Strangers in the Desert Read Free Page B

little shake. No, her parents would
not
have lied about this. There was no reason for it!
    “I’m calling my father,” she said as she began to scroll through the phone’s contacts. “He’ll know the truth.”
    Adan stiffened as if she’d slapped him. “Do youmean to tell me that your father really does know you’re here?”
    Isabella frowned. “I already said so, didn’t I?”
    He swore in Arabic, a vile curse that shocked her with its vehemence and profanity. She’d been in the States for more than a year now—was it closer to two?—and she’d heard a lot of foul language. But she wasn’t accustomed to hearing it in Arabic. In Jahfar, she’d been cosseted and protected—a lady who had been bred to marry a powerful sheikh someday.
    Until her accident changed everything.
    He grabbed the phone out of her hand. “You will not call him.”
    Isabella reached for the phone, but he held it just out of range. She folded her arms and glared at him. She should be relieved. “Then I guess you’re lying to me about being married. Because my father could expose the lie, right?”
    “If it amuses you to think it, by all means do so.” He tucked the phone into his breast pocket. She tried not to let her gaze stray to the hard muscle exposed by the open V of his shirt. If she’d seen him on the beach, she’d have thought he was magnificent. No doubt about it.
    But he was hard and cold, and she had no business finding him attractive. Not to mention, he was lying.
    “If that’s not what you’re worried about, then why can’t I call him?” she challenged.
    “Because I intend to deal with him myself, when we return to Jahfar.”
    Isabella’s blood ran cold for reasons she couldn’t begin to articulate. Jahfar. The desert. The hard, harsh landscape of her father’s heritage. It was her heritage, too, and yet there was something primitive about it thatshe couldn’t quite make her peace with. The idea of going back caused a wave of panic to rise like bile in her throat.
    “I’m not going with you.”
    His dark eyes slid down her body, back up again. “And just how do you propose to stop me from taking you, Isabella?”
    “I’ll scream,” she said, her heart thudding a million miles an hour.
    “Will you now?” He was so cool, so smug, that a knot of fear gathered in her stomach and refused to let go. He would throw her over his shoulder and haul her bodily out of here. He was big enough and bold enough to do it.
    “They won’t let you take me. My friends will help,” she said with as much bravado as she could muster.
    His laugh was not in the least bit amused. “They are welcome to try. But Isabella, I have my own personal security. If anyone touches me, they will assume it is an assassination attempt. I cannot be responsible for the measures they might take.”
    Ice coated the chambers of her heart. He was every bit as cold and cruel as he seemed. And she had no doubt he would take delight in hurting anyone who attempted to stop him.
    “It’s no wonder I can’t remember you,” she said bitterly. “You’re a tyrant. Being married to you would be hell on earth, I’m sure. Any woman would do better walking into the desert to die than staying with you.”
    The corners of his mouth tightened. “Would to God that you had truly done so and saved me the trouble of dealing with you now.”
    She couldn’t say why, but her heart constricted. Whydid she care? He meant nothing to her. She didn’t even like him.
    “If
we are married, then why don’t you save us both a lot of trouble and divorce me? You’re a Jahfaran male. The power is yours,” she said as coldly as she could.
    Would to God that you had truly done so and saved me the trouble …
    His cruel words echoed in her head. She meant nothing to him. She was a problem, an embarrassment. An issue to be dealt with.
    It was too much like her childhood, when she’d felt like an object that her parents fought over after the divorce. An issue they