“So what are you saying, exactly?” he asked carefully.
“That the marriage solution remains what he’d be most likely to accept, the one that would save him face. If you give him the added deference of being the one who puts his hand in Kamal’s, with both acting as our proxies, his pride would bind him to peace from then on.”
Kamal had been right. She was totally unpredictable. This was the last thing he’d expected her to do.
But there she was, doing exactly what Kamal had said she would. Coming up with a levelheaded and thorough analysis of the situation, based on her knowledge of all the players, and formulating the most workable solution. It again showed him he shouldn’t have tried to manipulate her to seal the deal, should have come clean and hoped she’d make this offer on her own.
He inhaled. “That’s extremely astute. And exceptionally thoughtful of you, to go to the effort of thinking this through so thoroughly and then agree to help, even after I tried to maneuver you into doing so under false pretenses.”
Her strong shoulders jerked dismissively, causing her breasts to jiggle slightly and sending another rush of hormones roaring through him.
“Seems the first time is the worst. Then you get used to it.” Before he could swear there’d be no more manipulation, she went on, “So anyway, I am your best bet, as you’ve already figured out, so I’ve decided to pitch in.”
He pulled her back into his arms, meshing their gazes. “Ashkorek, ya jameelati.”
She again pushed out of the circle of his arms. Story of his life from now on, it seemed.
“Don’t thank me yet. I said this is what’s most likely to get your uncle to cooperate, not that it’s certain it will.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I don’t care about the outcome. I only care about your intention.”
She slanted him an unfathomable glance. “You seem to be in an uncaring mood today. Or is this your usual state? Probably.” Another shoulder jerk. Another surge of lust. “You should start practicing caring. Being a king is quite a bit different from being a terminator.”
“If anyone can teach me to care, it’s you. As my queen.”
Her gaze wavered. Was that...vulnerability?
Next split second it was gone, making him wonder if he’d even seen it.
“So about tonight...” she began.
No comment? Since she didn’t intend to be his queen?
“What about it?”
“My sisters-in-law must have told my brothers their deductions about our relationship, based on your famous phone striptease session. Or, if by some miracle they managed some discretion, everyone must know by now that we’re not strangers to each other. So how do you intend to play this in front of my family and yours?”
He raised her hands to his lips. “I intend to show everyone how proud I am to be your intended, that this was a hope I had harbored since I first saw you.”
She withdrew her hands. “No need to go overboard, or you’ll only make them suspicious.”
She didn’t believe him. Maybe because his statement was untrue. He hadn’t thought of marriage in the years he’d craved her from afar, since he’d never thought marriage was in the cards for him at all. Even when he’d proposed, he had no picture of how marriage would fit into his existence.
But now, with the turn his life had taken, everything was different. Although he’d initially come here unclear about what he wanted, beyond the fact that he wanted her with a hunger that continued to consume him, he now wanted everything he could possibly have with her.
Her own stance seemed to be unchanged, though.
He had to hear her spell it out. “So your original agreement stands, as is?”
He held his breath. Hoping against hope...
Then she breathed, “Yes.”
Eight
As soon as Mohab entered the expansive dining room in the king’s quarters with Jala, the nine people seated at one end of the gigantic table stood up and clapped.
Mohab saw only one person. Najeeb.
Heat shot to his head. What was he doing here?
As per Jala’s mandate, only the people necessary to the peace efforts should have been present. That had meant Kamal and his queen, Mohab’s uncle and his queen and him and Jala.
He’d wholeheartedly welcomed that, had been enormously relieved when his uncle had begged off attending on account of illness. But to support Mohab’s bid for the “incomparable Jala’s” hand, King Hassan had promised to send her a priceless set of jewelry from Saraya’s royal treasury.
It had been the ultimate irony to hear his uncle speaking in such glowing terms of the woman he’d once gone to dishonorable lengths to ensure didn’t sully his royal family. Now that she was the princess of Judar, Hassan was embarrassingly eager to have her blood mingle with that of his family.
But Mohab had relaxed prematurely about tonight. King Hassan had sent Najeeb in his stead. Najeeb had also brought Jawad and Haroon, his second-oldest brothers among nine full and half siblings. But it was Najeeb’s presence alone that disturbed Mohab. He’d avoided Najeeb for years, for every reason there was. A face-to-face with him, now of all times, topped the list of his least-favorite surprises ever. And he’d had some doozies in his time.
“Fi seh’hut al aroosain.” Kamal raised a crystal glass filled with burgundy liquid, no doubt Judar’s famous date wine, toasting the health of the bride-and groom-to-be.
Everybody raised their glasses and voices in salute, smiles of pleasure coating all faces. All faces but Najeeb’s.
He didn’t approve of this.
“So I had to do something as drastic as get engaged to end the Aal Masoods’ and Aal Ghaanems’ centuries-old theatrics, you testosterone-overdosed cavemen?”
General laughter rose in answer to Jala’s humorous admonition as she smoothly unspooled from his loose embrace and entered the circle of welcome that opened for her. She was at once enfolded into the love and delight of her brothers and their wives. He envied them her readiness to go into their arms, to receive and return their kisses, to exchange smiles with them that were unmarred by the past.
Then she turned to his cousins, and his envy became resentment. Watching her bestow ease and humor on them actually hurt when he’d gotten nothing that approached either from her. When it brought back how it had felt to be inundated in both. It didn’t help that those two hulking buffoons were totally enthralled as this magical creature welcomed them as friends and future family members.