Then Numair’s head almost exploded with aggression. Najeeb had reached for Jenan, took her by the shoulders in an urgent grip.
“I cut short my tour as soon as I heard. I went to New York last night but couldn’t find you or anyone, couldn’t get any reliable account of what happened. I called King Khalil, who told me you were returning home, so I flew here to wait for you.” His teeth gritted. “My father has crossed every line this time. I can’t apologize enough to you, but you don’t need to worry. I’ll put a stop to this.”
Unable to bear it anymore, Numair clamped his hand around Jenan’s arm and pulled her into his side. “I’ll put a stop to this.”
Najeeb blinked, as if it was the first time he’d realized Jenan wasn’t alone.
As he made eye contact with him, Numair barely held back from knocking him out. From doing far more. He’d killed many men with one blow when he’d felt none of the blind rage he felt now.
The damn man was not only handsome, he also looked noble, sophisticated, his highborn nature oozing from every pore. And he had this...warmth about him, this heroic vibe to boot.
Everything about him was the very opposite of his own savagery and rawness and coldness. Their radically different lives, what Najeeb’s father had been responsible for, were written all over them. And he hated him for it.
But he didn’t contemplate killing him for that. It was for daring to lay a hand on her, for calling her Jenan. But most of all, for existing and for suiting her far more than he ever could.
Najeeb’s surprise abated, righteous anger flooding over his face in its place. “Who the hell are you?”
Though he knew everything about Najeeb, he growled back, “I ask the questions here. Who the hell are you?”
As Najeeb bared his teeth and Numair took a step forward to meet his confrontation head-on, suddenly Jenan stepped between them.
Placing one flat palm on each of their chests, she calmly gave each a firm shove. The action itself, more than the power of it, made each of them stumble a step back, severing the chain reaction of aggression.
Looking from Numair to Najeeb, she smiled with mock demure sweetness. “Let this little, helpless, has-no-say woman make the introductions. Numair, meet Najeeb Aal Ghaanem, Saraya’s crown prince and my fiancé’s oldest son. Najeeb, meet Numair Al Aswad, mega intelligence and counterterrorism mogul...and my lover.”
Seven
Jen looked coolly between the two towering hunks who flanked her as they relinquished their visual and verbal duel and turned to gape at her.
Yep. She’d sure managed to shock them out of the impending explosion that had almost ignited out of nowhere.
Anyone might think she was insane, insisting on hiding the truth from her sisters, then blurting it out like that to Najeeb on sight. But though she hadn’t really given it any thought before doing it, she did think with Najeeb, the secret would certainly be in a bottomless well.
Najeeb was the most honorable person she’d ever known. Since she’d been a child, she’d always looked up to him, wished they could be closer. For he was exactly the older brother she’d always wished she’d had.
That was why she knew she could tell him anything. Najeeb was the material the knights of old had been made of. Those who would lay down their lives for you once you had their alliance.
Not that she wanted anything anywhere near that drastic from him. She just wanted to come clean to someone about her and Numair. Najeeb was the only one she could think of whom she could tell anything to and trust he’d never expose it at whatever price to himself.
Najeeb, surprisingly, was the first to recover from her bombshell. His gaze couldn’t decide what to be—stunned or amused. “Okay, Jenan, you achieved your purpose. You stopped me in my tracks. Very efficiently. I’m sorry I flew off the handle, but I was livid since I heard what my father made you agree to. I was ready to strike out at anything—” he flicked a withering glance at Numair “—or anyone in my path.”
Great. Najeeb had jumped right into denial, while Numair was over his surprise and seemed to grow bigger with Najeeb’s every word. The danger levels emanating from him entered a critical stage.
She sighed. “I did want to shock you into stopping, and that’s why I resorted to the truth. It’s always more shocking than any fabrication.”
Najeeb looked disbelieving for a few more moments, before he choked, “You’re not joking?”
“To borrow a favorite line from someone who’s standing right here, I’ve never been more serious.”
“How...?” He paused then realization dawned like a fireball in his sunlit eyes. He looked back at Numair with hostility turning to horror. “You’re Numair Al Aswad!”