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‘Khalil My love! I was bargaining for your life! Surely you didn’t believe—’

‘And now you are bargaining for your own!’ He stepped forward, grasping her are you think I aladly slit your throat and leave you here for the vultures’ He flung her fro beside the white mare ‘Take her to the airstrip,’ he snapped to one of his men, ‘and have her flown to Casablanca We have Abu—Sahter’ He leaped on to Najib’s back, grasped the reins, and gave Joanna one last, terrible look ‘They deserve each other’

He dug his heels hard into Najib’s flanks The horse rose on its hind legs, pawed the air, then spun aith its rider sitting proudly in the saddle

It was the last Joanna saw of Khalil

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE doorman pushed open the door and smiled as Joanna stepped from her taxi and made her way towards him

‘Evening, Miss Bennett,’ he said ‘Hot enough to fry eggs on the pavement, isn’t it?’

Joanna sust is always pretty awful’

The lift operator smiled, too, and offered a similar comment on the weather as the car rose to the twelfth floor, and Joanna said so clever in return, as she was expected to do

It was a relief to stop all the s and stab her key into the lock of her apart lately With a weary sigh, she stepped out of her high heels and dropped her handbag on a table in the foyer

Sa on a lemon, and she supposed it was true—but in the three months she’d been back from Casablanca she hadn’t found all that much to smile about

Joanna popped off her earrings as she made her way towards her bedroom She was vice-president of Bennettco now, she had an office of her own, a staff, and even her father’s grudging respect

So asn’t it enough? she thought as she peeled off her dress and underthings

She stepped into the blue tiled bathroom and turned on the shower The water felt delicious but she couldn’t luxuriate beneath it for long In less than an hour, Sa to another of the endless charity affairs he insisted they attend, this time at the Palace Hotel

A led across her lips as she stepped from the shower and towelled herself dry The Palace She had been to it before, knew that it dripped crystal chandeliers and carpeting deep enough to cushion the most delicate foot But she remeance, yet had been more a palace than the hotel would ever be

Damn, but she wished she hadn’t seen that little squib in the paper at breakfast! ‘Jandaran Prince Consolidates Hold on Kingdo Project’, it had said, and she’d shoved the paper aithout reading further, but it had been enough A rush of ine why She didn’t care what happened to Khalil She had never loved him How could she have, when they came frohtened, and despairing, and there was no point pretending he wasn’t a handsome, virile male

An ie flashed into herover her, his eyes dark with desire Joanna, he hispering, Joanna, my beloved…

Her hand slipped and a dark se bloomed on her cheek She wiped it off, then bent towards the ain and painted a smile on her lips What had happened in Jandara was a closed chapter No one even knew about her part in it, thanks to Sam

‘I didn’t tell a soul,’ he’d said, after she’d finally reached Casablanca

‘Not even the State Depart Khalil had said the night he’d abducted her

‘Not even theht compromise your safety How could I knohat an aniht do if I called out the troops? That’s why I couldn’t give in to his deht kill you You understand, don’t you?’

Joanna had assured hi she hadn’t thought of herself Sending Abu after her had been the only way he’d thought he could rescue her As for Abu—Sa

‘The guy had me fooled How could I have knohat he really was like?’

Joanna slid open the wardrobe in her bedrooer The only fly in the ointone down the tubes Khalil had wasted no ti sure of that Within twelve hours, Abu had been sentenced to life imprisonment, Khalil had been restored to the throne of Jandara, and the Bennett contract had been returned by ned by Khalil

‘We will develop the property ourselves’

Saer and cursed and then said hell, win some, lose some, what did it matter? He had his Jo back That was all that counted

Joanna whisked a brush through her hair He was right That hat counted, that she was back, and if soht, she awoke from dreams she could not re ahead rapidly at Bennettco and that hat she wanted It was all she wanted

She glanced at the clock It was time Quickly she stuffed a co, slipped on a pair of glittery high-heeled sandals, and made her way out of the door

Sa at the kerb in his chauffeured Lincoln ‘Hello, babe,’ he said when she stepped inside ‘Mmm, you look delicious’