"An artfully sensual story full of excitement and suspense."
Reviewed by Kay Quintin
Posted June 16, 2010
Romance Suspense
Recovering from an explosion that nearly blew out her eardrums during her father's celebration of Hunt Drilling's association with the Kadir foreign partners, Rylie Hunt is striving to come to terms with the death of her father. Now six months later, the weak but recovering Rylie is convinced it was not an accident but a terrorist attack from the Kadir Shipping conglomerate. Having lost everything and no longer being the carefree and rich girl of the past, Rylie spends the last of her resources to attend the World Industry & Shipping Conference in Geneva to confront the Darin family about her suspicions. Darin himself comes to Rylie's aid as she nearly collapses from weakness. As the two finally meet elsewhere to confront her hatred and need for revenge, she is apprised of the centuries-old feud between the Zabbars and the Kadirs. The Zabbars are intent on humiliating and embarrassing the three sons of the eldest Kadir leader. Together, she and Darin, along with his two brothers, Tarik, formerly of the American Special Forces, and Shakir of the English Paratroopers, take on the Zabbars. Thus the dodging of assassins, sabers and bullets and blood commences. Rylie and Darin still find the time to discover the sensual and magical sex that deepens their commitment and Darin's compulsion to protect. With the battle heating up, Darin feels it's imperative to walk away from Rylie to distance her and thus protect her from the feud that could end her life. HER SHEIK PROTECTOR is the first book in the new Desert Sons series from Linda Conrad. This story is artfully sensual and full of excitement and suspense. Once into this story, you will be compelled to continue turning pages to the final destination. I really hated seeing the story end as I became completely enthralled in the feud between the families and the compulsion to continue with the couple's existence. I don't intend to miss the following stories of this series. Fantastic writing! SUMMARYDarin Kadir had to protect American Rylie Hunt at all costs.
Seeking answers, sheโd traveled halfway around the world to
find him. Now she is a target of his familyโs arch nemesis
and must trust Darin in order to survive.
Caught up in a covert war between two families, Rylie wants
only to find her fatherโs killers and bring them to justice.
She doesnโt want to fall in love. But the desire burning
in Darinโs eyes is unlike anything sheโs ever known. Will
she surrender her heartโor become a casualty of a war across
the ages?
EXCERPT โNo buts.โ Darin had had enough. โYou
can have the gun. And Iโll slip the train porter money to
keep an eye on the corridor and on your door. You should
be safe enough.โ
He inched his arm around Rylieโs waist
and began shuffling her out of the dining car. But the
moment her body was pressed to his, their combined heat
raced along his veins and landed hot and erotic at the base
of his spine.
Impossible. Not now. He
eased his grip on her and backed away to a more respectable
distance. But he kept them both moving forward through the
passenger cars.
Rylie never spoke a word. When he gave
her the gun and final instructions on how to use it, she
glared up at him with a look that couldโve set fire to a
glacier.
โStay safe,โ he reiterated while
turning his back on that gorgeous but furious face. โAnd
be here when I return.โ
He took a deep breath and walked out of
the door, praying all the while that by leaving her alone
he wasnโt making one of the biggest mistakes of his whole
life.
Rylie stared at the back of the closed
door, still waiting for Darinโs return and to hear him say
he needed her help. Ten seconds. Forty. One minute.
Two.
Well, dang it.
Okay, she got that he was worried about
her. Really she did. But sheโd also hoped he was coming
to know the person she was inside. The person who could
never in a million years wait around in safety, sitting on
her hands while someone she cared about worked to save her
life.
Uh uh. So not going to happen,
Darin.
It was amazing how close she felt to
him in such a short time. How well she knew the real him
even with few words spoken between them. How could he care
about her and not know her any better than he apparently
did?
And he did care for her, she was
absolutely positive. Um, maybe his emotions were based
mostly around lust, but he did care. She could easily see
that in the way he looked at her and in the way he kept
demanding that she stay safe.
Her insides were already jumping,
raring to follow after him. But she would sit here for one
more minute first. To be sure he didnโt turn her around in
the corridor and find a way to lock her inside their
cabin.
Images churned in her mind as she
perched a foot over one knee, flapping it up and down in
mid-air with nervous energy. She cared about him too.
More than cared. In fact, what sheโd been feeling verged
on an once-in-a-lifetime thing.
But was it real? Her emotions had been
on such a roller coaster ride since sheโd first set eyes on
him that she hardly knew what to think. It had started out
with her being sure she hated him. Positive heโd had a
hand in murdering her father. Now she knew he was no
murderer. Taking a life in self defense had all but killed
him, too.
As the days and hours had gone by,
sheโs been experiencing many other feelings toward him.
Some she couldnโt even name. Lust was right up there on
top, of course. But there was so much more.
That last kiss had beenโฆspecial. It
was the kind of kiss that spoke of millions of tomorrows.
The extraordinary sort of kiss that brought to mind knights
in shining armour about to give up their lives for the
woman they loved. A kiss like nothing in her
experience.
Love? Not a remote
possibility in their case. Darin didnโt even know the true
her. And would he still care as much if he did? Maybe
not. Maybe they came from such differing backgrounds that
he would never be able to respect a strong woman. A woman
who wanted to stand beside her man and not behind him as
they faced life together. A woman like her.
And how did she feel about him deep
down? She knew there was a lump in her chest whenever she
thought about him. A lump in her chest and a wildly crazy
heat at her core. The man seriously turned her on.
She had an idea of how the two of them
could become closer and get to know one another better.
But first she had to make sure he stayed alive.
Two hours later Rylieโs ears were
popping again as she crept through the quiet corridors,
looking for any sign of Darin or the Taj Zabbar kidnapper.
The train must be heading lower, going in the direction of
the lake below the mountains. Rylie could almost feel
gravity pulling her downward.
She mustโve been just missing Darin and
the kidnapper while she searched. It was possible they had
ducked into a cabin or hidden behind a closed door when
sheโd gone by. But she had traveled the length of this
train twice, looking. Now she wasnโt sure what was left toโฆ
The train rounded a steep u-curve right
then, and Rylie got a good view through the windows into
another corridor as the snaking cars doubled back on
themselves. There, maybe only two or three train-car
lengths ahead, she saw two men locked in mortal combat in
the well-lit corridor of a sleeping car.
Darin.
Blasting out of her own corridor at a
dead run, Rylie swore under her breath. She should be
covering his back. She was the one with the gun after
all.
She pushed through pressurized door
locks and tramped across the little bridges called
vestibules that connected two cars. Through one car. Then
into the next.
By the time she hit the third empty
corridor in a row she was breathing hard and very
confused. Sheโd seen them. Clearly. It hadnโt been a
dream.
Then she heard a noise coming from the
end of the car. It sounded as though someone had
momentarily gone through the pressurized door onto the next
vestibule. Shoving hard to open the door, she blinked at
sudden air movement and turned her head in that
direction.
To her amazement, she saw shoesโฆwell,
feet with shoes on themโฆas they disappeared up a ladder
that sheโd never noticed before. A ladder to the roof of
the train? Why?
After she heard a distant shout,
sounding for all the world like Darinโs voice, the why
didnโt seem too important. If he could chase someone to
the roof of a train, she could follow.
BOOK SERIES
| 
© 2003-2026