The Sheik's Jealous Princess(19)

She’d even tried to tell Ramzi that she didn’t want to marry Laithir. But his response was to demand reasons why. When she’d listed them all out for him, just as she’d logically listed them out for Laithir so many months ago, Ramzi had only chuckled and shaken his head, saying those were all things that could be overcome in a marriage.

She’d been furious with him. But then he’d floored her by asking, “Shantra, do you honestly feel nothing for the man? If you can truthfully say that you don’t like him, don’t feel any sort of chemistry between the two of you, then I’ll tell Laithir that the wedding is off.” And he’d watched her, waiting for her answer. When she couldn’t reply, couldn’t deny that there was something between them, at least on her part, he nodded his head as if that ended the discussion.

Okay, so yes, she felt something for the man. Something very strong and most likely, very dangerous. But that didn’t mean she wanted to marry the man! She wanted love! She wanted the excitement of being with the man of her dreams and working through the problems in a marriage, just like all of her brothers had done and even Ciala! Marriage to Laithir…he didn’t fight or argue with her. He just laid down the law and she seemed to follow. She had no will when it came to the man, no understanding of him other than to know that he’d loved his first wife and could never love her the same way!

Her brother had other ideas. And there was that threat of being revealed hanging over her head, which angered her every time she thought about it. But also the possibility of her freedom, a seductive allure that she couldn’t seem to shake.

The two times she’d had time alone with Laithir, he hadn’t kissed her, hadn’t really touched her at all. He’d simply listened to her arguments, or her nervous chatter, and then simply touched her lips with that rough finger of his saying, “It will all work out.”

What was that supposed to mean anyway? She’d been pacing in her room, back and forth, trying to figure a way out of this mess. Goodness, she’d certainly gotten her exercise this week because of all the pacing. And anger! She’d tried to get some of her anger out in the gym but for the first time in her life, exercise wasn’t helping her alleviate the tension she was feeling, the anger and the frustration at how impotent she was feeling simply because one man had determined that he needed to be married and had decided that she was the woman who would fit the position.

This past week with all of the wedding festivities happening, she’d expected to have more time with him, arm herself with something that she could throw his way whenever Laithir threatened her. But it had been too busy, too chaotic for any private conversations. She suspected that her brother had been doing that on purpose.

Before she’d met Laithir, Shantra would have taken this to Joline or Keith, but both of them would be impacted by any revelations regarding the business and both of them would tell her to call Laithir’s bluff. And in a worst case scenario, they would let the business fail.

Shantra couldn’t do that to them. They’d both worked too hard, sacrificed too much for their dreams to end now. Besides, there was that enticing possibility of more freedom…

Was she letting her imagination run away with her? She’d wondered about that possibility many times over the past three months. And several times, she’d wanted to just jump onto a plane and go meet Laithir, to talk to him and demand answers. She also wanted more details on this freedom issue. Oh, and she’d love to have talked to Rais about the business, to ask his advice on how to avoid any weakness to Jesek’s business model. She could have asked Joline about that too, the woman would have immediately moved to close up any weaknesses.

But she’d backed away from all of those actions. And she didn’t understand why.

So here she was, standing outside of a larger room where she was about to be married to a man she didn’t know, didn’t particularly like and who did things to her that she didn’t understand.

This wasn’t happening, she told herself.

“Are you okay?” Ramzi asked softly as he stood waiting for the signal to enter.

Shantra felt a hysterical laugh bubble up inside of her. Was she okay? No. She wasn’t okay. She didn’t think she would ever be okay. She wanted to run and hide, or maybe to find the man who had put her into this position and kick him. Hard! She wanted to run screaming from the room and deny that she felt anything for the man other than hatred. Because if that were true, she could be cold and unfeeling about this entire situation.

When Laithir touched her, she melted. With just a finger to her lips or her cheek, she acted like a besotted fool without a thought in her head.