Sheikh's Purchased Princess (5 page)

For a moment, he looked shocked, but then he covered it. Had he not expected her to have a name at all?

“All right, Emily. I believe you have your orders.”

She wondered if this was how it started. He would give her orders that she didn't mind following until she was so used to them that she didn't care what he commanded anymore. It was hard to miss the allure of the hot water after days of bathing herself out of a basin, however. She shot him one last suspicious look before going into the bathroom and locking the door behind her. He might have the key, but somehow the ability to lock the door felt like a kind of safety, a kind of privacy she had sorely missed.

She skimmed the clothes off her body, looking at herself in the mirror for a moment. The part of her that still thought of herself as a skinny, underfed girl roving the neighborhood in cheap clothes was shocked to her core that he had paid so much money for her.

As Emily stepped under the hot water of the shower, she wondered what he intended to do. The worst had failed to happen, but what did a man who paid that much for a woman want with her? It certainly wasn't to get her clean and to serve her breakfast, but that was exactly what he seemed to want. For now.

When she finished her shower, she had no choice but dress herself in her old clothes. Her displeasure at the cheap feel of the fabric was dissipated by the delicious smells coming from the living room. When she peeked out, she saw a man in a service uniform taking dishes off a cart and placing them on the table. She was shocked by how many he was unloading, and Adnan—so strange to get used to her captor having a real name—looked up and smiled.

“I didn't know what you wanted, so I ordered a selection. Come on and eat. You must be starving.”

A stubborn part of herself wanted to refuse out of spite, but then her stomach rumbled. Defiance was all well and good, but if she was too starved to take her chance when it came, she would never escape.

After the waiter left, she sat nervously on the couch next to him. He gazed at her for a moment and then shook his head.

“Come here,” he said, holding out his arm, and driven more by curiosity than anything else, she obeyed. Emily yelped with surprise when he lifted her up on his lap, moving her as if she weighed nothing. When she landed in his lap, the first thing she thought was she had never had a more comfortable chair. Then she glanced at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Are you planning to feed me?” she asked, and his smile was easy and light.

“It is how we tame falcons where I come from,” he said. “Every morsel of food they eat for three months comes from our hands. At first they are wild, inclined to claw…or bite. But by the end of the three months—”

“They are the slaves that you wish them to be,” Emily said sharply, but instead of being angry, he only shook his head.

“No. At the end of three months, they finally realize that we do not mean them any harm. They belong to us, but we belong to them, and so it has been throughout our long history.”

For some reason, the image was one that struck her as absurdly lovely. The wild bird and the patient man, each a part of the other, and both living and working together.

“Have you ever tamed a falcon yourself?” she asked, her voice strangely hushed. He nodded.

“When I was a young boy, my uncle, who was a famous falconer, took me away from home for six months. He had a beautiful bird himself, one who would tear strips out of a man she didn't like but who would purr and chirp when he scratched her head. He made me climb the cliffs to retrieve an egg of my own, and then he had me keep it close to my breast for a month before it hatched.”

“The falcon thought you were her mother.”

“No,” he corrected her. “The falcon thought I was the world. We hunted together for almost ten years before she died.”

A part of her that had been buried by all of the pain and stress of the last few days resurged now and wanted nothing more than her guitar. She wanted a song about that, about the wild hunt of man and bird, of faith and a kind of consuming love that would never be ended except by death.

“And now little falcon, it is time for you to eat.” Emily hadn't noticed him preparing a small plate of food while he spoke.

She was so startled by his words that she took the small bite that he offered her. It was egg and something peppery and a soft goat cheese, and she wasn't sure that she had ever tasted anything so delicious. Her stomach, which had forgotten it was hungry for days, now woke up and clamored for more, and he was happy to feed her, bit by bit. She was glad he went slowly, her empty stomach needing extra time to get used to real food again.

If someone had told Emily what was going to happen, she would have found it strange, perhaps even humiliating. In the moment, however, seated on Adnan's lap and being fed some of the most delicious food that she had ever had, she found nothing strange about it at all. As Oma had taught her, she had only the moment, the sensations and the consuming sense of safety and peace that she felt.

When she was finished, Emily rested her head against his shoulder as if she had done so for years.

“Are you all right, Emily?” he asked. Her name sounded natural coming from him. Abruptly, she realized that no one had bothered to call her by her name for days, and for some reason, that made tears well up in her eyes.

“I am,” she said, fighting back tears. “Or rather, I'm really not, but at least I am full and warm…”

He made a soft sound of sympathy, putting down the fork and wrapping his arms around her. She realized in the back of her mind that it was actually he who had comforted her in the night. A part of her recognized him, and she could not deny that.

“This will end,” he said, which was, when she thought about it, a strange promise for a man to make to the woman he had bought. “I swear to you, this will end soon and you will be safe.”

“I want to believe you,” she said, her voice soft, and when she looked into his eyes, she could see something there, a sadness, a grief for her that she would never have expected.

“You can,” he said.

She started to respond to that, but suddenly his mouth was there, nudging hers open in a deep kiss. If she had the brain to think about it, she would have thought that it was very brave for the man that she had savagely bitten not twelve hours ago, but right at that moment, all she could think about was her own pleasure and the sweetness of the kiss.

There was nothing forceful about the kiss. There was nothing crude or unwanted about it. Instead, all she could think about was the sparks of need that seemed to go through her body like fireworks. A need pulsed through her in a way that she hadn't experienced before, in a way that made her moan with desire.

When he pulled her away, he left her lips tingling from his touch. When she licked her lips, she could taste him.

“I want you,” he said simply.

Without thinking about what she was doing, Emily wrapped her arms around him, drawing him close. This time, when she felt his body stir underneath her, she couldn't stop a soft moan from escaping her lips. There was something splendidly real there. This man could carry her away from the trouble and pain of the last few days. With just a single touch, he could make her forget all of it. That power amazed her, and she simply gave herself up to it.

It came to her in a strange flash that she had just as much power over him as he had over her, at least in this arena. When she gently pressed her tongue between his lips, she could feel his hands on her hips tighten. The way his body tensed, the way he had to stop himself from rising up to meet her with need stunned her. She had never felt less like a slave; she felt like a queen with all eyes on her, a power in her own right.

“By all the stars in heaven's sky,” he groaned, “do you have any idea what you are doing to me, beautiful one?”

The words sent a frisson of pleasure through her, but it was more than that. It was his tone as well, the longing pull that seemed to stretch between them.

“I want to…to…”

She floundered, at a loss, and all she could think to do was kiss him. Instinctively, Emily grabbed a fistful of his dark hair, holding him still as she kissed him. He was nothing but pure power underneath her. He could snap her in half, but right now, he felt helpless under her hands.

His laugh was a ragged thing, even as his hands held tight to her hips.

“You may do exactly as you wish to me,” he promised, and her heart beat faster.

She shifted on his lap, and as she did so, she felt his arousal even more clearly. This time, it didn't make her feel like a hunted animal. Instead, it sent a bolt of pure fire through her.

“Anything I want?” she asked, her voice soft. “And what will you be doing?”

He paused. He was a man with power. She couldn't imagine he would give it up easily, but when he shrugged, there seemed to be nothing easier in the world.

“I will do what you wish.”

A part of her shouted that she should be asking for her freedom, that she should ask to leave, to be sent home, but right then, all she wanted was the freedom to touch this man, to make him gasp, to make his eyes open wide with the pleasure she could give him.

“I want you,” she whispered, because that was the truest thing she could think of. She did want this man. She wanted his strength, his beauty, his power. She wanted him to make her forget everything that had happened over the past few days.

When Emily looked down into Adnan's eyes, she could see how black they were and how deep. She wondered how she looked to him, whether he could see the need in her and the fear that she had been keeping back for what felt like years.

“Heaven above, I want you,” he murmured. “More than I should…”

Again, Emily wondered at the strange sentiment from a man who had bought her, but she pushed it away. It was too much to think of now. Instead, all she cared about was the beautiful man who looked up at her as if she had stars woven in her hair. She leaned down to kiss him, and this time, this time, she thought she would simply give it all to him, all of it…

“Damn it.”

That was all the warning that Emily got before his hands closed on her hips, lifting her up and away. She squawked in a particularly undignified way when he lifted her clear and settled her down on the couch next to him.

“What's the matter?” A horrible thought occurred to her. “Did I do something wrong? What—”

“No, no, you have done nothing wrong…” Adnan replied running his fingers through his hair. Just the motion awakened something needy in her. She wanted to touch his hair, to make sure that he was still real. Right now he was the only stable thing in her world, and the thought of it made her dizzy.

“You,” he said, standing up and away from her, “were made to tempt men to evil.”

“I can't help it!” Emily blurted out. As soon as she said it, she realized what a foolish thing it was to say. She blushed hard, but Adnan only grinned at her. In the back of her mind, she noted what a sweet smile it was, and there was a faint and ringing bell somewhere deep in her memory.

“No, I don't think you can,” he said, and there was an edge of regret to his voice as well. “Be that as it may, you are too tempting by half, and frankly…I am not interested.”

Emily felt as if the world was tumbling out from underneath her. If he wasn't interested in her, what would happen? Would she be returned to the place where the other girls were kept?

“Then why did you buy me?”

It was, she realized after she said it, possibly the worst thing a girl could say to her captor. This was the man who had spent an enormous amount of money to do exactly what he wanted with her, and no matter what it was, she was not in a position to question him. Oma had made that distressingly clear.

Adnan paused. For perhaps the first time, she wondered what was going on in his head, what his motivations were. It had seemed so simple when he had simply been the evil man buying her, when she could simply look at him as a villain. Now things were much more complicated, and Emily realized that she had absolutely no script for what was going to happen.

“That is not something that you need to know,” he said, looking away, and that temper that had always gotten her into so much trouble reared its head again. She leaped up from the couch so she could face him on her own two feet, her face heating. Her whole life, she was used to fighting for what she needed, though that instinct had been necessarily cloaked for days. Now it came raging up to the forefront again.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” she hissed. “What kind of game are you playing at? This is my life. Don't you get it? You can't just tell me that I don’t need to know what is happening with
my life
.”

There was a spark in his eyes, and suddenly he seemed much larger. He towered over her like a storm cloud, and even though a small part of her told her that lightning was going to strike, she stood up tall, tilting her chin up and daring him to do what he thought he could.

“I think that I am doing exactly as I please,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “Which is what I have paid for. They told me you were a virgin…should I test that?”

Emily could have snapped her teeth at him.

“They already did,” she said, her voice only trembling a little. “They already did, and at least they had the…the courtesy to tell me what they were doing! They didn't keep me in the dark. No matter what terrible thing they were going to do, they told me! What you are doing—hanging my fate over my head as if it were some kind of prize that I have to leap for—this is worse!”

He closed the space between them in one giant stride, and she had never felt as small or as vulnerable as she did just then. Instead of cowering though, Emily lifted her chin and met his eyes. She would be damned if he got her to cringe away like some kind of abused animal.

“I can show you worse,” he growled, and there was a threat of thunder in his voice. “I can show you much, much worse, little beauty…”

This time, when he wrapped his arms around her, there was nothing gentle and nothing tender about it. He crushed her to his body, and she couldn’t miss his response to her. His erection pressed against her belly, making her almost painfully aware of how he wanted her.