Pursued by the Desert Prince(3)

"You would do that?" Her jaw slacked with disbelief. "To your sister?"

She had no idea to what lengths he would go-had gone-to protect his family.

He wouldn't allow himself to be drawn into yet another inner debate  about his actions on that score. It still wrenched his heart, especially  when Hasna still cried so often, but he had done what he had to.  Ruthlessly.         

     



 

And would do it again.

But he would not see his sister's heart broken again. She loved Sadiq  and Sadiq would be the faithful husband she desired him to be. If that  meant fast-tracking a new wedding gown, so be it.

He let Angelique read his resolve in his silence.

She stood there with her chin lifted in confrontation, trying very hard  to look down her nose at him. "All I have to do is say that I'm Sadiq's  mistress and this goes away?"

"Plus send me the bill and never contact Sadiq again."

"I can give your money to charity," she pointed out.

"You can. The important thing is that you will not be able to hold the debt over Sadiq's head."

"Ah, finally I learn my real motivation." Her arms came out in  amazement. "I was beginning to think I was the stupidest mistress  alive."

"Oh, I'm quite in admiration of your cleverness, Angelique."



His use of her name made her heart, which was already racing at this altercation, take a jump and spin before landing hard.

"Have we arrived at first names, Kasim?" It was a deliberate lob back,  not unlike when she played tennis with her siblings and she was so well  matched she had to throw everything she had into each swing of her  racket.

This man! She had spent years developing a shield against the world and  he brushed it aside like it was a cobweb, making her react from a  subterranean level. It was completely unnerving.

His lashes flinched at her use of his given name.

Good.

"Your insolence toward me is unprecedented. Take extreme care, Angelique."

Her fingernails were digging into her own upper arms, she was so beside  herself. She used the sharp sting to keep a cool head. She had training  for this type of negotiation, she reminded herself. He thought he was  holding a small fortune in seed pearls and silk hostage, but he was  actually holding a knife to the throat of her sister's happiness along  with the debt their family owed to Sadiq.

Given that, there was no way Angelique wanted to jeopardize the wedding arrangements or cause a long-term rift.

Listen. That was the first step, she reminded herself as her ears  pounded with her racing pulse. Apparently Kasim felt he wasn't being  heard.

"To be clear," she said with forced calm, "you believe I've orchestrated this to put Sadiq into my debt?"

"Perhaps not financially. His family is wealthy in resources and  political standing as well as actual gold. You've managed to neutralize  yourself in my sister's eyes, so she couldn't possibly see you as a  threat if you were to move in at a later date for whatever Sadiq was  deemed useful for."

"Can I ask how you concluded that I'm so cold-blooded? Because even the  online trolls don't accuse me of this sort of thing." She was nice! Her  family regularly told her she was too nice.

"If your heart was involved, you would have refused this commission  altogether. If you wanted to retaliate for a broken heart, you wouldn't  be trying so hard to please Hasna. No. I've told you, I've had  mistresses. I understand exceedingly practical women. This is an  investment in your future. I accept that on a philosophical level, but  not when it risks my sister's happiness. That I cannot allow. So." He  nodded decisively at the card he'd left on the desk. "Send me the bill.  Do not contact him again."

He made as if to leave.

"Wait!" She leaped forward and grabbed his arm.

He froze, gaze locking onto her hand on his sleeve for one powerful  heartbeat before he lifted his eyes. His face was filled outrage and  something else, something glittering and fiercely masculine.

"Have we arrived at that level of familiarity, Angelique?" He pivoted in  a swift move to face her, taking her own arm in his opposite grip.

It was the sudden dive and snatch of a predatory bird catching prey in its talons.

They stood like that in what seemed like a slowdown in time. Her heart  pounded so hard her lungs could barely inflate against it.

"We're not finished t-talking." Her voice came out painfully thin. She  knew she should release him and step back, but she was quite blown away  by the masculine interest that flared to life in his gaze.

She wasn't falsely modest. She knew she was beautiful. It was one of the  reasons camera lenses so often turned on her. Men looked at her with  desire all the time.

There was no reason she should react to this man's naked hunger. But she did.

A very animalistic sexual reaction pierced deep in her loins, flooding  her with heat and... Yes, it was reciprocal desire. He was looking at  her as if he found her appealing and she certainly found him as  attractive as they came. There might even be something chemical here  because her gaze dropped involuntarily to his mouth. Longing rose within  her.         

     



 

His lips quirked.

She knew he was reading her reaction and was amused. It stung. She felt  raw and gauche. It was the bane of her existence that she couldn't  always stop whatever feelings were overtaking her. This was so intense  it was unprecedented, touching her at all levels. Physical, mental,  emotional... He held her entire being enthralled.

"We are finished talking," he said, while his arm bent against her grip.  His hand arrived at her waist, hot and sure. His other hand tightened  slightly on her arm, drawing her forward a half step, commanding, but  not forcing. "If you would like to start something new, however..."

Don't, she ordered herself, but it was too late. His mouth was coming  down to hers and she was parting her lips in eager reception.





CHAPTER TWO

HE KNEW HOW to use that sexually explicit mouth of his, firmly capturing  her lips in a hot, hard kiss. He slid a hand to the back of her head,  rocked his damp mouth across hers, and damn well made love to her mouth  like he had the absolute right!

She knew immediately that he was punishing her, but not in a violent  way. He wanted her response, wanted to make her melt and succumb to him,  to prove his mastery of her and this situation.

And he was doing it, sliding right past her resistance, ready to make her his conquest.

Hard-learned shreds of self-protection rallied. She had trained to meet any attack with an attack of her own.

She kissed him back with all the incensed outrage he had provoked in  her, all the frustration that he affected her this powerfully.

She didn't accept his kiss. She matched it. She stepped into his space  so the heat off his body penetrated the silk she wore, branding her skin  through it. Then she scraped her teeth in a threat across his bottom  lip and stabbed her own fingers into his hair. It was completely unlike  her to be sexually aggressive, but how dare he come in here with his  accusations and intimidations?

Did this feel like she was daunted? Did it?

She felt the surprise in him, and the hardening as he grew excited.

His reaction fed hers. The quickening of arousal in her swelled, rising  like a tide that picked her off her feet, washing her in heat,  sensitizing her skin and making her hyperaware of her erogenous zones.  Her back arched to crush her breasts against his hard chest. Her pelvis  nudged into the shape behind his fly, inciting both of them.

His arms tightened around her and he kissed her harder. Not taking  control so much as pressing his foot to the accelerator so they burned  hotter and faster down the track they were on. His hand slid down to her  backside, possessively claiming a plump cheek through silk.

The sensation was so acutely good, the moment rushing so fast beyond her  control, Angelique pulled back to release a small moan and gasp for  air.

He growled and ran his mouth down her throat, now angling her hips into  his so he ground himself against her with blatant intention.

She let him, completely overcome by the moment. She was used to being  treated somewhere between a trophy and a revered goddess on a pedestal.  No man had ever kissed her like a woman who was not just wanted, but  craved. This was real.

It felt earthy and elemental.

Pure.

She let her head hang back, hair falling freely, and maybe, yes, she was  succumbing, but not to him. To this. Them. What they were creating  together.

He muttered something that sounded like an incantation and his lips moved from her collarbone to the line of her camisole.

She gasped, "Yes," aching for him to bare her breasts to his mouth, she  felt so full and tight. When his hand moved up to her chest to caress  along the edge-

Wait.

"Don't-" she tried to say, but he had already picked up the silver disk of her pendant to move it over her shoulder.



One second, Kasim was sunk deep in arousal, well on his way to making love with a woman of exceptional passion.