The Desert Prince's Mistress Read online

  Or who.

  ‘Sure, Scott,’ he murmured. ‘I’m ready.’

  Scott glanced at him. ‘Need anything? To make notes?’

  Darian gave a glittering smile. ‘No, thanks. I won’t need them. I’ll know her when I see her.’

  They walked into the building together, and stood in the chrome-walled reception area.

  ‘They’re all up there?’ asked Darian, jerking his dark head towards the spiral staircase which led up to the studio.

  He spoke softly, but even so the two women who were busy flicking through the models’ cards at the far end of the room immediately stopped what they were doing and turned round to look at him, as if awaiting a command. But then, people always did that when they encountered him. Darian was used to it. They seemed to shrink to his will whenever he exerted it—and even when he didn’t.

  ‘Yeah,’ answered Scott. ‘Ready and waiting.’

  ‘Then bring on the parade,’ said Darian mockingly, putting his foot on the bottom rung of the staircase, faded denim straining over one taut, muscular thigh as he did so.

  ‘Er, not parade, Darian,’ corrected Scott. ‘If you say that they parade then that makes them sound a bit mindless, doesn’t it? Makes them sound as if they’re taking part in some second-rate beauty contest, and models are very sensitive about that kind of thing. Particularly in these politically correct days.’

  Darian laughed and turned his head, and as he did so he heard the faint but unmistakable intake of breath from one of the secretaries as she looked at him. He was used to that, too. He guessed it was because his eyes were not run-of-the-mill that the fairer sex always seemed to get transfixed by them. When he was younger he had found the effect a little disconcerting, and later he had rather enjoyed it, but now he was so used to it as to feel nothing more than faint amusement. Another man might have used the power of those eyes more ruthlessly, but Darian did not. He had no need to.

  ‘Far be it from me to contradict you, Scott,’ he said, choosing his words carefully. ‘But, putting political correctness aside, surely a casting session is exactly like a beauty contest? Though admittedly not a second-rate one—not in this case—not if they’re going to be representing Wildman. Twenty females about to be assessed on their looks and their sex appeal—how else would you define it?’

  ‘But it isn’t just looks and sex appeal we’re searching for, is it?’ questioned Scott seriously. ‘Otherwise someone we’ve shown you already would surely have come up to standard?’ He sighed. ‘You’ve seen loads of beautiful women this week.’

  ‘You think I’m being too choosy?’ asked Darian.

  Scott shrugged and then shook his head. ‘I admire your perfectionism, if you must know. Your search for that indefinable something or someone—a person who will embody everything you want to say about your company. I guess that’s the secret of your success. Am I right?’

  Darian shrugged. ‘That’s part of it.’

  But only part. Darian put a lot of his success down to a restless and relentless seeking nature. He never did anything long enough to get bored, because when you were bored all the freshness and enjoyment simply vanished. It was the same with relationships. Familiarity, in his experience, bred a tedium far more deadly than contempt.

  He glanced at his watch. ‘Come on, then—let’s go.’

  They made their way up the winding staircase towards the studio.

  None of the people who worked for him knew yet that this advertising campaign was to be Darian’s swansong. First he would choose the perfect woman and with her face bombard the country with the name of his mobile phones to ensure maximum publicity.

  Then he wanted out. He was planning to sell the company and walk away. To take the money and add it to the pile he had already made by selling previous successful companies, and look for yet another new challenge.

  And then what? prompted a little voice in his head. Is that going to bring you happiness? Darian’s mouth curved into a sardonic smile, and he batted the thought away as if it had been a mildly troublesome fly. Men who sought happiness were doomed. Women, too. Success and achievement were far more tangible concepts than happiness as far as Darian was concerned.

  They were almost at the top of the flight of steps when he heard Scott’s slightly muffled voice from behind him. ‘We should announce you, really, Darian—shouldn’t we?’

  ‘Well, you could, I suppose,’ said Darian lazily, but then he shook his head. ‘No, on second thoughts—don’t. Let’s surprise them.’

  ‘Sure?’

  Unseen, Darian smiled. ‘Oh, perfectly sure,’ he said softly. ‘Women are always so much more interesting when you catch them unawares, don’t you think? You see them for what they really are, rather than what they want you to see.’

  ‘That sounds like a pretty harsh judgement,’ observed Scott. ‘I didn’t have you down for a cynic.’

  Darian smiled again, but this time it barely curved his lips. ‘Not harsh at all,’ he said softly. ‘Nor cynical. Just an accurate assessment. Now, come on—let’s go.’ And as his dark head appeared in the lighted studio the whole room fell silent.

  Lara was out of breath, her unruly hair looking even more tousled than usual. The denim jacket she wore was making her much too hot, but she didn’t want to spare the time to take it off. She waited for the bus to swish its way through the puddle past her, and then made a run for the door of the studio, glancing at her watch as she did so. Damn, damn and damn!

  Her agent had been doubtful—sniffy, even—about putting Lara forward for the casting, but frantic questioning had assured her that, yes, there was a last vacant slot in the day’s casting for Wildman Phones.

  ‘Why the hell didn’t you put me forward for it in the first place?’ she had wailed.

  Her agent had sounded incredulous. ‘Lara—the last time I saw you your hair was cropped and dark.’

  ‘But I was appearing in a Russian play!’ she’d protested. ‘It’s back to normal now!’

  ‘How normal is normal?’ her agent had enquired patiently. ‘You’re a brunette, lovie—and they’re looking for the archetypal English rose!’

  ‘Archetypal, not stereotypical!’ Lara had retorted. ‘There’s nothing in the rulebook to say an English rose can’t have dark hair!’

  ‘I suppose not,’ her agent had responded doubtfully.

  Lara pushed the studio door open and a brief feeling of irony washed over her. English rose indeed! Clad in denim and a clinging black tee-shirt, anyone less fitting the description she had yet to see. But she reminded herself that she wasn’t really here to get the job. She was here to see the great man himself, that was all—and what better way to do that than legitimately?

  The two women standing in the foyer looked her up and down.

  ‘Which way’s the casting?’ Lara squeaked.

  One looked uncertain and the other gave a slightly smug smile as she jerked her thumb in the direction of the spiral staircase. ‘Up there. And you’re late,’ she added bluntly.

  ‘I know I am,’ moaned Lara, as she legged it up the steps.

  The room was stifling, reeked of lots of different clashing perfumes, and was full of women. Correction—beautiful women. And every single one of them had taken to heart the English rose theme in a big, big way. Despite her nerves, Lara bit back a smile.

  Some of them wore lace-trimmed blouses; others were resplendent in flower-sprigged high-necked dresses. There was even one woman clad in floor-length muslin who looked as if she would be more at home eating cucumber sandwiches on a quintessential English lawn, instead of packed into a crowded studio with a load of competitive peers.

  And every woman in the room shared one unmistakable characteristic.

  They were all blonde!

  ‘S-sorry!’ gulped Lara as each sleek golden head turned in her direction.

  Then, just as quickly, the women turned away from her again, and it took a moment or two while she caught her breath for Lara to realise that they were no
w all looking at one person. Or, rather, one man.

  Lara hadn’t noticed him at first, because he had been standing in the shadows in one corner of the room, but once she had seen him she wondered how on earth he could have escaped her attention—because he seemed to radiate a vitality which made everyone else in the room look as though they were only half-alive. She narrowed her eyes in his direction and felt her heart clench in her chest, as if an iron fist had crumpled it between cold, hard fingers.

  ‘I—I’m 1-late,’ she stammered.

  ‘Damn right you are,’ he agreed, in a silky murmur.

  She kept her face composed—she never quite knew how she did it—not when she was feeling this faint and dizzy and weak—and surreptitiously snaked her tongue out over lips which had dried so thoroughly that she felt she would never be able to speak again.

  Sometimes you knew the truth about something by instinct alone, and if she had ever doubted the claim made by the writer of that letter then that doubt was vanquished instantly as she stared across the room at Darian Wildman.

  Was it just her imagination working overtime—fuelled by the information she had received—or was everyone else in the room, Darian included, blind to what was as obvious as the blazing glare from one of the studio lights?

  This man had royal blood running through his veins, setting him apart from everyone present. Marking him out as a different breed altogether—as different as a lion standing amid a group of mewing kittens.

  He was tall—impressively tall—even taller than Khalim—yet his skin was not so dark as Khalim’s. But then this man was only half-Marabanese, Lara remembered. His flesh glowed gold and tawny and his eyes were gold, too. She had never seen eyes like them—they were like shards of golden glass, deep and gleaming, except that gold was a warm colour and this man’s eyes were cold.

  His hair was very dark—though not quite black—and was shaped to a head which was held with confidence and a certain arrogance. And pride. And irritation.

  ‘Do you make a habit of turning up late for jobs?’ he questioned tersely.

  Lara was having to fight an uncomfortable desire to run over to him, whisper her fingertips wonderingly down the side of his hard, beautiful face and tell him that she alone had the secret of his ancestry.

  With an effort, she pulled herself together. ‘Of course not!’

  Her complete absence of an apology made Darian tense, and he narrowed his eyes, feeling the tiny hairs prickle at the back of his neck as he looked at her. Her rain-sprinkled dark hair was awry and her cheeks were flushed. And her eyes were the bluest he had ever seen. They made him think of summer skies and cornflowers and Mediterranean seas. Momentarily, and inexplicably, he was sucked in by the sheer beauty of those eyes and the distraction irritated him.

  ‘And are you in the habit of poor time-keeping?’

  Be bold, Lara, she thought. You don’t need this job.

  She shrugged. ‘Not usually.’

  Not usually? It was not the reaction that Darian had been expecting. Didn’t she care that there were women in this room who looked as if they would kill to get the job? And, judging from some of the shameless glances they had been directing at him, they would also offer far more sensual incentives if they thought that might work.

  ‘Looking as if you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards?’ he continued, in an acid tone.

  ‘So much for the tousled look!’ retorted Lara flippantly. ‘Actually, the reason I’m late is that my agency nearly didn’t send me.’

  He met the challenge in her gaze, and something about her directness made him carry on staring at her. He wasn’t used to a challenge—and certainly not from a woman.

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ he said softly.

  She arched her brows, hot and bothered and not just from her hurried journey. Something in the way those gold eyes were studying her made her wish that she was looking as cool and unflappable as every other woman in the room. But Lara knew that nobody could guess what you were feeling on the inside; it was what you projected from the outside that counted. Which meant that her one-word reply shot back at him sounded cool, and only just on the right side of insolent. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes, really,’ he mocked. ‘The brief was to look like an English rose,’ he added impatiently. ‘Since when did that entail looking as if you’re in the middle of hitching a ride to a rock concert?’

  Lara heard a little buzz from the other models, and she guessed that they were enjoying seeing the delectable Mr Wildman losing his cool with one of the competition. She glared at him.

  ‘Do you want me to ask her to leave, Darian?’ murmured Scott, in a low voice.

  ‘No, I don’t,’ demurred Darian. ‘I asked a question and I’m waiting for an answer.’

  She felt like asking him sweetly if he always got whatever it was he wanted, but she refrained. It was neither the time nor the place, and she suspected that the answer would be yes anyway.

  ‘It depends what your interpretation of an English rose is, surely?’ she answered confidently. ‘Even they have to run for taxis or buses sometimes, don’t they? They can’t spend the whole of their lives sitting on pretty wicker furniture and fanning themselves! Not modern English roses anyway!’

  There it was again, he thought, with a cross between grudging admiration and irritation. She was talking to him in a way which he could have confidently predicted no one else in the room would have dared try! And she did have a point, he conceded. Modern was what he was really looking for. A modern look for modern technology.

  Ask for someone who summed up everything that it was to be English, and everyone immediately jumped back a century or two! He glanced around the room at the lace and the flower-sprigs and the muslin and he frowned. Modern and English—surely the two weren’t completely incompatible?

  ‘You do have a point,’ he admitted grudgingly.

  Lara lifted her chin, telling herself that she definitely wasn’t going to get the job now, so what did she have to lose? How far could she push him? She had seen for herself that he was grumpy—as well as successful, powerful and devastatingly attractive—would his temper really turn ugly if she challenged him a little bit more?

  ‘Tell me, how do you see the woman you’re looking for?’ asked Lara calmly.

  Scott bristled. ‘I think you’ve said quite enough, don’t you?’

  But Darian shook his head. ‘No, let her speak.’

  ‘Gosh…thanks!’ said Lara sarcastically.

  Darian knitted his brows together, wondering if this rather unusual tendency to answer back at what was essentially a serious job interview was simply a way of getting herself noticed. Didn’t people sometimes act outrageously in order to detract attention from their glaring faults? And did she have any?

  He let his eyes travel from the top of her head to the tips of her pointed leather boots. If you discounted the fact that her hair looked as though she had spent a large part of the morning being pulled through a particularly thorny hedge it really was the most glorious colour—the deep, burnished mahogany of a lovingly polished piece of furniture, touched with deeper, brighter shades of gold and amber. Dyed, most probably. All women dyed their hair these days. His mouth twisted. He had yet to meet a natural blonde!

  But her brows were beautifully shaped and arched, and her skin looked soft—all roses and cream—like petals in the early morning when they had been kissed by the dew. It was skin that made her look as though she’d been brought up in the fresh air, raised on nothing stronger than milk and honey.

  She had answered her own question, he realised. She was exactly the woman he was looking for.

  ‘Take your jacket off,’ he said slowly.

  For a second Lara’s sang-froid almost deserted her. It was a perfectly normal request to make in the circumstances. It wasn’t as though he was asking her to perform a striptease. But that was exactly what it felt like. Inside, she was suddenly overcome with a bubbling mass of insecurity, which was crazy—crazy—
and yet there was something about this darkly golden man which made his request seem like an intrusion. She didn’t move.

  Darian raised his eyebrows questioningly, ignoring Scott’s frown and the indignant glances of the other women.

  Lara flashed him a cool and professional smile and slid her jacket from her shoulders with hands which were miraculously steady. Then casually slipped her finger through the loop of the jacket and stood before him, feeling a little as she imagined the favoured member of a harem must feel. All the women vying for one man’s attention and only one of them receiving it. Her heart was beating fast. You’re concocting fantasy, she told herself sternly. That’s all. Just because you think he’s the brother of the Sheikh you’re attributing to him all those kind of primitive man-woman things which you wouldn’t dream of doing if he was any average man.

  ‘How’s that?’ she asked, in a voice which she hoped didn’t betray quite how unsettled he was making her feel.

  ‘That’s fine,’ he said evenly, trying to be objective, but for once it wasn’t easy. Her body was good. Very good. She was tall and slender, and yet curved in just the right places, and her breasts were quite simply perfect—not too full and not too small, the white tee-shirt emphasising their shape and not quite disguising the pinpoint thrust of her nipples, which made him tense in desire even though he tried not to.

  Darian looked around at the others. In terms of beauty there was not one woman present who could be faulted. There was every variety of womanhood represented here today. Most were slim—too slim, in his opinion, but that was the fashion. True, there were a couple whose curves were more luscious than slim, but the camera didn’t flatter real curves; he knew that.