Page 43 of Desert King's Forbidden Temptation

‘You have to understand,’ she said, quickly, even when he hadn’t asked. ‘That Elana is very special to me. I don’t have any family, but I have her, and I would never do anything to hurt her. Ever. I would never betray her.’

He stood very still. ‘Am I asking you to?’

Her brow furrowed and then, gradually, her gaze lifted higher, so their eyes met. ‘If I asked you to kiss me, would you?’

His eyes flared and heat simmered between them.

‘I can’t ask you to. That’s my point.’

‘I am not engaged to her, you know.’

‘But you intend to be.’

He dipped his head. ‘Perhaps.’

Her heart raced with a shameful degree of hope and she despised herself for that.

‘But that is in the future. We’re here, now.’

She shook her head. ‘You know that’s just a technicality.’

‘Then answer me this,’ he said quietly. ‘If our wedding plans become official, the date will be set some months in the future, at least. Six months, let us say? To allow everyone time to organise the essentials. Do you think I will stay here, celibate and alone for half a year or more?’

She gasped, his words far more hurtful than surely he intended.

‘You said you’d be faithful to her.’

‘And from the moment I say my vows, I will be. Until then, I consider myself a free agent.’

‘Well, I don’t,’ she muttered. ‘And even if I thought that of you, I’m not...not free to do anything with you, I mean. So if you want to “free agent” yourself around town, you just have to get through tonight and then you can go and find someone else to take to bed tomorrow night. Okay?’

‘I don’t want someone else. I want you.’

The bold statement hung between them. A moment later, he dragged a hand through his hair and she felt her heart lurch crazily.

‘I want you.’ The words were said with even more determination. ‘I wish I didn’t. I hate that I do. I have tried to fight it, to control it, to ignore it, but it’s here, inside of me.’ He pressed a hand to his chest. ‘I don’t know what you did to me. Some form of voodoo or magic. I can’t get you out of my head. You are in my thoughts, my dreams, my mind, all the time. I want to be with you, Eloise.’

These were words she desperately wanted to hear, but they were also words that pulled her apart, so she took a step backwards, searching for her indignation.

‘You want to be with me because you’re a free agent,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘But you don’t care about me. You don’t care about the bomb you’d be throwing into my life. How could I look at Elana again? How could I advise her to marry you? And if I did, and she became your wife, how could my friendship with her endure? Can’t you see what you’re asking me to do? To betray? To give up?’

‘But what would you get in return?’

‘What are you offering?’ she spat angrily, waving a hand through the air. ‘A night with you? Two? A secret, shameful affair that neither of us could ever speak of? And for that, you’d expect me to betray my dearest friend?’

He made a dark sound of irritation. ‘I’m asking you—’ He shook his head. ‘This isn’t going away,’ he said firmly. ‘I thought spending time together would help. It hasn’t. The more I see of you, the more I need. I am on fire, little one, and only you can help me.’

She wanted to absorb the words. To allow them to soak in and become a part of her, but she was terrified of the consequences, terrified of the fissures that would form in her world.

‘You’re a free agent,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘Choose someone else.’

‘You’re being deliberately argumentative now.’

‘I’m arguing with you, yes, but not because I want to. Because what you’re suggesting is so preposterous, so wrong...’

He closed the space between them, his hands capturing her upper arms, bringing her to him, so their bodies melded and their faces were just inches apart. ‘Does this feel preposterous and wrong,habibi?’

Her legs trembled with enough intensity to make standing difficult.

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