Page 65 of The Sheikh's Desert Princess

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

She saw them around an hour after she'd left Riaz's camp.

At first she thought she might be seeing things. The heat was intense and the desert had a way of confusing perceptions. But then she looked closer, she saw that her first impressions were correct.

The group of riders was large, perhaps as many as thirtyhorse-backed tribesmen. They were coming from the direction toward which she was headed, so she was pretty sure they weren't any of Riaz's men.

Eva paused on the crest of a high dune and peered into the distance. The group of riders was almost a mile away now. Out here in the desert distances seemed different than in the world she was used to. Even from where she was she could tell they were travelling fast. They'd be upon her soon.

Eva felt a sudden anxiety twist in her middle. She was sure she knew who was in that group of riders. Who was at the at the head of them, driving them onward, toward Riaz's camp.

Ahmed.

Eva knew with absolute certainty that it was him. It made sense, given that Ahmed had agreed to come to Riaz's camp to carry out, what still seemed to Eva, a ridiculous and unnecessary apology.

She didn't care whether it fitted in with their sense of honor. She wanted nothing to do with it now. The only thing she was thinking about was getting to the settlement and reclaiming her car before sundown.

After leaving Riaz, Eva had tried to to drive all thought of the last twenty-four hours out of her mind.

But it had been impossible.

She hadn't been able to stop thinking about Riaz, about what she had shared with him. The last hour of her desert journey had passed in a heat-filled haze. Somewhere, deep inside, she had instinctively followed the direction of the sun which was moving inexorably toward the western horizon.

Toward her ultimate destination.

And what was that destination, she asked herself.

She was going back to her old life. Returning to all the certainties of her professional existence. She'd be able to forget everything that had happened back there at the camp. She'd be able to tuck it all away into a corner of her memory.

That was what she wanted to do.

Wasn't it?

But there had been a quiet voice in her head all through the journey from Riaz's camp. The voice had whispered a treacherous truth to Eva. One she knew was no lie.

Life would never be the same. Not after what she and Riaz had found together.

The memory of his touch, his love-making, the strength of his passion still burned her more than the heat of the sun. He had thrown all the certainty in her life into absolute turmoil.

Was that why she had ran?

Because that was what she had just done.

Wasn't it?

Eva had ran from Riaz as if terrified of what he'd triggered inside her; as if she was petrified of what it might mean if she felt anything for this incredible, mysterious and very powerful man. A man who had chosen a life for himself that was far away from anything Eva could ever conceive for herself.

He had been trying to draw her into his life. She knew that with absolute conviction. There had been a look in his eyes. Not only a hungry, passionate look. That might have been easy to deal with.

But there had been more in those dark pools that penetrated her soul with their sheer intensity.

There had been a determination in that gaze. A determination to claim Eva for his own.When she'd seen the look, when that thought had overtaken her, she'd felt an impulse to get away as fast as possible. To race across this vast desert and reclaim her life.

Who was she kidding!

Eva knew her life would never be the same. Not after Riaz.

The sheikh had ignited something vital, something elemental, in Eva. It felt like a flame, a burning desire that threatened to draw her ever deeper into a life with him.

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