'Should I know him?' Polly Anderson pulled the A4 photograph across the table so she could see it more clearly. She squinted down at it, trying to bring it into focus.Her friend smiled. 'Forget your contact lenses this morning?''I didn't forget them.' Polly accepted the black coffee Minty handed her and took a quick sip of the scalding liquid. 'It was a late night and my eyes feel like they're filled with grit if you really want to know.''And you're too vain to wear your glasses, of course.'Polly grimaced.

More that she'd put them down somewhere and had absolutely no idea where. She set the blue and white mug down on the table. 'I'm sure I've not met him. He's not exactly in the usual run of sheikhs that do business with Anthony, you know.''Not fat or old.''Something like that.'Minty laughed her husky laugh and slid a second photograph along the table. 'You should see him without the headscarf.

Then we just get tall, dark and deliciously dangerous.''Nice,' Polly said, looking down at the image of an aggressively handsome man. Actuallyverynice. Her sight wasn't so short she couldn't see that. It was all about the eyes, she decided.Mostly about the eyes.Unexpectedly blue in a face that was unmistakably Arab.Exotic and familiar at the same time.

And incredibly sexy. Those eyes seemed to promise feelings and sensations she'd no experience of. Or very little.She smiled. Maybe there was more of her scandalous great-great-grandmother in her than she'd supposed. Nowthatwas an interesting thought--and probably one her mother would prefer her not to dwell on. 'So, who is he?' she asked, looking up.'Officially, His Highness Prince Rashid bin Khalid bin Abdullah Al Baha.

But for Western consumption he's generally known as Sheikh Rashid Al Baha. Much simpler. Twenty-nine. Six feet two and a half inches. Single. Keen horseman. Rich beyond your wildest dreams.' Minty leant forward.

'Pretty damn sexy all round.'Polly laughed. 'Not that you're interested or anything.''Actually I'm not. He's a bad idea as anything other than eye candy. He's Crown Prince Khalid's second son. The one he had with his English wife--''Oh, okay.I've heard of him,' Polly interrupted.

'He's Amrah's playboy sheikh, right?'Minty nodded. 'That's him. Plays hard and fast. Only thing he really exhibits any sort of commitment to is his horses. I don't understand all that, but he's something big in the horse world. Breeds them or something. Which is why I thought you might have met him through that slimy stepbrother of yours. But if not it doesn't really matter.

We'll manage.'Polly picked up the more traditional of the two pictures and held it out in front of her. Long flowing white robes and his dark hair concealed beneath a white headdress. Minty was right. Prince Rashid bin thingy was really very sexy. If he'd been to Shelton she'd have remembered.She closed one eyelid to focus more clearly. 'A couple of sheikhs did come over from Amrah but they were both much older.

And I doubt they were royalty because Anthony would have been much more impressed. I can probably get their names for you if you need them.'Minty shook her head and bent over to open the file resting against the leg of her chair. 'I don't. But while we're at it, have a look at his elder brother,' she said, passing across another glossy A4 picture. 'His Highness Prince Hanif bin Khalid bin Abdullah Al Baha. Again he tends to contract all that to Sheikh Hanif Al Baha. And who can blame him?'Polly picked up the photograph.

'Now their daddy's so ill Hanif's probably the one we should be talking to,' Minty said slowly, her eyes focused on her notes. 'They've both got the "bin Khalid bin Abdullah Al Baha". Exactly the same. Not very imaginative, is it? The only difference is the Hanif-Rashid bit.'There was more difference between the brothers than that. Sheikh Hanif looked like a 'safe pair of hands'. At least.