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CHAPTER ONE

GABE STEEL WAS naked when he heard the sound of knocking

He picked up a towel and scowled He wanted peace No, he needed peace He’d coe city for all kinds of reasons—but none of the disturbed when he had just stepped out of the shower

He thought about the harsh light of spring he’d left behind in England The way it could still ht how guilt never really left you, no matter how deeply you tried to bury it If you scratched beneath the surface you could always bring up stuff you didn’t want Which hy he didn’t scratch Ever

But sometimes you couldn’t escape it, no matter how hard you tried Hadn’t one of the staff sent soements made for his birthday? He’d wondered how the hell they had known it was his birthday—until he realised that they had seen his passport when he’d checked in yesterday

He stood still and listened The knocking had stopped and everything was quiet again He started to slide the towel over one hair-roughened thigh when the sound resuently this time

At any other tinored the unwanted sunised that these were not noruest of a member of a royal family before Correction The head of a royal family He’d never worked for a sultan before—a man who ruled over one of the world’s wealthiest countries and who had already lavished on Gabe a breathtaking a to irritate him most of all—because he didn’t like to be beholden to anyone, no matter how exalted their position

Uttering a muttered curse beneath his breath, Gabe wrapped the towel around his hips and crossed a rooht al places in his ti But he had to acknowledge that this penthouse suite in Qurhah’s finest hotel took luxury to a whole new level

The knocking continued A low drunore—and its persistence made his impatience increase He pulled open the door to find a wo her best not to look like a woman

Tall and slim, her body was completely covered and her features were in shadow She was carrying a briefcase and wearing a trench coat over a pair of jeans, with a fedora hat pulled do over her face Her appearance was so androgynous that she could almost have been mistaken for a man But Gabe could smell a woman’s scent in a pitch-black roo perfume He could accurately assess the hip-width of a pair of panties frolance Where the opposite sex was concerned, he was an expert—even if his expertise went no further than the physical

Because he didn’t do emotional He didn’t need a woman to unpick his mind at the end of a stressful day, or cry on his shoulder in the ht make his heartup today, when his heart was dark and his schedule full