Page 25 of Desert King's Forbidden Temptation

His expression showed bemusement. ‘There’s a swag on the ground...’

She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated gesture of impatience. ‘I mean, how do you leave the palace without guards?’

He arched a brow.

‘Elana has security with her, always.’

He nodded thoughtfully. ‘As she would here.’

‘But you don’t,’ Eloise pointed out.

‘I expect our ability to defend ourselves is not equal.’

‘You think she’s weak?’

‘No. More vulnerable to attack though. Besides, as my wife, it would be my duty to ensure her safety—that’s a task I take seriously.’

She ignored thefrissonthat ran the length of her spine. ‘And you don’t need protection?’

He pulled a face and she laughed because it was so absurd.

‘I came to an arrangement with the chief of palace security many years ago.’

‘Which is?’

‘That I inform them of my location. If I’m going to come out here to camp, I bring this.’ He lifted a small beacon from his pocket. ‘If I press the button, security scrambles to come to me. When I leave the country, it is always with protection. That’s our compromise.’

She pulled her lips to the side.

‘You don’t approve?’

‘I don’t know, Your Highness. But I can’t imagine how unpleasant it would be to have a constant shadow.’

‘Does your friend complain?’

Eloise’s smile was wistful. ‘Elana? Never. She is the most forbearing and sweetest person you’ll ever meet. I don’t think complaining is in her repertoire.’

Tariq’s eyes bore into hers for so long that Eloise jerked her eyes away, looking up at the sparkling constellations overhead instead. ‘It must be so peaceful here,’ she observed wistfully.

‘Don’t tell me—you’ve never slept under the stars before either?’

She shook her head. ‘Just on school camps, and that was in dormitories. Not tents.’

‘No tents here either. This is all the roof I need.’ He gestured to the sky.

It was a magical, romantic notion, and it buried itself deep under her skin, letting her imagine, dream, wonder about this wild, free side of his life.

‘What were your nightmares about?’

He tilted his face to hers, scanning her features, and she looked away, not wanting him to see the temptation that must be written there so clearly.

‘Nothing discernible,’ he said after a pause, so she didn’t know if he was gathering his thoughts or keeping something from her. ‘It was more an impression than anything firm.’

‘An impression of what?’

‘Drowning or being burned alive. And not being able to save myself.’

She shivered. ‘That’s awful.’

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