His Irresistible Darling - Sarah Randall Page 0,67

the desert landscape, scattered with a few palm trees and cacti grouped together around an underground water source. Traffic was almost non-existent save for the odd tractor or bus. She hadn’t seen another town or village for the last thirty minutes.

As a rush of adrenalin hit her body she yelled, “Woo-hoo,” at the responsive roar from the engine. She looked over at Jumal and met his knowing smile, surprised that he wasn’t lecturing her to slow down.

Pip grinned widely, loving the speed and the man sitting next to her… She unconsciously raised her foot from the accelerator. Wait, where the hell had that thought come from?! Did she love him?

Oh fiddlesticks, she did—and didn’t that just stink. She’d gone and fallen in love with the most unobtainable man. She increased the volume of the music using the button on the steering wheel. Jumal must have recognised her change of mood as he didn’t interfere with her decision.

“Something the matter?” he quizzed her.

She kept her focus on the road. “Nope,” she answered briskly. “Everything’s absolutely bloody perfect,” she complained mockingly, unable to keep the disdain from her voice.

She was pissed at him. Again.

Jumal set his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes. He’d managed to get Pippa out of the apartment, bags packed, without too many questions so that part of his plan was going well. The other part, the “getting to know each other better” plan, wasn’t going so well…

He was still amazed at the level of intimacy she offered. They would lie together in bed for hours talking about anything and everything, from “Who was the best Dr Who?” to the current political atmosphere in the Middle East, but Jumal still had the sense that she was holding something back, something of herself, and it irritated him that he wasn’t able to convince her that she could trust him completely. He hoped that this precious time at his real home would give him the opportunity he needed to break through the shield he felt she still had wrapped around her heart. Following her vulnerable admission back in his bathroom a couple of weeks ago about the bullying she had suffered, he knew that her public persona—the fun-loving prankster—was only a fraction of her true character. He wanted to know everything about Pippa. He wouldn’t accept anything less.

The vibration of his phone brought his musings to an end and he opened up the message from the private investigator. The kid was back in America and working hard at Goldbergs. Jumal had asked him to try to get hold of the CCTV from the bar Pippa had been at with the kid. Something just didn’t feel right about the incidents. He’d seen first-hand the way Jake had looked at Pippa, and the idea that he would drug her, slash her tyres, steal her bag and damage her car just didn’t fit comfortably with him… It seemed just too…revengeful, and he had nothing to be upset with Pippa about, so far as he knew. The PI confirmed that he’d obtained it on DVD and would forward it to Jumal if he spotted anything suspicious.

“It’s even more beautiful up here in the desert. We’ve gone for miles without seeing another human being. It’s just so quiet,” Pip said, glancing occasionally out of the side window. Apparently, he was forgiven for whatever he’d done to upset her. “The colours are amazing, so rich, and the dunes are spectacular—like waves. I should have brought my snowboard with me and I could have tried some sand surfing. Melina took James out on the dunes and they loved it.”

He grinned over at her. “It is, isn’t it? Some of those dunes are over eight hundred feet high,” he explained, nodding over towards the gigantic sand mountains. “I don’t know why I don’t make more time to come up here—appreciate it more.” He felt the need to push for a little more information on his friend’s behalf. “So what happened with Melina and James? Are they planning on keeping in touch?” He tried to make sure his interest sounded purely conversational.

“Well, James is James.” She shrugged her shoulders and looked over at him. At his confused expression she continued, “By which I mean, he’s a red-blooded young male. I think he really liked Melina but nothing serious was ever going to happen before he left. Much to my dismay, I think he thought a long-distance relationship was never going to stand a chance. Unfortunately Melina disagreed.