Sheikh's Blackmailed Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

she died.
    He pushed Fatima along the line of the mountains, riding that line between shadow and light. He could feel her perfect gait, the wind in his hair, the world behind him, and still it did not bring him the peace it always had before.
    Finally, when she was lathered and spent, he turned her with a motion of his knees back toward the dig.
    With a slightly clearer head, he could think about what had passed between him and Bailey, and seen in a clearer light, he was disgusted with his actions.
    He did not regret that she was here. He had spoken nothing but the truth when he said that there were some factions who were furious that she was not being tried along with Christensen’s men. He knew she was innocent of any wrongdoing, as did any of his men who had seen her panicked face before the attack, but that was hardly something they could convey to the people. If it took blackmail to keep her safe her, then so be it.
    No, she was safe here, and hopefully, she would even do some good on this dig that had been uncovered.
    Dario couldn’t forget the taste of her mouth on his, or the desperation by which she had pulled him close. He was not sure that he had ever had a kiss so sweet or a woman so lovely. Even though they had spent little time in each other’s acquaintance, he could imagine her face with crystal clarity. He had seen her terrified, he had seen her enraged, and right now, he might give half of his kingdom to see that face soften with desire and love.
    It was foolishness, and above all, it was dangerous. He was a man who took his responsibilities to Jabal very seriously. He was the most powerful man in the country, and that came with responsibilities he could never put down. To have his judgment affected by a slip of a girl from the United States felt almost like a betrayal of his sacred trust.
    Dario knew at the core of his being that the safest thing, the smartest thing to do in this situation, was to walk away. There was nothing keeping him here in the Sinn mountains, and everything to draw him back to Jabal. If he was truly invested in keeping the bewitching Bailey out of his mind, he would have given her a keeper who was handpicked to be compassionate and perhaps more than a little watchful. He would have returned to Jabal, and he would forget all about her.
    He couldn’t.
    He wasn’t sure he could have when she was lying so frail and unconscious at the hospital, and now that he could remember her kiss on his lips, he knew he couldn’t.
    This is dangerous , he thought, coming down off his mare. Rubbing her down after their run soothed him, but it didn’t answer any of the questions that he needed answered.
    All he knew for certain was that he could not, would not leave.
     

CHAPTER THREE
    Bailey was both frustrated and amused to discover that her job for the excavation was nearly the same one it was when she was working under Christensen. She sat underneath a bright light, going over every pot shard and twisted piece of metal that was brought to her with a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers. Most often, they would be placed carefully into the boxes that were marked for educational purposes. Jabal was a place firmly rooted in the past, she came to realize, and after so much of it had been stolen from them by colonizing forces, it was desperate to find some of it. These bits and pieces would go to schools and universities, allowing the young citizens to learn a little bit more about where they came from.
    More rarely, she would find a piece that was especially fine, and she would set it aside while she went through the lot. After that, however, she would spend time with the rarer pieces.
    Once it was a gorgeously blue faience bead that must have come all the way from Egypt. The bead’s journey, to come from the Nile delta all the way to the Arabian peninsula, would have been an impressive one indeed.
    Another time, it was the figure of a leaping gazelle on a shard of white ceramic, an indication