Page 28 of At the Sheikh's Bidding
She winced at the insult.
“Quite possibly,” she conceded.
He cursed again and strode away. He threw the windows open onto the garden and then gave a snort of something which sounded half-way between laughter and a grunt.
“What’s so funny?”
He turned to her. “It’s ironic, really, isn’t it? You, rejecting me, the Crown Prince of Sifra in the harem where women were kept for the express purpose of sex and procreation.”
“You had the sex.” She winced at the thought of having a baby.
He frowned, again interpreting her thoughts correctly. “Are you on the pill?’
She shook her head. “No.”
“Hm, interesting,” he said, turning away.
She struggled to get her hair back in her clip. “It’s… not the right time of month. There’s… “Again she hesitated, wondering if she was about to tell a lie. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
He turned to her again. “I think you and I might be worried about completely different things. You, pregnant? Now,thatI’d like. You’d be forced to overcome your foolish fears then.”
Anger swept through her. “Foolish?” She could feel her face flush with heat at his patronizing words. “You think my fears are foolish?”
“Iknowthey are. You just have to learn to put them aside and then you will be happy.”
She stalked up to him. “How dare you presume to know what will make me happy? I can’t believe your arrogance!”
“Can’t you? I can,” he said mildly. “But,” he said, slipping his finger beneath her shirt, brushing his fingernail over her nipple, making her gasp. “Janey, you cannot tell me you don’t like it.” Her face flushed once more, but it was no longer with anger. “Ah,habibti,” he said, his voice still gruff but oozing sexuality. “You see? You cannot deny we were made for one another. I give you exactly what you want, and you give me what I want.”
“And what is that?” she couldn’t help asking, intrigued.
“You. Everything, every element that isyou.Thatis all I need. Now,” he said, kissing her briefly on the lips. “Why don’t you go, recover from this ridiculous notion of doubt and then come back later and we can resume business.”
She knew she had to come back. After all, she hadn’t even started on the research. He’d put pay to that. But she wasn’t coming back on his terms. Only on hers.
“I’ll be back. But only because of the work I have to do. I need this.”
“And what, exactly, is it you need?”
“This harem is one of the few which hasn’t been studied. I need the original research for my work. It’ll make my career.”
She ignored his snort of derision. “Original research?” He cocked an eyebrow, and for a moment she hesitated.
“Yes, of course.”
He grunted again and turned away from her, as if not wanting to continue the conversation.
“That, and the diamond,” she said. “If I can do one or the other—either complete the research or find the diamond—I’ll have succeeded.”
“And if you can do neither?”
She frowned again. “I might not find the diamond, but the research… That’s a certainty. I’ll be the first academic to see it all.” She paused, but he still didn’t look at her. “It’s only for that I’ll return. Only that, Amare.”
To her annoyance, he turned and shot her the kind of smile which showed he didn’t believe a word she said.
“Come back this afternoon,” he said. “And we’ll get down to business. The sooner the charade of the diamond is over, the better.”
She grunted with annoyance and swept out of the room, hurrying from one room to the other, intent on putting distance between them. She practically ran, scared he’d come after her and demand more from her than she was prepared to give. But as she left the harem, she realized there were no footsteps behind her. There was no sound at all. She turned around and saw through the trail of open doors he was still standing there, looking after her. She shivered and continued on. There was something not right, something he was keeping from her. And it had nothing to do with the sex they’d just had.
