“You know what they say about liars, Rachel?” he said, stalking closer.
“I don’t know, Adriane, but since you are such an expert in that subject, I’m sure you can inform me,” she said with shrug.
“No woman has ever entertained me like you. Being in your presence is quite pleasurable.”
“Get over it, Adriane. Our fling is over and done with, kaput. I have moved on. Maybe you should try doing the same,” she said as she reached the double doors. She thought of going through them this time, thinking maybe it would be a better route, but what good would it do? She wouldn’t be able to get out of the castle. Even if she somehow managed to, where was she going to go?
“You see, Rachel, that’s where you are very wrong. We aren’t even close to being over, you and I. This child may not have been planned, but not once have I felt regret over your pregnancy. I very much look forward to making you my bride. I look forward even more to our nights. The two of us together will continue making magic.”
“You just aren’t thinking. It was an affair, Adriane. A stupid, foolish affair. It doesn’t mean we should be locked together for the rest of our lives,” she told him. She was worn down, exhausted. She had to get away from this man before she did something else that was foolish. Where he was concerned, it seemed to be a regular occurrence.
“It may have started as an affair, Rachel, but now we are locked to each other forever. This child you carry,” he said as he reached out and ran his fingers across the planes of her still-flat stomach, “is very much wanted. It also helps that I want you. It will make our marriage very…pleasant.”
“This just keeps going in circles, Adriane. Why don’t you be the bigger man and let me go while there’s still a chance of our getting along, of our being able to communicate for the sake of our child?” she pleaded with him.
He looked at her for several moments, and for just the briefest of seconds, Rachel thought she might have finally gotten through to him. Then he opened his mouth.
“It’s a good thing you already think of me as an ogre, Rachel, because you are requesting the one thing I am unable to give you. I think that if I were the meek sort of man you speak of, one who would so easily let you go, you would grow bored quickly. I may rouse your wrath, but I also make you burn with need. I make you scream in the bedroom, and I can quench those fires that are so easily lit within you. I’ll give you some time to cool off, and then we will have dinner together,” he said, backing up a few feet.
She finally had some space from him, but his words were making her head spin. Yes, she wanted him — and she hated herself for that weakness. And hell would freeze over before she admitted any of it.
“I’m tired, Adriane. I wish to bathe and sleep, so kindly leave my room,” she huffed.
“This isn’t your room. I have something much more special planned for you,” he said, and he held out his arm.
“I won’t be sleeping in your room,” she insisted, her hormones now securely encased in armor.
“I wouldn’t think of asking you to do that until after the wedding,” he said, his arm still held out.
“Just show me where I’m sleeping,” she said, no fight left. She was hungry, dirty, and tired, and she felt as if she hadn’t had a nap at all. Her eyelids felt like weights, and she was afraid that if she continued her confrontation with Adriane, he would eventually start making sense. She couldn’t allow that to happen.
Ignoring his arm, she stepped past him and opened the door, waiting for him to join her. A smile hid beneath her pursed lips when he glared. Adriane didn’t seem to like having a lady hold the door open for him. Hey, if she’d known he was so easily agitated, she would have started tormenting him long before.
Taking the door from her grip, he held out his hand, indicating she should step through before him, even though it was customary for the king’s wife or future wife to walk behind him. See, he was being very generous to her — even breaking royal protocol.
Sighing, she did as he wanted, fearing a standoff that could take hours. After all, she was just too tired for their battle of wills to continue. As she entered the hallway she’d run through not long before, she looked around, thinking that she could do this. Once alone, bathed, fed and rested, she would come up with a plan of escape. If Adriane really thought she was going to bend to his will, then he had chosen the wrong woman to mess with.
Freedom was just a few hours away. That thought carried her through the seemingly endless halls of his castle.
When entering the room he had prepared for her, she gasped, unable to hide her reaction. Turning to look at his face, she knew she’d given him the reaction he wanted, and she closed her mouth, narrowed her eyes and walked inside.
“Enjoy your room, my beautiful fiancée,” he said before shutting the doors behind her.
Rachel gazed at a room that looked like living quarters for a concubine, with a large maharaja-style four-poster canopy bed in the center, draped elegantly with colorful jewel-toned fabrics, enclosing the mattress for privacy.
Everything in the room screamed sensuality and eroticism, with low lighting, Asian-inspired lanterns and candles smelling of musk, and with pillows and benches strategically placed to make a woman think of sex — sex in many different places and in varying positions. And, of course, there were mirrors, mirrors everywhere. Nothing that lovers did here would likely go unseen or unsavored.
Walking over to a draped table, Rachel grinned at the overflowing bowl of fruit; she picked up a bundle of grapes and ate a couple. From the tastefulness of the décor of the other room she’d been in, Rachel had a pretty good idea that this was Adriane’s idea of a joke.
He wanted to resume their affair, take her back to his bed, so he was sending her a message, loud and clear, that she was now in his harem. Her brow furrowing, she remembered him making a comment about multiple wives.
Like hell she would ever allow that!
Why was she even thinking of that comment? It didn’t matter, as she wasn’t going to sleep with him ever again and she certainly wasn’t going to marry him. Not even if his harem room had done its trick and she was feeling the pressure build in her core.
“You just need to eat, rest and plan. If you can make it through tonight, you are one step closer to escape,” she reminded herself as she walked to the bathroom.
Stepping through the doors, she actually laughed, surprising herself.