Diamond in the Desert (14 page)

‘Britt.’ He turned the instant she entered the room. His response to her was stronger than ever. She lit up the room—she lit up his life. She forced him to re-evaluate every decision he had ever made, and he always came to the same conclusion. He would never meet another woman like her, but from her expression he guessed she hated him now. ‘Wait for me outside,’ she told her sisters in a cold voice that confirmed his opinion.

‘Are you sure?’ the youngest asked anxiously.

‘I’m sure,’ Britt said without taking her eyes off him.

She looked magnificent—even better than he remembered. A little crumpled from the journey, maybe, but her bearing was unchanged, and that said everything about a woman who didn’t know the meaning of defeat. He’d made a serious error leaving her behind in Kareshi. He should have brought her with him and to hell with the consequences. He should have known that Britt was more than ready for whatever she had to face. Her steely gaze at this moment was unflinching.

‘Please sit down,’ she said, and then she blinked as if remembering that he was in charge now.

‘Thank you,’ he said, making nothing of it.

Crossing to the boardroom table, he held out the chair for her and heard the slide of silk stockings as she sat down and crossed her legs. He was acutely aware of her scent, of her, but, despite all those highly feminine traits that she was unable to hide, she was ice.

He chose a chair across the table from her. They both left the chairman’s chair empty, though if Britt felt any irony in sitting beneath portraits of her great-grandfather, who had hacked out a successful mining company from the icy wastes with his bare hands, or the father who had pretty much lost the business in half the time it had taken his own father to build it up, she certainly didn’t show it. As far as Britt was concerned, it was business as usual and she was in control.

Even now she felt a conflict inside her that shouldn’t exist. She had entered the room at the head of her sisters, determined to fight for them to the end. But seeing Sharif changed everything. It always did. The man beneath that formal suit called to her soul, and made her body crave his protective embrace.

So she might be stupid, but she wasn’t a child, she told herself impatiently. She was a grown woman, who had learned how to run this company to the best of her ability when it was thrust upon her, whether she wanted it or not. And nothing had changed as far as she was concerned. ‘I called the lawyers in on my way from the airport.’

‘There’s no point in rushing to do that,’ he said, ‘when I can fill you in.’

‘I prefer to deal with professionals,’ she said.

He couldn’t blame Britt for the bite in her tone. The way that things had worked out here meant she could only feel betrayed by him.

* * *

She searched his eyes, and found nothing. What would he find in hers? The same? If her eyes contained only half the anger and contempt she felt for him, then that would have to do for now. She could only hope the hurt and bewilderment didn’t show at all.

‘I’d be interested to hear your account of things,’ she said coldly. ‘I believe my brother’s involved in some way.’ For the first time she saw Sharif hesitate. ‘Did you think I wouldn’t find out?’

‘In an ideal world I would have liked things to take their course so you could get used to the idea of Tyr’s involvement. As it was he stepped in to prevent a hostile takeover from any other quarter.’

‘And this isn’t a hostile takeover?’

‘How can it be when Tyr is involved?’

‘I wouldn’t know since I haven’t heard from him.’

‘He is still on his travels.’

‘So I believe. I heard he took the coward’s way out—’

‘No one calls your brother a coward in my hearing,’ Sharif interrupted fiercely. ‘Not even you, Britt.’

Sharif’s frown was thunderous and though she opened her mouth to reply something stopped her.

‘You realise Tyr and I go back a long way?’

‘I don’t know all his friends,’ she said. ‘I still don’t,’ she added acidly.

Ignoring her barb, Sharif explained that Kareshi was one of the countries Tyr had helped to independence.

‘With his mercenaries?’ she huffed scathingly.

He ignored this too. ‘With your brother’s backing I was able to protect my people and save them from tyrants who would have destroyed our country.’ He fixed her with an unflinching stare. ‘I will never hear a wrong word said against your brother.’

‘I understand that from your perspective, my brother has done no wrong. Tyr knows how to help everyone except his own family—’

‘You’re so wrong,’ Sharif cut in. ‘And I’m going to tell you why. If Tyr had added his golden shares to those you and your sisters own, the company would still go down. Add those shares to the weight of the consortium and the funds we can provide—not some time in the future, but right now—and you have real power. That’s what your brother’s done. Tyr has stepped in to save, not just you and your family, but the company and the people who work here.’

‘So why couldn’t he tell me that himself?’

‘It’s up to Tyr to explain when he’s ready.’ Sharif paused as if he would have liked to say something more, but then he just said quietly, ‘Tyr’s braver than you know.’

She felt as if she had been struck across the face. There was no battle to fight here. It had already been won.

‘A glass of water?’ Sharif enquired softly.

She passed an angry hand over her eyes, fighting for composure. She felt sick and faint from all the shocks her mind had been forced to accept. The structure of the business had changed—Tyr was involved, but he still wasn’t coming home. And mixed into all this were her feelings for this man. It was too much to take in all at once.

Thrusting her chair back, she stood.

Sharif stood too. ‘We want to keep you, Britt—’

‘I need time—’

‘The consortium could use your people skills as well as the mining expertise you have. At least promise me that you’ll think about what I’ve said.’

‘Ten minutes,’ she flashed, turning from the table. She had to get out of here—now.

One foot in front of the other—how hard could that be?

That might be easy if she didn’t know she had let everyone down. She allowed herself to become distracted and everything had changed. The company might have been thrust upon her, but she had given it all she’d got, and had intended to continue doing so for the rest of her working life. So much for that.

Bracing her arms against the sink in the restroom, she hung her head. She couldn’t bear to look at her reflection in the mirror. She couldn’t bear to see the longing for Sharif in her eyes. Everything he’d said made sense. He wasn’t even taking over and booting her out. They wanted her to stay on, he’d said. And she wanted Sharif in every way a woman could want a man. She wanted them to have a proper relationship that wasn’t just founded on sex. She had run the gamut of emotions with him, and had learned from it, but this was the hardest lesson of all: the man they called the Black Sheikh would stop at nothing to achieve his goal—even recruiting Britt’s long-lost brother, if that got him where he wanted to be. And Sharif didn’t even want the part of her she wanted to give, he wanted her people skills. The only way she could survive knowing that was to revert to being the Britt who didn’t feel anything.

Sluicing her face down in cold water, she reached for a towel and straightened up. Now she must face the cold man in the boardroom whom she loved more than life itself, and the only decision left for her to make was whether or not she could stay on here and work for Sharif.

She could stay on. She had to. She couldn’t abandon the people who worked here, or her sisters. And if that meant her badly bruised heart took another battering, so what? She would just have to return it to its default setting of stone.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

B
RITT
RETURNED
TO
the boardroom to find Sharif pacing. Caught unawares, he looked like a man with the weight of the world on his back. For the blink of an eye she felt sorry for him. Who shared the load with Sharif? When did he get time off? And then she remembered their time in the desert and her heart closed again.

‘There is a problem,’ he said, holding her stony gaze trapped in his.

‘Oh?’ She felt for the wall behind her as wasted emotions dragged her down. She could fix her mind all she liked on being tough and determined, and utterly sure about where she wanted this to go, but when she saw him—when she saw those concerns she couldn’t know about furrowing his brow and drawing cruel lines down each side of his mouth—she wanted to reach out to him.

She wanted to help him, and, even more than that, she wanted to stand back to back with Sharif to solve every problem they came across, and she wanted him to feel the same way she did.

‘I’ve had to make some changes to my plans.’

‘Trouble in Kareshi?’ she guessed.

‘A troublesome relation who was banished from the kingdom has returned in my absence and is trying to rally support amongst the bullies who still remain. It’s a basic fight between a brighter modern future for all and a return to the dark days of the past when a privileged few exploited the majority. I must return. I promised my people that they would never be at the mercy of bullies again, and it’s a promise I intend to keep.’

Sharif really did have the weight of the world on his shoulders. ‘What can I do?’ Britt said. Whatever had led them to this place was irrelevant compared to so many lives in jeopardy.

‘I need your agreement to stay on here. I need you to do my job for me while I’m away. I need you to ease the transition so that no one worries about change unnecessarily. Will you do that for me, Britt?’

Sharif needed her. The people here needed her. And if he didn’t need her in the way she had hoped he would, she still couldn’t turn her back on him, let alone turn her back on the other people she cared about.

‘I really need you to do this for me, Britt.’

Her heart hammered violently as Sharif came closer to make his point, but he maintained some distance between them, and she respected that. Her heart responded. Her soul responded. She could no more refuse this man than she could turn and walk away from her duties here. But there was one thing she did have to know. ‘Am I doing this for you, or for the consortium?’

‘You’re doing it for yourself, and for your people, Britt, and for what this company means to them. Hold things together for me until I get back and we can get this diamond project properly under way and then you’ll see the benefits for both our people.’

‘How long will you be away?’ The words were out before she could stop them, and she hated herself for asking, but then reassured herself that, as this concerned business, she had to know.

‘A month, no more, I promise you that.’

The tension grew and then she said, ‘I noticed a lot of new people were here when I arrived. Will you introduce me?’

Sharif visibly relaxed. ‘Thank you, Britt,’ he said. ‘The people you saw are people I trust. People I hope you will learn to trust. They moved in with the approval of your lawyers and with your own financial director alongside them to smooth the path—’

‘Of your consortium’s takeover of my family’s company,’ she said ruefully.

‘Of our necessary intervention,’ Sharif amended. ‘I hope I can give you cause to change your mind,’ he said when he saw her expression. ‘This is going to be good for all of us, Britt—and you of all people must know there’s no time to waste. Winter in the Arctic is just around the corner, which will make the preliminary drilling harder, if not impossible, so I need your firm answer now.’

‘I’ll stay,’ she said quietly. ‘Of course, I’ll stay.’

How ironic it seemed that Sharif was battling to keep her on. He was right, though, she could handle anything the business threw at her, but when it came to her personal life she was useless. She had no self-belief, no courage, no practice in playing up to men, or making them see her as a woman who hurt and cared and loved and worried that she would never be good enough to deserve a family of her own to love, and a partner with whom she shared everything

‘And when you come back?’ she said.

‘You can stay or not, as you please. You can still have an involvement in the company, but you could travel, if that’s what you want to do. I have business interests in Kareshi that you are welcome to look over.’

A sop for her agreement, she thought. But a welcome one—if a little daunting for someone whose life had always revolved around Skavanga. ‘I’d be like you then, always travelling.’

‘And always returning home,’ Sharif said with a shrug. ‘What can I tell you, Britt? If you want responsibility there is no easy way. You should know that. You have to take everything that comes along.’

‘And when Tyr comes home?’

‘I’m not sure that your brother has any interest in the business—beyond saving it.’

She flushed at misjudging her brother when she should have known that Tyr would have all their best interests at heart.

‘And now I’ve got a new contract of employment for you—’

‘You anticipated my response.’ But she went cold. Was she so easy to read? If she was, Sharif must know how hopelessly entangled her heart was with his.

Sharif gave nothing away as he uncapped his pen. ‘Your lawyers have given it the once-over,’ he explained. ‘You can read their letter. I’ve got it here for you. I’ll leave you in private for a few moments.’

She picked it up as Sharif shut the door behind him. Her nerves were all on edge as she scanned the contents of the letter. ‘This is the best solution,’ jumped out at her. So be it. She drew a steadying breath, knowing there wasn’t time for personal feelings. There never had been time. She had consistently fooled herself about that where Sharif was concerned.

Walking to the door, she asked the first person she saw to witness her signature and two minutes later it was done. She issued a silent apology to her ancestors. This was no longer a family firm. She worked for the consortium now like everyone else at Skavanga Mining.

Sharif returned and saw her face. ‘You haven’t lost anything, Britt. You’ve only gained from this.’

That remained to be seen, she thought, remembering Sharif leaving her in Kareshi and again at the cabin.

‘I left a message for you in Kareshi,’ he said as if picking up on these thoughts. ‘Didn’t you get it? The women? Didn’t they come to find you?’ he added as she slowly shook her head.

And then she remembered the women trying to speak to her before she left. She’d been in too much of a hurry to spare the time for them. ‘They did try to speak to me,’ she admitted.

‘But you didn’t give them chance to explain?’ Sharif guessed. ‘Like you I never walk away from responsibility, Britt. You should know I would always get a message to you somehow.’

And he was actually paying her a compliment leaving Skavanga Mining in her care. It was a compliment she would gladly park in favour of hearing Sharif tell her that he couldn’t envisage life without her—

How far must this self-delusion go before she finally got it into her head that whatever had happened between them in the past was over? Sharif had clearly moved on to the next phase of his life. Why couldn’t she?

‘Welcome on board, Britt.’

She stared at his outstretched hand, wondering if she dared touch it. She was actually afraid of what she might feel. She sought refuge as always in business. ‘Is that it?’ she said briskly, turning to go. ‘I really should put my sisters out of their misery.’

‘They already know what’s going on.’

‘You told them?’

‘Like you, I didn’t want them to worry, so I told them what was happening and sent them home.’

‘You don’t take any chances, do you, Sharif?’ She stared into the dark, unreadable eyes of the man who had briefly been her lover and who was now her boss.

‘Never,’ he confirmed.

A wave of emotion jolted her as she walked to the door. Sharif’s voice stopped her. ‘Don’t leave like this,’ he said.

She turned her face away from him, unwilling to meet his all-seeing stare. The last thing she wanted now was to break down in front of him. Sharif must be given no reason to think she wasn’t tough enough to handle the assignment he had tasked her with.

‘Britt,’ he ground out, his mouth so close to her ear. ‘Please. Listen to me—’

She tried to make a joke of it and almost managed to huff a laugh as she wrangled herself free. ‘I think I’ve listened to you enough, don’t you?’

‘You don’t get it, do you?’ he said. ‘I’m doing this for you—I rushed here for you—to save the company. This isn’t just for the consortium. Yes, of course we’ll benefit from it, but I wanted to save your company for you. Can’t you see that? Why else would I leave my country when there’s trouble brewing?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Everything’s happened so fast, I just don’t know what to think. I only know I don’t understand you.’

‘I think you do. I think you understand me very well.’

She would not succumb to Sharif’s dark charm. She would not weaken now. The urge to soften against him was overpowering, but if she did that she was lost. She might as well pack up her job and agree to be Sharif’s mistress for as long as it amused the Black Sheikh. ‘I need to go home and see my sisters.’

‘You need to stay here with me,’ Sharif argued.

She wanted his arms around her too badly to stay. She still felt isolated and unsure of herself. She, who took pride in standing alone at the head of her troops, felt as if the ground had been pulled away from her feet today.

‘Are you frightened of being alone with me, Britt?’ Cupping her chin, Sharif made her look at him and she stared back. He was a warrior of the desert, a man who had fought to restore freedom to his country, and who could have brushed her aside and taken over Skavanga Mining without involving her.

So why hadn’t he?

‘I asked you a question, Britt? Why won’t you answer me?’

Sharif’s touch on her face was so seductive it would have been the easiest thing in the world to soften in his arms. ‘I’m not frightened of you,’ she said, speaking more to herself.

‘Good,’ he murmured. ‘That’s the last thing I want.’

But if he could know how frightened she was of the way she felt about him, he would surely count it as a victory. And the longer Sharif held her like this, close yet not too close, the more she longed for his warmth and his strength, and the clearer it became that, for the first time in her life, being Britt Skavanga, lone businesswoman, wasn’t enough.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ Sharif said quietly as he released her.

‘What?’ she said cautiously.

‘I’d like you the think about working in Kareshi as well as Skavanga— Don’t look so shocked, Britt. We live in a small world—’

‘It’s not that.’ Her heart had leapt at the thought, but she still doubted herself, doubted her capabilities, and wondered if Sharif was just saying this to make her feel better.

‘It’s not that—’ Her heart had leapt at the thought, even as doubt crowded in that for some reason Sharif just wanted to make her feel better.

‘I have always encouraged people to break down unnecessary barriers so they can broaden their horizons in every way. I’m keen to develop talent wherever I find it, and I’d like you to think about using your interpersonal skills more widely. I know you’ve always concentrated on Skavanga Mining in the past, and that’s good, but while I’m away— Well, please just agree to think about what I’ve said—’

‘I will,’ she promised as Sharif moved towards the door.

‘One month, Britt. I’ll send the jet.’

Anything connected with Sharif was a whirlwind, Britt concluded, her head still reeling as he left the room. He ruled a country— He was a warrior. He was a lover, but no more than that. But Sharif had placed his trust in her, and had put her back in charge of Skavanga mining where she could protect the interests of the people she cared about.

A month, he’d said? She’d better get started.

* * *

He had to give her time, he reasoned. He would see Britt again soon—

A month—

He consoled himself with the thought that in between times he could sort out his country and his companies—

To hell with all of it!

Without Britt there was nothing. He’d known that on the flight when every mile he put between them was a mile too far. Without Britt there was no purpose to any of this. What was life for, if not to love and be loved?