She’d thought she was saved, for that night, at least. Then the call had come. Her mom was distraught, thought her absence had offended Jalal. Why else would he so closely inquire why she hadn’t come? Knowing she had to capitulate, Lujayn had promised to be ready this time when he sent a limo for her. And here she was.
“Excuse me for not prioritizing your whims,” she gritted out, careful not to breathe deep or be flooded with his intoxication. “It wasn’t high on my list to drop everything to ‘celebrate’ my uncle being roped into your servitude for life.”
His smile was all forbearance. “Had you been here the past three hours, you would have heard your uncle and mother expressing how happy they are to finally claim our relation and how excited about our forthcoming collaboration.”
“That’s what you’re calling this artificial situation you’ve manufactured?”
“I didn’t create this gem of a ‘situation.’ I’m only making the best use of it after uncovering it.”
“Uncovering any tie between us, no matter how insignificant and distant isn’t a gem, it’s a…a…semm.”
And there it was. That pout, again. “Poison? Aren’t you getting this backward? It was the dishonor your family unjustly suffered that’s been poisoning their lives. And it is that grudge you’re nursing against me that’s been poisoning yours.”
“And you’re the benefactor who wants to administer the antidote out of the goodness of your nonexistent heart? My family is free to be eternally grateful for your crumbs of benevolence, and I’m free to prefer my poison, which is at least gulped down with no strings attached.”
“Take a deep breath, Lujayn.” He smiled down at her as he bent, had his lips tracing her every feature with feather-soft torment from her forehead to her lips to her pulse point. “Go to your happy place for a moment.”
Electricity forked from his lips to shriek down her nerves.
The blow of arousal finally had her lurching out of his loose hold, had her glaring her resentment up at him. “Can’t do that. You’ve left me none.”
Lightness deserted his eyes and stance by degrees, until he stood brooding down at her. “I won’t even touch that exaggeration, Lujayn. But whatever our problems in the past were, this is me taking the steps to eliminate them.”
“What—what do you mean by that?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets, his eyes growing serious. “In our last confrontation, you mentioned the ‘unbridgeable gap’ between us. It made me realize that while I never thought there was any real gap between us, you did. This gap, whether real or imagined, is no more.”
She gaped at him. Did he mean…?
Then she snorted. “If you mean it was all in my mind, please! Anyone with half a brain lobe would say the gap was actually a gulf. And that it will always remain unbridgeable.”
“Not true. While it never meant a thing to me, that so-called gulf that existed between us on a social level, with the new discoveries of your true lineage, it no longer exists.”
“Wow, really? You’re saying some second-grade royal blood equals being from a line of purebred kings and queens and the son of one of the most venerated kings in the region, the world?”
His shoulders rose and fell in a dismissing move. “I also come from the line of an ousted king and I am also the son of the most infamous ex-queen in that same world. You fare better in any comparison coming from a lineage of hardworking, honest people on one side and another unanimously known for valor and honor.”
“You mean that side of my lineage that was stripped of honor and reduced to serving their so-called relatives?”
He exhaled. “That’s in the past now. Your line will be restored. When everything’s out in the open, they will be looked upon with greater sympathy and respect than ever.”
“And this will happen only according to your whim.”
“According to the proof Fadi uncovered.”
“I meant you used this proof because you saw fit to. It could have remained buried for all you cared if it wasn’t to your advantage to make it public now.”
“The timing is fortunate, I can’t deny that.” That smile, fueling his irresistibility, was back radiating from his eyes, filling his lips. “Are you suggesting I shouldn’t have brought it out in the open because I stand to gain from doing so?”
He had an answer for everything, could twist anything to make himself come out looking right, logical, honorable even.
“You’re unbelievable, you know that? You’re in the middle of campaigning for a throne, and you waste time going to all this effort to get into my pants? You’re taking asserting your will and winning this imaginary challenge too far, aren’t you?”
He shrugged again, that movement laden with lazy poise. “Apart from the fact that I would do anything to ‘get into your pants,’ I would have done this for anyone.”
“Yeah, sure, you go around investigating people to see what wrongs were dealt them in generations past so you can right them.”
His nod was infuriatingly calm. “I do what I can when it comes to my notice, yes.”
“Well, you might as well take back anything you’ve done for my uncle and family now and not later.”
His eyebrows rose in feigned questioning. “You think I’ll do that after I have my way with you…again?”
“After you make sure you’re not having it, ever again.”
His tut-tut was indulgence itself as he gently pulled her against his will-sapping gorgeousness. “Is this a way to talk to a newly discovered distant relation?” Her neck arched for him as he nuzzled it, her body plastering to his as his hands dipped below her blouse to spread against the burning skin of her back. He suddenly groaned against her flesh, which vibrated with need. “Sooner or later, you won’t be able to resist me, won’t find a reason to. I’ve already given up trying. This…affinity we share is unstoppable, ya jameelati’l feddeyah.”
That sick jolt of longing lurched inside her heart. He’d always been too generous with his verbal passion. Hearing him call her his silver beauty brought a wave of moisture to her eyes that intensified the illumination of the full moon. She turned her face away from its glare and his lips trailed a path of fiery temptation down her cheek, her jaw.
A shudder shook her when he reached her ear, his croon pouring into her brain, liquefying it. “We’re going to be together in many ways from now on. Through my involvement in Patrick’s legacy, through your family’s involvement with me. This—” he crushed her against him, giving her aching breasts the contact they needed with his hardness and heat “—is inescapable.”