CHAPTER EIGHT
FARAH'S HEART CAUGHT in her throat as she saw her father standing proud and tall in what looked like a private office. Amir was beside him, four palace guards surrounding them both.
Her father's eyes fell on her and widened before turning to the prince. 'What have you done to my daughter?'
Farah felt the prince's barely leashed anger. 'Greetings to you, too, Hajjar,' he drawled insolently. 'How good of you to grace us with your presence.'
Her father's eyes narrowed. 'Just answer the question, cur.'
Farah nearly groaned at her father's rudeness. Now was not the time to challenge the man he had kidnapped.
'You will not be making demands here, Hajjar,' the prince said with grim certainty. 'You are in my realm now.'
Her father raised his head. 'I'm sure you will do your worst, but not to my daughter.'
'I'll do what I like.'
'Gentlemen.' Sheikh Nadir stepped between them. 'I urge you to keep this civil.'
'This is not one of your boardrooms, Nadir,' the prince overrode his brother. 'I intend to see justice done.'
'Justice?' Her father spat. 'You wouldn't know justice if it jumped up and bit you in the backside. You're just like your father.'
'Careful, Hajjar.' Sheikh Nadir's tone was unmistakably deadly. 'This is my wedding day and you did kidnap my brother.'
'I don't deny it. But he took my daughter and spent two nights with her alone in the desert. That is a slur against her good reputation and he should be forced to make amends.'
Amir shifted forward. 'Did you touch her?' he bit out.
Farah's eyes flew to his. A muscle jumped in his jaw as he eyeballed the prince.
'That's none of your business.' Prince Zachim's piercing gaze cut from Amir's to hers and Farah felt her face turn brick red as she recalled every time he had touched her and how much she had secretly enjoyed it. A spark of awareness simmered behind the prince's eyes, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, as if he too could still feel the press of his blunt fingertips against the underside of her breasts. An unexpected shaft of hunger tightened every one of her nerves, as if in anticipation of that touch, and she released the shaky breath she'd been holding for too long. She knew she should be saying something but she couldn't move under the weight of that unmistakably sexual look; couldn't think.
'By Allah!' Her father's righteous bellow filled the room and Farah shook off the sensual malaise that threatened to consume her. 'If this cur has compromised my daughter's honour then he will marry her.'
Marry her?
'No!' Farah's automatic response was nearly drowned out by Prince Zachim's insulting laugh and Amir's horrified shout of disapproval.
'If you think you can use this to get out of justice being served, Hajjar, you're wrong,' Zach stated menacingly.
'At least I admit what I did,' her father spat, as if that completely exonerated him from his crime. 'You...you take my daughter and dress her up as your...your whore and expect me to say nothing?'
Even though she knew her father hadn't meant to insult her quite so badly, Farah still felt the sting of his disapproval like a sharp slap. The prince stilled beside her. 'Retract that insult to your daughter immediately,' he warned quietly. 'Or I will do it for you.'
Farah stiffened with shock at his instant and unequivocal defence of her. It felt as if no one had been in her corner since her mother had died and a sweet spear of pain lanced her heart.
'Do you deny the charge?' her father demanded.
'I am not beholden to you or anyone else,' the prince stated grimly.
'But you are beholden to the laws of this country and you have wronged my daughter by taking her from her home and then spending the night with her. And something happened between you,' her father asserted. 'My daughter is in shock.'
An understatement, Farah thought, her mind reeling at all that had been said, including the ludicrous statement that the prince should marry her. Her father had to be mad to even suggest it.
'Zach?' Nadir's quietly controlled voice broke into the emotion swirling around them and something passed between the two brothers that she couldn't read.
Prince Zachim growled low in his throat and stabbed a hand through his jet-black hair, the lethal glitter in his amber gaze pinning her to the spot. Power throbbed from every one of his muscles and the sexual chemistry that thrilled her as much as it appalled her ratcheted up a notch. 'I did not compromise this woman,' he said with deliberate slowness.
'Easy enough to say,' her father snarled.
'Tell him, Farah,' the prince ordered roughly, her name husky on his lips.
Tell me you want me, Farah?
'Tell him that nothing happened between us.'
Nothing?
She blinked up at him. She supposed in his world the way he had touched her and kissed her had meant nothing to him and, no, he hadn't compromised her in the way her father meant. But he had made her aware of the sensual nature of her body for the first time in her life and it had changed her in a way she couldn't yet explain. Worse, it had made her want him on a level she had never wanted another man. Was that nothing?
Appalled to find herself close to tears, she stared at the floor to gather her wits but as soon as she heard Amir's swift intake of breath she realised that the men had interpreted her hesitation as an admission of guilt.
A clock she hadn't noticed before ticked loudly in the deathly silence right before both her father and Amir erupted, gesticulating wildly. Within seconds the palace guards surrounded them, guns drawn.
Farah saw Prince Zachim stiffen as he stared at her, his expression one of outraged astonishment. Sheikh Nadir swore under his breath.
'By Allah, you will marry my daughter,' her father bellowed, 'or you will bring the wrath of all the mountain tribes down on your head.'
The sheikh swore again.
So did the prince this time.
'Father, listen, I-'
'Stay out of this, Farah.'
Stay out of it! Farah nearly choked as her own temper rose to the surface.
Then Amir spoke, further tightening the screws of tension in the elegant room. 'I will marry Farah.'
Farah groaned. 'Amir, don't.'
His brown eyes were fierce as they met hers. 'I don't care if you have lain with him. I will have you for my own.'
'Over my dead body.' The prince hadn't moved a muscle but he seemed to dominate the space.
Farah's head throbbed as her mind scrambled to fix what was happening.
'Zach. A word.' Nadir's commanding tone brooked no argument. Farah glanced away as the prince gave her a loaded stare before following his brother to the other side of the room.
Sighing heavily, she rounded on her father. 'Father-'
'Don't argue.' He folded his arms across his massive chest. 'That dog will do the honourable thing by you if it's the last thing he does.'
'But I don't want to get married,' she asserted.
Her father waved her claim away as if her desires were inconsequential. 'Every woman wants to get married.'
Well aware of his chauvinistic views, Farah tried another tact. 'At least let me choose who I marry, because the prince was telling the truth-nothing happened.'
'You should have listened to me,' her father stated as if she hadn't even spoken. 'When I told you to stay away from him.'
'Like you're listening to me now?' she retorted.
'I told you to stay away, too.' Amir interrupted, clasping her clammy hands between his. 'I knew it would lead to trouble.'
So this was her fault?
She felt so utterly infuriated she didn't trust herself to speak. And she supposed this was her fault, in a way. She had defied her father in her misguided attempt to fix everything but, damn it, she had only wanted to help. She had only wanted to prevent things from getting worse for her father. Next time he wanted to go rampaging she'd make sure she stayed home!
She stared down at Amir's hands holding hers, his thumb stroking her skin in a soothing gesture, and she wondered how much more this night would deteriorate when the high and mighty Prince of Bakaan refused to marry her.
* * *
'Zach, you don't have to marry her.'
Zach heard Nadir's quiet words but his attention was riveted to the tableau across the room. Their body language spoke volumes. Farah's face flushed with her ardent displeasure; her bearing was nothing short of regal, her father holding himself aloof like an imperious ass, and his second-in-command...had just taken hold of her hands.
Zach's eyes narrowed. An unexplainable rage welled up inside him. Were they secret lovers? It wasn't unheard of, even though a woman was supposed to come to her husband's marriage bed a virgin. Would she come to his in that untouched state? Or had she already given herself to the idiot who was about to lose his hand-at best!
His jaw clenched. 'Idiot.'
'Sorry?'
'Not you.' Zach briefly thought about bypassing his hand and going straight for his neck. He, the master communicator-well, there was nothing like a broken neck to get a point across, he supposed. 'But, yes, I do have to marry her.'