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Or six: I’ve been lying to your face.
That shouldn’t be hard, should it?
But it was. As Omar stood in front of her in the dappled sunlight of the lavish suite, his dark eyes burned through her. Then they traced slowly, appreciatively, down her body.
She took a deep breath, gripping her hands at her sides. And the words that would end everything caught in her throat.
For the first time, Beth felt what it was truly like to be desired. And by such a man as this...!
Never taking his eyes off her, Omar removed his head covering. His dark hair beneath was rumpled, so soft and wild that she ached to run her fingers through it. Eyes locked with hers, he slowly removed his sheikh’s robes.
Standing before her in just loosely fitting trousers, Omar looked down at her. With an intake of breath, Beth stared at the shadows and curves of his tanned, hard-muscled chest, laced with dark hair. He was so powerful, so strong, his shoulders so broad and wide. He made her feel delicate, feminine. He made her feel like the heart of his whole world.
Coming forward, he cupped her cheek and whispered, “I want you, habibi.”
“Habibi?”
“It means...beloved.”
Outside, the palm trees waved against the soft warm wind, dappling the golden light from the windows. Beth froze, trembling with longing she’d never felt before.
Just one night, she thought. One night to know what it was to be desired. One night to cherish for the rest of her life. Then, in the morning, she could confess everything, before any real damage was done. She’d make Edith return all the money. They’d quietly cancel the wedding.
One night in his arms, and then Beth would set him free to choose a different woman to marry. One who was worthy to be his wife, and Samarqara’s queen.
The temptation of it was almost unbearable.
Beth licked her dry lips. “This is wrong,” she whispered, over the pounding of her heart.
“I know.”
Her eyes lifted to his in shock. “You do?”
“You are a virgin,” Omar said grimly. Powerful and so masculine, he moved toward her with grace, in spite of his strength and size. “You kept faith with the old traditions. You deserve to be treated as the precious treasure you are.”
Her? A precious treasure?
Unwillingly, Beth’s eyes traced over the hard muscles of his chest and arms, down the length of his chest, along the arrow of dark hair that led to his taut belly, disappearing beneath the waistband of his loose trousers.
“To make love to you before marriage would be dishonorable. I know this.” Cradling her head in his hands, he looked at her hungrily. “But there is only one thing that matters more.”
Beth couldn’t look away. No one had ever looked at her like he was right now, as if she were Christmas morning and birthday cake and the first sunshine of spring, all at once. “What?”
His dark eyes burned through her. “Do you want me, Beth?”
Did she want him?
No man had ever made her feel like this. And she suddenly knew no man ever would again.
Did she want him?
Already, in the short time she’d known him, she’d ridden the greatest roller coaster of her life—joy and anguish and fear and desire.
Did she want him.
Of course she did. But she couldn’t have him. She didn’t deserve him. If she’d been Edith—
It wasn’t fair, her heart cried out. She and Edith were identical, and yet they weren’t. Edith had everything, all the beauty and talent, leaving her with nothing.
