Hidden In the Sheikh's Harem by Michelle Conder Read Free Book Online Page B

still be cold; he damned well was. Cold, hungry, angry and his arms and torso felt like they were covered in a thousand tiny pinpricks from where the sand and rain had pelted him in the storm.
    He let out an aggrieved sigh. Farah Hajjar better not give him any trouble in the morning because he was very far from his cool, controlled self.

CHAPTER FIVE
    â€˜W AKE   UP , Z ENOBIA . Time to hustle.’
    Hustle?
    Groggily Farah came awake and realised the prod in her bottom had been the Prince of Bakaan’s foot. Her teeth ground together at the way he mockingly referred to her as a warrior queen from the Roman era. Some warrior she was, allowing him to get the better of her. ‘Only if you’ll give me back my dagger so I can do to you what she did to Probus.’
    She sat up and rubbed the grit from her eyes but still caught the look of surprise on his face. ‘Oh, sorry,’ she simpered. ‘Am I supposed to play the part of the village idiot who isn’t anywhere near as learned as the high and mighty prince with his first-class degree?’
    He didn’t move but she felt his eyes on her like a hot brand. ‘Two degrees, actually.’
    â€˜Oh, well, excuse me.’ She glanced at Moonbeam so she wouldn’t have to look at him.
    â€˜So you’re educated?’
    â€˜Self-educated, no thanks to your family’s reign.’ She flicked him a scathing look. ‘But, as much as your father tried to keep us all in the dark, we’re a little more resourceful than you might think. Especially when—’
    She stopped, suddenly realising she was about to tell him that there was someone on his staff who was supplying the outer tribes with contraband medical and educational goods.
    Great going, Farah
,
 
she admonished herself
. What a way to get a man fired—or, worse, killed.
    His eyes narrowed. ‘When what?’
    She brushed sand off her legs. ‘Never mind. Why did you kick me?’
    â€˜I didn’t kick you. I nudged you.’ His deep voice made her insides feel unsteady. ‘And I wouldn’t be Probus in your little fantasy. I’d be Aurelian.’
    Aurelian, who had captured Zenobia and ended her reign as queen. She made a rude noise at his arrogance. ‘You wish,’ she muttered, half under her breath.
    He stopped in front of her and she stared at his dusty boots and the way his jeans—so foreign in her part of the world and yet so sexy in the way they moulded to his legs—hung over the top. ‘I captured you, didn’t I?’
    Instant annoyance hit her at his words and she threw her head back to glare at him—only something black and alive dropped to the ground beside her and she let out a blood-curdling scream. The scorpion took off into a nearby crevice and Farah went from paralysed inertia to violently brushing at her clothing in seconds.
    Suddenly large hands grasped her upper arms and lifted her to her feet. ‘Keep still.’ The prince scoured the ground for the offending visitor and released her. ‘It’s gone.’
    Something crawled across her shoulder and she nearly hit the cave roof. ‘More! There’s more.’
    â€˜No, there’s not.’ The prince’s voice seemed to come from far off before he gripped her arms again and shook her gently. ‘It’s your imagination.’
    â€˜My hair,’ she gasped. ‘They’re in my hair.’ It was one of those irrational fears she’d struggled to master since her mother’s death all those years ago.
    With an exaggerated sigh, the prince gently knocked her hands away from her head and turned her around.
    * * *
    Zach’s eyes swept over dark chestnut tresses that a bird would think twice about before nesting in. It was long, thick and matted with sand, half of it still in the braid that hung down her back.
    Carefully he scanned it for anything moving. ‘There is nothing.’
    â€˜There is. I can