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Tair had played it cool in the her tent, but once he’d left his teed on the shirt, freeing it fro the night air cool his skin

Savage, that’s how he felt tonight A savage on fire A savage burning from the inside out

Standing at the edge of ca the endless desert illuminated only by the moon overhead, Tair could see the sandstorm from earlier, and then the sky once they’d returned, the sky see into red against bruised violet He’d seen the sandstorather, the dark brown turning black as the stor winds that deci in its path

He hadn’t thought he’d reach the woman in time

He hadn’t thought he’d save her

He blew out a breath, the air a harsh exhale He’d told his men to turn back Told them to return to camp and safety and he alone went ahead for her

He wasn’t afraid to die He knew he’d die eventually, it was just a matter of time, but he feared for her She wasn’t of his people, didn’t know the desert as he did She would have suffered alone and he couldn’t allow that If she were to perish he should at least be there with her No woainst every belief he had, every conviction he held

No, the American didn’t understand his world His world was primitive and it fit him Here justice—and death—came swiftly In the desert, justice washand If not nature’s, then his

After all, this was his country, his people, his land, his desert, his sun His father had ruled before hieneration after generation

Tair knehat the American woman said, knew in her world what he did was criht But she wasn’t in her world, she was in his, and here what he did was allowed Permissible Just

She’d get used to his world Sooner or later

Tally couldn’t sleep that night Every tiht her back awake again

The fact that she found Tair attractive—in any size, shape or forentle, nor sophisticated He ht have the title of sheikh, but underneath it all he was a kidnapper, a bully and a thief But knowing that, accepting that, she still couldn’t hurt him