“What a way to wake up!” David managed at last, drawing a ragged breath Letter to Reader Title Page CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN Copyright

“What a way to wake up!” David managed at last, drawing a ragged breath

“Wh-what happened?” If anything Claudia was more disoriented than he was.

“I must have been half asleep,” said David, as if to himself. “I woke up and there was someone there and suddenly... I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was you.”

Claudia’s legs trembled so violently when she tried to stand up that she had to hang on to the bed. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she peered at herself in the mirror and grimaced at her reflection as she remembered it was her thirtieth birthday. She was supposed to wake up this morning a changed woman, mature, confident, in control—not moaning with pleasure in the arms of a man who didn’t even realize who she was!

Dear Reader,

Welcome to

Everyone has special occasions in their life—times of celebration and excitement. Maybe it’s a romantic event, an engagement or a wedding—or perhaps a wonderful family occasion, such as the birth of a baby. Or even a personal milestone—a thirtieth or fortieth birthday!

These are all important times in our lives and in The Big Event! you can see how different couples react to these events. Whatever the occasion, romance and drama are guaranteed!

We’ll be featuring one book each month from May to August in 1998, bringing you terrific stories from some of your favorite authors. And, to make this miniseries extraspecial, The Big Event! will also appear in the Harlequin Presents® series.

This month we’re delighted to bring you Jessica Hart’s bubbly romance, Birthday Bride and look out next month for The Diamond Dad by Lucy Gordon.

Happy reading!

P.S. Follow the series into our Presents line in September with Kathryn Ross’s Bride for a Year.

Birthday Bride
Jessica Hart

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS that girl again.

David’s mouth turned disapprovingly down at the corners. He watched her hesitate, checking the seat number on her boarding card. She was tall and slender, with a swing of ash-blonde hair and an air of assurance that made her oblivious to the fact that she was blocking the aisle with that ridiculous bag of hers. He had thought her silly and superficial before, but now something about the way she stood there, holding up a patient queue, grated on David’s nerves. There was an arrogance about her that reminded him all too bitterly of Alix.

She was pretty enough, David allowed grudgingly, if you liked that smart, superior look. Personally, he preferred girls with sweeter expressions and a more feminine wardrobe. This one was dressed with undeniable elegance in neutral colours—cool trousers, a silk top and a loose, unstructured jacket with the sleeves pushed casually up her arms. She would have looked much softer in a pretty dress, David thought, although, if she was anything like Alix, soft was the last word anyone should use to describe her.

Her eyes were moving slowly along the overhead lockers, studying the illuminated numbers, and David glanced at the empty seat beside him with a sudden sense of foreboding. He looked up just as her gaze dropped, and their eyes met with a jarring sense of recognition. With grim amusement, he saw that she was no more pleased to discover who she was to be sitting next to than he was.

Claudia was more than not pleased. She was dismayed. A frantic morning finishing off at work, a chaotic trip to the airport, a seven-hour flight from London and now she not only had to entrust her life to a plane that looked as if it was held together with sticky tape and bits of string, but she had to find herself sitting next to that supercilious, sarcastic man who had made her feel such a fool at Heathrow!

For one wild moment, Claudia considered asking the stewardess if she could change seats, but the rows behind looked pretty full, and there was an uncomfortably acute look in those cold grey eyes. She had a nasty feeling that he knew exactly what number was printed on her boarding card. If she made a fuss and insisted on moving, he would think that she was embarrassed to sit next to him, and Claudia had no intention of giving him the satisfaction of knowing that he had put her out of countenance.

Anyway, why should she let herself be intimidated by him? He was just some businessman, and a pretty charmless, humourless one at that. She would simply ignore him, she decided.

Hoisting her bag more firmly over her shoulder, Claudia stalked down the gangway. Sure enough, 12B was the empty seat beside him, but just as she prepared to settle down in haughty silence the man pulled out a report and ostentatiously buried his head in it. He could hardly have made it clearer that he didn’t want to talk and was intent on ignoring her!

Claudia’s lips thinned. There was something about this man that got under her skin. She had been the one who wanted to do the ignoring, but there was no point if he was just going to be grateful for her silence! No, it would be much more satisfying to see how far she could irritate him, and Claudia had only to look at the implacable set of his jaw to know that the best way to do that would be to make it impossible for him to ignore her as he was so intent on doing. After two and a half hours of conversation as inane and frivolous as she could make it, he would be regretting that he had ever opened his mouth at Heathrow!

The prospect was enough to curve Claudia’s mouth into a satisfied smile. Perhaps she would enjoy this flight after all!

‘Hello again!’ she said brightly, and plumped herself down beside him.

Intensely suspicious of her smile, David gave a brusque nod and grunted some sort of greeting before pointedly turning his attention back to his report. Surely even she could take a hint like that?

Apparently not. ‘It’s quite a coincidence bumping into each other like this, isn’t it?’ she went on in the same chirpy voice, and David sighed inwardly. ‘I didn’t realise you were going to Telama’an as well.’

She bent forward to push her bag under the seat in front of her, and David was conscious of a subtle breath of fragrance as the blonde hair swung and shimmered distractingly at the edge of his vision.

‘Why should you?’ he said, trying to keep his eyes on the report and hoping that his repressive tone would be enough to make her realise that he was in no mood for conversation, but Claudia, delighted to see that his jaw was already tightening with irritation, refused to take the hint.

‘I just assumed you would get off the plane in Dubai,’ she said chattily. ‘You know how it is when you speculate about your fellow travellers.’

‘No,’ said David, but she pretended that she hadn’t heard.

‘I just couldn’t imagine you in a place like Shofrar,’ she told him, settling herself back in her seat and slanting him a provocative look from under her lashes.

‘Why ever not?’ he said, goaded into a response just as he had decided to ignore her completely.

‘Well, Shofrar sounds such an exciting place,’ said Claudia, who was congratulating herself on her strategy. This was much more fun than sitting in frosty silence!

David scowled at her. ‘Why don’t you come right out and say that you think I look too boring to be going there?’

‘Oh, but I don’t mean that at all.’ She pretended to flutter. She opened her eyes wide, and David, making the mistake of looking into them, was annoyed to notice that they were huge and extraordinarily beautiful, a smoky, smudgy colour somewhere between blue and grey.

‘It’s just that Shofrar sounds so wild and undeveloped and wonderfully romantic,’ she was wittering on, and with something of an effort David dragged his gaze away. ‘When I saw you at Heathrow, I thought you looked too conventional for the country.’ Claudia put a hand to her mouth in mock dismay. ‘Oh, dear, that sounds rude, doesn’t it? I didn’t mean it to be,’ she lied. ‘Steady and reliable are probably better words than conventional. You looked, you know, like the kind of man who would never give his wife any cause to worry and would always ring her if he was going to be late.’

David was unreasonably nettled by this tribute. Steadiness and reliability were qualities he had always valued, but this girl made them sound stolid and dull. She made him sound stolid and dull.

‘I don’t have a wife,’ he said with something of a snap. ‘And it may interest you to know that I have travelled extensively in Shofrar, and certainly more than you have if you think it is wonderfully romantic. It’s a hard country,’ he pointed out. ‘It’s hot and it’s barren, with poor communications and no facilities for tourists. You’re the one who’s going to find herself out of place in Telama’an, not me. I may look conventional but I know the desert and I’m used to the conditions. You’re too spoilt—oh, dear, that sounds rude, doesn’t it?’ He mimicked her tone with uncomfortable accuracy. ‘I meant spoilt by luxurious living, that’s all. I think you’re going to find Telama‘an something of a shock.’

‘Really?’ It was Claudia’s turn to eye him frostily. ‘And what makes you think that I haven’t been to Telama’an before?’

‘I’ve seen what you carry around in that bag of yours,’ said David, nodding his head down at the shoulder bag that was squeezed under the seat in front of her. ‘Nobody who had been anywhere near a desert would dream of packing a fraction of all that junk!’

Claudia bit her lip. She was beginning to wish that she hadn’t tried to provoke him. Why couldn’t he have been a decent, tactful, chivalrous type of man who wouldn’t dream of mentioning that embarrassing incident at Heathrow?

She had been sitting opposite him in the departure lounge as they waited by the gate. There had been some delay in boarding, and the other passengers were milling around in frustration. Babies had cried, children had squabbled, ground staff had muttered into their walkie-talkies, but the man opposite her had just sat reading through papers with a stillness and concentration that completely ignored the hubbub around him.

He had rather ordinary brown hair and one of those austere faces that didn’t give anything away, but Claudia, fascinated by his air of cool self-containment, had noticed a decidedly stubborn set to his jaw and an inflexible look about his mouth. She was secretly ashamed of the fact that the take-off always made her rather nervous, thinking that she ought by the age of twenty-nine to be blasé about jumping on and off planes, and although she was doing her best to seem cool and unconcerned she had found it oddly reassuring to watch the man working so quietly and competently in the midst of such chaos.

What would it be like to be that calm? Claudia was used to the frenetic activity of a television production company, and she thrived on panic and pressure. This man didn’t look as if he knew the meaning of panic. He would probably be hell to work with, she’d decided. Efficient, yes, but deadly boring.

For some reason, Claudia’s eyes had strayed back to his mouth. Well, maybe not exactly boring, she amended reluctantly. No one with a mouth like that could be really boring. It looked cool and firm, almost stern, but with an intriguing lift at the corners that made her wonder what he would look like if he smiled...

It was then that he had looked up, and Claudia had found herself staring into a pair of wintry grey eyes whose expression had sent the colour surging up her cheeks. Too late, she’d realised that she had been staring at him. He’d leant forward.

‘Is something the matter?’ he asked with careful restraint.

‘No,’ she said.

‘My hair hasn’t turned blue? There isn’t any smoke coming out of my ears?’

Claudia pretended to check. ‘No.’

‘Then perhaps you could tell me what it is about me that has been fascinating you so much for the last twenty minutes?’

The withering tone deepened the flush in Claudia’s cheeks. ‘Nothing! I’m not the slightest bit interested in you! I was just...thinking.’ Even to her own ears she sounded sullen and defensive.

‘In that case, could you please think by staring at someone else? I’m trying to work, and it’s not easy to concentrate with two great eyes boring into me.’

Claudia was amazed to discover that he had even noticed. So much for his powers of concentration! ‘Certainly,’ she said huffily, and got to her feet. ‘I had no idea that sitting quietly minding my own business would be so disturbing! I’ll go and stand in a corner and close my eyes, shall I? Or will my breathing be too distracting for you?’

The man looked profoundly irritated. ‘I don’t care what you do or where you do it, as long as you stop looking at me as if you’re deciding whether to have me for lunch or not.’

‘Lunch?’ Claudia attempted a scornful laugh. ‘I’m afraid my tastes run to something a little more substantial! You might do for a mid-morning snack, or perhaps a little something to have with a cup of tea!’

If she had hoped to rile him, she failed dismally. He looked at her incredulously for a moment, then shook his head as if deciding that she was too stupid to bother with any further, and returned his attention to his papers. Claudia felt about two inches high.

Furious, she made to stalk off in high dudgeon, but the bag she hoisted onto her shoulder was so overloaded that the strap snapped under the strain, and, to her horror, it crashed to the ground right at the man’s feet.

She wouldn’t have minded if he had jumped. She wouldn’t have minded if he had clicked his tongue or looked startled or shown some kind of reaction, but he didn’t even look up. Instead, he looked at the bag for about five seconds without saying anything, and then carried on reading. He could hardly have made it clearer that he thought she was too tedious and silly to merit any attention at all.

What if he thought she was deliberately trying to get him to notice her? The idea galvanised Claudia into action, and she dived to pick up the bag by its broken strap. It had landed on its bottom, which was fortunate, but that was where her luck ended. She hadn’t realised that the zip was open, and as she grabbed the strap at one end the whole bag tilted, upturned, and the contents that she had shoved in frantically while the taxi waited to take her to the airport spilled out over the man’s shoes.

To Claudia, it all seemed to happen in ghastly slow motion. Lipsticks, mascara, perfume, hairbrush, mirror, sponge toe dividers for painting toe-nails, the whole panoply of cosmetics, in fact, as well as mints, Biros, her purse, a camera, a travel plug, her Filofax, sunglasses, spare films, a novel, tissues, emery boards, a tiny, knitted teddy bear she had carried around with her since she was a child, keys, old credit card receipts, an earring she had been looking for for ages, dog-eared photographs, a cheap brooch Michael had once given her as a joke, even a change of underwear for the flight... all scattered with gay abandon around the man’s feet and under his seat.

Claudia closed her eyes. Please, she prayed, when I open them again, let it not have happened! But when she steeled herself to unscrew her eyes the man was still sitting there, still surrounded by her debris while the empty bag dangled uselessly from her nerveless hand.

With a sigh, he laid his papers on the seat beside him and bent to retrieve her bra from where it had caught on his shoe. Holding it between his fingers, he proffered it to Claudia. ‘No doubt you’ll need this,’ he said.

Mortified, she snatched it from his hand. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered. Falling to her knees, she began scrabbling beneath his seat, desperately trying to scoop everything back into the bag, but humiliation was making her clumsy, and half of them spilled out again. To make matters worse, instead of moving away to another seat, the man bent to help her, handing her cosmetics and sentimental mementoes with a lack of comment that was somehow more crushing than any sarcasm.

‘Flight GF920 to Dubai and Menesset is now ready to board.’ To Claudia’s intense relief the tannoy crackled into life at last and there was a general stirring of anticipation as the first-class passengers and families with children were invited to board.

‘Please, there’s no need to bother,’ she said through gritted teeth as the man glanced up at the announcement. What was the betting that he was travelling first class? ‘You go on. I’ve got everything now, anyway.’

He straightened, put his papers into his briefcase with an insulting lack of haste compared to her own scramble to refill her bag, and pulled his boarding card from his jacket pocket. He was travelling first class, Claudia noted bitterly. Nodding a curt farewell, he turned towards the departure gate, only to stop and stoop to pick up yet another lipstick that had rolled along the floor.

“Nights of Passion’.’ He read the end as he handed it back to Claudia. ‘You won’t want to lose that one, will you? You never know when you might need it.’

And with that final, quite unnecessary shot of sarcasm he walked off, leaving Claudia staring resentfully after him and thinking, much too late of course, of any number of crushing retorts that would have put him in his place.

At least he was flying first class, she reassured herself, so there was no danger that she would find herself sitting next to him, and in all likelihood he would be getting off in Dubai anyway. Claudia didn’t like feeling ridiculous, and she was glad to think that she would never again have to set eyes on the one witness to her uncharacteristic lack of poise.

In fact, she could pretend that it had never happened... until she got onto this crummy little plane and realised that she was going to have to spend two and a half hours sitting next to him! Typical of her luck this year, Claudia thought glumly. Being twenty-nine had been no fun at all and it looked as if her very last day in her twenties was going to run true to form. Perhaps she would wake up tomorrow on her thirtieth birthday and find that things had changed?

Blowing out a tiny sigh, she cast the man a resentful glance from under her lashes. There had obviously been no good fairy at her christening! If there had been, she might have organised an attractive, charming man who would while away the last hours Claudia could get away with calling herself young. Instead, she was landed with someone dour and middle-aged. He must be at least forty, she decided dismissively, so used to thinking of the forties as a vague time in the future when she would be galloping through middle age on her way to a bus pass and a Zimmer frame that it came as something of a shock to realise that as from the next day, he would only be ten years older than her.

He didn’t look as if he was on the verge of cashing in his pension, it had to be said. Claudia studied him a little closer. There was a solidity about him, a balanced, assured air, as if he had grown into his looks and was completely at ease with himself. It was just a pity his expression was so formidable. He would be really quite attractive if he smiled.

She eyed him half speculatively, wondering how he would respond to a little light flirtation, but when her gaze stopped at that implacable mouth she decided not to waste her time trying. There was something decidedly unflirtable about the way he sat there reading that boring report with its endless graphs and lists of figures.

But then, she had always liked a challenge, hadn’t she?

Claudia reached for the safety card tucked into the seat back in front of her and pretended to study it while she planned her strategy. She didn’t hold out too many hopes of getting a smile out of him, but it would be fun to prise as much information out of him as possible. If he thought he was going to be able to ignore her for two and a half hours, he had another think coming!

‘This plane looks awfully old,’ she said, casting around for a way to restart the conversation after his ungentlemanly reference to the incident at Heathrow. ‘Do you think it’s safe?’

‘Of course it’s safe,’ said David without looking up from his report. He might have known she wouldn’t shut up for long! ‘Why on earth shouldn’t it be?’

‘Well, it’s so old, for a start,’ said Claudia, plucking at the tatty material covering the seats. ‘Look at it! This kind of décor went out in the Sixties! Where’s this plane been since then?’

‘Flying perfectly safely between Menesset and Telama’an, I should think.’ Very deliberately, David made a note in the margin to remind her that he wasn’t distracted that easily. ‘What’s wrong with the plane? Apart from the worrying fact that you don’t like its colour scheme, of course?’

Claudia looked around her as the plane began to roll backwards from the chocks. There were only about forty other passengers, their seats arranged in pairs on either side of the narrow aisle. ‘I didn’t realise it would be so small,’ she confessed.

David turned a page like a calculated insult. ‘Telama’an isn’t a big place,’ he said with a kind of bored indifference.

‘I hope it’s big enough to have an airport,’ Claudia snapped, irritated by his lack of reaction. ‘Or are they going to kit us out with parachutes and push us out when we’re over the right spot?’

He did glance at her at that, but it was such a withering look that she wished she had never tried to divert him from his report in the first place. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said. ‘There’s been an airstrip there for years, but this is about the biggest plane that can land there at the moment. It’ll be different when the new airbase is completed, of course. Telama’an is one of the more remote regions of Shofrar, but it’s strategically important and the government are keen to develop the area. At the moment, there’s nothing but a dusty little oasis in the middle of the desert, so the local sheikh wants a complete infrastructure: an airbase, roads, a water supply, power... it’s a huge project.’

Oh, dear, one of those men that lectured instead of answered! Claudia sighed. ‘You seem to know a lot about it,’ she said, fanning herself with the safety card and trying not to think too much about the take-off as the plane taxied slowly down the runway.

‘I should do. We’re the contracting engineers on the project.’

She half turned in her seat to look at him in surprise and dawning consternation. ‘But GKS Engineering are the contractors, aren’t they?’

For his part, David eyed her with deepening misgiving. What did this silly woman have to do with GKS? ‘How do you know that?’ he asked suspiciously.

‘My cousin’s married to the senior engineer on the project...Patrick Ward. Do you know him?’

David’s heart sank. Of course she would have to be going to visit the very people he would normally spend most time with in Telama‘an! Was there to be no getting away from her? ‘Yes, I know Patrick,’ he said reluctantly. ’And Lucy.’

‘Oh, well, I’ll tell them I met you,’ said Claudia, who had not missed the reluctance in his voice and who had perceived an opportunity to achieve at least one of her objectives. ‘What’s your name?’ Let him get out of that one!

‘David Stirling,’ he admitted after a tiny pause.

‘I’m Claudia Cook,’ she introduced herself, although he hadn’t asked. Peeping a glance at him from under her lashes, she wondered whether she should force him to shake hands, but decided against it. It had been achievement enough to get a name out of him, and, looking at that jaw, she didn’t think that David Stirling was a man she would want to push too far. Better to stick to the inane conversation line; it was a far more effective way of needling him!

‘So you’re an engineer as well, are you?’

‘Of sorts.’ David was cursing his luck. Not only was he doomed to spend the next two and a half hours sitting next to her, but he couldn’t put her in her place as he was longing to do. He was very fond of Lucy and Patrick, so he could hardly tell their guest to shut up and mind her own business. It was hard to believe that there was any connection between them, though. The Wards were one of the nicest couples he knew, while this girl was a ghastly intrusion from some other life altogether.

In spite of himself, he found himself glancing at her. She had beautiful skin—either that, or she was very cleverly made-up. Probably the latter, David decided. Those lashes were too long and thick and dark to be natural with that pale gold hair, and he could see how she had outlined her eyes with a fine pencil.

He had a sudden, bitter picture of Alix at the mirror in his bathroom, her mouth pursed in concentration and one finger holding her eyelid steady as she carefully drew a line above her lashes. David was unprepared for the way the memory could still hurt. Alix had taught him a valuable lesson, and he was wary still of girls like her.

Girls like Claudia Cook.

She would be in marketing, he guessed, or perhaps something in the media. Some job that enabled her to kiss people extravagantly and run around with a clipboard feeling important. She would go to parties and claim to be exhausted by work, although she probably spent most of her day on the phone without producing anything more tangible than a date for lunch or an agreement to talk later.

David smiled grimly to himself. Oh, yes, he had met girls like Claudia before, and he was in no danger at all of being impressed!

The plane had turned, poised for a moment at the end of the runway before hurtling itself down the tarmac and heaving itself into the air at the last moment. Claudia sucked in her breath and concentrated on breathing evenly. David Stirling would only sneer if he thought she was nervous, and she was not going to give him the satisfaction of making a fuss!

Still, it was a relief to hear the tell-tale ‘ping’ of the ‘no smoking’ sign being switched off, and as the plane levelled out she turned back to David, only to catch his eyes straying back to his report. She couldn’t have him concentrating on his work, could she, now?

‘Are you based out in Telama’an like Patrick?’ she asked, all eager interest.

‘No,’ said David through his teeth. The graph danced up and down on the page beneath his eyes. Those wide eyes and that gushing voice didn’t fool him for a minute. He knew perfectly well that she had set out to be deliberately provocative for some reason. Well, he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of rising to the bait again. She would soon get bored with cold courtesy. ‘I spend most of my time in the London head office.’

‘Why are you going to Telama’an now?’ Claudia persevered.

He drew a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm. ‘I’ve got a series of extremely important meetings to attend,’ he said tightly after a moment. ‘We’re coming to the end of the first phase of the project, and we want to persuade the government to award us the contract for the next major stage, but there are several other big firms in the running, so we’re up against some tough competition.

‘The final decision rests with the local sheikh, who is a cousin of the Sultan and who’s been given overall responsibility for the project, but he’s not an easy man to deal with. After months of requesting a meeting, he’s finally offered us the chance to give him a special presentation the day after tomorrow, and it’s absolutely vital that I get there as soon as possible to brief the rest of the team before the meeting. However, it does mean that I must check these reports, so if you’ll—’

‘Well, that’s a coincidence!’ Claudia interrupted before he could complete his excuse. ‘It’s absolutely vital that I get there by tomorrow as well.’

‘Really?’ he bit out. ‘And why is that?’

She leant towards him confidentially. ‘It’s my thirtieth birthday tomorrow, and I’m going to a party to meet my destiny!’

David looked at her with incredulity. ‘Your what?’

‘My destiny.’ Claudia hoped she looked suitably soulful. ‘Years ago a fortune-teller told me that I wouldn’t get married until I was thirty, and that I’d meet my husband somewhere where there was a lot of space and sand.’

‘So you thought you’d just get on a plane to the desert on the off-chance that you’d bump into some poor unfortunate man?’ David didn’t even bother to hide his disbelief and she smothered a smile as she opened her eyes wide.

‘Oh, no. I know exactly who he’ll be. The fortune-teller told me that the initials J and D would be very important, so I’m sure I’ll be able to recognise him at once. Lucy’s going to throw a party so that I meet him on my birthday and all I have to do is get there by tomorrow!’

He snorted. ‘You’re not trying to tell me that Lucy believes any mumbo-jumbo about predictions? I’ve always thought of her as an intelligent woman!’

‘She was there when my fortune was told,’ Claudia told him solemnly. ‘We were only fourteen and it made a big impression on her,’ she added, omitting to mention that both girls had burst giggling out of the tent and Lucy had teased her unmercifully for years afterwards about having to wait until she was thirty before she got married.

At fourteen, thirty had seemed impossibly remote. She had never dreamt that she would actually ever get to be that old, or that she wouldn’t be married long before. When she had met Michael, she had even joked with Lucy about thwarting fate and tying the knot at twenty-nine.

Except that Michael hadn’t wanted to commit himself in the end—at least not to her—and now here she was, a day short of thirty and just as unwed as the fortune-teller had said she would be.

‘You can’t spend your thirtieth birthday on your own!’ Lucy had said when Claudia had rung to tell her that the engagement was finally off.

‘I’m so miserable, it doesn’t matter what I do,’ Claudia had said. ‘I can’t be bothered to have a party where everyone will just feel sorry for me.’

‘Come out to Shofrar, then,’ Lucy offered impulsively. ‘No one will know anything about Michael, so you could be whoever you wanted to be. It’ll be great,’ she went on, getting carried away with enthusiasm for the idea. ‘We’ll have a party on your birthday and you can meet Justin Darke.’

‘Justin who?’

‘Justin Darke. He’s an American architect who’s working with Patrick out here, and he is seriously attractive. We are talking gorgeous, Claudia! As soon as I met him I thought he’d be perfect for you—much better than that creep Michael. He’s almost disgustingly nice, warm, sincere, single...what more could you want?’

‘There must be something wrong with him,’ said Claudia, whose experience of men had left her armoured against high expectations. Nice, warm, sincere men weren’t usually wandering around unmarried without a good reason.

‘But there isn’t! He’s just a great guy,’ Lucy insisted. ‘And I know he’d like you. I showed him your picture the other day and he said you looked like an exciting lady!’

‘I don’t feel very exciting at the moment,’ Claudia said gloomily.

‘You just need someone to boost your ego—and Justin’s so charming that you wouldn’t be able to resist feeling better!’

Claudia was beginning to warm to the idea. ‘I suppose it would be nice to get away somewhere completely different.’

‘Of course it would. A change of scenery, an attractive man...you won’t give Michael another thought.’ Lucy laughed. ‘Hey, remember the fortune-teller at that fête, Claudia? All that business about sand and initials and being thirty? There’s certainly plenty of sand out here, and Justin’s initials are J D...’

‘And I’m going to be thirty? Don’t remind me!’

‘Just think, this could be your big chance to meet your destiny!’ said Lucy dramatically, and they both giggled.

‘I won’t hold my breath,’ said Claudia. ‘After this last year with Michael I think I can do without destiny—I’ll settle for a good time instead!’

It hadn’t been easy to take two weeks off at one of the busiest times of the year, but once Claudia had made up her mind to do something she was doggedly determined to succeed, and she had booked her ticket the very next day. Everything seemed to have gone wrong since then, but Claudia had gritted her teeth and told herself it would be worth it when she got off the plane to Lucy’s welcoming hug. She was going to have a good time in Telama’an if it killed her...and in the meantime she might as well amuse herself by irritating David Stirling some more!

‘You’ve come all this way in pursuit of a man that you’ve never met but that you just hope will have the right initials?’ He was still shaking his head in amazement.

‘Why not?’ she asked, but he was so appalled at the idea that he missed the teasing glint in her eyes.

‘Well, I presumed, since you were travelling alone, that you had some intelligence, even if it is very artfully disguised,’ he said caustically. ‘Not even someone as desperate as you sound would go all the way to a place like Telama’an without a good reason!’

Claudia considered that after the year she had had the prospect of some sun and some fun and some flattery was reason enough to go anywhere, but that was none of David Stirling’s business. ‘You don’t understand,’ she said dramatically. ‘I’m at a crossroads in my life! I’m going to be thirty tomorrow, I can’t just carry on like before. I’ve got to seize my opportunities!’

‘What opportunities?’

She clutched her throat and somehow managed to keep a straight face. ‘To meet my soul mate, of course! JD is waiting for me in the desert... I just know it! All I have to do is fly to him!’

David curled his lip. ‘JD? No doubt Lucy has been scouring the compound for someone with the right initials! Has she come up with anyone yet?’

‘Maybe,’ said Claudia coyly.

‘Which poor unfortunate soul has she lined up?’ David ran through the possibilities in his mind. ‘Jack Davis? He’s married. Jim Denby? Unlikely. Ah!’ he said suddenly. ‘Justin Darke! Why didn’t I think of him straight away?’

‘My lips are sealed,’ said Claudia, suddenly realising that in her determination to irritate David Stirling she was running a grave risk of embarrassing Lucy’s American friend.

David had seen the flicker in her eyes, though, and drew his own conclusions. Justin Darke was nice enough, but he was no match for a woman like Claudia Cook, that was for sure. Did he have any idea what Claudia and Lucy had planned for him? Th first thing he would do when he got to Telama’an was drop a warning word in Justin’s ear, although there was something so single-minded about Claudia’s attitude that it would take more than a friendly warning to stop her, he was sure.

He shook his head. ‘Poor Justin!’ he said.

‘I really don’t know who you’re talking about,’ Claudia lied. ‘And in any case, knowing who I was going to meet would spoil it. All I know is that I’m going to be at that party tomorrow night, and after that I’m leaving it to destiny!’

CHAPTER TWO

DAVID her a sardonic look. ‘It looks like you’re going to have a busy day being thirty and meeting your destiny tomorrow,’ he said, and the unconcealed sarcasm in his voice was enough to provoke a dangerous glitter in Claudia’s blue-grey eyes.

‘But don’t you see? The two are linked!’ she gushed, hoping that she sounded as ridiculous as she felt. ‘Thirty is such a crossroads in one’s life, isn’t it?’

‘Is it?’ said David unencouragingly.

‘Yes! It’s a time to reassess what one wants out of life, a time to change direction, a time to let go of one’s youth and face up to the prospect of mortality!’

He turned to her consideringly. ‘Do you know,’ he said, ‘I find it hard to believe that you’re going to be thirty tomorrow?’

Claudia was rather taken aback. She didn’t think she was looking too bad for her age either, but she hadn’t expected a compliment from him. Perhaps she should have tried flirting with him after all? ‘Why, thank you—’

‘Because,’ David interrupted her ruthlessly, ‘I never thought that anyone over the age of five could talk such a load of tosh!’

So much for compliments! Bridling, Claudia glared back at him. ‘Oh, and I suppose you didn’t have a crisis at thirty—or can’t you remember back that far?’ she added nastily.

‘I was far too busy to have any crisis.’

She sniffed. ‘Well, just wait until you’re fifty, that’s all! You’ll have spent your life working without ever really thinking about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and one day you’ll wake up and realise that you’re fifty and it’s too late to do anything about it. You’ll be in crisis then!’

‘Possibly,’ said David, nettled by her assumption that he was practically past it already, ‘but I don’t propose to worry about it now. As it happens, I haven’t even made it to forty yet! I’ve still got over a month before I have to deal with that crisis!’

‘Oh?’ Claudia’s voice had just the right tone of surprise to be insulting. ‘When’s your birthday?’

He sighed. ‘September the seventeenth.’ He knew what was coming next!

‘You’re a Virgo, then.’ Claudia nodded sagely, although she wasn’t in fact at all sure when Virgos became Capricorns, or was it Librans? ‘That figures.’

David wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of asking what figured. All he knew was that she was by far the silliest and most exasperating woman he had ever met, and he wasn’t going to indulge her any longer, Lucy’s cousin or not.

‘I’m sure,’ he said dismissively. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really do have to do some work.’

‘Oh, of course!’ said Claudia with exaggerated contrition. ‘I’m so sorry for disturbing you. I’ll just read my magazine quietly, and you won’t even know I’m here.’

David didn’t think that was very likely. She was the kind of girl who could sit in a dark room without moving or speaking and still be distracting. Still, if she would just shut up for a while, he might be able to finish that report.

He bent over it and began jotting quick, decisive notes in the margin while Claudia, reduced to pulling out a magazine, tried not to watch him. It was hard not to be impressed by his ability to concentrate as he worked methodically through the report, and in spite of herself her eyes kept sliding sideways to skitter along the forceful line of his jaw.

He wasn’t good-looking, not really. He had a hard mouth and lean, intelligent face, but there was an air of restraint about him, as if he deliberately presented himself in a low key. It was difficult to accuse him of being colourless, though, much as she would have liked to. The strength of his personality was obvious in his calm assurance, in the disconcerting sharpness of his eyes and the intangible quality of authority that clung to him.

He had taken off his jacket, and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt in a businesslike fashion. Claudia was very conscious of the dark hair on his forearms, and she had to keep hers rigidly together on her lap in case her arm brushed against him. She tried not to look too obviously, but out of the corner of her eye she could see the pulse beating in his neck above his open collar, very slow and very steady.

Stealthily, she felt the pulse in her own throat, which was hammering away at a rate of knots. Perhaps she was just highly strung?

Nobody could accuse David Stirling of being highly strung. Did he ever get excited? Claudia’s eyes strayed back to his mouth. What would it take to arouse a man like that, to break through the cool control and make that pulse beat faster for once?

Aghast at the train of her own thoughts, she jerked her gaze away and hastily turned a page of the magazine. Oh, God, an article about sex! She couldn’t read that with him sitting right beside her. Flicking on, she came to a piece about the pleasures and pressures of different ages. No point in reading about the twenties, she thought glumly. She was leaving those behind her. She’d better read about the thirties instead and find out whether there was any life after thirty, or whether she should just give in and get herself some tweeds and a blue rinse.

Women in their thirties have left all the insecurities of the twenties behind. They are poised, confident, at ease with themselves.

Oh, yeah? thought Claudia cynically.

They have learnt what suits them and what doesn’t, and have the maturity and sophistication to lead life on their own terms. ‘I love women in their thirties,’ one man was quoted as saying. ‘They’re much more interesting than young girls because they’ve got something to say for themselves, they know what they want and they’re confident enough to go out and get it. I think it’s by far the sexiest age. So many women grow into their looks in their thirties. They’ve come to terms with their own bodies and that’s what gives them a glamour and assurance that no twenty-year-old could hope to achieve.’

Claudia gave a disbelieving sniff. As David Stirling would say, what a load of tosh! She had never met a woman who had come to terms with her own body, thirty or not! Still, all that sophistication and glamour didn’t sound too bad, even if there was something daunting about the idea of maturity. When was it going to hit her?

It was all very well to talk about knowing what you wanted, but all Claudia could think that she really wanted right now was to get to Telama’an, to wash her hair and to have a very long, very cold gin and tonic. Hardly very lofty objectives with which to begin the next decade of her life!

Claudia closed the magazine with a sigh. David was still reading his report. There was something wrong with a man who could concentrate like that, she decided, but she didn’t quite dare interrupt him again. That must be because she was still twenty-nine and not yet confident. It would be different tomorrow.

Casting around for another diversion, she looked around the cabin and met the eyes of a Shofrani sitting across the aisle from her. He was a handsome man, dressed stylishly in western clothes, with dark hair and very warm, very dark eyes. He smiled charmingly as their eyes met and Claudia, pleased to find someone who seemed disposed to like her after David’s crushing attitude, smiled back.

‘I am sorry if I was staring,’ he said in excellent English. ‘We do not often see such beautiful passengers on the flight to Telama’an!’

Claudia warmed to his flattery. He introduced himself as Amil and they were soon embarked on a discreet flirtation. He had been doing business for his uncle in the capital, he told her, and was now on his way home.

‘Will you be staying long in Telama’an?’ ‘Just a couple of weeks, then I have to go back to work.’

‘Your job cannot spare you for any longer?’

‘I’m afraid not. I work for a television production company and we’re terribly busy at the moment.’

Beside her, David, who was unable to avoid listening in on their irritatingly complacent conversation, awarded himself points for being right about her job anyway. He had guessed that she worked in the media, but he might have known that it would be in television! He tried to close his ears and focus on his report, but Claudia was rabbiting on about how hectic and important her job was, and her new-found friend was just encouraging her, nodding and smiling and sounding impressed. It was hard to tell which of them was more pleased with themselves, David thought savagely, and gritted his teeth.

Out of the corner of her eye, Claudia caught the tightening of his jaw, and redoubled her efforts to charm Amil. She would show him that some men found her attractive! Turning back to Amil, she gave him a dazzling smile. ‘But that’s enough about my job,’ she said winsomely. ‘I’m sure your life is much more interesting than mine!’

God, she was irritating! David clamped his lips together and scoured out a typing error in the report with unnecessary vigour. He had to endure another quarter of an hour of their stomach-churning, treacly conversation before the steward, moving down the aisle with a trolley, broke them up.

David breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived. Claudia must have had the attention span of a gnat. Couldn’t she just sit still for a minute? She was rummaging around in her bag, sorting through her inexhaustible supply of lipsticks, polishing her mirror, carefully applying colour to her mouth.

When she snapped the mirror shut and dropped it back in the bag with her lipstick, David allowed himself to hope that she would relax, but no! Now she had got out an emery board and was touching up a nail, the next minute it was hand cream, the next refreshing herself with a spray of perfume. The subtle, expensive, undeniably sexy scent that he already associated with her drifted towards him, but he resolutely ignored it and, putting down his pen, pretended to consult the index.

Then—of course!—she had to comb her hair. Tipping her head forward, Claudia ran a comb through the silky mass and then tossed her hair back so that it bounced softly around her face. David tried not to notice how soft it looked, or how the sun through the window glinted on the gleaming strands and turned them into spun gold.

At last it seemed as if she was finished. The comb was put away, the bag pushed under the seat once more. David offered up a silent prayer of thanks and picked up his pen again.

Claudia was bored. David was still resolutely ignoring her and she had run out of ways to provoke him. It was no fun if he wouldn’t respond, anyway. She glanced at her watch. Still an hour and a half to go. Amil was talking to his neighbour, and the magazine just seemed full of articles expressly designed to remind her how old she was getting. With an impatient sigh, she began drumming her fingers on the arm of the seat.

For David, it was the final straw. He threw down his pen. ‘Can’t you sit still for two seconds?’ he demanded between clenched teeth.

‘I am sitting still,’ objected Claudia, offended.

‘You’re not,’ said David, hanging onto the shreds of his temper with difficulty. ‘If you’re not chatting up complete strangers, you’re tarting yourself up, combing your hair, admiring yourself in your mirror, or fossicking around in that bag, and then, when you’ve exhausted all those intellectual activities, you sit there and make that extremely irritating noise with your fingers!’

Claudia looked huffy. ‘What do you want me to do?’

‘I don’t want you to do anything! Why can’t you just sit quietly?’

‘I hate just sitting,’ she said sulkily. ‘I’ve got a very low boredom threshold. I’ve got to do something.’

‘Why don’t you try thinking?’ David suggested with an unpleasant look. ‘That ought to be a novel experience for you. The effort of using your brain ought to keep you occupied for a good five minutes!’

‘I’ve been thinking,’ said Claudia, very much on her dignity.

‘You amaze me!’ He shook his head in mock admiration. ‘And what have you been thinking about?’

‘Well, mostly I’ve been wondering how Patrick came to give a job to anyone quite so arrogant and unpleasant,’ she pretended to confide.

David looked at her for a moment. ‘What makes you think Patrick gave me a job?’

‘I know he’s the senior engineer on the project, so if you’re involved with the negotiations you must report to him, and if he knew how badly you represent GKS I don’t think he’d be very pleased. Patrick may seem very easygoing,’ she swept on, ‘but I’ve known him a long time, and I can tell you that if he felt that you were giving the wrong impression of GKS he would want to do something about it.’

‘You don’t think he’ll sack me before the meetings, do you?’

There was a look in David’s eye that Claudia didn’t quite like, and she tossed her head. ‘I would have thought that depended on you,’ she said tartly.

‘So if I’m nice to you for the rest of the journey he might let me stay?’

‘I wouldn’t want to put you to so much effort,’ she snapped. ‘Being nice obviously doesn’t come naturally!’

‘That rather depends on who I have to be nice to,’ said David, but before Claudia could frame a suitably crushing retort her attention was caught by a spluttering noise from the silver wing stretching out from below the window.

‘You know, I’m sure there’s something wrong with that engine,’ she said worriedly. ‘It keeps making funny noises.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said David. ‘What could possibly be wrong with it?’

‘I don’t know!’ she snapped. ‘I don’t know anything about engines.’

‘Then what makes you think you know whether it’s making a funny noise or not?’ He made a great show of leaning forward and cupping a hand to his ear. ‘It sounds fine to me.’

‘That’s what they always say,’ said Claudia darkly. ‘It’s just like a disaster film. They always start off showing people doing ordinary things, just like us.’

‘There’s nothing ordinary about the way you’ve been behaving since you got on the plane,’ David put in, but she ignored him.

‘They’re all having cups of coffee and chatting, and none of them realise that something terrible is about to happen—but they’re all right because they’ve got Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise or some other hunk to spring into action and save them, and all I’ve got is a paper-pushing engineer whose only advice is to sit still and keep quiet!’

David had been listening to her with mounting exasperation. ‘I have never met anybody who could whip themselves up into a frenzy about absolutely nothing before!’

‘It’s not nothing! I’m telling you, there’s something wrong, I can feel it!’

‘For the last time,’ said David between his teeth, ‘there is nothing the matter with the engine!’

With that the engine spluttered and cut out, and the plane veered sharply to one side. Immediately there was a babble of panic-stricken voices in Arabic as the other passengers were caught unawares by the sudden deceleration.

Instinctively, Claudia clutched at David’s hand. He winced as her fingers dug into his flesh, her eyes wide and dark with terror as he enfolded her hand in a warm, strong clasp to forestall any hysterics. ‘There’s no need to panic,’ he said firmly. ‘The pilot’s bringing the plane round now. Everything’s under control.’

The plane had straightened, and the pilot opened the throttle to increase the power to the remaining engine so that it picked up speed once more. There was a burst of Arabic over the intercom and to Claudia, not understanding a word, it sounded terrifying. David was listening closely, and she noted with detached surprise that he spoke Arabic.

‘What’s he saying?’ she whispered.

‘He says there’s nothing to worry about. We’ve lost an engine, but there’s no problem about flying with one engine, so he’s going to head for the nearest airstrip as a precaution and try and sort out the problem there.’ David’s voice was calm, infinitely reassuring. ‘Now you can relax and say “I told you so”.’

Claudia moistened her lips. ‘I don’t think I’ll relax until I’ve got two feet firmly on the ground,’ she said unsteadily. ‘I’ll say it then.’

Afterwards David told her that it had only taken twenty minutes for the pilot to make a long, straight approach and land at a dusty airstrip in the middle of the desert, but for Claudia it seemed that they sat there for an eternity. David kept talking in the same quiet, steady voice, and she clutched at the immeasurable reassurance of his cool presence without hearing a word that he was saying. All she could think about was how much time she had wasted agonising about turning thirty when she might never make it after all.

When the undercarriage went down with a clunk, she jerked and braced herself for an emergency landing, but in the end the plane touched down so lightly that it was only when the screaming engines quieted and they turned to taxi slowly back down the runway that Claudia let herself believe that they had landed safely. Closing her eyes and letting out a long breath, she slumped back in her seat.

When she opened them again, the plane had stopped. Outside, the heat wavered over the tarmac and bounced off the silver wings. There were a couple of prefabricated buildings, a ramshackle control tower and a few dusty buildings straggling along the road that led off into the heat haze.

Claudia licked her lips and tried her voice very cautiously. ‘Where are we?’

‘A place called Al Mishrah,’ said David, looking out of the window with a jaundiced eye. ‘There used to be a big gas terminal here, hence the airport, but it’s disused now and they only get the occasional flight serving what’s left of the town.’

‘Not your ideal stopover, then,’ said Claudia with an effort.

The corner of David’s mouth lifted as if in acknowledgement of her feeble attempt at a joke. ‘You could say that.’

‘Wh-what happens now?’

He sighed. ‘On past experience of Shofrar, I’d say nothing much.’

He was right. Some of the other passengers were standing up, shouting and gesticulating, but it was several minutes before a set of steps were produced and wheeled across the tarmac towards the waiting plane. It was suffocatingly hot, and Claudia longed for some fresh air, but as soon as the door swung open the smell of fuel rolled on a wave of heat through the cabin, and she wrinkled her nose in distaste.

Immediately there was a scrum of passengers pushing to get out, but there seemed little point in hurrying, and it was not until the first crush had subsided that David turned to Claudia. ‘Do you feel OK now?’

‘Yes, I’m fine.’

‘In that case, do you think I could have my hand back?’

‘Oh!’ Claudia dropped his hand as if it had stung her and her cheeks flamed with mortification. ‘I’m sorry,’ she muttered, flustered. ‘I didn’t realise; that is...I forgot...’

‘It’s all right.’ David’s cool voice broke across her embarrassed stutterings as he tucked his report back into his briefcase and stood up.

Claudia hesitated, cringing at the thought that she had sat for so long clinging to his hand like a little girl. He must think she was absolutely pathetic, but she could hardly ignore his patience. ‘You’ve been very kind,’ she said a little stiffly. ‘Thank you.’

David was conscious of a feeling of surprise as he followed her down the aisle. He had expected her to take any attention as her due and he was disconcerted to find how pleased he was that he had misjudged her.

Inside the prefabricated hut that obviously served as a terminal it was hardly much cooler than outside. A single ceiling fan slapped at the air without enthusiasm and the room resonated with the aggrieved clamour of angry passengers. David and Claudia sat on orange plastic chairs that were cracked and dusty with neglect and waited.

At first Claudia was too relieved to find herself alive and back on solid ground again to fret much at the lack of action and she was content just to sit next to David, intimidated more than she wanted to admit by the heat and the glare and this dingy building where nothing seemed to work and she had no idea what was going on.

Claudia didn’t like feeling out of control, and she was uncomfortably aware that, arrogant and unpleasant as David might be, his cool, contained presence was immeasurably reassuring.

The long minutes ticked slowly by. Claudia sat and looked at a poster advertising what she guessed to be some kind of soft drink that had faded in the harsh light to a pale, washed-out blue. Flies zoomed through the oppressive heat and buzzed frantically near her ears until she waved them away in disgust, and she could feel the plastic, sticky and uncomfortable through her thin trousers.

As her impatience grew, she shifted irritably in the chair and glanced at her watch for the umpteenth time. They had been sitting there for nearly an hour. ‘What’s happening?’ she burst out at last.

David, who had just been thinking that a severe fright considerably improved her, sighed. He might have known that she wouldn’t be able to sit still and silent much longer. ‘The pilot and a couple of local ground crew are looking at the engine. We’re waiting for him to come back and tell us what’s going to happen—’ He broke off as a stir of expectation marked the entrance of the harassed-looking pilot. ‘Ah, here he is now.’

Claudia jumped to her feet. ‘Let’s go and see what’s going on!’

‘I’ll go and talk to him,’ said David firmly. ‘You wait here.’

She opened her mouth to object, but something in his face made her close it again, and subside back onto her seat.

She watched David as he walked over to the pilot. He was tall and lean, and he moved easily, with a sort of balanced, economical grace that made her think queerly of a cat, or an athlete focusing on the race ahead. The other men seemed to recognise the authority of his presence, for they parted instinctively to let him through.

Claudia could only see his back as he stood talking to the pilot, but judging by the other man’s frustrated gestures and the reactions of those listening the news was not good, and David’s expression was grim when he turned at last and made his way back to her.

‘The plane’s being taken out of service,’ he said as he came up. ‘They’re going to divert the next flight to pick us up.’

‘Oh, well, that’s something, I suppose,’ said Claudia, who had been expecting much worse. ‘When’s it arriving?’

‘Not for another two days.’

‘Two days?’ She stared at him in gathering wrath as his words sank in. ‘Two days?’

David shoved his hands in his pockets and sighed with frustration. ‘There’s nothing wrong with your hearing, anyway,’ he said.

‘But...but they can’t expect us to spend two days in this dump!’

‘There’s some kind of hotel in the town, apparently, probably left over from the boom days, so it’s likely to be a bit run-down.’

‘I don’t care if they’ve got the Ritz,’ snapped Claudia. ‘It’s my birthday tomorrow and I’m not staying here! Why can’t they send another plane now?’

‘Shofrar isn’t geared up for tourism. This is just a small internal airline, and all their other planes have got scheduled flights of their own.’

‘Great!’ Claudia leapt to her feet and began pacing up and down with her arms folded. ‘There must be something we can do! What about a bus?’

‘I think it’s highly unlikely that there would be much of a service between here and Telama’an. We’ve had to divert way off course to land here.’

‘All right, a taxi, then?’

‘This isn’t Piccadilly, Claudia. You can’t just flag down a taxi and ask it to drive you off into the desert. There aren’t even any metal roads around here.’

‘What, then?’ she demanded impatiently. ‘How can you just stand there and do nothing?’

David looked down his nose. He much preferred her when she was scared. ‘I can’t see that working myself up into a frenzy, as you seem to do at the slightest provocation, would magically produce a plane,’ he said repressively.

‘You mean you’re not going to do anything?’ said Claudia in disgust. ‘What about your meeting? I thought you wanted to get to Telaa’an as much as I do!’

‘I’ve got every intention of getting there as soon as possible,’ he said with a cool look. ‘If you were prepared to shut up and just listen for a change, you would have heard me say that I was going to try and get hold of a vehicle. I doubt very much if there will be anything suitable to hire, but it might be possible to buy something.’

‘Buy a car?’ She looked at him blankly. ‘But—’

‘But what?’

‘Well...’ She hesitated. ‘You can’t just set out across the desert in a car, can you?’

‘You can if you know what you’re doing,’ said David. ‘And fortunately I do. I’ve spent some time in Shofrar, and I’m quite capable of getting myself to Telama’an.’

Had there been a stress on that ‘myself? Claudia fiddled with her ring and wished she hadn’t been quite so forthright in her opinion of him earlier on. ‘Um...I haven’t got very much money with me,’ she said awkwardly. ‘But if you would give me a lift I’m sure Patrick would give you half the cost, and then I’d be able to pay him back when I got to London. I’d be very grateful.’

She looked at him pleadingly. ‘Please,’ she added.

She really did have extraordinary eyes, David found himself thinking. They were somewhere between blue and grey, a deep, soft, smoky colour, like twilight over the hills, the kind of eyes a man could lose himself in, the kind of eyes that could make him forget to breathe.

He dragged his gaze away. Claudia was everything he disliked in a girl. She was silly and superficial. She had irritated and exasperated and deliberately provoked him, and he knew perfectly well that he would be ready to murder her long before they reached Telama’an. Just because she had beautiful eyes that played odd tricks with his breathing, it was no reason to take her with him. If he had any sense, he would just say no.

‘Oh, all right,’ he said irritably. ‘But no complaining! It’ll be a hard trip and if I have to listen to any moaning you can get out and walk!’

‘Thank you!’ Claudia’s face lit up with a smile that stopped the breath in David’s throat. He hadn’t seen her smile before and he was taken aback to discover how it illuminated her face and deepened the blue in her eyes. ‘You won’t regret it,’ she promised. ‘I won’t say a word,’ she offered generously. ‘I’ll do whatever you say.’

‘I’ll believe that when I see it!’ David thrust his hands deeper into his pockets and scowled at the poster on the wall, infuriated by his own reaction. Damn it, the last thing he needed right now was to start noticing how much younger and warmer and lovelier she looked when she smiled. The meeting in Telama’an was vital to the future of the firm and it was that he should be concentrating on, not pretty eyes or unexpected smiles!

‘I’ll go and see what I can find out,’ he added in a brusque voice. ‘Stay there.’

‘All right.’ Claudia was too relieved at his agreement to object to his tone. For a nasty moment there she had thought he was going to refuse, and she couldn’t really have blamed him. They hadn’t exactly got off on the right foot. She was determined to be nice to him from now on, though.

She waited obediently until David returned, but as soon as she saw his face she knew that he hadn’t had any success. ‘I’ve had a word with a few people,’ he said. ‘It might be possible to fix something up, but I can’t do anything until we get into town. Apparently they’re trying to arrange some kind of bus, so in the meantime we’re just going to have to wait.’

‘I seem to have spent this entire trip waiting,’ sighed Claudia, and he glared at her, still resentful of the effect her smile had had on him.

‘I thought you weren’t going to complain!’

‘That wasn’t a complaint, it was a comment,’ she muttered, but lapsed into a sullen silence rather than get into an argument with him. She had promised to be nice, and she wouldn’t put it past him to leave her behind after all!

Sighing, she crossed her legs in an effort to get comfortable, then uncrossed them when it didn’t work. A few moments later, she tried crossing them the other way.

‘For God’s sake, stop fidgeting!’ hissed David.

Claudia opened her mouth to tell him she was bored and uncomfortable, but thought better of it. ‘I’ve got cramp in my leg,’ she said placatingly. ‘I’ll just walk around a bit.’

She wandered over to the window and stood for a while watching the luggage being unloaded off the plane onto a decrepit trolley. As she watched, she saw Amil, the man who had been sitting across the aisle from her, walk purposefully over and pick out a bag. He looked like a man who knew where he was going, and Claudia waved at him as he came back through the terminal.

‘Aren’t you waiting for the bus?’

‘I am fortunate in having family contacts here,’ he explained. ‘I need to be in Telama’an by tomorrow, so one of my relatives has brought me out a car. If I set out now, I think I will be able to make it in time.’

‘Oh, you are lucky!’ sighed Claudia enviously. ‘It looks as if we’re going to be here for ages yet.’

‘You are anxious to get to Telama’an?’

‘I have to be there by tomorrow.’

‘Then why do you not come with me?’ Amil suggested. ‘It will be a long and uncomfortable trip, and it will mean spending the night at an oasis, but if you want to be in Telama’an by tomorrow I would be more than happy to take you.’

‘Go with you?’ Claudia hesitated, her mind working quickly as she considered his offer. Amil seemed charming, but he was a stranger and she knew nothing about the customs in Shofrar. It would be hopelessly naive to entrust herself to him.

On the other hand, she couldn’t bear to waste two days of her precious holiday sitting around in this terrible place if David didn’t manage to get hold of a car. She couldn’t spend her birthday alone here, and Amil’s offer might be her only chance to get to Telama’an in time.

She couldn’t risk it, though. ‘It’s terribly kind of you...’ she was beginning when she caught sight of David over Amil’s shoulder. He was sitting on the orange plastic chairs, looking as tough and self-contained as ever, but his jaw was tight and she had the impression that even his cool was beginning to fray, and Claudia’s words trailed off even as she tried to frame a polite excuse.

Of course! The answer was so obvious that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it straight away. ‘It’s terribly kind of you,’ she said again to Amil with a warm smile. ‘We’d love to come with you. I’ll just go and tell my husband the good news!’

CHAPTER THREE

THERE was a tiny pause. Amil’s own smile, which had broadened as she rushed into eager acceptance, froze just a fraction. ‘Your husband?’

‘David.’ Claudia was all innocent surprise. ‘Didn’t you realise I was married?’

‘No.’ Amil pulled himself together. ‘You must forgive my surprise,’ he apologised. ‘It was just that I had the impression that you were travelling alone when we talked before.’

‘I’m sorry, I should have introduced you,’ said Claudia, looking suitably penitent. ‘He was sitting next to me on the plane. I’m a terrible coward about flying and he had to hold my hand all the way down.’

It was obvious that Amil was remembering, and Claudia congratulated herself on a convincing touch. ‘That was your husband?’ he said.

‘Of course,’ she said, opening her eyes wide. ‘I would hardly hold hands with a perfect stranger, would I?’

‘Of course not.’ Amil smiled. Claudia could almost see him giving a mental shrug at a lost opportunity and deciding to make the best of it. ‘In any case, I shall be delighted to give both you and your husband a lift.’

She had to give him full marks for courtesy. Perhaps there hadn’t been any need to lie after all? Still, it was too late now.

‘You’re very kind,’ she said, and meant it. ‘When were you planning to leave?’

‘As soon as possible.’

‘Then I’ll go and find David at once.’ Claudia smiled again. ‘I won’t be a minute.’

From the other side of the room, David saw her hurrying towards him, all smiles. He was prepared for the effect this time, though, and had time to rigidly control his breathing as she rushed up.

‘Why are you looking so pleased with yourself?’

‘I,’ Claudia announced smugly, ‘have got us both a lift to Telama’an, leaving right now!’

‘You’ve done what?’ David looked incredulous.

‘Amil’s going to drive us there.’

‘Who the hell is Amil?’

‘He was sitting across the aisle from me on the plane,’ she said, thinking that he could have seemed a little more pleased at her news.

‘Oh, yes,’ said David unpleasantly. ‘The man you were flirting with so outrageously. Why didn’t you say?’

‘Well, if I was flirting,’ said Claudia in a voice of honeyed sweetness, ‘I was flirting with the right man, and it’s paid off. He’s got a car waiting outside right now.’

‘How did he manage that?’ David was still suspicious, and she clicked her tongue in exasperation.

‘He’s got contacts here and pulled a few strings. What does it matter, anyway?’ she demanded impatiently. ‘The important thing is that he needs to be in Telama’an tomorrow as well, and he’s got room to take us with him.’

David stared at her almost accusingly. ‘Why am I included in this generous invitation? I haven’t exchanged so much as a word with the man, and after the way you were batting your eyelashes at him I would have thought that the last thing he wanted was to have me along to play gooseberry!’

‘Ah, well, I was just coming to that.’ Claudia manoeuvred him round so that his expression was hidden from the rest of the room. She lowered her voice. ‘I, er, told Amil you were my husband.’

‘You did what?’ David’s voice rose to a shout and she shushed him frantically.

‘I told Amil we were married,’ she whispered fiercely.

‘What in God’s name made you do that?’ he demanded furiously.

‘I had to.’ Claudia glanced around, terrified that Amil would come bearing down on them before she had had a chance to brief David. ‘I couldn’t go off with him on my own, could I? I don’t know anything about him other than the fact he’s got a vehicle.’

‘You don’t know anything about me, but it doesn’t seem to have stopped you claiming me as a husband!’

‘You know Patrick and Lucy,’ she pointed out. ‘So I sort of know you by proxy. Anyway,’ she swept on when David continued to look unconvinced, ‘I’d have thought you’d have been grateful!’

‘Grateful? Grateful at being forced into pretending to be married to someone like you?’ David was furious. How dared she involve him in her stupid masquerade? The sheer arrogance of the woman was phenomenal! Even Alix would have thought twice before appropriating a perfect stranger to act as her husband without so much as a by-your-leave! ‘You must be joking!’

‘Look,’ said Claudia grittily, ‘you said you wanted to get to Telama’an by tomorrow and this is the best chance you’re going to get. Even if you can get hold of a suitable vehicle, we’ve still got to wait for the bus to take us into town and that might take ages. And then you’ve got to find a car and make all the arrangements... it could be midnight before all that gets done. We could be well on our way with Amil by then! And what happens if there isn’t a car? We’ll end up spending two days here when we could be at Telama‘an.’

She could see David hesitating and decided to try for a spot of emotional blackmail. ‘Please come. I’m going to be thirty tomorrow, and I can’t spend my birthday here!’

‘Or miss the chance to fulfil your destiny with Justin Darke?’ he added snidely.

Claudia was beginning to wish that she had never teased him with that stupid story but she didn’t have time to put him right now. ‘We both want to get to Telama’an as soon as possible, don’t we?’ she said urgently instead. ‘This is the obvious answer.’

‘The only thing obvious to me is how some women are prepared to go to any lengths to get their man!’ said David, who was torn between wanting to get on the road as soon as possible and outrage at the methods Claudia was employing to get her own way. It would serve her right if he refused point-blank to have anything more to do with her!

Claudia cast another frenzied glance over her shoulder. By the door, Amil caught her eye, waved in acknowledgement, and began making his way through the crowd towards them.

Almost weeping with frustration, she turned back to David. If he wanted her to beg, she would beg. ‘Please come,’ she pleaded. ‘You must see that I can’t go on my own, and it’s not as if you would have to do anything.’

‘Except look like the kind of fool who would marry you!’

‘Oh, please say yes!’ Claudia threw pride to the wind and David braced himself for the effect of those great, blue-grey eyes. ‘He’ll be here any second. Please, please, please, please!’

‘Ah, there you are! I thought I had lost you!’ Amil was too well-mannered to look impatient as he came up to them, and Claudia turned to him with a bright, desperate smile.

‘I’m sorry I’ve been so long. I was just, um, telling my husband about your kind offer.’ She risked a glance at David who was looking wooden. Claudia took a deep breath and prayed that he wouldn’t let her down. ‘Amil, this is my husband, David Stirling.’

There was a frozen pause that seemed to Claudia to last for ever. She didn’t dare look at David again. David himself was rigid with distaste at the embarrassing situation he had found himself in. Damn it, it wasn’t fair of her to embroil him in her ridiculous lies and then stand there looking like that, blue-grey eyes apprehensive, slender body taut, but her bearing almost gallant as she waited to hear whether he would denounce her as a liar or not.

What would she do if he told Amil that he had never met her before that morning, and wouldn’t marry her if somebody paid him? He wouldn’t put it past her to burst into tears, and David’s masculine soul quailed at the thought. Wouldn’t the ensuing scene be even more embarrassing than pretending that she was indeed his wife? And she was right about one thing. He did want to get to Telama’an...

‘How do you do?’ he said, and put out his hand with a sinking sense of having passed the point of no return. ‘It’s very generous of you to offer to take us with you. I hope it’s not putting you to too much trouble?’

‘Not at all,’ said Amil courteously as the two men shook hands. ‘I will be glad of the company.’

Limp with relief, Claudia let out her breath in a long sigh that made Amil glance at her in concern. ‘We have a long drive ahead of us. I am anxious to get to Telama’an as soon as possible, so I was planning to leave straight away, but if you are tired....?’ He trailed off interrogatively and she hastened to reassure him.

‘We’re not in the least tired,’ she said firmly. ‘All we want is to get there too.’ She glanced at David. ‘Don’t we, darling?’ she added, prompted by sheer mischief.

David was poker-faced. ‘We can’t get there soon enough as far as I’m concerned,’ he agreed, with a meaningful glance at Claudia.

‘Good.’ If Amil was puzzled by the atmosphere between them, he was too polite to show it. ‘Well,’ he said, opening his hands, ‘the car is outside. I will wait for you there while you get your cases.’

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