Diamond in the Desert (8 page)

‘Hello, Tyr,’ he said, settling down into what he knew would be a long call.

CHAPTER EIGHT

H
E
WAS
PACKING
?
Emir was packing?
She had come downstairs after her shower expecting to find him basking in front of a roaring fire—which he would have banked up, perhaps with a drink in hand and one waiting for her on the table. She had anticipated more getting-to-know-you time. That was what couples did when they’d grown closer after sex...

And they had grown closer, Britt reassured herself, feeling painfully obvious in banged-up jeans, simple top and bare feet. She felt as if, in this relaxed state, all her feelings were on display. And all those feelings spoke of closeness and intimacy with Emir. She had dressed in anticipation of continuing ease between them. She had dressed as she would dress when her sisters were around. And now she felt vulnerable and exposed. And utterly ridiculous for having let her guard down so badly.

How could she have got this so wrong?

She watched him from the doorway of his bedroom as Emir folded his clothes, arranging them in a bag that he could sling casually over his shoulder. He must have known she was standing there, but he didn’t say a word. The chill seemed to creep up from the floor and consume her. Even her face felt cold.

What had gone wrong?

What was wrong was that Emir didn’t care and she had refused to see that. He had come here to do a job and his job was done. He had taken samples for analysis and had seen the mine for himself. He had weighed her up and interviewed her colleagues. His only job now was to pack up and leave. What had she been? An unexpected bonus on the side? She had no part to play in Emir’s plans, he’d made that clear. Why had she ever allowed herself to believe that she had? All that talk of Kareshi and the desert was just that—talk.

Her throat felt tight. Her mouth was dry. She felt numb. Anything she said in this situation would sound ridiculous. And what was the point of having a row when she had no call on this man? She had enjoyed him as much as he had enjoyed her. Was it his fault if she couldn’t move on?

All this was sound reasoning, but reason didn’t allow for passion, for emotion—for any of the things she felt for Emir. And out of bitter disappointment at his manner towards her—or rather his lack of...anything, really—came anger. What had he meant by staring into her eyes and suggesting they should take sex to the bedroom next time? Was that concern for her? Or was Emir more concerned about getting grazes on his knees? She had laughed with and trusted this man. Everything had changed for her, because she’d thought... Because she’d thought...

She didn’t have a clue what she’d thought, Britt realised. She only knew she had given herself completely to a man, something she’d never done before, and now, just as her mother had predicted, she was paying the price. But she would not play the role of misused mistress and give him the chance to mock.

‘You’re leaving?’ she said coolly. ‘Already?’

‘My job here’s done,’ Emir confirmed, straightening up. He turned to face her. ‘My flight plan is filed. I leave right away.’

When did he file his flight plan? Immediately after making love to her?

‘Do you have transport to the airport?’ She wasn’t so petty she would let him call a cab. She would take him to the airport if she had to.

‘My people are coming for me,’ he said, turning back to zip up his bag.

Of course. ‘Oh, good,’ she said, going hot and cold in turn as she chalked up the completeness of his plan as just one more insult to add to the rest. He’d had sex with her first and then had called his people to come and get him. He’d used her—

As she had used men in the past.

Her heart lurched as their eyes met. Mistake. Now he could see how badly she didn’t want him to go.

‘I have to report back to the consortium, Britt,’ he said, confirming this assumption.

‘Of course.’ She cleared her throat and arranged her features in a composed mask. She had never been at such a disadvantage where a man was concerned. But that was because she had never known anyone like Emir before and had always prided herself on being able to read people. She had not read him. They were like two strangers, out of sync, out of context, out of time.

She stood in embarrassed silence. With no small talk to delay him, let alone some siren song with which to change his mind, she could only wait for him to leave.

‘Thank you for your hospitality, Britt,’ he said, shouldering the bag.

Her hospitality?
Did that include the sex? Her face was composed, but as Emir moved to shake her hand she stood back.

Emir didn’t react one way or the other to this snub. ‘I’ll wait for test results on the samples, and if all goes well you will hear from my lawyers in the next few weeks.’

‘Your lawyers?’ Her head was reeling by now, with business and personal thoughts hopelessly mixed.

‘Forgive me, Britt.’ Emir paused with his hand on the door. ‘I meant, of course, the lawyers acting for the consortium will be in touch with you.’

Suddenly all the anger and hurt inside her exploded into fury, which manifested itself in an icy question. ‘And what if I get a better offer in the meantime?’

‘Then you must consider it and we will meet again. I should tell you that the consortium has been in touch with your sisters, and they have already agreed—’

‘You’ve spoken to Eva and Leila?’ she cut in. He’d done that without speaking to her? She couldn’t take any more in than she already had—and she certainly couldn’t believe that her sisters would do a deal without speaking to her first.

‘My people have spoken to your sisters,’ Emir explained.

‘And you didn’t think to tell me?’
They didn’t think to tell me?
She was flooded with hurt and pain.

‘I just have.’ A muscle flicked in his jaw.

‘So all the time we’ve been here—’ Outrage boiled in her eyes. ‘I think you’d better go,’ she managed tensely. Suddenly, all that mattered was speaking to her sisters so she could find out what the hell was going on.

Meanwhile, Emir was checking round the room, just to be sure he hadn’t forgotten anything, presumably. He didn’t care a jot about her, she realised with a cold rush of certainty. This had only ever been about the deal. How convenient to keep her distracted here while the consortium’s lackeys acted behind her back. How very clever of Emir. And how irredeemably stupid of her.

‘If you’ve left anything I’ll send it on,’ she said coldly, just wanting him to go.

How could her heart still betray her when Emir’s brooding stare switched to her face?

‘I knew I could count on you,’ he said as her stupid heart performed the customary leap.

Emir’s impassive stare turned her own eyes glacial. ‘Well, you’ve got what you wanted from me, so you might as well go. You’ll get nothing else here.’

The inky brows rose, but Emir remained silent. She just hoped her barb had stabbed home. But no.

‘This is business, Britt, and there is no emotion in business. I wish I could tell you more, but—’

‘Please—spare me.’ She drew herself up. ‘Goodbye, Emir.’

She didn’t follow him out. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She listened to him jog down the stairs, while registering the tenderness of a body that had been very well used, and heard him stride across the main room downstairs where they had been so briefly close. It was as if Emir were stripping the joy out of the cabin she loved with every step he took, and each of those departing steps served as a reminder that she had wasted her feelings on someone who cared for nothing in this world apart from business.

Apart from her sisters and Tyr, that had been how she was not so very long ago, Britt conceded as the front door closed behind Emir.

She hadn’t even realised she had stopped breathing until she heard a car door slam and she drew in a desperate, shuddering breath.

* * *

There were times when he would gladly exchange places with the grooms who worked in his stables and this was one of them, but harsh decisions had to be made. He thought he could feel Britt’s anguished stare on his back as he held up his hand to hail the black Jeep that had come to collect him. His men would take him back to the airport and his private jet. His mind was still full of her when he climbed into the passenger seat and they drove him away. It was better to leave now before things became really complicated.

* * *

Her sense of betrayal by Emir—and, yes, even more so by her sisters—was indescribable. And for once both Eva and Leila were out of touch by phone. She had tried them constantly since Emir had left, prowling around the cabin like a wounded animal, unable to settle or do anything until she had spoken to them. Even her beloved cabin had let her down. It failed to soothe her this time. She should never have brought Emir here. He had tainted her precious memories.

Not wanting to face the fact that she had been less than focused, she turned on every light in the cabin, but it still felt empty. There was no reply from her sisters, so all she could do was dwell on what she’d seen through the window when he’d left—Emir climbing into a Jeep and being driven away. She’d got the sense of other big men in the vehicle, shadowy, and no doubt armed. Where there were such vast resources up for grabs, no one took any chances. She had been kidding herself if she had thought that bringing investors in would be easy to handle. She was up against a powerful and well-oiled machine. She should have known when each man in the consortium was a power in his own right, and she was on her own—

So? Get used to it! There was no time for self-pity. This was all about protecting her sisters, whatever they’d done. They weren’t to blame. They had no idea what it took to survive in the cut-throat world of business—she didn’t want them to know. She would protect them as she always had.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when the phone rang, and she rushed to pick it up. Mixed feelings when she did so, because it was Eva, her middle and least flexible sister, calling. ‘Eva—’

‘You rang?’ Eva intoned. ‘Seven missed calls, Britt? What’s going on?’

Where to begin? Suddenly, Britt was at a loss, but then her mind cleared and became as unemotional as it usually was where business was concerned. ‘The man from the consortium just left the cabin. He said you and Leila signed something?’ Britt waited tensely for her sister to respond, guessing Eva would be doing ten things at once. ‘So, what have you signed?’ Britt pressed, controlling her impatience.

‘All we did was give permission for the consortium’s people to enter the offices to start their preliminary investigations.’

‘Why didn’t you speak to me first?’

‘Because we couldn’t get hold of you.’

And now she could only rue the day she had left Skavanga to show Emir the mine.

‘We thought we were helping you move things on.’

Britt could accept that. The sooner the consortium’s accountants had completed their investigations, the sooner she could bring some investment into Skavanga Mining and save the company. ‘So you haven’t agreed to sell your shares?’

‘Of course not. What do you take me for?’

‘I don’t want to argue with you, Eva. I’m just worried—’

‘You know I don’t know the first thing about the business,’ Eva countered. ‘And I’m sorry you got landed with it when our parents died. I do know there are a thousand things you’d rather do.’

‘Never mind that now—I need to help people at home. I’m coming back—’

‘Before you go, how did you get on with him?”

‘Who?’ Britt said defensively.

‘You know—the man who was at the mine with you—the sheikh’s man.’

‘Oh, you mean Emir.’

‘What?’

‘Emir,’ Britt repeated.

‘Well, that’s original,’ Eva murmured with a smile in her voice. ‘Did the Black Sheikh come up with any more titles to fool you, or just the one?’

Britt started to say something and then stopped. ‘Sorry?’

‘Oh, come on,’ Eva exclaimed impatiently. ‘I guess he was quite a man, but I can’t believe your brain has taken up permanent residence below your belt. You know your thesaurus as well as anyone: emir, potentate, person of rank. Have I rung any bells yet?’

‘But he said his name was—’ Hot waves of shame washed over her. She was every bit as stupid as she had thought herself when Emir left, only more so.

‘Since when have you believed everything you’re told, Britt?’ Eva demanded.

Since she met a man who told her that his name was Emir.

She had to speak to him. She would speak to him, Britt determined icily, just as soon as she had finished this call to her sister.

‘You haven’t fallen for him, have you?’ Eva said shrewdly.

‘No, of course not,’ Britt fired back.

There was a silence that suggested Eva wasn’t entirely convinced. Too bad. Whatever Britt might have felt for Emir was gone now. Gone completely. Finished. Over. Dead. Gone.

‘You should have taken him for a roll in the snow so you could both cool down.’

‘I did,’ she admitted flatly. ‘He loved it.’

‘Sounds like my kind of guy—’

‘This isn’t funny, Eva.’

‘No,’ Eva agreed, turning serious. ‘You’ve made a fool of yourself and you don’t like it. Turns out you’re not the hotshot man-eater you thought you were.’

‘But I’m still a businesswoman,’ Britt murmured thoughtfully, ‘and you know what they say.’

‘I’m sure you’re going to tell me,’ Eva observed dryly.

‘Don’t get mad, get even.’

‘That’s what I was afraid of,’ Eva commented under her breath. ‘Just don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. Don’t screw this deal after putting so much effort into it.’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t.’

‘So what are you going to do?’ Eva pressed, concern ringing in her voice.

For betraying her—for allowing his people to approach her sisters while Britt and he were otherwise engaged?

‘I’m going to follow him to Kareshi. I’m going to track him down. I’m going to ring his office to try and find out where he is. I’ll go into the desert if I have to. I’m going to find the bastard and make him pay.’