Sheikh's Purchased Princess (4 page)

He slouched back on one leg, crossing his arms over his chest. Even in that relaxed pose, and even with her standing up as straight as she could, he towered over her. Emily noted with fury that he wasn't thinking of her as a threat at all.

“You have a very inflated idea of yourself,” he observed, and she could have spat.

“If you think that there is a dollar sign that can be affixed to yourself, no matter how much or how little, you must have a very dim idea of yourself,” she said stonily.

To her fury, it only made the man laugh.

“American?”

“Yes,” she said, the admission surprised out of her.

“It figures. Only an American would speak like that.”

“So glad that amuses you,” she snapped.

“It does. But American or not, you are here, you are bought and paid for. In this world, that makes you mine.”

She ignored the strange small voice that told her that there were worse fates and worse masters. Instead she stared at him as defiantly as she could. She would not bend. She would not break, no matter what happened, and sooner rather than later, she would escape.

“So you say,” Emily said, keeping her voice as level as she could. “And what will you do about that?”

“I am not going to hurt you,” he said, but there was absolutely no apology in his voice. “But I did pay for you, and that means that you are mine to do with as I wish.”

Emily opened her mouth to respond to him, but suddenly, somehow, he had crossed the floor to stand before her. She had known before that he was strong; now she realized that he was fast as well, far faster than she could dream of being.

Emily gasped as she found herself pulled into his arms. He was like a man made of steel, and it would not matter how much she struggled because he was simply far too powerful for her. When she looked up at him in alarm, he used that motion to his advantage. Suddenly, his mouth swooped down on hers, claiming her in a kiss the likes of which she had never known before.

Emily had been kissed before. Of course she had. However, every previous kiss paled in comparison to this one. Men had stolen kisses from her at parties and left her cold. She had kissed her dates and found them insipid. This was entirely different. There was passion in this kiss and an undercurrent of power and darkness that carried her away.

In that moment, she had no choice. All she could do was allow herself to be borne away on the sensation of it and the rush of pleasure it brought her. When he finally pulled his mouth away, she looked up, more dazed by a kiss than she thought possible.

“There,” he said softly. “I have wanted to do that since I laid eyes on you.”

His words left Emily speechless. She had purposefully kept her mind away from what dealing with the faceless man who would presumably buy her would do. Never in all of her life had she imagined a kiss that set her nerves dancing, that made her feel as if t a fire lived inside her.

Slowly he kissed her again, and this time she welcomed it. Her body cried out for the sensations that he had given her and reached for more. His mouth explored hers gently, showing her nerves that she didn't even know she had. She could have let him kiss her like that forever. When his tongue ran along her lips, she parted them, and the pleasure of his tongue stroking hers made her feel faint.

After the fear and stress of the past few days, Emily felt herself lifted high by pleasure, pulling away from the situation and what it meant. She felt as if she were floating above her body, but then, when she felt his erection pressed against her stomach, she came crashing down. Suddenly, the reality of what was happening intruded, and that red tide of anger washed over her.

With a growl that seemed to come from deep within her, she snapped her teeth together sharply. He pushed her away with a shout, but not before she could taste blood in her mouth.

“You ungrateful little…”

He pulled back, letting her go and giving her just enough time to sprint into the bedroom behind them. He gave chase, but surprise gave her the edge she needed, even if it was just barely enough.

She made it to the bedroom, turning to slam the door on him a hair before he reached her. Her frantic fingers found the lock and twisted it. The bolt slid into place with a satisfying final click, and she sobbed with relief.

She skittered back from the door, still afraid that he would come right through it. After a moment, she realized that he wasn't pounding on it or kicking it in. In fact, he wasn't even knocking.

“That was unnecessary,” he stated.

“I think it was entirely necessary,” she retorted. “I didn't give you permission to kiss me.”

“I would say that as your owner, permission is the last thing that I require,” he said, “However, I do not think that you know exactly what you are doing.”

“Of course I do,” Emily retorted, but his only response was to laugh.

When she realized he wasn't going to come through the door, she took a deep breath and looked around the room. With a sinking heart, she realized that the windows were barred, either for security's sake or to prevent an escape like the one that she had just tried. She went into the adjoining bathroom and discovered that the window in there was set up the same way.

“Oh god,” she whispered, and in a way that hadn't happened before, the reality of her situation sank in. Without thinking of what she was doing, she went to sit down on the bed.

What was she going to do?

Chapter Five

Adnan could still feel the throb of pain from the girl’s bite. He supposed that he should have been furious, but instead, after all that had been going on, he only wanted to laugh. No matter what had happened to her or what she had gone through, she still had spirit, and the fire in her eyes made him want to claim her for his own.

After ascertaining that she was quiet and at least not doing herself any harm, he picked up his phone.

“Hey, Roja. Things have gone a little strange…”

His friend listened with barely restrained patience, and he could imagine the smaller man shaking his head, smoking cigarette after cigarette as he paced in the safe house.

“Don't trust her,” Roja said finally. “Don't let her out of your sight.”

Adnan frowned. “I had assumed that I would simply calm her down, let her go.”

“And let her get caught again? She is a frightened American girl. She would have no idea how to deal with Mirago. The Razorback’s men—or someone worse—would pick her up again, and then what?”

Swearing softly, Adnan had to admit that his friend was right. There was simply no time to get the girl to safety, not really. They had to maintain the illusion that he was someone who wanted to deal with the Razorback, and that meant that he would not let go of a woman he had paid for.

He ended the call with Roja. He was alone, a beautiful girl who wanted nothing to do with him locked in the bedroom.

He couldn’t explain the kiss. If he were thinking straight, he would have ushered her to the bedroom himself and locked her in. There was no reason to bother with her or to frighten her more, after all, but there was something about her, something he had never encountered before. He felt drawn to her in a way that he couldn’t explain, like the way a compass unerringly pointed out true north.

He knew that he should simply leave her alone. He also knew he wasn’t going to do that. He pulled the key to the bedroom from his pocket, and simply thought for a moment.

***

Emily never thought that she would sleep. At some point, however, she had crawled into the bed, the mattress more enticing than she would have thought possible. In the last few days, she had been lucky to get a pile of blankets on the ground. The bed was amazingly soft and ridiculously large.

She had only intended to lie down for a few minutes, perhaps to collect her thoughts. Instead, the moment her tired head hit the pillow, she fell into a deep sleep.

As Emily slept, she dreamed of a dark place, a maze where it seemed as if monsters were waiting for her around every corner. She could hear them breathing, hear them laughing, hear them talking about what they wanted to do to women like her. When she caught a glimpse of one down a dark alley, she felt strangely heartbroken to realize that he was a human, just like her.

The voices around her grew louder and closer, as if they were gaining on her. Emily broke into a run, crashing through bushes that tore at her clothes and skin. She could feel a deep panic, one that she had not allowed herself to feel for days. It reached up from her stomach through her throat, and for a few horrible moments, she thought that it would strangle her.

Just as she was convinced that the monsters would finally catch her, she ran headlong into the arms of a man in dark clothes. She couldn't see his face, but when he wrapped his arms around her, she nearly cried with relief. He was warm, and he was safe. She knew in that moment that she had never been so safe or so cared for her in her life.

She knew that she had to thank her protector, but instead, all she could do was bury her face in his chest and sob out loud. She felt him go stiff with shock for a moment, but then held her even more tightly, stroking her short blond hair, murmuring sweet words to her in a language she didn't know.

It was all right though; she didn't need to understand them to know what they meant.

You're safe, you're home, you're going to be fine…

She cried until she couldn't cry any more, and then she fell into a deeper slumber, a place where she could actually rest without disturbance.

When Emily woke up, she could see morning light coming through the barred windows. For a groggy moment, she only thought about how pretty it was, and then two things happened. First, she remembered what had happened to her. Her capture and her sale had not been horrible dreams, and she was farther from home than she had ever been.

Second, she became aware that she was not alone in the bed. A warm body pressed against her back, and a heavy arm draped over her waist.

What the hell…?

She must have made some kind of sound or whimper because the arm tightened protectively around her. When she twisted to look her bed mate in the face, he made a grumbling sound and woke up. It was the man who had bought her, and he looked at her with a sleepy approval that was entirely satisfied and entirely male.

“So you are finally awake,” he said, and a part of her was furious to hear him speaking to her as if they were actually lovers, as if they woke up in the same bed every day.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” she asked. “I locked you out…”

“Locks have keys,” he observed. “And I will point out that this is my room, one that I bought and paid for. As pleasant as it is, there is only one bed, and I certainly wasn't going to sleep on the floor.”

He sounded so sensible that she wanted nothing more in that moment than to slap him. With a growl, she got up from the bed, but somehow in the night the sheet had tangled around her. It stopped her forward momentum abruptly, and she went toppling toward the floor with a shriek.

She would have hit it hard if the man behind her hadn't lunged forward, catching her before she could land.

My god, he's fast,
she had time to think, and then he set her on her feet.

She started to thank him automatically, and then she looked down. To her shock, he was completely naked.

“Did…did you sleep with me like that?” she squeaked, and he laughed. If he wasn't laughing at
her
, she thought, it would be quite a nice laugh.

“I sleep naked every night,” he said with a shrug. “I saw no reason to interrupt my custom last night.”

“But I was in bed with you…” she said, her voice small and shy.

“Even less of a reason to interrupt my custom then,” he said, and there was a kindness to his words under the humor. She flashed back to her dream from the night before, suddenly remembering the warm and safe presence that had protected her. Had it been this man?

“You look a little less inclined to bite this morning,” he observed, and Emily tried to cover up her vulnerability with a shrug.

“It didn't get me anything,” she said, and he nodded.

“That is a very wise decision,” he said. “I am not a dangerous man. Not to you.”

She tilted her head to look at him wryly.

“I might believe that if you covered up…”

With a shrug, he picked up the sheet and draped it low around his hips. Emily was slightly startled to see that the drape of the rich fabric only made him more handsome. Now he looked like a Greek nude come to life, all hard muscle and handsome frame.

“This is your life for the next little while,” he said. “You can fight it and I can keep you locked in the room, or you can simply go along with it. It is your choice.”

She bit her lip, her mind whirling, but he wasn't done.

“However,” he said, his voice growing slightly darker, “I will tell you straightaway that I am far more powerful and far more terrifying than a simple slaver.”

“Are you threatening me?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“No. I am simply telling you how things are. Do as I say, and you will come out safe. This I swear to you. Do anything else…”

She nodded. She didn't want to hear what the alternative was.

“Right now, I want you to go to the bathroom and get clean. After that, we will have breakfast.”

Emily blinked at him. “Those are your orders? Take a shower and then have some food?”

He smiled. “I am not so unreasonable in general,” he said, turning to his closet. “You'll find I can even be quite pleasant.”

“Who are you?” The words came out of her with a kind of wonder, and when he turned to look at her speculatively, she coughed to hide it. “I mean, who are you? What should I call you?”

“Ah, well, for the time being, I am simply Adnan. And you are?”

It occurred to her that she should give him a false name, anything that would put something between the two of them. In a way that Emily hadn't thought possible, he owned her, as much as one human could own another.

“Emily,” she said softly, surprising herself.