Page 31 of The Sheikh's Fake Fiancée

She exhaled slowly. “Thank you. I won’t be more than half-an-hour.”

He nodded. “Good. If you’re any longer, I’ll come in and make sure everything is okay.”

Her face burned a little, probably with shame, as she hurried toward the coffee shop without looking back. It was with relief that she pushed open the door and a young waitress in a starched white apron approached. “Good morning. Do you have a reservation?”

Zania scanned the tables, then found Tabari at the back of the room at a little round table. “I’m with him,” she said, then wanted to immediately backtrack the sentence that made them sound like a couple.

“Oh, yes. Right this way.”

She followed the waitress to the table and Tabari looked up with a beaming smile, his white teeth gleaming along with his silver hair. “Zania, I’m so glad you could make it.”

She nodded, but wasn’t surprised when he didn’t stand up. She was certain in the same situation, Kain would have stood, then pulled out her chair. “You flew all this way to Qaman, I figured it must be important.”

He nodded, his expression serious. But he waited until the waitress laid out the diverse drinks menu and then left them alone. “Itisimportant.”

She took a seat opposite him, aware not even a spark of chemistry ignited between them. A shiver of revulsion that slipped down her spine was the only reaction she gained from being with him again. “Do tell?”

He reached across the table and snared her hands in his. “I want you to reconsider…us.”

She yanked her hands from his cold grip, resisting wiping off his touch on a napkin. “There is nous,Tabari. There never was. I was just your silly little diversion while you did everything in your power to marry Sheikha Aisha.”

His eyes hardened fractionally even as his voice pitched with artificial apology. “I don’t know what Kain has filled your head with, Zania, but it was only ever you I wanted.”

She fisted her hands on the table and leaned close, ignoring the tread of the waitress approaching as she hissed, “Oh, I’m not denying you wanted me. Apparently you wanted me so badly you forced me to have sex with you.”

Tabari’s face went white, but he was no longer looking at her or hearing her accusations. She followed his stare, feeling her own blood drain from her face at seeing the man standing there in his charcoal designer suit. “Kain,” she said weakly. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

Chapter Nineteen

If seeing Zania with her ex-lover had caused jealousy to flood through Kain with every beat of his heart, a vicious need to hurt, to maim, now roared through his head like a thundering train about to derail. Not unlike his willpower.

Tabari had forced himself on Zania. The man had raped her! Kain’s world fell apart around him. Little wonder Zania had nightmares and huge trust issues.

His jaw cracked under the strain of his emotions. He couldn’t look at Zania, couldn’t allow her to see the rage and the emotions he barely repressed. He didn’t want to scare her even more. He focused instead on Tabari, allowing him to see his wrath. “How dare you come back here after what you did.”

The older man flushed, his eyes skipping around the room, seeking the closest exit.

Not happening.

Tabari would pay for what he’d done.

Zania pushed back her chair and stood even as Kain stepped toward the older man. She pressed a hand to her mouth. “Kain, what are you doing?”

He glanced at her with his vision reddening around the edges. Even now she was defending the other man? “What should have been done the day this scumbag put his hands on you.”

Tabari snatched a knife off the table, then pushing to his feet he dragged Zania against him, the blade of the knife touching her throat. His feverish stare stayed glued to Kain. “If you love your fiancée you’ll step away now, or watch me kill her.”

Kain was only distantly aware of the rest of the patrons escaping out the front door along with the workers, while Masood stepped inside as silently as a cat and became as one with the shadows.

All Kain’s attention, his focus, was zeroed in on his fiancée and the sick madman holding her against her will.

Zania’s stare widened. But behind the fear hope glinted, as though she truly believed Kain would find a way to save her. He gave her an infinitesimal shake of his head. The risk was too great. If he moved, Tabari would plunge the knife into her throat. And Kain couldn’t lose her, not for anything or anyone.

He put up his hands. “I’m not coming any closer. The ball is in your court, Tabari.”For now.“I’ll do whatever you say, as long as you don’t hurt Zania.”

“Then keep your distance.” Tabari’s smile grew cold. “She’ll stay unharmed as long as I see ten million dirham flood into my bank account in the next twenty-four hours. And I get a driver with a car to take me to your airport where a pilot will fly me home in one of your private jets.”

“That can be arranged,” Kain agreed readily. That the older man would be dead soon after he landed on home soil was the only thing getting Kain through this whole ordeal. “But touch a hair on her head and the arrangement will be null and void.”

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