Diamond in the Desert (5 page)

At the top of the stairs she couldn’t resist turning to see if he was still watching her.

Something else for her to regret. And what did that amused look signify—the bed was just a few tempting steps away?

And now the familiar ache had started up again. They were consenting adults who made their own agenda, and, with the mine open twenty-four seven, it wasn’t as if they didn’t have time—

And if she gave in to her appetite, Emir would expect everything to be on his terms from hereon in—

‘I’ll take quick a shower and see you outside in ten,’ she called, running up the next flight of stairs to her own room in the attic. Slamming the door, she rested back against it. Saying yes to Emir would be the easiest thing in the world. Saying no to him required cast-iron discipline, and she wasn’t quite sure she’d got that.

She had to have it, Britt told herself sternly as she showered down. Anything else was weakness.

Britt’s bedroom was one of three at the cabin. She had chosen it as a child, because she could be alone up here. She had always loved the pitched roof with its wealth of beams, thinking it was like something out of a fairy tale. When she was little she could see the sky and the mountains if she stood on the bed, and when she was on her own she could be anyone she wanted to be. Over the years she had collected items that made her feel good. Her grandmother had worked the patchwork quilt. Her grandfather had carved the headboard. These family treasures meant the world to her. They were far more precious than any diamonds, but then she had to remember the good the diamonds could do—for Skavanga, the town her ancestors had built, and for her sisters, and for the company.

She had to secure Emir’s recommendation to his master, the Black Sheikh, Britt reflected as she toyed with some trinkets on the dressing table. They were the same cheap hair ornaments she had worn as a girl, she realised, picking them up and holding them against her long blonde hair so she could study the effect in the mirror. She hadn’t even changed the threadbare stool in front of the dressing table, because her grandmother had worked the stitches, and because it was a reminder of the girl Britt had been, like the books by her bedside. This was a very different place from her penthouse in the centre of Skavanga, but the penthouse was her public face while this was where she kept her heart.

And to keep it she must cut that deal to her advantage—

With a man as shrewd as Emir in the frame?

She had never doubted her own abilities before, Britt realised as she wandered over to a window she could see out of now without standing on the bed. Skavanga Mining had meant everything to her parents, but they hadn’t been able to keep it—

Because her father was a drunk—

She shook her head, shaking out the memory. Her parents had tried their best—

Leaving little time for Britt and her siblings.

So she had picked up a mess. Lots of people had to do that. And somehow she would find a way to cut a favourable deal with the consortium.

Staring out of the window drew her gaze to the traditional sauna hut, sitting squat on the shore of the lake. With its deep hat of snow and rows of birch twigs switches hanging in a rack outside the door, it brought a smile to her face as she remembered Eva’s teasing recommendation—that she bring Emir into line here. There were certainly several ways she could think of to do that. If only there weren’t a risk he might enjoy them too much...

Seeing Emir’s shadow darkening the snow outside, she quickly stepped back from the window. Tossing the towel aside, she pulled out the drawers of the old wooden chest and picked out warm, lightweight Arctic clothing—thermals, sweater, waterproof trousers and thick, sealskin socks. She resented the way her heart was drumming, as if she were going out on a date, rather than showing a man around a mine so he could make vast sums of money for his master out of generations of her family’s hard work. She also hated the fact that Emir had beaten her to it downstairs. She was endlessly competitive. Having two sisters, she supposed. Determined to seize back the initiative, she knocked on the window to capture his attention, and when she’d got his attention she held up five fingers to let him know she’d be down right away. Almost. She’d brush her hair and put some lip gloss on first.

Traitor.

Everyone likes to feel good, Britt argued firmly with her inner voice. This has nothing to do with Sharif
.

* * *

He had the cabin keys as well as the keys to the Jeep, and was settled behind the wheel by the time Britt appeared at the door. Climbing out, he strolled over to lock the cabin. She held out her hand to take charge of the keys.

‘I’ll keep them,’ he said, stowing them in the pocket of his lightweight polar fleece.

Britt’s crystal gaze turned stony.

‘I’m driving too,’ he said, enjoying the light floral scent she was wearing, which seemed at complete odds with the warrior woman expression on her face.

She was still seething when she swung into the passenger seat at his side. ‘I know where we’re going,’ she pointed out.

‘Then you can guide me there,’ he said, gunning the engine. ‘I’ll turn the Sat Nav off.’

She all but growled at this.

‘Why don’t you let me drive?’ she said.

‘Why don’t you direct me?’ he said mildly, releasing the brake. ‘It doesn’t hurt to share the load from time to time,’ he added, which earned him an angry glance.

They drove on in silence down the tree-shrouded lane. He noticed she glanced at the sauna on the lakeside as they drove past. He guessed his trials might begin there. The sauna was all ready and fired up. She wasn’t joking when she’d said the people at the mine looked after her. The consortium would have to work hard to win hearts and minds as well as everything else if they were going to make this project a success. Perhaps they needed Britt’s participation in the scheme more than he’d thought at first.

The snow was banked high either side of the road. The tall pines were bowed under its weight. The air was frigid with an icy mist overhanging everything. Snow was falling more heavily by the time they reached the main road. It had blurred the tyre tracks behind them and kept the windscreen wipers working frantically. ‘Left or right?’ he said, slowing the vehicle.

‘If you’d let me drive—’

He put the handbrake on.

‘Left,’ she said impatiently.

As he swung the wheel Britt tugged off her soft blue beanie and her golden hair cascaded down. If she had been trying to win his attention she couldn’t have thought up a better ruse, he realised as the scent of clean hair and lightly fragranced shampoo hit him square in the groin. He smiled to himself when she tied it back severely as if she knew that he liked it falling free around her shoulders. The fact that Britt didn’t want to flaunt her femininity in front of him told him something. She liked him and she didn’t want him to know.

‘You must be tired,’ he said, turning his thoughts to the stress she was under. It wasn’t easy trying to salvage the family business, as he knew only too well. Whether it was a town or a country made no difference when people you cared about were involved. Her thoughts were with all the people who depended on her, as his were with Kareshi.

‘I’m not as fragile as you seem to think,’ she said, turning a hostile back on him as she stared out of the window.

She wasn’t fragile at all. And if Britt tired at any point, he’d be there. Crazy, but somehow this woman had got under his skin—and he had more than enough energy for both of them.

CHAPTER FIVE

E
MIR
HAD
WHAT
was needed to take the mine to the next level summed up within the first half hour of him visiting the immense open-cast site. Digging down into the Arctic core would require mega-machines, as well as an extension to the ice road in order to accommodate them, and that would take colossal funding.

With such vast sums involved he would oversee everything. Second in command—second in anything—wasn’t his way. Britt was beginning to wonder how Emir managed to work for the sheikh—until he handed over the car keys.

As she thanked him she couldn’t have been more surprised and wondered if she had earned some respect down the mine? She had known the majority of the miners most of her life, and got on with everyone, and, though her brother Tyr would have been their first choice, she knew that in Tyr’s absence the miners respected her for taking on the job. Some of them had worked side by side with her grandfather, and she was proud to call them friends. She would do anything to keep them in employment.

Emir broke the silence as she started the engine. ‘Once I’ve had the samples tested, we can start planning the work schedule in earnest.’

‘I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with the result of the test. I’ve had reports from some of the best brains in Europe, who all came to the same conclusion. The Skavanga mine is set to become the richest diamond discovery ever made.’ If they could afford to mine the gems, she added silently. But surely now Emir had seen the mine for himself he wouldn’t pull back.
He mustn’t pull back.

She tensed as he stretched out his long legs and settled back. ‘So what do you think of the mine now you’ve seen it? Will you put in a good report? I have had other offers,’ she bluffed in an effort to prompt him.

‘If you’ve had other offers you must consider them all.’

Emir had called her bluff and left her hanging. Who else did he think could afford to do the work? It was the consortium or nothing. ‘I would have liked Tyr to be involved, but we haven’t seen him for years.’

‘That doesn’t mean he isn’t around.’

‘I’ll have a word with our lawyers when we get back—to see if they can find him. I imagine you’ll need to consult with your principal before making the next move?’ She glanced across, but the only fallout from this was a heart-crunching smile from Emir. She turned up the heating, but there was ice in her blood. The fact remained that only three men had the resources to bring the diamonds to the surface.

‘Why don’t you stop by the sauna?’ Emir suggested as she shivered involuntarily.

She was shivering, but at the thought of all the battles ahead of her.

Battles she hadn’t looked for in a job she didn’t want—

No one must know that. No one would
ever
know that. She had accepted responsibility for the mine because there was no one else to do so, and had no intention of welching on that responsibility now.
‘The sauna sounds like a good idea. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it—’

‘I’m sure I will too.’

It would be interesting to see if Emir felt quite so confident by the time they left the sauna.

Shock at the sudden dramatic change in temperature as they climbed out of the Jeep rendered them both silent for a few moments. The sky was uniform grey, though the Northern Lights had just begun to sweep across the bowl of the heavens as if a band of giants were waving luminescent flags. It was startling and awe-inspiring and they both lifted their heads to stare. The air was frigid, and mist formed in front of their mouths as they stood motionless as the display undulated above them.

The ice hole was probably frozen solid, Britt realised as the cold finally prompted them to move. They kept a power saw at the hut and that would soon sort it out. The sauna hut looked like a gingerbread house with a thick white coat of snow. It was another of her special places. Taking a sauna was a tradition she loved. It was the only way to thaw out the bones in Skavanga. And it was a great leveller as everyone stripped to the buff.

‘No changing rooms?’ Emir queried.

‘Not even a shower,’ she said, wondering if he was having second thoughts. ‘We’ll bathe in the lake afterwards.’

‘Fine by me,’ he said, gazing out across the glassy skating rink the lake had become.

As his lips pressed down with approval her attention was drawn to his sexy mouth. There wasn’t much about Emir that wasn’t sexy, and she couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t looking forward to seeing him naked. So far their encounters had been rushed, but there was no rushing involved in a traditional sauna. There would be all the time in the world to admire him.

She left him to open the locked compartment where the power saw was kept, but Emir wasn’t too happy when she started it up. She turned, ready to give him a lecture on the fact that she had been cutting holes in the ice since she was thirteen, and stalled. That man could take his clothes off faster than anyone she knew. And could cause a ton of trouble just by standing there. How was she supposed to keep her gaze glued to his face?

‘I’ll cut the ice. You go inside. The sauna’s been lit for some time. It should be perfect. Just ladle some more water on the hot stones—’

She hardly needed steam at this point, Britt reflected as Emir pushed through the door and disappeared. He was a towering monument to masculinity.

And she was going to share some down time with him?

She’d always managed to do so before with people without leaping on top of them—

And they all looked like Emir?

None of them looked like Emir.

Having cut the hole in the ice, she stripped down ready for the sauna. She kept her underwear on. She’d never done that before. Not that it offered much protection, but she felt better. And maybe it sent a message. If not, too bad; for the first time she could remember ever, she felt self-conscious, so the scraps of lace helped her, if no one else.

She found Emir leaning back on the wooden bench, perfectly relaxed, and perfectly naked as he allowed the steam rising from the hot stones on the brazier to roll over him.

She sat down in the shadows away from him, but couldn’t settle.

‘Too hot?’ he asked as she constantly changed position.

Try, overheating
...

And that was something else he didn’t need to know. Emir’s eyes might be closed, but she suspected he knew everything going on around him. If she needed proof of that, his faint smile told her everything. And as if she needed any more provocation with those hard-muscled legs stretched out in front of him, and his best bits prominently displayed—should she be foolish enough to take a look. She transferred her gaze to his face. His eyelashes were so thick and black they threw crescent shadows across his cheekbones, while his ebony brows swept up like some wild Tartar from the plains of Russia...

Or a sheikh...

Waves of shock and faintness washed over her, until she told herself firmly to give that overactive imagination of hers a rest. ‘I’m going outside to cool off.’

Emir went as far as opening one eye.

‘I’m going for a swim in the swimming hole—’

‘Then I’m coming with you—’

‘No need,’ she said quickly, needing space.

Too late. Emir was already standing and taking up every spare inch in the hut. Regret at her foolishness replaced the shock and faintness. They should have said goodbye in Skavanga. She could have sent a trusted employee to the mine.

Could you trust anyone else to do this deal but you?

Whatever. There had to be an easier way than this.

‘You can’t go swimming in an ice lake on your own,’ Emir said firmly, as if reading her.

‘I’ve been swimming in the lake since I was a child.’

‘When you were supervised, I imagine.’

‘I’m old enough to take care of myself now.’

‘Really?’

Emir’s mockery was getting to her. And what did he think he was looking at now?

Oh...
She quickly crossed her arms over her chest.

‘I’m coming anyway,’ he said, still with a flare of amusement in his eyes.

So be it, she thought, firming her jaw. In fairness, the golden rule at the cabin was that no one
ever
went swimming in the frozen lake alone. But did Emir have to tower over her to make his point?

He grabbed a towel on his way out, which he flung around her shoulders. ‘You’ll need it afterwards,’ he said.

She gave him a look that said she didn’t need his help, especially not here, and then gritted her teeth as she thought about the icy shock to come.

Running to the lake, she tossed her towel away at the last minute and jumped in before she had chance to change her mind.

She might have screamed. Who knew what she did or said? Once the icy water claimed her, rational thought was impossible. She was in shock and knew better than to linger. She was soon clambering out again—only to find Emir standing waiting for her with a towel.

‘You didn’t need to do that.’

He tossed the towel her way without another word, and then dived into the lake before she could stop him. She ran to the edge, but there was no sign of him—just loose ice floating. Panic consumed her, but just as she was preparing to jump in after him he emerged. Laughing.

Laughing!

Emir had barely cracked a smile the whole time he’d been in Skavanga, and
now
he was laughing?

She repaid the favour by tossing him a clean towel, which he wrapped around his waist. She didn’t wait to see how securely he fixed it. She just pelted for the sauna and dived in. Emir was close behind and shut the door.

‘Amazing,’ he said, like a tiger that, finding itself in the Arctic, had played with polar bears and found it fun.

He shook his head, sending tiny rainbow droplets of glacier flying around the cabin like the diamonds they were both seeking.

‘You enjoyed it, I see?’ she said as the spray from him hissed on the hot stones.

‘Of course I enjoyed it,’ he exclaimed. ‘I can think of only one thing better—’

She could be excused for holding her breath.

‘Next you rub me down with ice—’

Before it melted? She doubted that was possible.

‘I definitely want more,’ he said, glancing through the window.

Oh, to be a frozen lake, she thought.

As Emir settled back on the wooden bench and closed his eyes she realised she was glad he had embraced her traditions, which led on naturally to wondering about his. She had to stop that before her thoughts took a turn for the seriously erotic.

‘You love this place, don’t you?’ he said.

‘It means a lot to me,’ she admitted, ‘as does the cabin.’

‘It’s what it represents,’ Emir observed.

Correct, she thought.

‘If I lived in Skavanga, I’d come here to recharge my batteries.’

Which was exactly what she did. She sometimes came to the cabin just for a change of pace. It helped her to relax and get back in the race.

And it was high time she stopped finding points of contact between them, Britt warned herself, or she’d be convincing herself that fate was giving her a sign. There was no sign. There was no Emir and Britt. It seemed they got on outside sex and business, but that was it.

‘What are you thinking?’ he said.

She was resting her chin on her knees when she realised Emir was staring at her.

‘Why don’t you take your underwear off?’ he suggested. ‘You can’t be comfortable in those soggy scraps.’

‘They’ll soon dry out,’ she said, keeping her head down.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him shrug, but his expression called her a coward. And he was right. She was usually naked before she reached the door of the sauna—and she’d had sex with this man. Plus, she was hardly a vestal virgin in the first place. But somehow with Emir she felt exposed in all sorts of ways, and her underwear was one small, tiny, infinitesimal piece of armour—and she was hanging onto it. ‘I’m going outside,’ she announced.

‘Excellent. I’m ready for my ice rub, Ms Skavanga.’

‘Okay, tough guy, bring a towel. And don’t blame me if this is too hard core for you.’ Her grand flounce off was ruined by the sight of Emir’s grin.

She had used to swim through the snow when she was a little girl—or pretend to—and so she plunged straight in. It wasn’t something you stopped to think about. The shock was indescribable. But there was pleasure too as all her nerve endings shrieked at once. The soft bed of snow was cold but not life threatening. It was invigorating, and wiped her mind clean of any concerns she had—

But where was Emir?

She suddenly realised he wasn’t with her. Springing up, she looked around. Nothing—just silence and snow. She called his name. Still nothing.

Had he gone back to the hut?

She ran to the window and peered in. It was empty.

The lake—

Dread made her unsteady on her feet as she stumbled towards the water, but then she gusted with relief...and fury as his head appeared above the surface. ‘You’re mad,’ she yelled. ‘You never go swimming in the lake on your own. What if something had happened to you?’

‘You stole my line,’ he said, springing out. ‘I’m flattered you’d care.’

‘Of course I’d care,’ she yelled, leaning forward hands on hips. ‘What the hell would I tell your people if I lost you in a frozen lake? Don’t you dare laugh at me,’ she warned when Emir pressed his lips together. ‘Don’t you—’

‘What?’ he said sharply. Catching hold of her arms, he dragged her close, but she saw from his eyes that he was only teasing her. ‘Didn’t I tell you I wanted more?’ he growled.

His brows rose, his mouth curved. She could have stamped on his foot—much good it would do her in bare feet. They stared at each other for a long moment, until finally she wrestled herself free. ‘You’re impossible! You’re irresponsible and you’re a pig-headed pain in the neck.’

‘Anything else?’

‘You deserve to freeze to death!’

‘Harsh,’ he commented.

Wrapping both towels around her, she stormed off.