Sheikh Boss, Hot Desert Nights. Susan Stephens

sleep comfortably through to noon, he guessed as their gazes briefly met and held. He wanted to give her the morning off, but how would that be fair to the other candidates? And now, before the image of Casey curled up and warm in bed could take hold of him, he made a move. ‘Come on, let’s go,’ he insisted, eager to break the spell she had woven.

      ‘Thank you for the smoothie,’ she said, shifting awkwardly in front of him. ‘And for…’

      ‘For what?’ he prompted when she hesitated.

      ‘For giving me this chance.’

      ‘You earned this chance,’ he told her steadily.

      ‘I know you have some weeding out to do—’

      ‘Stop fishing,’ he warned. ‘You’ll get my verdict like everyone else—before you leave.’

      Distress flared in her eyes and was just as quickly gone. He’d make no allowances for Casey forming some emotional attachment to A’Qaban. What he’d told her was how it had to be. He wanted the best candidate for the job, and she’d be treated exactly the same as all the other candidates.

      ‘Is a suit all right for tomorrow morning?’ she asked in a much more businesslike fashion when he dropped her at the hotel.

      Nude would have been his choice, if the circumstances had been different. ‘A suit is good,’ he agreed, passing her bags to the doorman. ‘Or smart casual would be fine too.’

      They shook hands formally. He resisted the temptation to convey anything at all in his eyes, but when he stared back at her through the rearview mirror of the Lamborghini his foot stamped down on the throttle as if he couldn’t quite believe the effect she’d had on him.

      CHAPTER FIVE

      CASEY didn’t go straight to bed, as Raffa had suggested, but stayed up analysing the small amount of data she had managed to collect at the shopping mall. She even went down to the hotel business centre and typed it up. She wanted to impress him. It was important to her. Suddenly this wasn’t about the job any more, but about Raffa seeing her potential as an effective co-worker. She wasn’t the blunderer who had arrived all hot and bothered in A’Qaban, but to prove that to him she had to make sure everything she suggested in the way of change placed A’Qaban above criticism. Integrity was everything if she was going to build a world-class brand.

      And she was going to build a world-class brand.

      She put her computer to bed in the early hours, took a bath to ease feet screaming from pounding acres of marble mall floor, and tried to sleep. She couldn’t. Her brain was racing. Getting out of bed, she slipped on a robe and, picking up the previous day’s newspaper, unfurled the business pages of the A’Qaban Times.

      What an eye-opener that was. The first headline to catch her attention read:

      Car numberplate fetches $3 million in charity auction!

      ‘Father gave me blank cheque to buy new licence plates

      for my 4-wheel drive,’ reports young socialite.

      Holy moley! Dropping the newspaper on the bed, she paced the room, trying to picture that amount of money piled up in stacks around its perimeter. If it were piled up next to the off-roader it would probably hide it from view. But if the thought of so much excess went against her grain, at least it was a consolation to think a charity would benefit. And she mustn’t lose sight of her primary objective, which was to secure the job of marketing a country. So forget about blank cheques, car numberplates and over-indulged minor celebrities…

      And Raffa.

      Or she’d never get to sleep.

      But as she wearily pulled back the bedcovers she couldn’t forget any of it; especially Raffa…

      She must have drifted off to sleep some time in the early hours, Casey realized, as she woke slowly to find dawn peeping through the shutters. Making happy sounds of contentment, she decided to treat herself to another hour in bed. Firm and big, the bed was dressed with crisp white sheets that carried the faint scent of jasmine, and, like the hotel Raffa had put her up in, it was divine. Thankfully, the butler had remained invisible—ergo, also divine. And sleep was divine, Casey concluded, stretching lazily before turning her face into the soft bank of pillows. There was even a divine telephone within reach of the bed…

      A ringing telephone.

      She groped for it, grimacing at the unwelcome intrusion. ‘…llo…?’

      ‘Ten minutes. Downstairs in the lobby.’

      Raffa!

      She sat bolt-upright.

      The line was dead before she had chance to reply.

      Rolling out of bed, she landed on the floor. Picking herself up, she staggered, half asleep, in the general direction of the bathroom, blundering into things as she went. She managed to run up a total of stubbed toe, banged head and almost dislocated shoulder. Raffa had made it sound cheerfully like the middle of the day. And why not, when he had probably worked out and swum a thousand metres before showering down and placing his call?

      After which thought, she entered the bathroom and turned the shower to its lowest temperature. Readying herself, she leaped in. And leaped out again, shrieking. There was only so much she could cope with at five o’ clock in the morning.

      Teeth chattering, she set the shower to warm and returned. Washing her hair, she soaped down quickly, rinsed off again, and stepped out.

      Better.

      Much better.

      Wrapping a towel around her head, she cleaned her teeth, sprayed deodorant everywhere—it stung in some places—and gargled with mouthwash.

      Okay, she was most definitely awake now.

      Scampering into the bedroom, she pounced on her knapsack and plucked out her sensible knickers. Teaming those with her sensible bra—the one that didn’t show beneath the shirt she’d bought, she chose dark trousers and a red cardigan rather than a jacket.

      High heels, of course…

      With trousers?

      Discarding the trousers, she tugged on the skirt.

      No good. Pale legs.

      Throwing it off, she grabbed the trousers again.

      Shirt, trousers, high heels…

      Shirt, trousers, desert boots…

      Definitely high heels.

      Spinning in front of the full-length mirror, she viewed herself as critically as a two-and-a-half-second spin would allow.

      Whatever the day ahead held, she was ready for it.

      There was no time for make-up, and her hair was a candy-floss explosion she just bound in a band as she raced to the door. Her hand stalled halfway to the handle. Back up. What about the survey she’d prepared?

      And some of the duty free scent she’d bought on the plane.

      Squirt everywhere; sneeze. Finished.

      Ready.

      Two seconds to tuck the survey under her arm in a professional manner, and tip her chin at a businesslike angle. And still two minutes left on the ten-minute deadline.

      She opened the door. ‘Oh, hell!’

      ‘Hello, yourself…’