The Playboy Sheikh's Virgin Stable-Girl Read Free Page A

she whispered as she put her arms around his sleek neck and buried her face in his sweet-smelling fur. ‘Darling, darling Nabat—how will I ever be able to cope without you?’ She pulled her face back to look deep into the horse’s face, seeming to see bewilderment written in the creature’s eyes. Or was she doing that age-old thing of animal lovers and transferring her feelings onto Nabat?
    This was the horse who had arrived as a long-legged young foal and even then she had seen the beauty, strength and potential inherent in the animal. But it had been an unhappy horse. She didn’t know how her father had managed to acquire the fine Arabian stallion and she hadn’t wanted to know—all she did know was that it had been badly in need of some tender loving care.
    In those early days when Nabat had been fretful and rearing and baring his teeth whenever anyone went near him, it had been Eleni who had soothed him, who had taken the time to coax him to eat.
    ‘The animal is too highly strung!’ Gamal had complained on more than one occasion, his hand straying towards the large whip he loved to carry. ‘Maybe we should beat some manners into it!’
    But Eleni had sprung to the helpless creature’s defence. ‘No, Papa!’ she had pleaded. ‘Let me try to school him for you, to settle him down so that he’s happy here.’
    ‘He had better be happy soon enough!’ her father had snarled. ‘Or he will find himself for sale on a kebab stand in Aquila!’
    So by nights Eleni had slept in the straw at the other end of the stable—like a mother attending to a fretful newborn—and in the end she and her father had both been rewarded. For her had come the kind of unconditional love she had never been shown by a human since her mother had died. And for her father—well, he began to revel in the riches which came as a result of the horse blossoming into a soon-legendary winner of every race he was entered into.
    Was that why the prince wanted him? To reap some of Nabat’s athletic glory onto his worthless and spoilt royal head?
    Her arms tightened around the Arab’s neck. ‘Well, I will not leave you, Nabat,’ she said fiercely. ‘That I promise you. I’ll stow away in the very straw that transports you away from me. And when I get the opportunity, we will escape together—to find a life of peace and quiet.’
    She wondered when the sheikh would come to claim his spoils. Presumably, he would need time to arrange for Nabat to be taken to the royal palace. Which gave her time to arrange how best to hide herself and the few meagre belongings she would need to take with her.
    But at that moment she heard the sound of men talking—and in particular the arrogant and autocratic drawl of the sheikh’s voice carrying across the yard. And it was heading this way!
    Her heart racing, she sprang away from the horse’s neck but it was too late—for the soft light of an oil-lamp spilled its light across the stable, illuminating her in its golden glow.
    She could see little of the man holding the lamp—save for the hard glitter of his eyes and the pale shimmer of his silken robes—and Eleni stood there, frozen with all kinds of conflicting emotions, feeling as guilty as if she had been found in the arms of a lover.
    ‘You,’ said Kaliq damningly as his eyes swept over her. ‘What in the falcon’s name are you doing here?’
    CHAPTER TWO
    HER fears banished by the harsh reality of what was about to happen, Eleni stared at the sheikh with sheer hatred in her eyes—choking out the words as if they were sour berries.
    ‘I was just…just saying goodbye to my horse.’
    ‘Your horse?’ He stepped closer. ‘I think you forget yourself in more ways than one, girl. This is the horse I have just won from your master in a card game—and do you not curtsey when your sheikh appears before you?’
    Her hurt was such that Eleni was tempted to defy him—to tell him that she would rather curtsey to a camel than curtsey to him—but