Debbi Rawlins - By The Sheikh's Command

“Well, not in this exact spot. If I knew that, then it wouldn’t be lost, would it?” She lowered her gaze again when she realized how prickly she sounded.

He laughed softly and crouched beside her. “I will help you search.”

“No.” She swallowed when his knee brushed her thigh. “I’m fine. Really.”

She’d never been this close to him. Once they’d sat opposite each other across the dinner table, but he’d been in an awful mood, his face darkened by a scowl. He’d come to Bridle to take his sister back to their home in Munir but found out Allie and Cord were getting married. That Allie had tricked him by switching places with her maid and remaining behind in Texas still amazed Brianna. Allie was her new hero. Bri would never have had the nerve.

“Of course you are, but two of us searching would be better, would it not?”

“I’m sure you have more important things to do,” she muttered as she stared down at the clumps of straw she’d formed.

“What could be more important than helping a lady in distress?”

At the amusement in his voice, she looked up and their eyes met in challenge. “Where I come from, losing an earring is hardly a disaster.”

“Where I come from, a lady sometimes loses something to gain a man’s attention. Perhaps with the intent of initiating a…friendship.”

Brianna stared back in disbelief. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. And then finally she said, “That’s stupid.”

He smiled, taking some of the sting out of her lessthan-profound comment. “I agree.”

“You don’t do that enough.”

“Do what?”

She blinked, stunned that she’d said that out loud. “Never mind.”

“I would like to hear this.”

“It’s no big deal.” She shrugged and looked away. “You don’t smile enough.”

“Ah.” If he was surprised at her observation, he hid it well. “Why do you prefer that I smile?”

“I don’t,” she said quickly. “I just don’t want you to still be angry that Allie tricked you. You have to see how happy she is, how madly in love she and Cord are.” She sighed. “Having someone love you that much is like—” She stopped, mortification stinging her cheeks.

“Go on. What is it like?”

“I was talking about Allie and Cord.” Oh, God, she wanted to stand up and run as fast as she could. To the lake at the foot of the Desert Rose, where no one bothered her, where she could sit and stare at the peaceful water and make believe life was perfect.

“Yes, but you seem to have strong feelings about—”

“Oh, here’s my gold hoop.” She fisted her hand around some hay and pretended to stuff the imaginary earring into her jeans pocket. Her face flamed with the lie, but she couldn’t do much about it but turn away as she got to her feet. “Well, see you later.”

“Wait.” Rising with her, he touched her arm and she froze. “You seem upset. Why?”

She refused to meet his gaze. “I’m not.”

“Then look at me.”

She haltingly obeyed. The way he stared silently at her made her nervous, as if he were studying a painting. More likely he stared because her nose was a little crooked from a childhood fall. “What?”

“You have extraordinary eyes.”

She blinked. “No, I don’t.”

His lips curved again.

She hunched her shoulders, wishing she could be someone else. Just this once. Someone beautiful and sophisticated, who said and did all the right things. “I really have to go.”

“First, tell me.” His gaze narrowed in concern. “Why does it bother you that I will be staying with you in Cord and Aliah’s absence?”

The reminder of her brother’s overprotective stubborn streak made her blood boil. “I don’t need looking after, and he had no business asking you to stick around.”

“That is not why I am staying.”

“Don’t try and cover up for him. I heard him ask you, remember?”

Rafe moved his broad shoulders in a slow shrug. “I believe he was teasing you. He knows the foal I have purchased from the Colemans of the Desert Rose Ranch should be born within a week, and that I wished to be present for the birth.”

Bri forced herself to meet his dark, steady gaze. He looked so darn sincere, yet she knew her brother, and she doubted very much that Cord had been teasing. When Rafe said nothing more, she asked, “How long will you be here?”

“At least until the foal is born.”

“Don’t you have to get back to Munir?”

“You sound as if you wish to get rid of me.”

She blushed again. Darn it. “I thought you were a busy man. Allie said you—” She cut herself off and gritted her teeth.

“What did my sister say?”

“Nothing important.” She dusted her hands together. “I need to go see about supper.”

“Wait, Brianna.”

She’d never liked her name. Taunted as a child by Jenny Thomas and other girls with nice normal names, she’d even hated it for a while. But the husky way Rafe said it erased all those hurtful years in an instant.

He gazed down at her in that intense unnerving way of his, and she had little choice but to hear him out.

“I hope you do not have a problem with us being alone in the house while your brother is away.”

“Of course not.” She was getting to be way too good a liar. Her aunt Elaine would have washed her mouth out with soap.

“If so, I can arrange to stay in Bridle.”

Confused, she studied him for a moment. Was he right about Cord only teasing her? Otherwise, Rafe wouldn’t offer to stay in town. “What about the Desert Rose?”

In response to her bluff, his right eyebrow went up. “I am making you uncomfortable?”

“Don’t be silly. It’s not that I don’t want you here—” Her tongue got tied and she stumbled over her words. “I just thought that since you want to be there for the foal’s birth…” At the telling amusement on his face, she groaned inwardly. “I really need to go see about supper.”

“Aliah did not make arrangements?”

“Why would she? They left early yesterday.” Bri groaned out loud this time. “Unless she ordered pizza.”

“Pizza?” He smiled “Ah, yes. While I was at the university, it was a favorite dish of many of the students.”

“In Munir?”

“No, Harvard.”

“You went to Harvard? Here, in the United States?”

His eyebrows rose. “Why do you find that so difficult to believe?”

“I don’t know. I—” She shrugged. “I knew that Allie had a British tutor. I guess I assumed—I don’t know.”

“It is different for women in our country.”

“I guess that’s why Allie ran away.” Her hand flew to her mouth. Allie had complained about women being nonentities, merely a man’s accessory. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—I’d better go.”

His expression tightened. “I am not ignorant of my country’s archaic attitudes or shortcomings. Now, I’ve detained you long enough. Please excuse me.”

Bri kept her mouth shut as he strolled back toward Magic Carpet’s stall. She hadn’t meant to offend him. Allie had wonderful things to say about her brother. She’d felt badly about tricking him into offering her maid to Cord when he’d rescued the woman from a runaway horse. But secretly trading places with the maid and staying behind in America was the only way Allie could get out from beneath the royal thumb.

Rafe wasn’t like their parents, Allie had confided, or the rest of the royals. He respected a woman’s right to independence and strongly advocated modernizing their country even though it was an unpopular political position.

Bri didn’t understand any of it, but she liked and respected Allie. So if Allie thought her brother was honorable it was enough for Bri. She was glad, too. Men as gorgeous and as powerful as Rafe weren’t always nice, in Bri’s limited experience. Not that she’d ever met a sheikh before.