By The Sheikh's Command. Debbi Rawlins

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СКАЧАТЬ Cord and Aliah’s absence?”

      The reminder of her brother’s overprotective stubborn streak made her blood boil. “I don’t need looking after, and he had no business asking you to stick around.”

      “That is not why I am staying.”

      “Don’t try and cover up for him. I heard him ask you, remember?”

      Rafe moved his broad shoulders in a slow shrug. “I believe he was teasing you. He knows the foal I have purchased from the Colemans of the Desert Rose Ranch should be born within a week, and that I wished to be present for the birth.”

      Bri forced herself to meet his dark, steady gaze. He looked so darn sincere, yet she knew her brother, and she doubted very much that Cord had been teasing. When Rafe said nothing more, she asked, “How long will you be here?”

      “At least until the foal is born.”

      “Don’t you have to get back to Munir?”

      “You sound as if you wish to get rid of me.”

      She blushed again. Darn it. “I thought you were a busy man. Allie said you—” She cut herself off and gritted her teeth.

      “What did my sister say?”

      “Nothing important.” She dusted her hands together. “I need to go see about supper.”

      “Wait, Brianna.”

      She’d never liked her name. Taunted as a child by Jenny Thomas and other girls with nice normal names, she’d even hated it for a while. But the husky way Rafe said it erased all those hurtful years in an instant.

      He gazed down at her in that intense unnerving way of his, and she had little choice but to hear him out.

      “I hope you do not have a problem with us being alone in the house while your brother is away.”

      “Of course not.” She was getting to be way too good a liar. Her aunt Elaine would have washed her mouth out with soap.

      “If so, I can arrange to stay in Bridle.”

      Confused, she studied him for a moment. Was he right about Cord only teasing her? Otherwise, Rafe wouldn’t offer to stay in town. “What about the Desert Rose?”

      In response to her bluff, his right eyebrow went up. “I am making you uncomfortable?”

      “Don’t be silly. It’s not that I don’t want you here—” Her tongue got tied and she stumbled over her words. “I just thought that since you want to be there for the foal’s birth…” At the telling amusement on his face, she groaned inwardly. “I really need to go see about supper.”

      “Aliah did not make arrangements?”

      “Why would she? They left early yesterday.” Bri groaned out loud this time. “Unless she ordered pizza.”

      “Pizza?” He smiled “Ah, yes. While I was at the university, it was a favorite dish of many of the students.”

      “In Munir?”

      “No, Harvard.”

      “You went to Harvard? Here, in the United States?”

      His eyebrows rose. “Why do you find that so difficult to believe?”

      “I don’t know. I—” She shrugged. “I knew that Allie had a British tutor. I guess I assumed—I don’t know.”

      “It is different for women in our country.”

      “I guess that’s why Allie ran away.” Her hand flew to her mouth. Allie had complained about women being nonentities, merely a man’s accessory. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—I’d better go.”

      His expression tightened. “I am not ignorant of my country’s archaic attitudes or shortcomings. Now, I’ve detained you long enough. Please excuse me.”

      Bri kept her mouth shut as he strolled back toward Magic Carpet’s stall. She hadn’t meant to offend him. Allie had wonderful things to say about her brother. She’d felt badly about tricking him into offering her maid to Cord when he’d rescued the woman from a runaway horse. But secretly trading places with the maid and staying behind in America was the only way Allie could get out from beneath the royal thumb.

      Rafe wasn’t like their parents, Allie had confided, or the rest of the royals. He respected a woman’s right to independence and strongly advocated modernizing their country even though it was an unpopular political position.

      Bri didn’t understand any of it, but she liked and respected Allie. So if Allie thought her brother was honorable it was enough for Bri. She was glad, too. Men as gorgeous and as powerful as Rafe weren’t always nice, in Bri’s limited experience. Not that she’d ever met a sheikh before.

      Or anyone like Rafe. It didn’t matter that she’d hardly spoken to him. Just looking at him made her skin tingle and caused a flutter in her tummy. Watching him wasn’t like watching the ranch hands, not even the new guy Chuck, and he was pretty cute with his sandy-colored hair and twinkling blue eyes.

      With his midnight hair, dark seductive eyes and tall lean frame, Rafe was in a category all by himself. Taller than all the other guys on the ranch except Cord, he towered over her. At five-nine, she couldn’t wear high heels around most men. Which suited her fine. She’d worn heels twice at her aunt Elaine’s insistence. It had been awful.

      She waited until Rafe was back in Magic Carpet’s stall, his back to her, before she headed out of the barn toward the house, and to Cord’s study. He’d left some notes for her regarding the stock selection for next month’s cattle auction and now seemed like a good time to bury herself in work.

      Better that she didn’t think about Rafe or that he would be sleeping only three rooms away from her for the next week. Anyway, the annual auction was important to the Flying Ace, and she wanted to do the best job possible in Cord’s absence.

      He’d been so good to her, going to New Hampshire to bring her back to Bridle. Although they had the same father, Bri was the bastard child, the product of a brief affair Gerald Brannigan had had with her mother in Dallas. Bri had never known him, in fact she’d barely known her mother. Aunt Elaine, her mother’s older sister, had raised Bri.

      None of that mattered to Cord. He’d made it clear the ranch would always be her home, as much hers as it was his. Ironically, he’d accepted her as a Brannigan much more quickly and completely than she had accepted his generosity. But day by day she’d begun to settle in and experience the wonder of belonging she’d craved her entire childhood.

      That’s why it chafed that Cord hadn’t mentioned to her privately about extending the invitation to stay to Rafe. She wouldn’t have dreamed of not consulting Cord before inviting a guest. But then again, Rafe was now Cord’s brother-in-law. Of course he’d be welcome at any time.

      Her pulse sped up and it had nothing to do with the fact that she had practically power walked up the slope to the house. The thought that Rafe might become a frequent visitor had sent her heart into overdrive. Not that she expected anything to happen between them. Even though Allie had teased her to watch СКАЧАТЬ