Page 23 of Seduced By the Sheikh

“Yes. I think so. It wouldn’t be fair on some women who might believe we have a future together.”

“So you only made love to women who understood it would remain casual.”

“Exactly.”

“That is, indeed, very serious of you. And duty, where do you stand on that?”

He shrugged. “I’ve stepped up to my duty. I had little before my brother, but now he has abdicated I have, shall we say, embraced it.” For a moment, she thought he was about to embrace her. “And what about you? Are you not disappointed to find yourself married to the younger brother? My brother believed you were in love with him. And I am very different from him. I must be a big disappointment after him.”

“Oh yes, a very big disappointment.” She took a sip of her drink, allowing the silence to drawer out a little, unable to resist teasing him a little. If nothing else, it eased her nerves.

“Aren’t you going to elaborate?”

“Do you really want me to? I didn’t think you would be so needy.”

“Nor I. But there are lots of things I’m realizing are new to me over the past week.”

“Such as?” she asked.

“Such as being intrigued by the woman I have married.”

She bit her lip and took another sip of her water, as her nerves rose again like an engulfing wave.

“You have a cynical view of marriage,” she said at last. “If you didn’t believe you’d be interested in your wife at all.”

“Indeed. Which was why I never intended to get married.”

This was news to her. “And why was that?”

He shrugged and sat back in his chair. “Maybe it’s because I have no great role models.”

“Your parents’ marriage was so bad?”

He nodded. She gave him space to elaborate, but he didn’t. Instead, his face looked closed, and she knew she couldn’t push him if he didn’t want to go there. Not yet. But she would get an answer. “Mine, too,” she volunteered, hoping her confidences would take away his frown. “It had got so bad my mother left my father to live in France.”

He nodded. “Maybe that made things easier for you. At least you didn’t have to endure their animosity all your life.”

“That’s true. Just the early part of it. I guess it probably saved my relationship with both of them. I loved my mother. And, after I returned to Ra’nan, I learned to love my father as well. It doesn’t sound as if you were so lucky.”

“No,” he said shortly. “But then maybe you were more fortunate with your mother than we were with ours.”

It was her turn to frown. She leaned in to him, her hands clasped lightly in front of her. “You dislike your mother. And I don’t yet understand why.”

“And you won’t,” he said swiftly. “Anyway, I have no wish to waste my evening with you talking about my mother, or me, come to that. I’d much rather talk about you,” he said in a softer tone, as he glanced down at her chest. Her nipples hardened under his gaze. Then he looked back at her with darkened eyes. She may be an innocent, but she knew that look. He wanted her.

She didn’t move. She was suddenly conscious of the way her breasts were pushed together, forming an impressive cleavage. And yet still she didn’t move. Despite her lack of experience, her nights with Zak had shown how much he admired her breasts. And she knew that it wasn’t talking about her he wanted now. But she’d play the game a little longer.

“And what,” she said, her voice barely a husky whisper, “is it about me you’d like to discuss?”

“Can’t you guess?”

“You’ll have to help me. I’m not a mind-reader.”

“Oh, I think you’re exactly that. Tell me, what is it I’m thinking?”

“Well, while I may not be a mind-reader, I can hazard a guess.”

He raised an eyebrow in query.

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