AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was only once she was seriously weakened and resigned to her fate that she realized they weren’t alone. A dozen camels and their riders stood around the broken down car, some of the men’s faces revealing utter shock and others furious looks of disgust.
“Come,” the man she’d repeatedly hit said in a neutral tone. Like she’d had no more strength than a gnat and was just as annoying. “You are clearly dehydrated and out of your head.”
She scowled. How dare he assume such a thing, as though his throwing her beloved camera to the ground wasn’t enough to set her off! “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He shrugged. “Then you will die alone out here in the desert, your bones picked clean by scavengers.”
She didn’t wait for him to coax her into leaving with him. Dropping from the car roof, she scampered partway up the dune to grab her camera where it lay. She pursed her lips and blew off the grains of sand. It didn’t appear to be broken. She sagged. There really was a God! Placing the strap around her neck she held the device protectively against her chest as she turned, prepared to snarl abuse at the career wrecker.
But if she thought he’d be waiting for her she was sadly mistaken. She gaped as the savage and his friends turned their camels around and headed away from her.
Slipping awkwardly down the bank of sand, she jogged after them, her focus on the lead, bareheaded rider. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” When he and his men ignored her and continued on their merry way, her jog turned into a sprint and her budding anxiety turned into a whirlwind of rage. “Hey.Hey!What the fuckisthis?”
The camels moved into a trot, the leader of the ragamuffin bastard club sitting astride his stead with his half-a-dozen black plaits bouncing. She gritted her teeth and stopped. Then lifting her camera she took dozens of photos of the retreating asshats.
“Best shots ever!” she screamed out. “The people of this country are going to love reading about the men who left behind the lone woman to rot in the desert. I can’t wait to share these photos around!”
Her tension faded as the camels slowed and finally stopped. The lead camel with its horrid rider sitting astride then turned around and trotted back toward her.
“Yeah, I thought that might get your attention,” she said fiercely, one hand on her hip and the other cradling her camera.
The man stopped his camel in front of her. It made a baleful sound as it once again stooped obediently to its knees then dropped its backend, its rider rocking in the saddle. He eyed her critically, his dark stare unreadable.
She shifted uncomfortably. Yes, she was a hot mess, who wouldn’t be under the desert sun that drained every particle of moisture from the body? It wasn’t as if he was an oil painting, either!
He was a drunken savage!
Except the camera didn’t lie. Every shot she’d captured of him had showcased a maverick, a savage of a man who was as one with the barren landscape and his damn camel. That his shrewd eyes hid secrets and a brilliant mind even now sent little shivers down her spine.Fuck.She wasn’t some wet-behind-the-ears virgin. She’d had her share of lovers.
That not one of them had affected her as profoundly as this desert native was nothing more than her artist’s eyes picking up on his charisma, his larger than life presence.
Too bad he was a drunk! He’d had the nerve to call her a fool, yet what person in their right mind didn’t keep up their hydration in the desert? Everyone knew alcohol dehydrated the body!
She shook her head and glowered. “What is this? A standoff?
“You want to come with me—then come. If you don’t, then do not run after me screaming like a banshee.”
She blinked. “What? So you want me to climb behind you on th-that thing?”
His dark eyes glittered, his lush, sexy lips tightening. “Last. Chance.”
“Fine.” She stomped toward the beast that eyed her as warily as she eyed it. “Where do I sit?” She looked at the padded, artfully engraved wooden saddle with its striped, colorful cloth beneath. Thank goodness she’d worn leggings beneath her kaftan. “You surely don’t intend for me to sit behind you squished like a sardine?”
He sighed heavily, and she quickly slid behind him before he changed his mind and left her to fend for herself. She blinked at the warm seat and the even warmer body in front of her.Damn.His scent was an oddly luxurious mix of citrus and frankincense.
“I suggest you wrap your bandana around the lower half of your face beneath your eyes.”
She grudgingly did as he asked. She had fair skin and the bandana would help stop a lot of the sunburn. She was only grateful that her hair would shield her nape at least.
“Hang on,” he commanded.
She wasn’t about to touch his hot, sweaty body. Placing her hands behind her back, she clung onto the lip of the saddle.
“Arms around me,” he ordered brusquely. “Unless you plan on tipping off the moment the camel stands.”
She threw her arms around him, shuddering at his sinewy, powerful body. She was used to softer men who cooked in kitchens, worked in offices or taught in classrooms. Unlike this hardened, desert man. Even beneath his thobe it was obvious he had not an ounce of fat on him. She closed her eyes. She’d bet the only fat he sported was between his—
She shrieked as the camel pushed to its feet, the ungainly rocking motion snapping her neck forward to crack her brow against the back of the savage’s head, before her neck snapped back and the world righted itself again.
