Royal Affairs: Desert Princes & Defiant Virgins: The Sheikh's Virgin Princess / The Sheikh and the Virgin Secretary / Desert Prince, Defiant Virgin

Her hands shook as she bandaged his arm. ‘We won’t be safe until we reach the Citadel.’

‘We will. The desert is a very unforgiving place for those without knowledge. This is an old Bedouin route. If we drive along here, we will reach the caves and we can rest there.’ Karim reached out a hand, punched a number into a satellite phone and then proceeded to speak rapidly in a language that she didn’t understand. When he finally broke the connection, she looked at him expectantly.

‘What was that about?’

‘I have asked for a security team to pick up those men and question them.’ His expression was grim as he gripped the wheel with his hand and drove hard and fast through the desert. ‘There may be others.’

The caves formed a dark, forbidding labyrinth at the base of the huge sandstone-cliffs. Alexa leaned forward, peering through the darkness. ‘We’re going in there?’

‘Yes.’ Karim parked the vehicle out of sight of the road and winced as he reached for a torch and some blankets. ‘No one will look for us here.’

Alexa felt her stomach lurch at the thought of all that dark, confined space, but said nothing. She knew that they needed to get out of sight, and she was worried about Karim’s arm. ‘Let’s go, then.’

She followed him into the entrance of the caves. ‘Shall we just stop here?’ Her voice echoed and he flashed the torch towards the back of the cave where the rocks narrowed.

‘Through there is a smaller chamber. We’ll spend the night there. It will be warmer.’

And darker and more closed in. Alexa stood for a moment, finding it impossible to make her feet move. Then she remembered that they were in this situation because of her, and forced herself to follow him through the narrow gap, reminding herself that she wasn’t locked in.

There was a way out.

Karim checked that the ground was dry and then dropped the blankets. ‘Sit down.’

‘ You sit down. I need to look at your arm.’ She undid the emergency dressing she’d applied and waited while he pulled off his shirt. Blood oozed from the wound, and she cursed softly and pressed down hard, staunching the flow. ‘It’s bleeding a lot. I’ll clean it and dress it, but I suspect that it could have done with some stitches.’

‘So blood is yet another thing that doesn’t frighten you?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Can you shine the torch on this so that I can see what I’m doing?’ Removing what she needed from the first-aid kit, Alexa swabbed the wound and took a closer look. ‘You’re right. The bullet just grazed the skin. I’ll clean it, but you probably need some antibiotics.’

‘And how can a princess, who supposedly isn’t interested in anything more than fast cars and high heels, be so adept at first aid?’ He watched as she carefully applied a sterile dressing to his arm and bound it firmly.

‘I’ve spent a lot of time working at the local hospital. William hasn’t invested any money in healthcare since he became Regent. The hospitals are struggling—no money, no staff. Morale is rock bottom. I help out when I can.’

‘You work in the hospital?’

‘As a volunteer.’ Alexa closed the first-aid kit. ‘I’m not trained, or anything. I would have loved to have been a doctor, but there was never any chance of that.’

He studied her for a moment, his expression forbidding. ‘Sit down, Alexandra. It’s time we talked about your uncle.’

Alexa sat down on the rug and tried not to think about the darkness. They weren’t closed in, she reminded herself. ‘I’m really sorry I got you into all this. I knew it was a mistake to take you with me.’

‘I didn’t give you a choice in the matter.’ He sat down next to her. ‘But clearly, I should have listened to you more carefully. I’m listening now, Alexa. Start talking.’ The silence of the cave closed around them like a protective cocoon.

‘I wouldn’t know where to start.’

‘Start with why you’re marrying the Sultan.’ He shone the torch towards her so that he could see her face. ‘It doesn’t have anything to do with the money or the status, does it?’

‘I’m marrying the Sultan because it’s my best chance of staying alive. You keep telling me that he’s going to lock me behind the walls of the Citadel, and that’s what I’m hoping for,’ Alexa said softly. ‘I want to reach my twenty-fifth birthday. I want to rule Rovina. Since my uncle took over, I’ve watched the country slowly crumble. He has diverted money away from the things that matter, like healthcare and education, and instead spends it on things that benefit only him. Like refurbishing the palace, and adding another priceless stallion to his stud farm. My uncle has stripped Rovina bare over the sixteen years since my father died.’

‘So you’re marrying the Sultan to escape?’

‘In the short term, yes. In the longer term …’ She hesitated and then gave a shrug. ‘The Sultan is a powerful man, and I know he’s turned Zangrar around in the past few years. If anyone can help me solve Rovina’s problems, then it’s him. His father and my father were friends. I just hope that’s enough to persuade him to help.’

‘Your uncle intends to prevent you from becoming Queen? This is the reason you believe he has tried to have you killed?’

It felt completely alien to confide in someone, and she sat for a moment, trying to find the words.

‘I know it, Karim.’ It was easier to talk in the semi-darkness. ‘It started off as a campaign to discredit me with the public. He thought that if he made me look bad enough then no one would want me as ruler. My wild image was orchestrated by him. Starting with those awful photographs of me topless.’

‘The photographs were fake?’

‘No.’ Alexa curled her legs under her. ‘They were real. It was the first and last time in my life that I allowed myself to trust another person. Let’s just say that he was an actor, and he was good at his job. I was so lonely, and to have someone pay me attention …’ She gave a short laugh. ‘Not that that is an excuse for being stupid and gullible, I know.’

‘You were manipulated?’

‘My uncle paid him to be caught in a compromising situation with me. They both did very well out of it. The actor’s career took off, and the photographs were published again and again all over the world as an example of how I’d gone off the rails. Anyway, although the public was shocked, they still supported me. Perhaps they were tolerant because I’d lost my whole family. I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t like William. By then they could see that he had no commitment towards Rovina as a country. He just used his position to enhance his own lifestyle. Either way, he obviously decided he had to work a little harder. And that was when I suddenly became so accident prone.’

‘Your car accidents—’

‘On both occasions, someone tampered with the brakes.’

The breath hissed through his teeth. ‘You are sure?’

‘Yes. I was just angry that I let it happen twice. After that, I stopped driving, or I borrowed cars at short notice.’

‘You didn’t try to escape? Drive over the border?’

‘I was watched all the time. I was lucky if I managed to get beyond the palace walls. When I was little he locked me in.’

Karim muttered something under his breath. ‘And that is why you hate locked doors?’

‘Yes. Silly, really. It’s just a psychological thing. I like to know that I can get out if I want to. He only did it when I was little. As I grew older I was a little harder to contain. He wanted me dead, but if he couldn’t have that then he wanted me where he could see me. It became a game of cat and mouse. I’d disguise myself and find different ways of slipping out.’

‘He always caught you?’

‘He has supporters. Greedy people, like him, who are interested in themselves and not Rovina.’

‘The speedboat accident?’

‘Not an accident.’

With a driven sigh, Karim ran a hand over the back of his neck. ‘The time you were removed unconscious from a nightclub?’

‘I was drugged. I wasn’t even in the nightclub at the time. They staged the photographs, but by then most people just assumed I’d gone off the rails because of my parents’ death. “The rebel princess” they called me.’ She laughed. ‘I sort of grew into the role. I had to, in order to stay alive.’

‘You had no one to protect you?’

‘You have to remember that most people just thought what you thought—that I was a bit of a wild child. No one really understood what my uncle was capable of.’ Alexa felt a lump in her throat. ‘Every time I allowed myself to trust someone, it proved to be a mistake, so I stopped trusting. It was safer for everyone if I just lived my life alone.’