He drew up alongside her, the horse rearing up, making Sylvie back away skittishly. Even now—even though her accelerated pulse told her otherwise—she was hoping she was mistaken.
But the man who jumped off the horse had such grace and innate athleticism that her mouth dried.
He tied the horse to the buggy and then stalked towards her, growing bigger and taller as he did so. Right up until the moment that he ripped aside the material covering his mouth and face Sylvie was still hoping it was anyone but...him. Of course he’d found her. This man seemed to have a heat-seeking radar, able to pin her to the spot no matter where she was.
‘You damned little fool. What thehelldid you hope to achieve by this stunt?’
She tried to ignore how Arkim’s almost savage appearance made her feel as if she was losing it completely. He looked even more ridiculously handsome against this unforgiving backdrop.
She shouted back. ‘I was trying to get away fromyou, in case it wasn’t completely obvious.’
Arkim’s eyes glittered like obsidian. ‘In a golf buggy? With none of your things?’ He was scathing. ‘Did you really think you could just bounce merrily across hundreds of miles of desert and roll into the nearest petrol station to refuel?’
Humiliated beyond measure, Sylvie launched herself at Arkim, hands balled into fists and beating against his chest.
He caught her arms easily and held her immobile. Tension crackled between them, and for a heart-stopping moment Sylvie thought he was going to kiss her—but then a piercing sound shattered the air and they both looked up to see two Jeeps coming towards them over the top of the dune, horns blasting.
Sylvie felt so jittery all she wanted was to escape back to the castle as quickly as possible and lock herself in her rooms. She was caught between a rock and a hard place. Literally. The thought didn’t amuse her.
The Jeeps pulled up and concerned-looking staff spilled out. Sylvie immediately felt guilty for having precipitated this search.
Arkim wordlessly led her over to the nearest vehicle and said a few words to the driver. Then he opened up the back door for her. When she would have expected to get in, he handed her a bottle of water. She looked at him and he was grim.
‘Drink, you’ll be dehydrated.’
Sylvie couldn’t argue with that, and she was thirsty, so she took several large gulps. Then Arkim reached into the back of the Jeep again and pulled out a long white robe. He thrust it at her.
‘I’m supposed to put this on?’ Sylvie said waspishly.
Arkim’s expression darkened. ‘Yes. You’re already burning.’
Her skinwasstill prickling, but Sylvie was afraid that it was more to do with his effect on her than the sun—even though when she looked her arms were ominously pink.
Mutinously she pulled on the long-sleeved robe, and was surprised at how much cooler she felt instantly—which was crazy when she was pulling onmoreclothes.
Then he was unwinding hiskeffiyehfrom his head, and before she could stop him he’d placed it over her hair, like a shawl. He started to wind it around her head, tucking it in, until there was only one long piece left that he drew across her mouth and tucked in at the back.
She was effectively swaddled. And it was only then that she realised that the Jeeps were driving off into the distance, towing the buggy behind them. Arkim’s scent was disturbing, and all around her. The thought that this fabric had been across his mouth was almost too intimate to take in.
He held his horse by the reins and was leading it over. Sylvie pulled down the material covering her mouth. ‘What are you doing? Where are the Jeeps going?’
He stopped in front of her, the huge horse prancing behind him. ‘We are going for a little trip.’
Before she could ask more, Arkim had his hands around her waist and was lifting her effortlessly onto the horse. His sheer strength took her breath away and she clung to the saddle, her brain reeling at being so high up. She hadn’t been on a horse since she was a teenager...
Arkim put his foot in the stirrup and vaulted on behind her, his agility awesome. And suddenly he was all around her. Strong muscled thighs gripping hers, his torso against her back, his arms coming around her to take the reins.
‘Cover your mouth.’
Sylvie was too stunned to move. ‘Wh—where are we going?’
Arkim angled himself so he could see her and made a rude sound. ‘Don’t youeverdo anything you’re told?’ The material was firmly pulled back over her mouth and he said, ‘It’ll stop sand getting in.’
Sylvie couldn’t say anything else, because Arkim was turning the horse around and they were galloping in the opposite direction from where the Jeeps had gone. For a semi-hysterical moment Sylvie thought that perhaps she’d pushed Arkim so far he was just going to dump her in the desert and leave her to die a slow, painful death.
Gradually, though, as they galloped into the seeming nothingness of the sandy landscape, almost against her will she felt herself relaxing into Arkim’s body, letting him take her weight. One of his arms was around her torso, holding her to him, and she felt the intimate space between her legs soften and moisten.
She was fast losing all sense of reality. The real world and civilisation felt very far away.
