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“For the last time, he’s not my fiancé…not my sheikh…not my anything. What you and my father choose to believe does not in any way alter reality. And in reality I never gave my consent, either implied or otherwise, to my father choosing my future spouse.”
“You knew he believed he had the right to do so.”
“He also believed he had the right to give me away as if I was nothing more than a possession when I was six years old. I didn’t agree with that and I don’t agree with this.”
“You just want sex?” he asked with bad temper. “You aren’t expecting this to become something more?”
“Don’t worry, Sebastian. I fell for you eight years ago because I thought you were a different kind of man. Don’t concern yourself…I could never fall in love with a man so much like my father, no matter how great the sex is.”
“Then why the hell do you want it?”
“My reasons are none of your business. The question is, are you willing?”
He cursed.
“Crudely put, but that’s the idea, yes.”
He glared at her and darned if that didn’t turn her on. Her reaction to this man was just too weird. She wanted him pretty much all the time…no matter what his mood. She’d worry about what that said about her if she didn’t know how much she didn’t react to other men. She figured this was a unique response to this man she would not have to worry about once they parted ways.
But she wanted him out of her system. She wanted to be over him. For real this time. And if it took living out the sensual fantasies he sparked in her overactive imagination, then so be it.
He said something under his breath that she couldn’t make out.
“What was that?” she asked.
“I said, I can’t believe this.”
“Really?”
He looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Really.”
“What’s so hard to believe?”
“That you are trying to blackmail me into with you.” He spoke slowly, like trying to explain himself to someone who wasn’t very bright.
She didn’t take offense. Sebastian Hawk was one hundred percent pure alpha male. He was accustomed to being in control of any situation that involved him. With the drop of her bombshell about her citizenship, she’d taken away some of that control and he had to be royally ticked off.
“It’s not blackmail. It’s a bargain. And frankly, you’re getting the better side of the deal. There is nothing that says I have to cooperate with you at all, but I have my reasons for doing so. In exchange I want something that if you were honest with yourself and me, you would admit you want as well.”
“You’re damn audacious.”
“You don’t think a princess should be bold?”
“You want the truth?”
“It would be nice, yes.”
He looked at her for several silent seconds, making her want to squirm under the scrutiny. However, she maintained her nonchalant air…barely.
Then a half smile tipped one corner of his mouth. “I find your honesty and willingness to go after what you want arousing.”
Her gaze flicked to the suit slacks tented below his waist and she felt a blush climb up her neck. “I see.”
He laughed shortly. “I guess you do. I’m not sure why this whole situation is so tempting to me.”
“Um…because you do want me?”
“Perhaps, but there is something about an innocent being so brazen that is very exciting to a man like me.”
“You are so sure I am innocent?”
“You talk a good game, princess, but you blushed when you looked at my erection and that says more about your lack of experience than all the bold statements you might make.”
She bit her lip, the betraying blush once again heating her skin. “I suppose it doesn’t hurt to tell you.”
He ed his head to one side as if waiting for her admission.
“I am still a .” There was no reason to spell out just how inexperienced she was. He didn’t need to know that no other man had ever touched her as intimately as he had eight years ago.
He nodded.
She sighed.
He laughed again. “Trust me, that is something you want me to know.”
“Why?”
“You mean after reading all your books on sex, you don’t know?”
“You’ll be more careful?”
“I would have anyway, on the chance…but yes.”
She’d guessed that…which could have been a dumb umption to make, but at least now he knew. “So, we have a deal?”
“That depends.”
Her heart stuttered in her chest. Was he agreeing? “On what?” she asked with an embarrassing squeak.
He took off his suit jacket. It was slate-gray, obviously an English designer…and why she was noticing that, she didn’t know. Maybe because if she focused on the fact he was undressing…that was what he was doing, right? Well, if she focused on that, she might hyperventilate.
He loosened his tie and she bit her lip, wanting very much to ask him what he was doing, but afraid of the answer. What if she was uming things again and his intent was just to get more comfortable. The spa room was warm after all.
“Lina?”
“Yes?” There went that revealing squeak again.
He unbuttoned the top button on his crisp white shirt. “What exactly are the terms of this deal?”
“Um…terms?”
“Yes, Lina, terms. I’m a businessman. I want to know exactly what you expect in return for your cooperation.”
“I already told you.” Was he really going to force her to spell it out?
“You want sex. I got that, but you also said you wanted time. How much time are we talking about?”
She swallowed, trying to wet her suddenly parched throat. “I hadn’t really considered.” Which was the truth, she just knew that one night wasn’t enough. But as she admitted that, she felt silly. She was the one who had offered the bargain in the first place, she should have figured out the terms to begin with.
She just knew this was going to put her at a disadvantage.
“I think understandably, I’m not comfortable with an open-ended arrangement. Your father is expecting results.” And he knew he couldn’t give her anymore.
“And you’re not about to have your professional reputation besmirched.” Just like eight years ago.
“I would prefer not to, no.”
“Um…” She licked her lips. “A week…seven days.”
“That’s too long. Your father knows I expected to find you before then.”
“Just because you expect something to happen, doesn’t mean it will.”
“It does for me.”
“So, this time you can be disappointed.”
“I did find you, princess.”
“My father doesn’t need to know that.”
“I have a responsibility to him—he’s my client.”
“Yes, your responsibility is to make sure that you find and deliver his daughter to him. You can’t do that if I refuse to comply…not without facing serious legal charges. So, technically this week is what is necessary to fulfill your obligation.”
“Three days, princess.”
Whether it was the final tenuous link to her belief in romance, or simply her nerve to keep haggling, something broke inside her. Along with the break came anger. She was tired of his denial of a need that anywhere matched her own, but she was past the point of being willing to argue about it any longer. “Fine,” she said with cold precision. “If you think we can burn the fire out between us in two nights, then I bow to your superior experience in this area.”
His eyes widened. “I expected a counteroffer, princess.”
“Then you miscalculated.”
“I see that.”
She climbed out of the hot tub and walked over to her towel on the bench. Drying off, she ignored him.
“I said three days, not two nights, Lina.”
She didn’t bother to look at him as she shrugged. “Same thing.”
“No, technically, it is not. Three days constitutes the same number of twenty-four hour periods. Starting now, that would constitute three nights as well.”
Something lightened inside her that he was maximizing the amount of time they had together, but she didn’t allow herself to get all warm and fuzzy. After all, he was the one who had argued against a week.
“Duly noted,” was all she said as she grabbed her T-shirt from earlier and slipped it on.
“Where are you going?”
“To take a shower.”
“We can start there, but I would prefer to spend some time together in the spa.”
