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Chapter One
Sheikh Hamid Al Wahed let loose with an elated shout as he pushed his champion camel into a gallop, leaving his mounted guards behind in his dust. Well, sand.Whatever!Nothing right now could contain his happiness. Even his grin had to be eating up his face when one of his random hair plaits caught in his mouth.
He blew it free with another heady laugh. Now this was living!
He’d never be a strait-laced traditionalist. Even wearing the ghutra headdress was a rare occurrence. That it not only protected his face and neck from the desert heat, but also kept his hair covered and out of the way concerned him little. He loved the bite of the sun on his scalp and the wind’s hot breath against his skin while his hair was free to do whatever the hell it wanted.
He’d never conformed. He was a full-time ladies’ man and a part-time drunk. And a sheikh in name only.
Little wonder his people despaired of him.
The adrenaline rush faded along with his smile, but the desert continued to speed past as his camel galloped up one sand dune and down the next.
Hamid’s energy shift happened just as fast as he sank into gloomy thoughts. It was almost laughable that he’d become sheikh of Imbranak via default.
It had been his eldest brother, Ardon, whose role it had been to rule the small but ridiculously wealthy nation. Ardon who had prepared his whole life to become the next sheikh and serve his people…until the helicopter he’d piloted had crashed in the desert, killing him instantly along with his closest guards and advisors.
Hamid have never wanted or asked for the position of ruler. He’d always been a misfit by nature and—when not bedding a beautiful woman or women—a loner by choice. He craved solitude whenever he could get it.
Just like now.
Not even his favorite harem girl, Ranna, could have pulled him out of the despairing funk he was about to fall into once again.
He slowed the camel into a long, loping walk. “Good work, Camille. You’ve given me some space, if only for a few more minutes.” Camille responded with a hoarse bellow and he nodded and said, “Glad you understand. And yes, I am rather thirsty now, thank you.”
He pulled a flask from out of his thobe’s pocket, then gulped down some fiery mouthfuls of arrak, the date liquor he’d become rather fond of. Though his preference to forget his responsibilities was sex with any number of his women, a mind numbing drink would also do in a pinch.
Both were preferable.
He capped his flask and shoved it back into his pocket. In a perfect world he’d be surrounded by his exotic harem women. In an even more perfect world those same women wouldn’t act like puppets trained to remind him exactly who he was at every opportunity.
Ugh.It galled him no end that they spoke his name with such reverence and worshipped him like some ancient deity every time they scraped into a bow or yielded to his every perverted need.
He might love sex but sometimes he really did prefer to be alone in a Bedouin tent in the middle of the desert over the suffocating faithfulness of his servants, advisors, guards and harem women.
That they all resided in his sparkling palace with its gold-plated walls and fountains which gushed water while the sun scorched the barren earth outside its walls, left him with no choice but to occasionally escape where no one could find him.
He might endure the title of sheikh, but he had very little interest in public relations, politics and game playing. It was only his advisors and his surprisingly keen instincts that saw his country continue to prosper.
His lips twitched just a little. Perhaps his best friends, Mahindar, Fayez and Jamal’s influence had rubbed off on him? Because, unlike Hamid, they were passionate about ruling and bringing their nations forward like no other sheikhs before them.
His thoughts drifted to his smitten friend, Mahindra, whose mind was sharper than a rapier. When that man wanted something, nothing held him back. Not even a war had managed to keep him away from Arabelle, the woman he loved.
Of course Hamid was pleased for his friend’s happiness, but there was a part of him that was a little envious, too. How must it feel to love someone so unconditionally and exclusively?
Hamid had never once freely given his heart to a woman. His preference was to share his love around, or at least, share his body around. But perhaps if the right woman appeared, one who didn’t think he was the sun, the moon and the stars because of his sheikh status, he’d reconsider…everything.
He heaved out an aggrieved breath. At least he wasn’t alone in being alone. Fayez and Jamal were still happily single. His lips quirked. He had strong doubts either one of them would be building a ballroom with its black and white checkered floor anytime soon.
Hamid still chuckled that his best friends had fallen for his drunken bet a few years ago in a game of blackjack. They clearly thought he’d lose. They might be brilliant strategists and intelligent when it came to advancing their countries, but surely they should have known better than to bet against their street smart and savvy friend?
Had they forgotten about his earlier bet, which he’d also won? It’d been hilarious watching them compete in a camel race in nothing but their birthday suits and anxious faces. That his belly laugh had been far too short-lived had had him thinking up a far more impressive scheme for his next bet, one that would continue for years to come.
Building a grand ballroom for any of them brave or foolish enough to fall in love and marry had come to him after he’d visited a wealthy sheikh with said pretentious ballroom. Hamid had spent seven hours inside that ballroom bored out of his skull, the loud orchestra piercing his ears and the overdressed people with their fake smiles and heavy jewelry hurting his eyes.
Thank heavens he’d at least had the good fortune of taking two gorgeous ladies to bed for the night; otherwise the whole experience would have been little better than watching paint dry.
But he’d decided well before those ladies had brightened his mood that his friends should have to go through the same ordeal, and from there his plan had hatched.
