SEDUCING HIS PRINCESS (8 page)

Then in one of those movements that made her want to devour every glorious inch of him, he sank down on the couch.

Spreading his bulk over the cushions, he braced his legs wide apart and caressed the couch on both sides. The invitation was for his cats this time, who zoomed to obey, climbing all over him, butting their heads against every part of him, jumping on the back of the couch so they could reach his face and rub and kiss and lick him all over it. He surrendered to their love with a look of bliss, his eyes fixing her in a steady barrage of seduction.

Before this, he was the most overwhelming man to her, just by existing. Now this was...cruel. This had to be the most mind-bending thing he’d ever exposed her to. The sight of him, surrounded by cats, letting them plumb the depths of his love, roaming all over him in total trust and affection.

Did that man want to blow her ovaries?

He caught the ginger Scottish Fold who was crossing his lap and deposited a kiss on his head. “This is Mizar...as you can see why.” She certainly could. The tomcat was a magnificent tabby with the cutest white apron in history. Mohab put him down to answer the impatience of the Russian Blue as she asked for her turn. “And this is Nihal. She is addicted to water taps, so I have to leave her a trickle on all the time. Always a challenge on flights.” Nihal meant thirst quenching, so very appropriate, too. After she took her turn in her “daddy’s” embrace she moved on and Mohab turned to the little panther. “And this is Rigel. I bet you know why I called him that.”

She sure did.
Rigel
meant foot, and Rigel was definitely a foot cat, the one who’d hurled himself at Mohab’s feet. Actually Rigel, the star, meant The Foot of the Great One, which was very apt for both cat and owner....

Hey...wait! “These are all star names, ones discovered by ancient astronomers from the region.”

Surprise flared in his eyes. “They
are
my little stars. Very observant...and knowledgeable of you.”

Pleasure revved inside her stomach. She’d once craved his praise, praise he’d lavished on her, that had made her feel like the most special person in the world. So even in that regard, nothing had changed.

“And this is Sette—my mistress and queen of my household.” The white cat jumped on his lap, curled up and rested her head on his thigh, eyes focused in the distance. Mohab swept her in strokes, making Jala feel his hand running down
her
back. “But
you
can be my human mistress and queen.”

Queen. She still couldn’t get her head around the fact that Mohab wasn’t just a prince anymore. Or just a major force in the world of extragovernmental crisis management. He would have his own throne. And if she married him, she’d be his queen.

Which couldn’t happen. He would have to look for someone else to...

The thought lodged into her brain like a red-hot ax.

How dog in the manger was that? She wouldn’t be his, and she couldn’t bear completing a thought where another woman was?

But that wasn’t new. She’d spent years shying away from any thoughts along these lines, always keeping her mind in a fever of preoccupation so she’d never focus on images of Mohab with other women, when he must have had scores....

“Won’t you proceed with our test?”

His soft question severed her oppressive musings. Feeling any sudden movement would collapse her to the ground, she started toward him. The moment she moved, all four cats seemed to suddenly take notice of her, ears pricking, bodies in attention mode, eyes fixing her with the same intensity as their daddy’s.

She came down on the far end of the couch, taking care not to touch any of the cats. Mizar was the first one who approached, sniffing her tentatively. She’d missed having a cat so much, all she wanted was to grab his robust body and bury her face in his thick fur.

Reeling back the urge, she gave Mizar her hand to sniff, cooing to him, “
Ma ajmalak ya sugheeri...
do you know how beautiful you are, my little one?” Mizar answered by bonking her hand with his head. Her heart trembled with this affection it only reserved for animals. “Oh, you do know exactly how delightful you are, you compact package of joy, you!”

The cat made his decision and climbed onto her lap, reaching up to bump his head into her chin.

She giggled, everything emptying from her mind but the delight cats always engendered in her. “
Ya Ullah...
you magical creature. I had a ginger boy like you once, but without your apron. He was as sweet as you and I miss him so very much....”

Hot needles pricked behind her eyes, dissolved in moist pain that she’d thought she’d expended so many years ago.

Needing to hide it from Mohab, she picked up Mizar and buried her face in his nape. A prod on her shoulder came from her side. It was Nihal, asking to be introduced. She turned to the cat, offering her hand. But Nihal, having seen Mizar already on her, dispensed with preliminaries and climbed down Jala’s arm to arch and rub against her side and then settle down against her thigh, a front leg draped over it. Rigel jumped from the couch, sniffed her feet first, then jumped up and joined the lap-warming party. At last, Sette rose regally from Mohab’s lap and sashayed over, pushing Mizar out of the way in the center of Jala’s lap and making the spot hers.

Distributing strokes, delighting in their softness and trust, heart dancing to the frequency of their purrs, Jala looked at Mohab, her smile unfettered for the first time since...her days with him. “This is the best way to die, drowning in cats!”

He didn’t smile back. Before her smile faltered, Mohab rose quietly, came to stand before her, his legs brushing hers as she sat covered in his cats. Then he came down on his knees before her.

Her breath left her in a choking gasp as he leaned forward, his hands brushing her heavy, aching breasts as his arms slid behind her. “You didn’t only pass,
ya jameelati,
you broke my cat’s fastidiousness and suspiciousness barrier in record time. They didn’t even take to me that fast. It’s official, they have marked you as a bona fide cat slave.”

Her smile broke out again, wavering this time. He bore down on her, this time making his cats vacate her lap and rearrange themselves around her. He pressed himself between her legs, making her open them for him, bringing him fully against her, the hard flesh of his bare chest burning through her dress, his harder arousal pressing into the junction of her thighs. She watched his face approaching hers with the same fatalism one would give an approaching train.

“How about
living
drowning in cats?” His lips landed on her jaw, nuzzled its way up to her ear. “I and my family are all yours for the taking,
ya jameelati.
So take us.”

This was so...incredible an offer it would have been everything she’d want from life if it had been real and only for her. If it had been in another life where the past and its losses hadn’t taken place. This way, it was just more pain.

Her useless arms pushed against him. “I said I will
say
I’ll marry you, not that I will.”

He gathered her closer again. “And I will take anything you’re willing to give. If you won’t marry me, even temporarily, you can still be with me. You can still have me.”

“You expect me to sweep everything under the rug and just fall into your arms again?”

“Under the rug is where all the irrelevant crap of the past belongs. And in my arms is where you do.”

Her senses leaped so hard she felt as if they’d tear out of the confines of her body. All they’d ever wanted was to smother themselves in his nearness, his pleasures. Damn them. And damn him. Pulling her strings, dangling himself, reminding her how it had felt to be mingled with his flesh, riding his need, drenched in pleasure, inundated with satisfaction.

“You and
Al Shaitaan
are closely related, aren’t you?” She exhaled. “Forget that. The devil must come to you for conniving lessons.” And temptation and seduction ones. “You must be his chief consultant.”

He just smiled. And why not? He felt her buckling.

She’d be damned if she did again, when he’d already condemned her to six years of misery. She wasn’t letting hormones run amok again, wouldn’t let them suppress her self-preservation.

“Why are you
doing
this?”

“Because it’s the only thing I
can
do,
ya ameerati al jameelah.
I’ve starved for you and I’ll do anything so I can sate myself with you again.”

She stared into his eyes and again could only
feel
his sincerity. As if whatever else hadn’t been right, this was the one thing that had always been real...his desire for her.

Years of damaged self-worth and disbelief in her judgment trembled one last time...then everything shattered.

As if feeling the second it did, his arms tightened, bringing her colliding with his steely mass, his lips taking hers and swallowing her moan of surrender.

Then she found herself being plucked up by his momentum as he pitched backward on the lush Persian carpet, sprawled over it and stretched her on top of him. She vaguely felt the cats jumping after them, felt them prodding, as if to make sure they were okay.

Cradling her head in his large palms, Mohab turned his to his cats. “I’m going to make love to Jala now, so go eat or bathe or something. We won’t have time for you for a while.”

As if they understood him, the cats slunk away.

Turning his attention back to her, he pulled her down, had her lips sinking into his and her core on his erection. He rocked against her, promising her, deluging her in readiness. Coherence dissolved on his invading tongue, drowned in his taste, her senses igniting like firecrackers with every plunge, sweep and groan....

Remember what he cost you. The havoc he’d still wreak if you surrender. And you
still
didn’t contest your main gripe.

Feeling as if she’d left a layer of skin stuck to his hot lips and hands, she scrambled off him, getting to her feet clumsily before plopping on the couch again.

Brooding with hunger, radiating it, he rose to his elbows, stretching before her half-naked like a god of abandon.

Before she crawled back over him, she bit her tingling lips. “So I got this part. You want me. Fine. How about we discuss another concern? Your transgressions?”

He was on his feet in what should have been an impossible movement. She was in good shape herself, but this was a level of fitness and strength that was almost scary.

His lips twisted.
“Ma gatalnahom bahthann baad?”

Haven’t we already killed them with investigation?
The regional expression for draining a topic of life.

She nodded, still shaky. “The old ones. But with you, there’s always new ones.” She sucked in a burning stream of aggravation. “You spied on me. You evidently still do.”

“I tried to stop. I couldn’t.”

So simple. So stymieing. Why couldn’t she do herself the life-saving favor of not wanting him anymore?

He threw himself down beside her, grimacing. “That’s not true. I
didn’t
try. I knew I couldn’t stop watching over you.” Head resting on the couch, he turned his face toward her, inches from her own. “Jala, we both try to save the world in our own ways. But I’m the one who’s versed in its dangers, who can take measures to eradicate them. I won’t apologize for keeping tabs on you. You lead a very dangerous life.”

“I do social and humanitarian work!”

“In the world’s most dangerous places. Apart from the damages that could befall anyone just being there, you’re a temptation to even the most harmless of men.”

She gaped at him.

“It’s bigger than me, Jala, the need to know you’re safe. And since I’m the one best equipped to keep you safe, I do.”

Incredulity burst out of her. “
I
keep me safe.”

For a split second, his eyes said she knew nothing.

This brought her sitting up. “Are you telling me you saved me from a danger I was unaware of?”

Another blip said he’d saved her from far more than
a
danger. But he just shook his head. “Just leave it. I wasn’t ‘spying’ on you. I was reassuring myself of your safety and making sure you were safe. There’s a big difference.”

The lump that now inhabited her throat again grew harder.

Believing this would change so much. Mean too much. And she couldn’t handle more changes of perspective right now. The foundations of her existence, as miserable as they’d been, had constituted her stability. Losing them all, having to erect so many new ones so suddenly, was too...overwhelming. And he was already enough on his own.

In defense, she groped for one of her established suspicions. “Or you were afraid I’d go after Najeeb again?”

He huffed a mirthless laugh. “And what would I have done if you did? I believed you’d gone to him when you left me, and there was nothing I could do about it.” At her glower, he ground out, “I
didn’t
tell him anything.”

She had no idea why, but this time, she believed him.

Yet another pillar knocked over.

After a moment in which he seemed to debate the wisdom of divulging another piece of the puzzle, he said, “I only found out later why Najeeb cut all ties with you.”

And he told her why. At least what he believed to be true.
She
knew the real reason why Najeeb hadn’t contacted her again. Because she wouldn’t let him. But Mohab believed King Hassan’s slandering had ended her relationship with Najeeb.

After discovering King Hassan had been behind her ordeal in the past, and knowing he was now the reason behind this current crisis, she didn’t feel bad about not exonerating him from
that
specific crime. It hadn’t been for lack of trying that he wasn’t guilty of it after all.

Mohab was continuing, “Then you disappeared, and I couldn’t find you for months. When you resurfaced, there was no way I was going to let you out of my sight again.”

She let out her bated breath. “If I say I believe you, you have to promise to stop.”