Taken by the Sheikh. PENNY JORDAN

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Interviewing and selecting a large number of the right young graduates and MBAs is going to take time. We have therefore decided to set up a small, specially selected team with all speed. The fact that you are here in Zuran and in need of a job makes you an ideal candidate for a place on that team.

      ‘Time is very much of the essence here. My brother has to leave for London for further negotiations, and I need to return to our country to allow him to do so, since one of us must always be resident in Dhurahn. If I can take you back with me and set you to work, initially as my PA with regard to the preliminary paperwork and the setting up of procedures and negotiations, that will allow me to have more time to work on other aspects of this ground breaking project.

      ‘You will be well paid. My brother and I have already agreed upon a salary scale for our young graduates—it is almost double the best rate paid in London, and I assure you that you will be paid. As rulers of Dhurahn our word is our bond, and we do not operate the same kind of business ethics as Monika al Sawar.’

      ‘You don’t really expect me to believe that you’re a ruler of Dhurahn, do you?’ Sadie challenged him. Just what kind of idiot did he take her for?

      ‘You’re accusing me of lying to you? Why should I bother to do that?’

      ‘Rulers of Arab states don’t drive themselves around without escorts, or—’

      ‘You know this for a fact, do you? So, how many rulers of Arab States exactly are you familiar with? Have you any idea just how insulting you are being?’ he asked Sadie softly. ‘Under traditional Dhurahni law people can be locked away for the rest of their life for such an insult to a member of its Ruling Family. In ancient times they would have had their tongue cut out so that they could never speak another lie. That was if they were allowed to live.’

      Sadie shuddered, sickened by the graphic image he was forcing on her. He was certainly every inch the haughty all-powerful potentate whose word was absolute law, she admitted, wishing now that she had not spoken out so rashly.

      ‘I do not lie, Ms Murray. I do not need to. I could drive back to Zuran City and take you to the Ruler to verify my identity for you. Indeed, I could ask the same of your own Embassy. But I don’t have time. I need to return to Dhurahn before my brother leaves.’

      Sadie saw the look in his eyes as his mouth curled downwards in hard dismissal, and knew that he meant what he said.

      It was still hard for to take what he was saying at face value—especially after she had been so naïvely taken in by Monika.

      ‘I find it hard to accept that you’re willing to offer me a job without knowing anything about me, or—’

      ‘Here in the Gulf we believe very strongly in fate. It is true that when I left the Royal Palace earlier today with Professor al Sawar the thought of employing you or anyone else was not something I had planned. However, a clever man does not ignore the opportunities that fate offers to him.’ Drax gave another shrug. That was certainly what he believed, even if the opportunity he believed ‘fate’ had given him on this particular occasion was not the one he was now promoting to Sadie Murray.

      ‘A contract will be drawn up that allows us both a probationary period in which to assess the consequences of what might seem to be a too-hasty decision. I have no desire to keep you in my country against your will. An unwilling worker is of no benefit to Dhurahn. As co-rulers of Dhurahn, both my brother and I are well aware of that. Neither of us would ever tolerate anything that prejudices the progress or the reputation of our country. And, just for the record, I have no desire to keep you in my bed unwillingly, where the same principle applies. I see no pleasure to be gained in a woman who is not there of her own free will and her own desire.’

      Sadie was struggling to get her head around not just what Drax was saying but also the whole Arabian Nights fantasy of being told by the ruler of a Gulf State that he wanted to whisk her off to his kingdom.

      However, his purpose in taking her there was not because he wanted her to give him one thousand and one nights of pleasure, as Scheherazade had given her Caliph master with her fabulous stories, but—far more mun danely—so that he could use her expertise to help build a world-class knowledge economy with a world-class financial exchange to rival those of London, New York and Hong Kong. If what she was being told was the truth…

      Surely rulers travelled in cavalcades of cars, surrounded by courtiers and security men? They did not drive themselves around in ordinary, if up-market, saloon cars. The ease with which Monika had deceived her still stung. This man—Drax, as she recalled hearing the Professor call him—might physically possess the kind of arrogance that went with high estate, but that did not mean he actually was what he claimed to be.

      ‘I…it all sounds so far-fetched,’ she told him doubt fully.

      The green eyes glittered a look over her that was a combustible mixture of savage fury and arrogant disbelief.

      ‘You dare to persist in trying to accuse me of being a liar?’

      ‘I have a right to protect myself from being tricked into another situation in which I end up being out of pocket,’ Sadie defended herself. ‘There is a saying—“If a man makes a fool of me once, shame on him. If twice, shame on me.” You say you are a co-ruler of Dhurahn.’

      ‘I say it because that is what I am,’ he retorted. ‘I am not Monika al Sawar. I am co-Ruler of Dhurahn, with a moral responsibility towards my brother to act in a way that cannot possibly leave any stain on his honour, just as he has that responsibility to me.’

      So much had happened in such a short space of time, the changes in her circumstances had been so seismic, that Sadie suspected she wasn’t in any fit state to make any kind of decision—never mind one as potentially reckless as agreeing to accept the job she was being offered.

      And yet what alternative did she really have? She had no money, no family in the true sense to love and support her in England, should she choose to return, no job to return to there, and no passport to return there with, thanks to the man seated next to her, she reminded herself grimly. And what kind of message did that give her—the fact that he was prepared to use such an under-hand method to force her to do as he wished?

      ‘What if I choose not to accept your offer?’ she demanded.

      Drax could hear the uncertainty in her voice. As though he could see into her head, he could imagine her thoughts. She had come to the Gulf in order to change her life in some way; that desire would still exist, despite Monika al Sawar’s behaviour towards her.

      ‘Why would you do that?’ he asked her coolly. Dhurahn can match everything that Zuran can offer you and exceed it. You would be a fool not to accept. And since I have offered you a job, and I do not offer jobs to fools, you cannot be one.’

      Such arrogance. It was breathtaking. And exciting? Was she excited by it? By him? Thoughts she had never imagined were whirling through her head like grains of sand being whipped up by the desert wind, to create a mesmerizing, whirling force that changed the known to the unknown.

      This man—powerful sheikh or lying braggart—possessed that same power as the dessert wind, and for better or for worse she was being swept into the maelstrom of excitement and uncertainty he was creating within her.

      If he was speaking the truth then surely she would be a fool to turn down this kind of opportunity? Especially now, with no earnings to show for her time in Monika’s employ and the burden of her student loan still hanging over her.

      ‘If СКАЧАТЬ