Gambling With the Crown(37)

                Kadir stood at the top of the stairs and spread his hands wide. He said something in Arabic to the gathered men. Emily stood off to the side, out of view of the men, but where she could see them from the open door.

                Her heart throbbed and her palms were sweaty. Her beautiful plum dress felt like a sack now, and she wished for her comfortable shoes to walk down those stairs in. Her legs were shaking so much she didn’t know how she’d manage it in high heels. Her hair was too thick and heavy, and she wished she could pull it up, off her neck and into her familiar ponytail.

                She was lost in her thoughts, worrying her lower lip between her teeth, when Kadir stopped speaking. There was silence for a long moment, and then she looked up and realized he held out his hand to her.

                “It’s time,” he said. “Are you ready for this, habibti?”

                “Do I have a choice?” She’d wanted to sound brave and defiant, but her voice was barely more than a squeak.

                The beauty of his smile hit her like a one-two punch. How had she never fully realized the power of Kadir? How had she spent four years with him and never seen this?

                “It will be fine. You only have to appear to be madly in love with me. Just follow my lead.”

                Emily took a deep breath and put her hand in his. A current of electricity buzzed up her arm, into her heart, spread through her limbs until she was almost calm.

                Appear madly in love with him? How could she do anything else but? How could any woman?

                He pulled her to his side and wrapped an arm tight around her. He was so close, so right there, and her pulse was doing crazy things in response. His smile was almost mocking.

                He slid his free hand into her hair, cupped her nape like before. And this time, this time when he lowered his head, she did not stop him, though her heart knocked against her chest like a frightened rabbit. His mouth settled over hers and a shock rippled through her body, slid straight into her core and set up a throbbing response that craved his touch.

                She made a noise—she knew she did—but what kind of noise she would never know. Because Kadir caressed the skin of her collarbone, glided his fingers up her throat, cupped her chin and tilted her head back.

                And then his tongue slipped between her lips, stroked against her own—and she was lost.

                * * *

                He did not mean to kiss her quite like this. It was supposed to be a sweet kiss for the people observing them. A kiss to show he’d brought home a wife of whom he was enamored. To show he was serious.

                A sweet kiss for his new wife. Not this incredibly hot, shocking, erotic tangling of tongues that had him ready to devour her. This is Emily, he reminded himself. Emily.

                Yes, yes.

                Emily. Something inside him responded as if it recognized her. Recognized the fit and feel of her mouth against his.

                She was lush, his PA, and sweeter than he could have imagined possible. Something about her drove him perfectly insane with the kind of need he didn’t recall feeling in ages—not since he’d been a young man learning his body and how it responded to a woman’s touch.

                She made him feel that eager, that green.

                But no, that could not be right. He was thirty years old. He’d had his share of lovers over the years, but he was not jaded. Surely someone else had excited him this much. Had made him feel this, well, new.