Diamond in the Desert Read Free

the consortium’s is the only offer.’
    ‘I suppose you could always give the sheikh’s representative a proper welcome, Skavanga style,’ Eva suggested, brightening.
    Leila relaxed into a smile. ‘I’m sure Britt has got a few ideas up her sleeve.’
    ‘It’s not my sleeve you need to worry about,’ Britt commented dryly, relieved that they were all the best of friends again.
    ‘Just promise me you won’t do anything you’ll regret,’ Leila said, remembering to worry.
    ‘I won’t regret it at the time,’ Britt promised dryly. ‘Unless he truly is a boffin with pebble glasses—in which case I’ll just have to put a paper bag over his head.’
    ‘Don’t become overconfident,’ Eva warned.
    ‘I’m not worried. If he proves difficult I’ll cut a hole in the ice and send him swimming. That will soon cool his ardour—’
    ‘Why stop there?’ Eva added. ‘Don’t forget the birch twig switches. You can always give him a good thrashing. That’ll sort him out.’
    ‘I’ll certainly consider it—’
    ‘Tell me you’re joking?’ Leila begged.
    Thankfully, Britt’s younger sister missed the look Britt and Eva exchanged.

CHAPTER TWO
    B RITT WAS UNUSUALLY nervous. The breakfast meeting with the Black Sheikh’s representative had been arranged for nine and it was already twenty past when she rushed through the doors of Skavanga Mining and tore up the stairs. It wasn’t as if she was unused to business meetings, but this one was different for a number of reasons, not least of which was the fact that her car had blown a tyre on the way to the office. Changing a tyre was an energetic exercise at the best of times, enough to get her heart racing, but the circumstances of this meeting had made her anxious without that, because so much depended on it—
    ‘I’ll show myself in,’ she said as a secretary glanced up in surprise.
    Pausing outside the door to the boardroom, she took a moment to compose herself. Eva was right in that when their parents were killed Britt had been the only person qualified to take over the company and care for her two younger sisters. Their brother was... Well, Tyr was a maverick—a mercenary, for all they knew. He had been a regular soldier at one time, and no one knew where he was now. It was up to her to cut this deal; there was no one else. The man inside the boardroom could save the company if he gave a green light to the consortium. And she was late, an embarrassment that put her firmly on the back foot.
    Back foot?
    Forget that, Britt concluded as the imposing figure standing silhouetted against the light by the window turned to face her. The man was dressed conventionally in a dark, beautifully tailored business suit, when somehow she had imagined her visitor would be wearing flowing robes. This man needed no props to appear exotic. His proud, dark face, the thick black hair, which he wore carelessly swept back, and his watchful eyes were all the exotic ingredients required to complete a stunning picture. Far from the bristly nerd, he was heart-stoppingly good-looking, and it took all she’d got to keep her feet marching steadily across the room towards him.
    ‘Ms Skavanga?’
    The deep, faintly accented voice ran shivers through every part of her. It was the voice of a master, a lover, a man who expected nothing less than to be obeyed.
    Oh, get over it, Britt told herself impatiently. It was the voice of a man and he was tall, dark and handsome. So what? She had a company to run.
    ‘Britt Skavanga,’ she said firmly, advancing to meet him with her hand outstretched. ‘I’m sorry, you have me at a disadvantage,’ she added, explaining that all she had been told was that His Majesty Sheikh Sharif al Kareshi would be sending his most trusted aide.
    ‘For these preliminary discussions that is correct,’ he said, taking hold of her hand in a grip that was controlled yet deadly.
    His touch stunned her. It might have been disappointingly brief, but it was as if it