Page 43 of Just a Bit Captivated

“Damn,” Aiden said, pulling a face.“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Why haven’t you been married off if arranged marriage is still a thing here?”

“That’s none of—”

“My business?” Aiden finished with an eyeroll, giving him a crooked smile.“Come on, tell me. You already told me a lot. So what difference does it make?”

Zain just looked at him for a moment, his expression rather tight. He brought his hand to Aiden’s face.His knuckles pushed against the side of Aiden’s cheek where Aiden knew his dimple was, as if he were attempting to erase it.What a weirdo.

“It’s hard to make me do something I don’t want to do,” Zain said.“My father learned that when he attempted to arrange a marriage between me and Gadiel’s bride.”

Aiden blinked.“You were supposed to be the one to marry her?”

Zain shook his head.“Since Omar was already married at the time, my father wanted to arrange the match for me. When I refused, he arranged it for Gadiel. Al Sharabi never knew that a match with me was a possibility, or he wouldn’t have settled for Gadiel.”

“You said it happened when you were seventeen. And your dad just accepted your refusal?He doesn’t seem like the type.”

Something flickered through Zain’s eyes.“He didn’t at first,” he said.“He had to give up when none of his… methods worked and I threatened to publicly humiliate him with disobedience.”

Seeing his carefully blank face, Aiden had the sudden urge to cradle it with his hands and kiss him gently.

“It doesn’t seem like much of a threat,” Aiden said,quashing the ridiculous urge. It was one thing to want to kiss the man because he was in lust with him, and it was completely another to kiss him because he wanted to—what,comforthim? This man wouldn’t want comfort from him anyway.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Zain said with a wry smile.“Our cultures are too different. Disrespecting one’sfather in public is much more unthinkable here than it is in the West. Disrespecting him in private was bad enough of an offense for my father to cut me off financially. He would have publicly disowned me too if he could get away with it—it is considered haram for a father to disown his children. Our relationship has been very strained ever since. It pisses him off that I didn’t need his support to become successful.”

Aiden hummed, stroking Zain’s collarbones with his fingertips absentmindedly.“I do know our cultures are different. That’s why I don’t even blame you for being homophobic. I understand. I know it’s hard to overcome prejudice when it’s normalized in your culture.”

Zain narrowed his eyes.“You don’t have to butter me up anymore. I already agreed to let you go, so you can drop this soft-eyed, nice and understanding act.”

Aiden blinked before laughing.“You think I’m pretending to be nice?” He laughed again. “I’ll tell you a secret: you’ve seen me at my bitchiest and moodiest in my life. I’m not actually an angry person, Zain. Iamnice. This fucked-up situation threw me off balance, but anyone who actually knows me would tell you that I’m one of the most easygoing, lighthearted, and nicest people they’ve met.”

Zain’s dark eyebrows drew together.“I’ve known you for nearly five months.”

“Yes, you have. But for the majority of that time we were either angry with each other or later fucking every time we weren’t too angry, and the rest of the time you thought I was trying to manipulate you by being my normal very nice, smiley self. The circumstances of our first meeting gave you a very skewed impression of me.” Aiden smiled.“So nope, I’m not pretending to be something I’m not. If you’re really letting me go, I’m not going to bitch and sulk anymore. It’s as simple as that.”

The look Zain shot him was almost baffled.“You can’t be serious. I still bought you like a thing. I treated you abominably. I tried to coerce you into being my brother’s sex pet. And you’re not holding a grudge?No one is that nice.”

Aiden shrugged with a laugh.“I am. You’re a high-handed asshole, but being angry at you for being a high-handed asshole is like being angry at the sun for being too bright.”

Zain gave him a look of consternation. “You’re not nice. You’re dumb.”

“Now that’s not a very nice thing to say,” Aiden said, pouting exaggeratedly. “I think I’ll take offense to that.” Aiden made a show of pulling away from Zain, but Zain didn’t let him.

“I didn’t say you could go,” Zain said, holding Aiden tightly.

“I thought I was a free person now,” Aiden said, trying hard not to smile but failing.“Or are you taking that back, Your Highness?”

Zainrolled them and, leaning down, glared at him, as if Aiden’s levity bothered him.“Stop smiling.”

Aiden smiled wider, looking into his dark eyes.“Sorry for not being a grump like you—”

Zain kissed him.

Aiden melted into the kiss, parting his lips eagerly and looping his arms around Zain’s strong neck, trying to tug him closer. God, it shouldn’t have been possible to want this much, when he’d had a spectacular orgasm just a short while ago. But he did. He wanted this man, wanted to crawl into his mouth, between his ribs, wanted to wrap around the heart within and know him from the inside out. Down to the marrow. Every molecule.

When they finally parted for breath, Aiden licked his wet, swollen lips and whispered, holding Zain’s gaze,“Round two?”

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