Nadir's expression grew stern. 'Bloody hell. I believed you when you said you hadn't slept with her. I should have known when I saw you in the garden-'
'That was nothing.'
'Nothing? Two more minutes and you would have ripped her clothes off.'
Zach drew his eyes away from Farah and regarded his brother. 'More like one, but that's not why I have to marry her. And I didn't lie. Nothing has actually happened between us.' Well, nothing if you ignored the unexpected make-out session in the alleyway or his subsequent fantasies in the shower. Not to mention what he'd been about to do to her in the garden. 'I have not slept with her. Not in the biblical sense, anyway.'
'Then we'll get you out of this.'
Zach could see Nadir readying himself to go into problem-solving mode but Zach's attention was elsewhere. Which was why he only vaguely heard the mention of war, peace and love. And he knew his brother wasn't doing a book review.
He swung back to Nadir. 'What about love?'
Nadir sighed impatiently. 'You said that was the only reason you would marry-if you were in love.'
Yeah, that was what he'd said once. But honour and integrity were just as important and he wasn't about to let this little spitfire who knew obscure facts about Roman history, and who intrigued him and made him laugh as no other woman ever had, take that from him. 'Excuse me,' he said to his brother, crossing the room before he'd even registered his intention.
His icy gaze went to the idiot's, his hand to Farah's elbow. 'This meeting is over,' he informed the tense trio.
Of course, she tried to pull away from him. 'I told my father-'
'I will marry your daughter.' He spoke over the top of her, clasping her elbow more firmly.
'Never thought I'd see the day a Darkhan would do the right thing,' the old man preached.
'Only because you probably don't recognise the gesture.'
Farah's knight-errant cleared his throat. 'I don't-'
Zach turned on Amir as he squared off against him and was clearly about to spill his guts. 'You are about to lose your head if you're not careful,' he bit out. 'Guards, put them in prison,' he ordered softly.
At the mention of prison his newly acquired fiancée came to life once more. 'No!'
She pulled out of his hold and rushed to stand in front of the two men like Joan of Arc facing off against the English at Orleans. 'You can't send them to prison.'
Any other time her loyalty might have impressed him. Just not this time. 'And just how do you propose to stop me?'
'Zach...' He heard his brother's cautioning tone but ignored it.
'Not even you could lock up your own father-in-law,' she announced belligerently.
Her father stiffened. 'That's enough, Farah!' he scolded. 'I don't need you to fight my battles for me.'
Zach stared at the woman in front of him, all willowy and beautiful, a touch of vulnerability in her eyes most would probably have missed. He'd noticed it earlier as well, when her father had insulted her, and it had made him want to protect her then, as it did now.
Unable to stop himself, he reached out and ran the back of his knuckles down the smooth line of her cheek. Her breath hitched and he didn't miss that, either. 'So tough, my little spitfire,' he murmured. 'So passionate.'
She knocked his hand away. 'About things I care about, yes.' Her voice was husky and made his body ache to have her.
'Hell.' His brother's low curse spoke volumes. 'She has a point, Zach, and I need to get back to Imogen. I'll let you go, Hajjar,' his brother informed the older man. 'But you put one foot out of line and I'll haul you into prison so fast your head will spin.'
A lead silence filled the room.
'Come, Farah,' her father finally said with a regal dignity that made Zach want to laugh. 'I will take you home.'
'No, you won't,' Zach found himself saying. He smiled. 'Your daughter is now my fiancée and that means she's mine to do with as I please.'
CHAPTER NINE
WITH THE RUSH of adrenaline behind him, Zach was seriously starting to question his sanity. He'd just committed himself to marry a woman he barely knew. A woman he didn't even like!
He stormed down the corridor with said woman in tow. How had this happened? One minute he'd been celebrating not only his brother's wedding but also the fact that Nadir had agreed to take the throne and the next he was...he was...getting married? Any minute now and he was sure doctors in white coats were going to come rushing around the corner looking for him.
The cause of his immense irritation tugged against his hold. 'I'm tired of you dragging me around like this.'
Zach tightened his grip. 'Not as tired as I am of having to do it.'
Especially when they were in this predicament because she hadn't spoken up and admitted that nothing had happened between them.
Nothing? his conscience mocked.
A growl rose up in his throat. A few kisses did not require a marriage proposal. In the West they might not, but in Bakaan a man didn't trifle with a woman unless he was serious.
But marry Farah Hajjar?
Zach inwardly cursed himself. All his life he'd ignored the exotic Bakaani girls who had thrown themselves in his path with one purpose in mind. All his life, until this one. And she hadn't even thrown herself at him. No. She'd done something much worse: she'd kidnapped him. Or her father had.
He still didn't know why the old man had done it, although he could guess. With Zach's father gone, Hajjar had probably hoped to destabilise the country and attempt a coup. The thought was as ludicrous as his suggestion that Zach marry his daughter. And then another possibility hit him and his whole body went still.
Farah squeaked as she nearly ran into him from behind. Zach stared at her. Was that why Hajjar had done it? To get the two of them together so that they were forced to marry and get a Hajjar on the throne any way possible? His rational side discounted the idea as absurd-the Hajjars had hated the Darkhans since the dawn of time-but he'd underestimated Farah once before and had the scar on his arm to show for it. Had he underestimated her father, as well?
'We need to talk.' He pushed open the door to his apartment.
Farah glanced up at him as she swept past. 'I couldn't agree more.'
Dismissing his guards with a nod, Zach followed her inside. He bypassed his sofas, headed straight for his wet bar and grabbed a crystal decanter half filled with whisky. 'Drink?'
She eyed the offer disparagingly. 'I thought you wanted to talk.'
He downed a finger of Scotch. 'I'd like to dull the pain first.'
'We're not really getting married, you know.'
'We're not?' He added ice to the glass this time before leaning back against the bar, taking in her rigid stance. 'That whole thing was just an act back there? Damn, I wish I'd known. I would have organised party music.'
Her soft lips pinched together. 'Don't you know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?'
'It's fitting, then,' he drawled. 'Since I can't remember feeling this low before.'
'You and me both,' she said on a rush, sinking down onto one of the sofas and removing her heels; her sigh of pleasure hitting him exactly where he didn't need it to right now.
'You know, if you drop the kidnapping charges I could probably get my father to withdraw his demands that we marry.' Her pleading look was one of innocence and hope and for a fleeting moment he had to fight the urge to go and comfort her.
Clearing his head with another dose of alcohol, he cast her a cynical smile. 'Oh, I'm sure you'd like that,' he bit out. 'But it's not that simple any more.'
'I don't see why not.'
'Because your lack of a convincing denial that I have dishonoured you has set something bigger than the two of us in motion. But then, maybe you knew that all along,' he added softly.
'Knew what?'
Zach paced to shake off the adrenaline that surged through him. Her puzzled expression was either genuine or a good act. His money was on the latter. 'Marrying me has enormous benefits.'
'Like what?' She gave a derisive snort. 'Being close to your enormous ego?'
Unable to remember another woman who had dared to speak to him with such disdain, he stopped in front of her, forcing her to have to look a long way up to meet his gaze. 'Money. Power.' He gritted his teeth. 'A Hajjar potentially on the throne one day.'
Instead of being intimidated by him, she just looked annoyed. 'If you're implying that my father wanted this to happen...' She wrinkled her nose. 'That's ludicrous. He loathes your family.'
'He loathes that my family is on the throne, and now we're to be married. A bit opportune, don't you think?'
'No, I don't think that at all, and if you thought about it logically you'd know it's not true. My father is stuck in the past and thinks that all women need a man to take care of them. That's the only thing that's going on here.'