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‘Surely,’ Zayed gritted, ‘you realised a mere employee would not be kidnapped?’
‘A mere employee.’ Hurt flashed in her eyes and she looked away. Zayed suppressed an unnecessary flicker of guilt. He’d only been stating the truth. It wasn’t meant to be an insult. ‘I’m afraid I was too overwhelmed and fearful for my life to consider the practicality of it all,’ she said after a moment, her gaze still averted.
Rage billowed inside him, rage he knew shouldn’t be directed at her, or at least solely at her. Yet he could not keep himself from it. ‘And later? When we were in the tent alone, eating and drinking—surely you could have said something then?’
Colour washed over her cheekbones. ‘What should I have said?’ she asked in a suffocated voice.
‘You could have said who you were! You could have asked who I was. We could have avoided consummating the marriage, which would have made things much simpler now.’ Olivia didn’t answer and Zayed took another step towards her. ‘Unless you had no intention of revealing who you were. Or that you knew who I was.’ It wasn’t quite a question and her gaze swung back to him, her fine eyebrows drawn together.
‘What are you implying?’
‘That you took advantage of the situation,’ Zayed said evenly, ignoring the flicker of unease that rippled through him. Olivia had gone very still, her blue eyes wide, her expression strangely fathomless.
‘Advantage,’ she said after a moment, her tone as fathomless as her face.
‘Yes, advantage. As a lowly governess, essentially a servant in the royal household with few prospects, you saw the advantage in being my wife. Being Queen.’
‘Queen? Of what?’ Contempt rolled off every syllable. ‘A huddle of tents in the desert?’
Zayed flinched under the words, although he knew they were more or less true. ‘I will regain my inheritance,’ he said in a near growl. ‘I promise you that.’
‘When? And why would I take such an enormous risk?’ She hitched the towel higher, her face flushed now, her eyes bright with anger and even hurt. ‘You are contemptible to suggest such a thing.’
‘What am I supposed to think?’ Zayed demanded. ‘There were any number of opportunities for you to tell me who you were.’
‘I didn’t realise I needed to! Why should I?’
‘And what about after?’ Zayed took another step towards her; he could smell the freshness of her damp skin, almost feel her quiver. ‘What about the wedding night?’
She set her jaw, although her hands shook on the towel. ‘What about it?’
‘You fell into my arms easily enough. Too easily, I think.’
‘It is to my own shame and regret that I did.’ Tears trembled on her lashes and she blinked them back. ‘Whatever you believe.’
‘What woman falls into bed with her kidnapper, without even knowing his name?’
‘What man seduces a woman without checking who she is first?’ Olivia snapped. ‘I accept I was seduced, and far too easily at that. But you are the one who kidnapped me, Prince Zayed. You are the one who took me from my home and forced—’
‘I did not force.’ The words were low and deadly.
‘Not...not that. But the wedding ceremony. You didn’t even explain—’
‘I thought you knew.’
‘Then you made a lot of assumptions, and now you are paying
the price, as am I.’ With her chin held high, Olivia went to move past him, but Zayed grabbed her wrist, feeling the fragile bones beneath her skin.
‘We are not done here.’
She whirled around to face him, fury tautening her features, the towel slipping so her breasts spilled out, golden and perfect. Despite everything, or perhaps because of it, desire arrowed through Zayed, impossible to resist. He drew her towards him and she came, willingly, her lips parting, her features already softening. It was that easy. Her instant acquiescence hardened something inside him and he dropped her wrist.
‘Even now you are willing,’ he said, not bothering to hide his disgust, and Olivia flushed crimson as she yanked the towel back up.
‘As were you,’ she choked. ‘Don’t deny it.’
‘I am not now,’ he told her coldly, and then turned away, only to still when he saw Jahmal coming over the hill. How much had his aide seen?
