Page 20 of Desert King's Forbidden Temptation

His lips curled. ‘Surely you’re familiar with the concept of lovers?’

She gasped, his raw honesty startling and confronting, hateful and...so deliciously seductive. She turned her back on him, lifting her hands to the flames and pretending to warm herself.

‘You’re deliberately baiting me.’

‘Am I?’

‘I meant to ask if you dated them, or simply took them to bed...but on reflection, I don’t think I need to know. Just tell me that when you marry Elana, you’ll be faithful to her.’

The silence that hung between them was heavy and she wondered if he could hear the rushing of her blood, the throbbing of her strangely erratic heart.

‘I take vows of any kind very seriously.’

‘I’m glad.’

He came to stand beside her. ‘Your turn.’

‘What for?’ She blinked up at him with wide-eyed innocence.

‘Your, what did you call it? Kissing resume?’ His eyes fell to her lips and she knew that if she were being completely honest with him, she’d tell him there’d only ever been one kiss that mattered, one kiss that had the power to reshape the entirety of reality and gravity and cosmic power.

But instead, she lifted her shoulders in what she hoped would pass for nonchalance and pursed her lips. ‘I don’t keep an exact count.’

There was no humour on his face now, and the intensity of his gaze made her breath shallow. ‘Have you ever been in love?’

She reached for a blasé answer, but something about his intelligent, assessing eyes and the stars that shone so brightly overhead, and the crackling of the flames in the pit in front of them, made her feel that their conversation was taking place out of time and space. She shook her head almost without realising it.

His eyes skimmed hers, reading her. ‘Is that so?’

‘You think I’m lying?’

‘I’m simply surprised.’

‘Why?’

‘You’re beautiful and fascinating. Surely you have men beating a path to your door.’

‘Even if that were true,’ she said with a small shake of her head, ‘attracting the interest of men is not quite the same thing as welcoming it. Or being in love.’

He was too shrewd, too seeing. ‘And you don’t welcome male attention.’

She turned away from him. ‘I think I’ll take a leaf out of your book. That’s too personal.’

‘Is it?’

She dipped her head. ‘This whole conversation is absurd,’ she said, after a beat. ‘I told myself I wouldn’t let this happen again, but here you are, weaving the same spell around me as you did this afternoon. I can’t do this.’

She turned to walk away but he caught her hand, pulling gently, drawing her back to him, and now the tears she’d been fighting all afternoon felt dangerously close to the surface.

‘She’s my best friend,’ Eloise whispered, lifting her free hand and pressing it to his chest. ‘She’s more than that. Elana is the only family I have. I would never do anything that would hurt her. Please, you have to respect that.’

His eyes bore into hers and she held her breath, waiting, needing, wishing, but their souls were speaking now, making a pact that went beyond her plea and his promise.

‘You’re right,’ he said quietly, releasing her hand and taking a step back. ‘I’m sorry.’

His apology was the last thing she’d expected. It pulled at something inside of her. Emotions that she had no experience with were zipping out of control now.

‘Your loyalty is a quality I greatly admire. It was wrong of me to ask you to betray her.’

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