Strangers in the Desert Read Online Free PDF

with his dark stare again. “Tell me what you do know, then. Tell me how you got to Hawaii.”
    She wanted to be defiant, but she was too mentally drained to conjure up even a hint of strength. “I was in Jahfar, and then I was at my mother’s house in South Carolina,” she said, hugging the blanket tighter. “I don’t remember when I left, or how I got there. My fathersays it’s because of the accident. Because I hit my head in the crash and was in a coma for five weeks. I don’t remember the accident, but the doctor said that was normal.
    “After, I spent time recuperating at my mother’s before I moved out on my own.”
    “You didn’t want to return to Jahfar?”
    “No, not really. I thought of it from time to time, but my father told me to stay in the States. He said he traveled a lot now, and there was no reason for me to return yet.”
    “Hawaii is rather far from South Carolina,” he mused.
    It was, and yet she’d been pulled there by homesickness. “I missed the sea, and the palms. I went there for a short vacation but ended up staying.”
    “Why did you change your name?”
    “I didn’t change it. Bella Tyler is a stage name,” she said, not wanting to admit that she’d wanted to be someone else, that calling herself by another name had been an effort to make her feel different. More confident. Less alone.
    “And why were you singing in a club, Isabella? Did you need money?”
    He no doubt thought so based on the size of her condo, but it was perfectly adequate for Maui. And more expensive than he might imagine.
    “No. My father sent me plenty. But I sang karaoke one day, for fun. The next I knew, I was performing.”
    A disapproving frown made his sensual mouth seem hard. “A lounge singer.”
    Isabella felt heat prickle over her skin. “I
like
to sing.
    I’ve always liked to sing. And I’m good at it,” she said proudly.
    “I never heard you sing before tonight.”
    “I sang plenty growing up, but it was for myself. If I never sang for you, then I suppose I was afraid to. Afraid you would disapprove.”
    “I might not have,” he said softly.
    “I must have thought so.”
    “Perhaps you did.” He was unapologetic.
    Isabella clutched the blanket in a fist. This was such an odd conversation. She was married to this man, and yet he was a stranger to her. They were strangers to each other, if this conversation was anything to go by.
    “We must not have spent a lot of time together,” she ventured.
    “Enough,” he said, his eyes suddenly hot, intense.
    Isabella dipped her head, hoping she wasn’t blushing. Clearly she wasn’t a virgin, and yet she couldn’t remember anything about her first sexual experience with him. About
any
sexual experience with him.
    “How long were we married before … the baby?”
    “You were pregnant the first month. And you disappeared only a month after Rafiq was born.”
    She pressed a hand to her stomach beneath the blanket. It was so hard to imagine she’d ever been pregnant. “So we weren’t together a year.”
    He gave his head a shake. “Not quite, no.”
    She was trying so hard to process it. Because they
were
married. He hadn’t faked a bunch of documents to prove it to her. These were printed copies of actual newspaper articles.
    Far more likely—and harder to understand, quite honestly—was the fact her parents had lied. Oh, shedidn’t really expect that her mother had orchestrated this fiction Isabella had been living with—or that she’d had a problem going along with it. No, it was her father who’d done so.
    And Isabella couldn’t figure out why.
    Was Adan abusive? Had her hurt her? Was her father simply being protective?
    She considered it, but she didn’t believe that was the case. Because Adan had been very angry with her, yes, and he’d been arrogant and presumptuous. But he hadn’t for one moment made her feel physically threatened. If he had, she wouldn’t be here.
    Or at least not willingly.
    She was