Page 70 of Just a Bit Captivated

“Tell my lawyers to come to my office in an hour.”

Ignoring his assistant’s spluttering, Zain hung up, his expression settling into one of grim resolve.

He would get him back.

Whatever it took.

However long it took.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Six months later

Jordan smiled, watching Damiano sleep. The transatlantic flight must have tired him out more than Damiano had let on or he wouldn’t have fallen asleep after a round of sex.

Carefully, Jordan pushed his boyfriend’s proprietary arm off him and got dressed. The hour was still pretty early, and he didn’t feel like sleeping yet. He could catch up with his parents and siblings before going back to bed. He had missed them.

His mother was the first one he found. She was still busy baking, and Jordan watched her for a moment. She looked lovely but tired.

“You should get some rest, Mom,” he said, feeling a pang of worry. She wasn’t that young anymore.“Didn’t you say it’d be just close family tomorrow?” His parents’ lavish dinners on Christmas were a family tradition, but Jordan and Damiano had missed the main event, having spent Christmas with Damiano’s family. His mother had said they would have another family dinner tomorrow now that Jordan and Damiano were here, but Jordan had been under the impression that it would be a small affair.

“It will be,” she said with a weary smile.“Just us and Eloise’s family, no one else. Aiden will be more comfortable with fewer people around.”

Jordan frowned.“He still hasn’t gotten better?” His sister had alluded to it earlier—that Aiden still wasn’t as happy as he seemed to be, but Jordan had hoped she was wrong.

“Oh, he has!” his mother said.“He’s so much better now that he resumed going to school. But…”

“But what?” Jordan said.

She sighed, her shoulders falling.

Jordan was becoming more worried by the moment.“What is it, Mom?” he said, walking closer and taking her hand in his.

Her hazel eyes were glistening as they met his.“I just… Sometimes I wonder if we did the right thing. Keeping him away from that man.”

Jordan went still. Back when his parents had told him about the lengths they had gone to in order to keep Aiden away from his sheikh, Jordan had felt uneasy. Although he’d never been in Aiden’s situation, he knew all about falling in love in unconventional circumstances with an unsuitable man. It had taken him and Damiano a long time to come to terms with their feelings and accept that they weren’t going to disappear once they were an ocean apart. That was why Jordan hadn’t been sure that forcibly separating Aiden and his sheikh was the right thing to do. But Aiden wasn’t Jordan—he was much younger and much more vulnerable—and Jordan understood why his parents had been so overprotective after thinking for a year that their youngest son was dead.

“What makes you think so?” Jordan said.

His mother heaved a sigh again.“Dr. Richardson declared him completely recovered from the ordeal. He goes to school, he goes out with his friends, he’s even been on a date with a nice girl. He smiles more these days, and he acts more like his old self. But…” She pursed her lips. “I know he’s nothappy. A mother knows.”

“And you think it’s because he misses his sheikh?”

“Last week we saw a man in Arab clothes in the mall, and Aiden barely spoke for the rest of the day.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Jordan said.“It could be the trauma.”

His mother shook her head.“Aiden keeps in touch with Janice, a girl who was kidnapped with him. She was a… a slave for more than half a year before someone helped her escape. Aiden claims Rahim was the one who saved her—”

“Really?”

“Apparently,” she said, with an uncomfortable shrug. “But that’s beside the point. I’ve seen the poor girl—how skittish of touch and traumatized she is—andI’m…” She swallowed visibly.“I feel like a terrible person for thinking it, but I’m glad my child avoided that fate. After seeing Janice, I do believe that man didn’t abuse Aiden physically.”

“There’s emotional abuse too,” Jordan said, but hewasimmensely relieved to hear that.No matter how many times Aiden had said that his sheikh hadn’t sexually abused him, Jordan had had his doubts.

“There is,” she said.“But… I saw them together briefly, Jordan. Before your dad and the bodyguards separated them, Rahim was holding Aiden.” She pursed her lips.“At the time, it looked like a violent embrace because Aiden was crying, but looking back, I think we might have misinterpreted it. I’m pretty sure Aiden was clinging to that man and Rahim might have been kissing his face.”

Jordan frowned.“You think they were in love?”

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