AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Not that Aram had broken hers. It was she who’d churned herself out with her insecurities.
But that big, bored regal feline would keep swatting her until she coughed up an answer he liked.
She tried a new one. “I’m pregnant.”
And she was.
She’d found out two days after Johara’s revelations. She hadn’t told Aram.
“I want Aram to be Zohaydan before our baby comes.”
Amjad raised one eyebrow. “Okay. Good reason. But again, what’s the rush? Looking at you, I’d say you have around seven months to go. And you seem to want this done last week.”
“I need Aram settled into his new job and his schedule sorted out with big chunks of time for me and the baby.”
“Okay. Another good reason. Want to add a better one?”
“I haven’t told Aram he’s going to be a father yet. I wish him to be Zohaydan before I do to make the announcement even more memorable.”
His bedeviling inched to the next level. “You have this all figured out, haven’t you?”
“Nothing to figure out when you’re telling the truth.”
Those eyes said “liar.” Out loud he said, “You’re tenacious and wily, and you’re probably making Aram walk a tightrope to keep in your favor….”
“Like Queen Maram does with you, you mean?”
He threw his head back on a guffaw. “I like you. But even more than that, you must be keeping that pretty, pretty full-of-himself Aram in line. I like that.”
“Are we still talking about Aram, ya maolai?”
His cruelly handsome face blazed with challenge and enjoyment. “And she can keep calling me ya maolai with a straight face, right after she as much as said, ‘I’d put you over my knee, you entitled brat, if I possibly could.’”
Even though he didn’t seem offended in the least by the subtext of her ill-advised retort, the worry that she might end up spoiling Aram’s chances was brakes enough.
“I thought no such thing
, ya maolai.”
He hooted. “Such a fantastic liar. And that gets you extra points. Now let’s see if you can get a gold star. Tell me the real reason you’re here, Kanza.”
Nothing less would suffice for this mercilessly shrewd man who had taken one of the most internally unstable kingdoms in the region, brought it to heel and was now leading it to unprecedented prosperity.
So she gave him the truth. “Because I love Aram. So much it’s a constant pain if I can’t give him everything he needs. And he needs a home. He needs Zohayd. It’s part of his soul. It is his home. But until it is that for real, he’ll continue to feel homeless, as he’s felt for far too long. I don’t want him to feel like that one second longer.”
Amjad narrowed his eyes. He was still waiting. He knew there was just a bit more to the truth, damn him.
And she threw it in. “I didn’t want to expose his vulnerability to you of all people, to disadvantage him in this rivalry you seem to have going.”
His lips twisted. “You don’t consider this rivalry would be moot and he’d be in a subordinate position once he becomes a minister in my cabinet, in a kingdom where I’m king?”
“No. On a public, professional level, Aram would always hold his own. No one’s superior office, which has nothing to do with skill or worth, would disadvantage him. But I was reluctant to hand you such intimately personal power over him. I do now only because I trust you won’t abuse it.”
It seemed as if he gave her a soul and psyche scan, making sure he’d mined them for every last secret he’d been after.
Seemingly satisfied that he had, Amjad flashed her a grin. “Good girl. That took real guts. Putting the man you love at my mercy. And helluva insight, too. Because I am now bound by that honor pact you just forced on me to never abuse my power over your beloved, I’m definitely going to be making use of this acumen and power of persuasion of yours soon. And as your gold star, you get your wish.”
Her heart boomed with relief.
