Page 42 of Just a Bit Captivated

Smiling crookedly, Aiden shrugged.“At this point it doesn’t matter. It’s been more than seven months since my disappearance. My family probably thinks I’m dead, and another few weeks won’t make a difference.”

Zain looked away.“It might take longer than a few weeks. I’ll need to find someone discreet but reliable. Ican’t exactly give you back to the people who brought you here.”

“Please don’t,” Aiden said with a chuckle.“They’d just sell me to someone else.” The thought was chilling and Aidensquirmed closer to the older man, pressing his nose against Zain’s bicep and closing his eyes. It was a little worrying how much he liked just being close to him, but Aiden decided not to dwell on it much. It didn’t matter. He was going home soon.

Once again, the thought failed to cause elation. The most positive emotion that he could feel was relief. Relief that this unhealthy fixation wouldn’t have the time to grow into something else.Into something worse.

“Don’t fall asleep here,” Zain said.

Aiden ignored him, nuzzling his bicep sleepily.

“I’m serious, Aiden. I’m going to dump you in the corridor if you fall asleep here.”

“Don’t be a grump,” Aiden murmured, kissing his arm.“It’s your own fault that I’m so starved for company.You can put up with my touchy-feely ways for a little while longer.Then you’ll be rid of me and we’ll never see each other again.” His stomach knotted up at the thought, and Aiden squirmed even closer, maneuvering them so Zain’s arm was around his shoulders and Aiden’s leg was slung over Zain’s hard thigh.

Zain let out a long-suffering sigh, but Aiden noted with some surprise that he wasn’t pushing him away, his arm a heavy, comforting weight around him.

“Can I ask you something?” Aiden said after a long while of blissful cuddling.

Zain hummed noncommittally.

“Why don’t you get your brother out of the country too? He’s clearly miserable here.”

“I can’t.”

“Bullshit,” Aiden said, running his fingers through the fine dark hair on Zain’s arm.“If you can get me out of the country when I’m legally not even here, getting Gadiel out shouldn’t be a problem at all. Don’t tell me you’re afraid of making your dad angry?”

“It’s complicated,” was the terse reply.

Aiden rolled on top of Zain, folded his arms on Zain’s chest and put his chin on top of them. “Uncomplicate it for me, then,” he said, looking at Zain curiously.

Zain didn’t look amused.“What gave you the impression that you can lie on me?”

Aiden smiled, looking into his brown eyes.“Sorry, but after having your dick in my ass and my mouth hundreds of times, you aren’t that scary anymore. And don’t change the subject. I know a diversion when I see one.”

For a long moment, Zain didn’t say anything, just looked at Aiden’s smiling face.

At last, he averted his gaze and spoke. “My parents were a love match. It’s very rare in our circles—most marriages are arranged—but they were ridiculously in love. At least that’s what everyone says. I barely remember it. My mother was diagnosed with dementia when I was four. She got progressively worse and died when I was twelve—fell down the stairs, running away from me.”His tone was so flat it completely lacked any emotion.

“I’m sorry,” Aiden said quietly, his teasing smile gone. He knew how hard it was caring for someone with dementia: to watch the person you loved fade away before your eyes, replaced by an aggressive, confused stranger who didn’t recognize you. He’d seen it happen to a friend: she was absolutely burned out by the time her beloved grandfather died. He’d never wish that on his worst enemy.

Zain gave a jerky shrug, his gaze distant.“I’m not telling you this to make you feel sorry. It’s relevant to Gadiel’s situation.” His lips thinned. “My father’s mental health deteriorated with my mother’s condition. The worse she got, the worse he got, becoming moody and depressed. He started drinking, which is haram—taboo—for a Muslim, but he couldn’t seem to stop. The more he drank, the more mistakes he made—political, financial, personal. I don’t think I saw him entirely sober a single dayfor years. It got worse after my mother’s death. He drank to excess, he whored and gambled and—” He cut himself off, a shadow passing over his features. His voice didn’t have any emotion when he continued. “My older brother, Omar, was studying abroad, so it fell to me to clean up after our father’s messes. I even had to forge his signature to keep the emirate running and our people oblivious to how much of a mess their emir was.”

Aiden pursed his lips as he imagined a young boy growing up in that kind of atmosphere and having to carry such immense responsibilities on his shoulders on top of dealing with losing his mother to one of the most brutal diseases. Christ, Zain’s mother had died in front of him, probably irrationally scared of him if she had been running away from her own adolescent son. Had Zain even been able to properly process her death and grieve if he had to take care of his father? Was that why he was so… emotionally unavailable? Aiden wasn’t sure.

But now some things finally made sense. Now he understood what Zain had meant when he’d told him that his religious education had been spotty and that children learned by example. His father had been a very poor example who had forced his son to take care of his shit rather than the other way around. This man had effectively raised himself, without any real moral compass or religious guidance. Whatever code he possessed, he’d fashioned it on his own, for better or for worse.

“You had to grow up very fast.”

Zain gave a clipped nod.“The only good thing that came out of my father’s whoring phase was Gadiel. Myfather knocked up a British expat, so he had to marry her. That seemed to have shaken him enough to get a grip. But by then, it was too late. Our fortune was mostly gone, and it didn’t help that out of misguided pride, my father had been hiding our financial situation for years by keeping up a luxurious lifestyle that we couldn’t really afford. He told me that we were on the brink of bankruptcy when I was seventeen.”

Aiden was confused.“And? What does that have to do with you not being able to get Gadiel out of the country?”

“My father’s solution to our situation was a business venture that required an insane amount of investment—investment the Emir of Abu Dhabi was willing to make as long as we became a family through marriage.”

Oh. Aiden could see where this was going.

Zain’s lips pursed.“My father and Al Sharabi created a joint business on the assumption that it’d be kept in the family. It was initially funded by Al Sharabi and it brings billions annually.” Zain sighed, his expression becoming tight with frustration.“If the marriage doesn’t happen, things will get very messy. In the years since the deal, Al Sharabi has become even more powerful—he’s nowthe President of the UAE on top of being the Emir of Abu Dhabi. Not only will Al Sharabi be able to take the company away, he can take all the assets of our family as compensation. And that would be the least of our problems. Al Sharabi isn’t a man who will let go of a public insult easily—and neither is my father, for that matter. They might literally kill Gadiel if he escapes the country to be gay in the West. They certainly have the money to track him down, no matter where he is in the world.”

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