Hidden in the Sheikh's Harem: Christmas at the Castello(31)

'Zachim-'

'It's fine, Farah.' Amir did not take his eyes off the prince. 'I can go.'

'Yes, you can,' Zach snarled, his eyes alight with murderous intent as  Amir paused beside him and whispered something under his breath.

Farah couldn't hear what it was but it only made her husband's eyes  turn colder. He raised his hand and security was there in an instant to  do his bidding.

Mortified at the way he had just treated Amir who had only been trying  to make amends Farah stared at him. 'Why did you treat my friend like  that?'

'Why did he come into my home unannounced?'

'Your home?'

'Don't play semantic games with me, Farah. What did he want with you?'

'He wanted to make amends.'

Zach made a scathing noise in the back of his throat. 'He is not welcome here.'

Affronted by his easy dismissal of her wishes Farah bristled. 'He is welcome here.'

Blowing out a breath he stopped in front of her. 'I did not come here to argue with you.'

'Then stop being such an egomaniac,' she bit out, trying to keep the  hurt from her voice. 'If I want to entertain a friend, then I will.'

Feet planted wide apart, he glowered at her. 'Not if I forbid it.'

'Not if you...?' All the confusing, unsettling emotions she'd been  feeling ever since they'd returned to Bakaan coalesced into anger. Anger  at herself, at him, anger at their whole, damned miserable arrangement.  'Don't you dare try and dictate what I can and can't do. I'm not your  possession.'

She didn't have time to say anything else because Zach was on her, his  mouth crashing down over hers in a demanding, controlling kiss that left  her in no doubt just what he could and couldn't do. 'Yes, you are.  You're mine, Farah. Don't ever forget it.'                       
       
           



       

His! Of all the... Forgetting her non-violence policy Farah lashed out  at him, welcoming the spurt of adrenaline that came with a good fight.

Within seconds, however, he'd subdued her. 'Temper, temper, my little wild cat.'

'Oh.' Farah tossed her hair out of her face. 'You great, big, patronising-'

She didn't get any further because Zach's mouth covered hers again, his  tongue duelling with her own and, oh, it felt so good to be held by him  like this, so good to be kissing him with all the pent-up passion she'd  been unable to express.

Moaning, she arched into him, melting against him as he hitched her  thigh up over his hip, angling his body into hers so that she was in no  doubt as to how aroused he was. 'You are mine,' he breathed against her  mouth. 'And if I don't want you to see someone because I deem it unsafe,  then you won't.'

Incensed by his words, by her own traitorous body, Farah shoved against  him, only coming up against the horse stall for her efforts. 'I can  protect myself if that's what you're worried about,' she panted.

'Like now?'

He forced her hard up against the brick wall, his thigh wedged between  her own in a move reminiscent of when he had trapped her in the  alleyway.

Moonbeam shifted restlessly behind him, disturbed by all the pent-up  emotion circulating in the room. A feeling of utter helplessness came  over Farah and the weight of despair descended on her shoulders. Any  hopes she had been harbouring that Zach cared for her, that he might one  day want her with him because he respected her as his equal, dissolved  into nothing. 'I hate you,' she said, unsure if it was him she hated or  just herself for loving someone who did not love her in return.

'I don't give a damn.' He released her and swiped his hand across his mouth as if to wipe her taste away.

He didn't give a damn how she felt? 'Nice to know,' she said, before  turning with as much dignity as she could muster and walking away from  him.

* * *

Zach watched as she slowly walked away from him and nearly put his fist through the wall.

Where had all that anger come from? He hardly recognised himself. He,  the king of communication, had just acted like Cro-Magnon man with an  obsession.

Just thinking about it brought him out in a cold sweat. Usually he was  great with women-even-tempered, patient, considerate. Just then he'd  been...he'd been... Well, he hadn't handled himself at all well. He  could admit that.

It had been the confident expression on Amir's face and his snide, 'I  knew you wouldn't be able to make her happy,' as he'd walked past him  that had done it.

Zach hated to admit it, but he'd got the better of him, because it had  struck too close to the bone. And the whole time afterwards he'd been  wondering what Farah had told him. What she had revealed to make the  soldier so sure of himself.

I hate you.

'Great going, Darkhan. Maybe you can develop an app that will show men how to get their wives on side.'

Not.

He stopped pacing when he reached the back of the stable and clasped  his hands over his head, trying to reassemble his thoughts. One of the  junior staff members caught sight of him and quickly scurried for cover.

First, he listed mentally, you might hate the guy but you can't dictate who she does and doesn't see. You know that.

Second, you need to pull back. Get some perspective on how this marriage is going to work.

And third... Third, he just needed to apologise to her for being such an idiot.

Feeling that his emotions were on simmer instead of a rapid boil, he took a deep breath and went in search of her.

When he found her in their living room reading a work file, it pulled  him up short. Nice to know their argument hadn't interrupted her focus.

Glancing up as he approached, her eyes turned wary. He stopped and took a deep breath. 'I was wrong to yell at you. I'm sorry.'

'It doesn't matter,' she dismissed politely.

'Of course it matters,' he said just as politely.

'Look, Zach...' She hesitated. 'Things haven't really been the same  since we returned from Ibiza and if we're honest-' she took a breath  '-which I like to think that we always have been with each other, then I  can't see things getting any better between us.' She looked up at him  then. 'Can you?'

Zach nodded as if he agreed but really he was thinking that he'd been  right to assume that she wanted out of the marriage. She did but she was  hardly being honest about it.

'The truth is,' she continued, 'we're both victims in this situation.'                       
       
           



       

Victims? 'You're only a victim if you think you're a victim,' he bit out tautly. 'And I am no victim.'

'Well, that's easy for you to say. You're a man and a prince.'

'I don't care what I am.'

'Fine.' She sighed heavily. 'I was only trying to make this easier.'

Zach paced across the room to put some distance between them. 'You were  trying to say that now that I won't prosecute your father there's no  reason for us to stay married. How's that for honesty?'

She flashed him a pained look. 'That's not the only reason but with the  past laid to rest it certainly means that there's nothing holding us  together any more.'

Nothing. There was that word again.

Zach looked at her and saw her eyes shiny with tears. Or was it  defiance? Because she had done nothing but defy him all along and  he...he'd been arrogant enough to assume that she would eventually fall  for him as almost every other woman had. That he could make this  marriage work from sheer will alone.

The truth was he hadn't wanted to disappoint his mother, who had  suffered so many disappointments in her life, and he hadn't wanted to  disappoint himself. But when you broke it down, he'd enjoyed the sex-a  little too much in retrospect-and he'd done what a lot of women he'd  been with had done with him: he'd mistaken lust for love.

'Zach?'

Talk about feeling like a chump.

He turned back to her. 'That's fine,' he heard himself saying as if he  were an actor on set. 'I can see you've thought this through and,  really, I've been so busy I haven't. But you're right. We have nothing  holding us together.'

* * *

Shaken by Zach's ready acceptance of everything she'd said, Farah got  up and restlessly moved around the room. She noticed that the orchid  bloom, the gift from his mother, had fallen from its stem and laid on  the table. Carefully she picked it up and cradled it in her palm, gently  stroking the dying petals. She couldn't help but think it was an omen,  as if fate was directing her.

And she knew all about fate from the way her mother had died so  senselessly. They were all at the mercy of it. Fate gave and fate took  away, but in the meantime everyone was in control of their own destiny,  and somewhere along the line she had forgotten that.

Forgotten her desire for independence and self-reliance. She'd let  herself imagine-or rather hope-that Zach was the man for her when really  their whole relationship was built on an unfortunate set of  circumstances instigated by her father.

Placing the broken petals of the orchid gently back on the table she turned to him.

'Then when the laws change we can-divorce?'

'We can do it now.' He strode through to his office and came back,  slapping a document on the table beside her, squashing what remained of  the flower of love. 'This is the legislation that gives you the freedom  to apply for a divorce.' Picking up a pen, he signed it with a flourish  before handing it to her.