Raheem felt some of his stress slip away.
The entrance to the ancient cave system rose up out of the surrounding golden sands like a huge gaping mouth. Surrounded by red rock cliffs, it stood about thirty feet high. Over the years, steel railings had been installed for safety reasons and there were guards posted at the entrance to prevent vandals and others from causing damage to the natural wonders.
“Wow!” Laura stared at the cave in awe. “This is truly spectacular. I never imagined something like this existed i
n Djeva.”
Pride swelled inside his chest, warming him. “Thank you. Now you see why I want to preserve these natural treasures?”
“I see.” She smiled and his blood heated even more, but for different reasons entirely.
He led her toward the cave while the driver and the guards began unloading their gear from the Range Rover. “Some history on the site. My scientists have dated this cave to one-point-five million years old. So far, the excavation teams have mapped seven miles of caves and tunnels beneath the ground here. Once we get the first mile or so ready to open to the public, it will be only the second show cave on the Arabian Peninsula, with the other being Al Hoota in Oman.”
They walked inside and immediately the temperature dropped by about ten degrees. Laura shivered and rubbed her arms. Raheem battled the urge to pull her close and warm her with his own body. Eco-friendly lights he’d had installed when the excavations had first begun clicked on, bathing the cavern in brightness. “I’ve tried to keep everything as natural as possible to avoid disturbing the native species that dwell here. My brother, Feraz, balked at the initial outlay of cash, of course, but I remained firm. We even have our very own rare blind fish which lives in the lakes of the caves.”
“There’s lakes too?” Laura wandered around the space, staring up at the massive stalactites hanging down from the ceiling and the stalagmites rising from the floor of the caves. Her tone was drenched in awe and Raheem couldn’t help but smile. It was the same sense of majesty he felt each time he walked alone in these grottos. Nice to have someone to share them with this day. She stopped and peered over the protective railing into the darkness below. “How many?”
“How many what?” he asked, having lost their thread of conversation the minutes he’d noticed how lovely and golden her hair looked in this light.
“Lakes.” She grinned.
“Oh. There are four underground lakes here.” He leaned on the railing beside her. “These caves are also home to many other creatures as well, including bats, arthropods, mollusks, snails and water beetles.”
“Cool.” She turned then pointed at something on the wall behind him. “And spiders. Don’t forget them. Jeez, they grow them big in the desert, huh?”
Raheem whirled around to find his worst nightmare on the cave wall. His mouth dried and his pulse raced. Without thinking, he fumbled for Laura’s arm and hauled her back against him as he rushed for the door, his survival instincts on overdrive. “We need to get out of here now!”
“What? Why? Raheem? What the hell is going on?” She pulled free and scowled at him, hand on her hips. “It was one camel spider. They look horrifying, but seriously, they’re not even venomous. I’m sure it was way more scared of us than—”
Her words trailed off as she took in his wide eyes and white-knuckled grip on the railing. He wanted to make himself stop, knew it was irrational, but couldn’t. Ever since his brothers had forced him to watch Arachnophobia when he’d been four, he’d been terrified of spiders. He didn’t kill them if he didn’t have to, but he didn’t go out of his way to encounter them either.
“Oh, wow. You really are terrified, aren’t you?” Her tone took on a soothing quality, the same one might use on a quivering colt. “Yeah, let’s go outside then. We can get with the driver and check the equipment before we start shooting for the day.”
Laura took his hand and helped him up the stairs, staying by his side even after they’d emerged back into the sunlight. He swallowed hard against the bile rising in his throat and stumbled over to a boulder to rest and catch his breath. If his brothers could see him now, they’d never let him hear the end of it. Acting like a coward in front of a woman.
“If you’re so scared of them, why don’t you have them removed from the caves?” she asked, leaning back on the rock beside him. She’d gotten her camera and was checking it out as she spoke. “I’m sure there’s something they could put down.”
“No.” He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. “When I said that I wanted to keep things as natural as possible, I meant it. They are an integral part of the ecosystem here, whether I like it or not, so they stay.”
“What about all these tourists you hope to bring in though?” She narrowed her gaze. “I’m guessing their reaction might be similar to yours if one of those things came skittering toward them. Not to cause another panic attack or anything, but I’ve read they can run up to ten miles per hour.”
Raheem shuddered and stared into the crystal blue skies above. “That may be, but I believe we just startled that one. Probably when the lights came on so suddenly. I’ve not seen one in there before.” He cleared his throat, embarrassed heat prickling up from beneath the collar of his shirt. “And I usually do not react so badly when I see them.”
