even glanced between the pages and clearly had no idea of what lay ahead of you. I decided you might be less self-conscious if you were in darkness.’ He paused to draw breath. ‘I don’t spend time with you during the day, that is true, but it’s because I have a million and one demands on my time—not least the upheaval in Tazkhan. I have spent the past two days meeting with certain members of the council in secret. Hassan has disappeared. That is another reason I am particularly concerned about my daughter’s safety right now.’
Still dealing with the news that he’d been thinking of her feelings, Layla felt her stomach lurch. ‘Hassan has disappeared?’
‘Yes, and until we know his whereabouts I don’t want my daughter left alone.’ He hesitated. ‘Or you. He is a desperate man. Who knows what he could decide to do, given that he now has so little to lose? He has lost any chance of taking your father’s place and he has few, if any, supporters among the people. Speaking of which, I have been learning a great deal of interesting information about you in the past few days.’
‘You have?’
‘I spent some time with the people. I visited hospitals and local schools—including a school where you apparently help out.’
‘I love books and I like to help the children who struggle with reading. The school doesn’t have enough staff to offer that sort of help.’ Layla stammered over the words, horrified that he’d found out with such ease. So much of her life had been conducted with discretion, if not secrecy. ‘Who told you?’
‘Apparently the staff don’t feel the need to keep it a secret any longer as your father is dead and Hassan missing. There is no shortage of people willing to tell me how good you are with the children and what an excellent decision I made in marrying you.’
She stood rigid, thrown by that news. ‘But you don’t think that. I know you don’t. On that first night you left the tent because you felt guilty about what we’d done.’
‘No. I felt guilty because the sex was incredible. I agreed to this marriage because of what it meant for Tazkhan, but what we shared that night went well beyond duty and I couldn’t pretend otherwise.’
Shocked into silence by his honesty, Layla tilted her head and stared up at him, feeling a shift in their relationship. ‘I didn’t know—’
‘That I felt that way? I would have thought it was obvious.’
His dry tone made her blush and the look in his ebony eyes made her stomach flip.
‘Your Highness—’
‘Raz.’
He was standing so close to her she could hardly breathe. She lifted her hand and placed it on his chest, feeling the steady thud of his heart under her fingers. ‘Raz.’ It felt strange to say his name. Strange to be this close to someone.
He cupped her face in his hands. ‘Do you realise that, despite the intimacies we have shared, that is the first time you have spoken my name?’
‘It felt wrong to use your name. You were a stranger.’
There was a prolonged silence. His eyes dropped to her mouth. ‘But I’m not a stranger now.’
His self-assurance was in direct contrast to her own mixed-up, tangled emotions.
‘You hate me.’
‘No. But I admit it’s a complicated situation.’ A wry smile tugged at his sensual mouth. ‘You are a person who likes facts, so I will tell you that the facts in this case are that nothing is going the way I thought it would go when you turned up at my camp that night.’
She wanted to reach up and sink her hands into that glossy dark hair. She wanted to pull his head down to hers and see if his kiss felt as good in daylight as it did in darkness. She wanted to give herself up to the emotion and the confusion and stop trying to rationalise the mess in her head.
‘It’s not going the way I thought it would go, either.’
‘I owe you an apology for ordering you to stay away from my daughter. You should know that I am very overprotective where she is concerned and the past week has been a particularly unsettling time.’
Standing this close to him, it was a struggle for her to concentrate. ‘I would never criticise any father for being overprotective.’
‘Please understand that my reluctance to allow you near her was less about you as an individual and more about my determination to keep life as stable as possible for her. I thought Nadia was the perfect person to care for her. It seems I may have been wrong.’
‘Maybe you weren’t. As you said, there is probably some perfectly reasonable explanation for her absence.’ What right did she have to comment on the behaviour of another person when she didn’t even understand her own?
‘Possibly, but at the current time we are unlikely to find that out.’ There was an edge to his tone. ‘She has gone missing, along with one of my guards. I suspect that when they both should have been with Zahra they were together. We are trying to find them. In the meantime I must thank you for being so incredibly kind to my daughter when she was upset.’
His apology was as unexpected and unsettling as it was touching.
She’d craved distance, but instead she had closeness and a new sense of understanding that simply intensified the feelings inside her.
‘She is very sweet and good-natured. And I love her sense of mischief. She reminds me so much of Yasmin.’
‘The people here have noticed your kindness to her and it has done much to make them warm towards you. What are these stories you’ve been telling Zahra that make her so desperate to go to bed at night?’
‘One Thousand and One Nights. I read them to my sister.’
His eyes glittered. ‘So now you think you are Scheherazade?’
‘Hardly. But I thought if I could relax Zahra before she sleeps she might be less likely to wake.’
‘It was a good plan. Did it work?’
‘It’s too soon to know. I just wish I’d brought the book with me instead of leaving it at the first camp.’
‘That was the other book you brought with you?’
‘Yes. It’s one of my favourites. I decided I could only carry two, because of the weight, so I picked that one.’
His hands were still on her face, his gaze intent on hers. ‘And the Kama Sutra.’
‘It was a matter of priorities.’ She knew her face was hot against his palm. ‘And ignorance.’
‘You have no need to explain yourself to me and no need to feel embarrassed.’ His eyes darkened. ‘These last few days have been a terrible strain for you. The threat of marriage to Hassan, whom you clearly fear and loathe, escaping from the palace, losing your sister in the desert and then being picked up by my men. Marriage to a stranger, a near drowning, and then living with a husband with whom you’ve barely shared a conversation but are expected to undress for.’
Layla tried to smile. ‘When you put it like that, it’s no wonder I’m a little wound up.’
‘A little?’
‘A lot. I’d be a lot better if there was news of Yasmin.’
His hand dropped from her face. ‘So far there is none, but that does not mean you should worry. Salem is renowned for not communicating.’
Remembering the dark, forbidding profile of the man she’d seen only briefly on that first night, Layla found that of little comfort. ‘What if he can’t find her?’ She blurted the words out, seeking reassurance.
‘If anyone can find her it will be Salem.’ Raz hesitated, as if he were deciding how much to tell her. ‘He has a special set of skills.’
‘But