The Sheik's Command Read Online Free PDF Page B

foremost duty if I was ever called upon. So even though I was only second in the line of succession I was still taught the skills required of a desert monarch—the arts of horsemanship, falconry, hunting Arabic-style with salukis. I learned the dialects of the region and I studied the local cultures, the conflicts between Sahara tribes. My father made sure I also knew how to live as a nomad in the desert, and I did my time in military training. But after the military, while Da’ud remained here in Al Na’Jar to be groomed for the throne, I was sent overseas to study economics at the Sorbonne in Paris. After which I took the helm of the Al Arif Corporation, which deals primarily in commodities—oil, uranium, diamonds, along with a very extensive network of global real estate holdings, including summer and winter resorts around the world.”
    He sipped his wine slowly, and Nikki’s gaze was lured to his lips. “Those were my riches, Nikki,” he said quietly. “The economy was my kingdom. I was not a desert raider as my ancestors were, but rather a corporate warrior. And now I find myself here, in a land trapped somewhere back in the middle ages. My duty is now to follow my father’s lead and build a bridge to the twenty-first century.” He inhaled deeply. “But as you have seen I have enemies. And I believe those enemies will not stop until they have wiped out the entire Al Arif bloodline. They are bold, and they are highly creative. And then you show up—a mysterious lone woman just appearingat my palace. This is the reason you must remain under my guard until I can verify your story.”
    Nikki moistened her lips, disturbed by the heat pooling low in her belly as Zakir’s smoldering eyes pierced hers, as his rich accent rippled warm over her skin. “For all I know, Zakir,” she said, her voice going husky, “you are behind the coup yourself, because you wanted the throne. It would be conceivable, for example, for you to have staged the so-called attempt on your life in Paris in order to look innocent.”
    Surprise glimmered momentarily in his features. Then his eyes narrowed sharply and Nikki felt a cool whisper of fear rising in her. She’d overstepped her bounds. But he smiled suddenly, a bright slash of white against dark skin, and his black eyes glittered. Fear rippled deeper, his aggressive smile sparking something disturbingly primal in Nikki. He really was arrogant—and too damn beautiful for his own good. She quickly returned her attention to the family portrait in an effort to hide the unwelcome sexual interest she had no doubt was showing in her own eyes.
    But as she studied the massive family painting, a disturbing familiarity in the features of his brother Tariq began to niggle at her. “If someone truly wanted to wipe out the entire Al Arif bloodline—” she frowned up at Tariq’s image, trying to place where she might possibly have seen his distinctive, aggressive features “—then why were your younger brothers not attacked as well, or your sister?”
    “Tariq is in the United States—”
    The niggle of cold discomfort burrowed deeper into Nikki. Somehow she knew that.
    “Dalilah is also in America,” said Zakir. “Perhaps my enemies had a problem coordinating an attempt on their lives halfway around the world, in a country that aggressively watches its borders. Or possibly we thwarted them before they could act, because mere hours after the assassinationswe retained the services of a top global security company to protect both Dalilah and Tariq. I also brought some of the company’s close protection personnel here with me to Al Na’Jar—bodyguards initially trained as Gurkha militia in Nepal.”
    “You brought mercenaries with you?”
    “It’s preferable to using the Sheik’s Army for my immediate security. My father and mother were killed with help from the inside, Nikki, while the Sheik’s Army was allegedly guarding them. I am not safe until I have learned who betrayed