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CHAPTER ONE

HE CAME IN through the

Olivia Taylor looked up fro open in wordless shock She was too surprised to be scared Yet He was dressed all in black, his body underneath the loose garments tall, lithe and powerful A turban covered his hair but beneath it Olivia saw his face and the deter in his steel-coloured eyes

She drew a breath to scream when he moved swiftly towards her and slipped a hand over her mouth ‘I won’t hurt you,’ he said in Arabic, his tone brusque and yet also strangely gentle It took her ain the Airl variety She’d been hired to speak only English to the three youngest Princesses

He continued speaking and her shocked led to understand ‘That is my solemn vow, and I will never break it Just do what I say and no harm shall ever come to you I swear it on my life’

Olivia stood there rigidly, his hand on her mouth, the scent of his skin in her nostrils He sely, it was not unpleasing Hernumbness, around and around, unable to latch onto any coherent thought She couldn’t think She could barely breathe Shock gave way to fear,underwater or in slow motion, yet far too fast, because already the oing, going, her legs weak as water, her insides sliding around like jelly, her mind a blank canvas of fear and shock

Halina was in the next room The door wasn’t even closed, not properly She could hear her friend hu? She’d only coown and tidy up a bit Halina had just returned from what she’d claimed was an interminable dinner with her parents to discuss her future Her fiancé Olivia knew Halina didn’t want to get married, and certainly not to a rebel prince she’d never met

‘He’s practically an outlaw,’ she’d said as she’d thrown herself on the sofa in her sitting rooh ‘A criminal’

‘I heard he went to Cae,’ Olivia had countered mildly, used to her friend’s theatrics, and Halina had rolled her eyes, determined to play up to whatever audience she had

‘He’s been living in the desert for ten years He’s probably gone colish’

‘If he went to Calish And in any case your parents don’t want you to marry him until his title is fully restored and he’s back in the capital, in his palace,’ Olivia had reer sisters for four years, and she ell versed in all the family’s hopes and plans

Halina had been engaged to Prince Zayed al bin Nur since she was ten years old, but a decade ago his faovernment minister—Fakhir Malouf—and Prince Zayed, only just returned froht for his throne

Civil war had happened in spurts and bursts over the years, Zayed’s band of rebels to Malouf’s crack troops Halina’s father had insisted on honouring the betrothal, but only when Zayed’s poas fully restoredand who knehen that would be?

But surely thisto do with that Why did he want her? Why was he here?

Already he was at the , one hip braced against the ledge, one hand gripping her upper arm, the other still over her mouth She could taste the salt on his skin His breath fanned her ear as he spoke,her shiver

‘Please, do not be afraid’

Strangely, she believed him He didn’t want her to be

scared—and yet he was abducting her Her frozen brain finally thawing into gear, Olivia started to struggle, her body arching against the man’s as she attempted, uselessly, to free herself from his hold

‘Don’t do that’ The words were quiet and lethal as his grip tightened on her, his hands like iron bands on her body Inflexible and ientle Olivia stilled, her heart thudding, knowing instinctively if she didn’t escape now there would not be another good opportunity And if she didn’t escape