Chapter Three #3
‘I don’t… I—’
He crossed the room and reached for the chunky satphone in her white-knuckled grip. That she gave it up willingly while everything else had been fought tooth and nail showed that he was not the only one concerned.
Hana watched shadows play across the sharp lines of Malik’s face before he turned his back to her. Panic began to nip at her breath, her pulse fluttering in her chest. The situation was beginning to slip through her fingers.
When are you going to grow up, Hana? When are you going to realise that there are consequences to your actions?
Hana was worried. Worried about Danesh, about why she couldn’t reach the pilot she had convinced to help her. Worried about the storm that looked terrifying. She was worried about what would happen if they got stuck here, on this island.
What it would do to their reputations…
Malik’s fingers flew across the number pad of the phone before he held it to his ear.
He cast her a look from the side of his eye, and she tried not to flinch from the disdain in his gaze.
Disdain that she probably deserved. But she’d had the best intentions!
She’d just wanted him to see that she could be, would be, the best wife he could ever ask for.
‘Your Highness,’ she heard a voice exclaim when the call connected. ‘Where are you?’
‘On an island in the middle of the Persian Gulf,’ Malik replied.
‘We have the pilot,’ she heard the voice state.
‘Don’t hurt him!’ Hana exclaimed, rushing towards the ruler of Al Surrahin. She would never forgive herself if something happened to Danesh. He’d only been trying to help her.
Malik lifted the elbow of the arm that held the phone to his ear, creating a barrier sufficient to force her back.
‘It’s not his fault. He was only doing as I asked,’ she pleaded.
‘Who is that?’ the voice asked.
‘The Sheikha of Omrhain,’ Malik bit out.
‘What?’ The man’s shock was clearly audible.
Taking her chance, Hana seized the phone. ‘Please don’t hurt Danesh,’ she begged. ‘He was only following orders. We’re on Kaddaran Island and if you—’
The phone was snatched from her hands. She spun around to find herself practically chest to chest with the sheikh, who towered over her.
Her breath caught in her lungs when she realised how close they were, close enough to smell his cologne, close enough to feel the heat of him, the restrained power in his body.
She had to crane her neck back to meet the gaze that peered down on her.
And just for a moment, she thought…she thought…
‘Ehsan, if you could please arrange a team to come and get me that would be greatly appreciated.’
‘And the princess?’
‘She’s on her own,’ he growled, not breaking eye contact.
Alarm shot through her. ‘You can’t leave me here.’
‘Why not?’ the infuriating man demanded.
‘Because that is…unbecoming,’ she threw out irrationally.
‘Unbecoming? Un…’ He trailed off as if he couldn’t find the words to finish to embody his outrage. ‘What precisely is becoming about kidnap, breaking and entering, fraud—’
‘Fraud?’ she repeated. ‘Now you’re just making things up,’ she accused.
He simply glared at her.
So, she glared back. And then tried to growl. But it didn’t have quite the same effect as when he did it.
‘I need an eta, Ehsan.’
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room that snared her attention.
‘Ehsan?’
‘About that. Your Highness, there is a weather warning in place that covers the entire area where you are.’
‘Our military is trained to execute a whole range of manoeuvres under a variety of exigent circumstances, including one minor weather warning,’ Malik insisted.
At that precise moment a slash of jagged lightning illuminated the horizon and the inside of the villa, followed immediately by a thunderous crack that sounded as if it tore the very sky apart. So much so that Hana ducked, and even the regent flinched.
‘Ehsan…’
‘I’m sorry, Your Highness. The moment the weather clears we will perform a retrieval.’
Hana’s heart dropped in her chest.
‘When is the storm due to clear?’ Malik demanded.
‘We don’t have a full estimate on that yet,’ Hana heard Ehsan reply.
‘When I get back, we’re going to have a very serious look at our security. Do I make myself clear?’ the sheikh growled.
Hana turned to face the huge expanse of windows displaying the beginning stages of a storm that looked near violent in its intensity.
They were stuck here. And it was her fault.
There was no way to hide this from her family now.
And when they found out, they’d have no qualms about sending her away this time.
Hana was suddenly reeling with the very real consequences of her actions.
She was stuck, on an island, with a man who very much hated her right now and while she wasn’t prone to dramatics, Hana couldn’t honestly say that she could foresee any good coming out of this whatsoever.
No matter how hard she tried or how determined she was, she’d never marry the sheikh and she’d never redeem herself in the eyes of her family.