Darker Side of Desire & the Sheikh's Pregnant Prisoner(48)

“I understand why you jumped in to help this time,” he said, cutting her off. “I’m also willing to accept that you made an ill-informed and wrong decision with the right intentions. But you have to promise me that you won’t take any more unnecessary risks.”

Her ire rose at his autocratic tone. But since her new motto was to set aside her needs and insecurities for the sake of her unborn child, she said, “Anything else that Your Highness is willing to cede?”

“Behraat’s political clime is changing. If I curb your freedom, it’s because your safety—” He raised a hand when she opened her mouth, and continued, “and not just because you carry my child, is important to me. I would not have you hurt in any way, Lauren. Ever.”

She folded her hands, willing her heart to stop racing. Never had she heard that raw emotion in his tone, never had such simple words held such sway over her. “Is your offer to reevaluate our situation after the baby’s here still valid?”

“There will be no need.”

Shaking her head, she glared at him. “You promised.”

“Come here,” he said in a curiously flat, nonthreatening tone.

He meant to touch her. That intent in his gaze was like a tug at her senses that she found herself swaying to the balls of her feet. “No.”

Something hot and needy detonated in his gaze. And it took everything she had to not scuttle away like cornered prey.

He took one step toward her and she instantly sidestepped. “I think you have a subconscious fantasy of me chasing and capturing you, Lauren.”

Heat tightened her cheeks. Being chased by Zafir, being wanted by him, needed by him…it was a crazy fantasy she’d already indulged in, all right. That messed with her head far too often. “Zafir, I…” She faced him, ignoring her racing pulse. “I don’t want to fight with you.”

Another step closer. “No, habeebti, we won’t fight.”

“I don’t want you to touch me either. There’s only so many times I can pull the ‘do what you will with me’ routine.”

Something almost like amusement glinted deep in his eyes. “All I said was to come closer. I’d like to see the changes my child is making in your body,” he said in an exaggeratedly patient voice.

“And then, we can talk? Like adults,” she rushed over her words as he loomed over her, “adults who’re going to share a huge, life-changing responsibility,” his hands covered hers and tugged her, their legs banging each other before he steadied her, his scent luring her in, as she continued speaking, “who both want the best for their child and…” soundless pants fell from her mouth as his hot gaze seared wherever it fell, “who would never, ever, force their child to pick sides.”

And then she was shaking from holding herself back and his hands moved down her shoulders gently, whispering something in his native language, something tender. Oh, how she wished she could understand the words falling from his lips before he gathered her to him, his palm resting at the base of her back.

Warmth uncoiled in her lower belly.

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime of waiting on the edge of a knife, one hand moved to her hip and the other to her abdomen.

His chin dropped to her forehead, her heart thumping so loud in her ears. She hid her face in his chest, felt the beat of his heart under her cheek. A harsh breath fell out of his lips and she felt his powerful frame shudder all around her while his palm moved softly. “This is the most precious thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” he finally said in a hushed, husky tone that sent shivers down her spine.

At least, that was not a lie, Zafir thought, his heart bursting with emotion.

“Please, Zafir, let me go,” came Lauren’s hoarse whisper. “I can’t… I can’t breathe.”

A muscle jumped in his cheek as he looked down at her, but he leashed the possessive need that flared through him.

She looked tired and sleepy, her wild hair only half-dry. He wanted to burrow deep under her skin and never emerge.

“Dealing with you is like trying to contain a sandstorm.”

“I’ll not say or be sorry for upsetting your life. Not when—”

“Not when the result is this baby, yes?”

His hand moved up her back, traced the line of her shoulders, settled at her nape in a possessive hold.

Now that she was going to be his, he realized he couldn’t contain his excitement. And not because of the languorous desire that hummed through his veins. But for the first time in his life, he felt something different, something tender and yet equally disconcerting.

“You love the baby so much already?”

“Yes.” Her hands tightened around his middle. And he swallowed the tight fist in his throat. “More than I’ve ever loved anyone.”

Stark and beautiful like the desert, the truth of her words resonated around him, filling him with a joy like no other. “I apologize for my harsh words to you.”

He heard her breath catch, and then even out. She knew what he was talking about.

He would give her everything he possibly could, he decided in that instant. For everything he couldn’t, didn’t know, how to give.

Finally, the stiffness in her shoulders eased and he could feel her relaxing against him. The brush of her slight belly against his abdomen sent his breath hurtling through his throat. “I’ll forgive you if you forgive me.”

“Already done.”

“Zafir, whatever the future—”

“Become my wife, Lauren.”

* * *

Shock propelled Lauren out of his arms. “You’re…”

Joking…she’d been about to say but the word disappeared as she looked at him.

Without a hint of shadow, his gaze gleamed golden. Every line of his face said he’d made up his mind.

He wanted to marry her. God, he would be her husband…

The very word felt strangely exciting in her mind, so possessive, and so irrevocably final. For she knew in her very bones that Zafir didn’t make the decision lightly.

Shivers spewed in her muscles. And they were as much out of excitement as they were out of fear.

“I would not joke. My anger from the past clouded my judgment until now.”

“Because you don’t want the same fate as you suffered for our child?” Of course, that’s why.

Clasping her hand with his, he pulled her close. “That’s what made me think of marriage, yes. But it was just the spark that ignited it. It is right for us in so many ways.

“If I had acknowledged my disturbing propensity to forget all rationale and judgment when it comes to you, I’d have realized where this was heading long ago.”

Her heart threatened to shove out of her chest, so hard and loud it thumped. She didn’t need love. She herself barely knew it. But that he would make this commitment to her, it made her blood pound in her veins. “Somehow, I don’t think it’s a compliment to be associated with low judgment.”

“That is all you will get out of me,” he quipped and her mouth went dry.

“What about Behraat? About me being an American and not fitting in your world… What about all that virgin bride stuff and alliances that will bring…”

What about you and me, the question came unbidden to her lips.

But there was no just them, she told herself.

Those two months in New York, that had been stolen time.

Until it had changed both their lives forever.

Clasping her hand tight in his, Zafir said, “You pay too much attention to the palace gossip, Lauren. I thought you above that kind of thing.” Her pulse raced under his thumb. “Have you ever heard any of that from my mouth?” When she shook her head, he nodded. “The Sheikha cannot be susceptible to rumors for there will be many who’ll want to sway you to their side,” he said, arrogant confidence dripping from his pores. “In any case, I will train you in our ways.”

She scrunched her nose at him. “I’m not a pet to be sent off to training. Nothing will make me into the kind of wife or the woman Behraat will expect me to be, Zafir.”

His large hands were now on her shoulders, his breath feathering her face. “Your life will change in a number of ways, but I’m confident that you will handle it all. Independence is one thing, Lauren. Marrying the Sheikh of Behraat, another.”

Hand tucked under her chin, he lifted her head up until she looked at him. Pressed his mouth to her temple, “I need you, Lauren. Unlike anything or anyone else in the world.”

Everything within her, every urge she had ever repressed came out to play when it was this man who looked at her as if she was his sanity, as if she could calm him, as if she could rebalance his world.

That he needed her had always been her downfall.

She took his hand in hers. “This will work only if you promise me one thing, Zafir.”

* * *

Don’t ask me for the truth, Zafir thought.

Don’t force me to lie even more, the ones he’d already told scouring him.

Something resolute filled her face, chasing away the hesitation that came before it. And he braced himself and suddenly he knew why he had hesitated so much.

This incredibly delicate, infinitely fragile slip of a woman had power over him.

He’d already indulged himself for far too much when it came to her.