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PROLOGUE

SEETHING, SHEIKH MIKAEL KARIM, King of Saidia, watched the high fashion photo shoot taking place in the desert—his desert—wondering how anyone could think it was okay to enter a foreign country under a false identity and think he, or she, as it happened to be in this case, could get aith it

Apparently the world was filled with fools

Fools by the name of Copeland

Jaw tight, teht moment to intervene

He’d been pushed too far, challenged directly, and he’d e with swift retribution

A king didn’t negotiate A king never begged, and a king refused to curry favor

Saidia overnht tolerate the West, but Westerners couldn’t enter Saidia, flaunt Saidia law, and think there would be no repercussions

Je her nose at the law, believing she was above it

Perhaps Daniel Copeland had got aith his crihter would not be so lucky Miss Je to pay

CHAPTER ONE

NECESSITY HAD TAUGHT Jemma Copeland to shut out distractions

She’d learned to ignore the things she didn’t want to think about, to enable her to do what needed to be done

So for the past two hours she’d ignored the scorching heat of the Sahara The insistent, hollow ache in her sto a Copeland, and what it meant back home in the United States

She’d blocked out heat, hunger, and shame, but she couldn’t block out the tall, white-robedher through dark, uns eyes while a half dozen robed men stood behind him

She kneho thefive years ago in Greenwich and every woman with a pulse had noticed Sheikh Mikael Karim He was tall, he was impossibly, darkly handso of Saidia

But Mikael Karim wasn’t supposed to be on set today He was supposed to be in Buenos Aires this week and his sudden appearance, arriving in a parade of glossy black luxury SUVs with tinted s, had sent ripples of unease throughout the entire crew

It was obvious he wasn’t happy

Jely could happen soon She prayed she rong She just wanted to get through the rest of the shoot and fly out to as planned

At least he hadn’t shown up yesterday Yesterday had been grueling, a very long day, with multiple shots in multiple locations, and the heat had been intense But she hadn’t complained She wouldn’t She needed the job too rateful for the chance to still work

It still boggled her o she had been one of Airls, envied for her beauty, her wealth, her status as an It Girl Her family was powerful, affluent The Copelands had hoeous, privileged sisters were constantly photographed and discussed But even the powerful can fall, and the Copeland family tumbled off their pedestal with the revelation that Daniel, her father, was the nuest Ponzi scheme in America in the past century

Overnight the Copelands became the most hated family in America

Now Jemma could barely make ends meet The fallout from her father’s arrest, and the blitz ofthe case, had destroyed her career The fact that she worked, and had supported herself since she was eighteen,to the public She was still Daniel Copeland’s daughter Hated Loathed Resented

Ridiculed

Today, she was lucky to get work, and her once brilliant career now barely paid the bills When her agency can she’d be paid for five work days, she’d jumped at the opportunity to codom tucked underneath Southern Morocco, and nestled between the Western Sahara and the Atlantic Ocean She’d continued to fight for the opportunity even when the Saidia consulate denied her visa request

It wasn’t legal, but desperate times called for desperate measures so she’d reapplied for a new visa as her sister, using Morgan’s passport bearing Morgan’s married name, Xanthos This time she’d received the needed travel visa

Yes, she was taking a huge risk, co here under a false name, but she needed money Without this paycheck, she wouldn’t be able to pay her next e

So here she was, dressed in a long fox fur and thigh high boots, sweltering beneath the blazing sun

So what if she was naked beneath the coat?