The Sheikh’s Tempted Prisoner by Holly Rayner Page 0,5
mode, she exited the sports car. The man pulled another key from his ring and unlocked a little blue car that was far less flashy. Lily stepped inside as he turned on the engine, leaving the damaged sports car behind.
They drove in silence for a while as he pulled the new car out onto the highway, forest transforming into desert as the trees thinned out all around them.
“You seem to have done this before,” Lily commented.
While she was grateful to be out of the hands of the police, she was deeply aware that she was now traveling to an unknown destination with a stranger. While his chiseled jaw and thick dark hair were stunning, that in no way meant she was safe.
He shrugged his muscular, broad shoulders.
“It’s important to be able to get to where one needs to go. In the old days, they would swap horses. Now, we simply keep cars in strategic places in case the need arises.”
He spoke so matter-of-factly, like that was the easiest thing to understand in the world. Who didn’t have several cars planted all around the city just in case they needed to get away from the cops?
“Are you a criminal?” she blurted out.
The man laughed, deeply amused by her question.
“I am not. Well, at least I don’t think I am. In any case, you can rest assured that I won’t be the one handing you off to the authorities. I happen to like keeping a good distance from them, myself.”
“So, you are a criminal?”
The man sighed, and his shoulders slumped ever so slightly. Lily had touched some kind of nerve, but it was one that had been so frayed over time that it only resulted in exhaustion rather than anger.
“I am not,” he insisted. “And I will once again assure you that you are safe with me.”
“In that case, may I ask who my knight in shining armor is?”
He hesitated on his answer, as if debating whether to tell her the truth.
“Sheikh Atnan Shadid, at your service.”
Lily knew what it meant to be a sheikh, but that name in particular stuck out to her. She remembered the pictures at the airport of the local royalty.
“You’re the future ruler of Al Yibri!” she gasped.
Atnan didn’t answer that, and Lily realized that his royal status might be a sensitive subject and let it drop.
They drove on in silence, Lily’s mind whirling with what had happened, and what would become of her. She glanced sideways at Atnan.
“Why did you do that? Why did you let me escape with you?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he mumbled. “Perhaps I can never resist a damsel in distress.”
“I am no damsel in distress,” Lily insisted.
He glanced over at her, his lip twitching.
“You’re not? My apologies. If you’d like, I can take you back to the scene of the crime so you can hash it out with our fervent and disciplinary police force. I’m sure you can take them on single-handedly.”
Lily frowned.
“All right, fine. I did need help, and I’m grateful for it, but where are we going now? Are we on the run?”
Atnan chuckled again like he was sharing an inside joke with himself.
“I wouldn’t say that. Still, it can’t hurt to be out of sight for a little while. I’m taking you somewhere safe. Do you trust me?”
“No,” Lily answered, and Atnan laughed. “How can you be so jovial after what just happened? We’re on the run from the police! How do I know you’re not some psychopath?”
He glanced over at her, shaking his head.
“I suppose I consider myself an eternal optimist. Instead of being locked in a cell for our perspective ‘crimes,’ we are free to go, driving along this lovely stretch of highway. Don’t you think that is something to be grateful for?”
“For how long? At some point, we will have to find a solution. Without a visa, my situation is even more perilous.”
“Why don’t you just go home? They won’t force you to stay here against your will, especially without a visa.”
Lily gazed at her hands in her lap. The truth was, her credit card was maxed out. She had no money for a flight back home. There was a chance that deportation would be the only way to even get her back to Wyoming, and what then? Hitchhike a ride back to her apartment, if they hadn’t already thrown her stuff out and rented it to someone else?
“I see,” Atnan said.
Lily looked up at him.
“You see what?”
“You’re stranded, much like myself. Fortunately, now that we’re