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‘But so,’ she insisted

Ignoring her interruption, the Sheikh continued ‘I was clearing the grand salon at the time of your mother’s disappearance Saif had tried to have uards had refused to do this They supported h even with their help it still took tiuests to leave As soon as I was free, I went to look for your mother I wondered at first if she’d returned to my brother, but his attendants hadn’t seen her I can only conclude she slipped aith the rest of the guests leaving the ship’

‘So, you’re saying your brother had nothing to do with my mother’s death’

‘That’s what I told the authorities’

That’s no answer, she thought ‘I can see it would be convenient for you to hear nothing and see nothing’

‘Have you finished?’ he asked coldly

‘Why? Are you going to have me drummed off the ship?’

‘No part of this tragedy could ever be described as convenient,’ the Sheikh assured her

‘For your brother, then,’ Millie said

‘My brother’s dead’

‘And does that absolve hi he deserves respect, sier with us, then so does ht as well know, I intend to clear her name—’

‘That’s as it should be,’ he said

‘What’s the point in talking further?’ Millie asked ‘You’re not going to tell ’

‘You’re leaving?’

She’d thought about it ‘No,’ she said, ‘not unless you have o my mother had no one to protect her, but now she does, and I’o home when she’s told’

‘You have always defended her,’ he said with the closest to admiration he’d come yet

‘I trusted you,’ she said quietly Lose her temper lose the battle, Miss Francine had always said, and the Sapphire provided valuable business for the laundry Millie er picture

They stared at each other unblinking for a few n of Millie’s intent Her deter her mother’s death had crossed her path with that of ahavoc on her control There was no such thing as a lance where the Sheikh was concerned He could convey ested an agreement of a very different kind, one that had no connection with the past, and everything to do with the here and now

CHAPTER SIX

MILLIE WAS RIDICULOUSLY appealing and passions were high Drawing her close, Khalid looped an arm around her waist and tipped up her chin until their mouths were only a hair’s breadth apart

‘Don’t you dare touch me,’ she flared

Her struggles only brought them closer This first, real physical contact between thereedy flesh was aroused to the point of agony She rested, panting, for afla passion, she was as much a slave as he to primitive forces that made her eyes shoot sparks of fury at him, even as they darkened

‘You’re to bla up, she seized hold of his shoulders, which only brought theether

He held her at arht’

Savouring her fresh, clean scent while she vibrated with awareness beneath his hands, he thought, Not yet She was all eagerness, and ready to channel her anger into a different sort of passion, but he favoured trial by frustration Pleasure delayed was pleasure enhanced She deserved nothing less

He was actually considering seducing her?

Yes It seeh his fa back to the Sapphire and reliving that night had e and adaptable e as ever, but the desire to er, Millie’s passion could change into so very different Gently, but firmly, he removed her hands from his body and stepped back He could not have predicted her reaction

‘Don’t,’ he rapped as she covered her face with her hands ‘You have nothing to feel guilty about’

‘Don’t I?’ she said bitterly, raising her chin ‘Not even when those feelings involve you?’