Page 33 of The Billionaire's Timed Wife

Even from a distance, the sight of her mouth swollen from my kisses makes me want to move closer again, but I’m not an animal. I close my eyes for a moment to clear my mind.

“We shouldn’t have done that,” she says.

Somehow, hearing her take part of the responsibility for what happened makes me respect her. Most women would probably accuse me of forcing the situation.

“Maybe not, but I don’t regret it.”

Nervous, she steps back and stumbles, landing on the bed. “Neither do I,” she says, catching me completely off-guard.

“No?” It’s not easy to unsettle me, but Adeela manages to leave me speechless.

She shakes her head. “It was good,” she adds, looking down.

The simple admission brings back every ounce of desire I’ve been trying to suppress. Her boldness is unexpected and arousing.

“Look at me. Never lower your head when you’re speaking to me, Adeela.”

“I’m sorry, it’s a habit.” She rises from the bed and smooths the fabric of her dress as if by straightening it she can also fix what just happened. “I don’t want to be rude, but maybe you should go.”

“Not yet. We need to talk first. That’s why I came here in the first place.” I step back and sit down in an armchair while she remains standing. If I’m to think clearly, I can’t have her scent clouding my senses. “Tell me why you were crying.”

“I have to go back to Rheadur,” she says, as if that alone explains everything.

“Was that why you were crying?”

“No. It was the conversation with my father that made me cry.”

“What happened, Adeela?”

She hesitates but finally sits back down on the bed. “You already know why Jazmina and I wanted to come to Paris. What we didn’t tell you is that I never intended to return to our emirate.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wanted to find my mother in America. I haven’t seen her since I was a child, and I miss her terribly.”

“So, leaving Rheadur was your dream?”

“Not at all. At first, Jazmina and I planned to study in England. That’s why we performed that dance on the night your father turned eighty,” she says, blushing.

For a moment, we just look at each other, both lost in the same memory.

“Jazmina never told me she planned to take you with her to study in the UK.”

“Maybe because our dreams ended the day your brother rose to power. I mean, His Highness, Sheikh Naim.”

“Go on.”

“When we got to England, we planned to find a way to go from there to New York so I could finally see my mother again.”

“That’s where she lives?”

“I’m not sure. I only know she was born in that state, so I hoped she might have returned there.”

“And then my brother was named sheikh and your plans fell apart.”

“Exactly. But I didn’t give up. I came here so I could later flee to the United States.”

Despite the crazy plan of a sheltered girl trying to go to the U.S. alone, the way she says it is...damn endearing.