SEDUCING HIS PRINCESS (9 page)

He must have gauged they’d entered the negotiation zone as he bore down on her again, deluging her in a fresh wave of temptation. “Why? Who wouldn’t want a guardian angel like me? I’m very handy, you know. People pay me tens of millions to keep them safe. I am offering you a free ride for life.”

His arms were halfway around her when she pushed out of them again and stood up, teetering with the urge to throw herself back into them, come what may. But this was just too soon, too fast...too much. She needed to slow down, take a look at where she was jumping, before she plunged into the deep end...again.

Groaning, he stood up as well, his eyes suddenly totally serious for the first time since she’d seen him again. “I’ve told you the truth about everything so far. All but one thing.”

Her breath deserted her as she turned fully toward him.

Looking as if he was dragging shrapnel from his own flesh, he rasped, “You don’t have to marry me...or even say you would. You can leave right now, and there’d be no war.”

Seven

M
ohab met his own eyes in the steamed-up mirror and reached a conclusion. He was insane.

He’d gotten Jala to agree to a fake engagement, then progressed to alleviate her every doubt about the sincerity of his desire. Her surrender to his lovemaking, her mind-blowing response, had admitted her equal need. Her capitulation had only been a matter of time. If he’d just kept his mouth shut, he might have had her in his bed again by now.

But he hadn’t kept his mouth shut.

Mizar and Sette rubbed against his legs, distracting him from wanting to bash himself over the head.

Sighing, he picked them up and headed out of the bathroom with Nihal and Rigel weaving between his legs. Even they couldn’t make him feel better now. They actually made him feel worse. All they did was remind him of his pleasure at Jala’s delight in them, of how it had felt to share them with her.

Topping up their treats in the kitchenette, he told them he needed to be alone. As usual, they understood him and gave him space, not following him to the wing’s reception chamber.

He stood in the middle of the magnificent space Kamal had bestowed on him and could still barely believe he was actually here. An Aal Ghaanem treated as an honored guest in the Aal Masood stronghold. A week ago, that would have been the material of a ridiculous joke. But Kamal had been given a second chance with his queen and was making a real effort to pay it forward.

And what had
he
done with all of Kamal’s support and all the ground he’d managed to gain with Jala? He’d voluntarily blown it all to hell.

He could still see Jala standing across from him, her face a frozen mask after he’d divulged that last bit of truth. Then she’d said one word.

“Explain.”

He had. He’d told her everything, hadn’t left out one single detail this time. After he’d finished, she’d just turned and walked out of his quarters.

That had been three days ago. She’d left the palace that same night. He’d thought she’d head straight to the airport and fly out of Judar, never to return. But her security detail had called to report that she’d checked into a hotel on the other side of Durgham. Moving all the way across the capital had been a clear message that she’d wanted to distance herself from the palace. And him. Trying to call her had yielded no results. She wasn’t answering anyone’s phone calls. Then she’d turned her phone off. And it was all his fault.

Exhaling forcibly, he moved to the French doors, stared sightlessly at the palace grounds. He had to face the fact that he couldn’t have done anything else.

He’d lied to her too much during their relationship, hidden too much. At first believing he had to, then fearing the consequences of exposure. Then he’d seen her again, and she’d given him the full disclosure he’d long craved. And he’d realized that, apart from her own hang-ups about intimacy and commitment, the real reason he’d lost her all those years ago was because he hadn’t been honest with her. After realizing that, he could hide nothing anymore. He’d wanted her to want him based on full disclosure, too, needed to have her this time in total honesty.

But after he’d confessed everything about the past, about his feelings, only one thing had remained. Her total freedom of choice about whether to be with him or not. So he’d given it to her.

And she’d chosen not to be with him.

The only reason he’d stayed in Judar till now was because she had. According to Farooq and Shehab, the ones she’d let near, having ostracized Kamal as well, she’d stayed only to see their kids a few times before she left. But she wouldn’t remain in the palace where both the perpetrators of this latest deception resided. It was probably a matter of a couple days before she left. It would be over then.

Who was he kidding? It was
already
over. It had been over the minute she’d realized she didn’t have to put up with seeing him again. And it didn’t matter if she still wanted him. To Jala, freedom and autonomy and honesty had always mattered far more than her desires, no matter how ferocious those were.

A growl of exasperation burst from his depths. Enough. He’d set up an elaborate gamble to resolve this need for her that continued to eat at him, and he’d lost. Everything had depended on being able to win her, and he’d done so fleetingly, before he’d lost her again...big-time.

But he hadn’t lost her because he’d told her the full truth—it was because he’d started this whole thing with another charade. He’d catastrophically miscalculated all over again. Seemed it was hopeless. Whenever it involved her, he, the master strategist, had once more been reduced to a bumbling idiot.

Growling again, unable to stay where she wasn’t, he strode out of the wing.

He had to see Kamal before he left, tell him they’d have to plan another way to contain his uncle’s wrath. As for Jala, he’d have to get her out of his system some other way....

“You’re better than I gave you credit for.
Way
better.”

Mohab squeezed his eyes shut as the deep, amused voice hit him between the shoulder blades.

His condition was much worse than he’d thought. He hadn’t even felt Kamal approach.

What the hell. Get this over with.

He turned to Kamal...and almost winced. That was it. He no longer considered Kamal his new favorite person. This guy was just too happy. And it swamped Mohab with such...futility. A hopelessness that he’d ever feel anything like that.

“I was coming to see you....” he began.

Kamal took his arm. “I could have just called you, but I had to see you again and picture you in your future capacity, now that it has emerged from the realm of speculation to fact.”

Mohab’s frown deepened. He didn’t get one word of what Kamal had just said.

Kamal went on, spouting more gibberish. “I really thought the next I heard from Jala would be with a proposal on how to avert the war without her involvement. And the worst part? Even if we’d been dealing with the original, critical situation, I had no doubt she’d present me with a real solution.”

Kamal huffed a laugh at the word
solution,
which had evidently become an inside joke between them. However, Mohab wasn’t in any laughing mood over it, or over anything else, anymore.

Kamal continued, “She’s been known to formulate workable solutions for some seemingly impossible situations to the satisfaction of all sides in some of the world’s most volatile regions.”

Mohab knew that. He’d followed her work closely, with the utmost interest and admiration. And more than a little humility and self-deprecation. For she’d been able, with far fewer resources and powers, to peacefully do what he’d thought could only be resolved through his extreme measures. And while he’d discreetly helped her wherever he could, he’d been honing his methods on her example.

But why was Kamal telling him all this now? Or was he the one who couldn’t make sense of anything anymore?

Kamal, who’d taken him back to his quarters, was going on as they entered. “Then she leaves, and I think the next time I want to see her I’ll have to chase after her on one of her jaunts around the world. But I should have known better than to predict Jala the Unpredictable. She left the palace only to go stay in a three-star hotel.”

“I know that.”

Kamal’s fond expression deepened. “She was never one for luxury, but her work seems to have made her allergic to it. Not to mention her chronic independence issues. The eyes around here must have had her climbing walls.
Ya Ullah!
” His exclamation made Mohab blink. “I was told you brought cats, but I thought they mistook some other containers for carriers.”

His cats were scurrying to welcome him back, slowing down to a curious, cautious prowl when they found he had company.

Grinning widely, Kamal bent to offer them his hands to sniff. “Four cats! There’s no end to your surprises, Mohab, is there? Wait till my kids find out you have these beauties. You’ll be their favorite uncle.”

The word
uncle
stabbed him. He was destined not to be anyone’s uncle. Anyone’s anything. Seemed Kamal was still under the misapprehension that he might marry Jala.

Gritting his teeth, he watched his cats show Kamal the same level of instant trust and acceptance they’d shown Jala. Kamal probably
felt
the same as her to them, too.

Which was another reason he couldn’t be around her brother any longer. “Listen, Kamal...”

Kamal straightened with Mizar in his arms, grinning. “I
do
want to listen—to just how you did it. I knew you were effective, but this borders on magic.”

And Mohab had enough of all the ambiguity. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Jala, of course. She just called me and told me to start the wedding preparations.”

* * *

For the first time in his life, Mohab was totally in the dark.

Jala had told Kamal she would marry him.

Then, after Kamal had left, she’d called, making him certain he hadn’t been hallucinating. She’d informed him that their “engagement” would be celebrated tomorrow over a family dinner.

He’d demanded to see her before said dinner, but she’d hung up without even a goodbye. He still wondered if he’d only listened to a prerecorded announcement.

Yet he couldn’t care. This was his third, and probably final, chance—and he was not going to squander it this time.

To that end, he’d better get that wild-eyed look under control. Though the tuxedo-clad man who was reflected back at him in the ornate full-length mirror looked suave and polished, his expression was that of a starving wolf.

“I see why you didn’t hear me knock. You’re lost in admiring your own grandeur.”

The soft mockery lashed him, had him swinging around.

Jala.

She’d always been his ideal of femininity, the sum total of his fantasies, but tonight, she’d taken her sorcery to a new level. In an old-gold dress made of ethereal materials that wrapped her every curve to distressing advantage, she was overpowering...even otherworldly.

She headed for the open French doors and stopped with her back to him, contemplating the gardens at night. He approached her as if afraid she’d disappear if he made any sudden moves, and she looked at him over her shoulder with eyes as mysterious as Judar’s night. Her hair sifted in the jasmine-laden night breeze with swishes that strummed his every nerve.

“You said you wanted to talk.”

“Since you hung up on me, I didn’t think you registered my request, or thought it not worth consideration.”

“I reconsidered. We need to touch base before we face the combined forces of our families for the first time together.”

He slid his arms around her, crisscrossed them beneath her breasts and pulled her back against his body. This was probably a damaging move right now. But he was beyond holding back. These past three days had been three days beyond the limits of his endurance.

Even though he felt her tense as he bent to breathe her in, she didn’t resist. He went dizzy as the feel and scent and heat of her vitality and femininity eddied in his arteries.

“I thought I’d never see you again. Jala,
habibati...
”

He turned her in his arms and captured her lips with all his pent-up hunger and frustration.

Feeling her luscious mouth open beneath his, having his lungs fill with intoxication as she gasped a scorching gust of passion, tore aside any semblance of moderation. Bypassing all preliminaries, he plunged into her depths, his tongue dueling with hers as he squeezed her against him, his hands kneading down her body to bunch up the chiffon layers of her skirt and seek the sizzling velvet of her flesh. He dipped beneath the lace, cupping the perfection of her buttocks.

She tore her lips from his. “This isn’t why I’m here...”

Gritting his teeth, he reluctantly let her go. If their engagement dinner wasn’t less than half an hour away, he would have convinced her otherwise.

It was still with utmost satisfaction that he watched her hands tremble as she smoothed out the disarray created by his passion. “I’m here to explain why I’m doing this.”

“As long as you’ve reconsidered, I don’t care why.”

“You should, because I think you miscalculated.”

Hah. Tell him about it. But she was probably referring to some other miscalculation he was as yet unaware of.

“You think you can curb your uncle and dictate your terms, resolving the crisis without my...participation. And though I commend you for deciding to be forthright at last, even when it was counterproductive to your other purposes, I believe you’re wrong in thinking I’m not necessary to achieve your goal. You’d be right if we were talking about someone other than your uncle. But with his track record of paranoia and volatile pride he could still escalate the situation if Saraya’s percentage doesn’t appeal to him, or if he feels slighted, even if it means going to war against you, too.”

“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.