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‘I told you I wouldn’t touch you.’ His fingers loosened her hair. A breeze lifted it so some ran across her cheek. ‘I intend to honour that promise until you release me from it.’
Her harsh intake of breath sounded between them. That wasn’t fair. She couldn’t want him—she sure as heck shouldn’t—but her knees were trembling and heat was building between her thighs, whispering promises she desperately wanted to obey.
‘Sariq.’ She didn’t know what she wanted to say, but his name seemed like a good place holder, and she liked the way it felt on her lips, as though it were a promise. But of what?
‘If I kissed you...’ he moved his hand to her lips, padding his thumb over her flesh ‘...we’d be in bed within minutes. If we even made it that far.’
Her temperature spiked at the vivid imagery.
‘Just like in New York.’
Her lips parted.
‘You see, your body tells me a story, habibte. I see desire in your eyes, with how wide they flare and how dark your pupils are. Your cheeks are pink, your breathing rushed as though you have run a marathon. Your breasts move quickly as you try to fill your lungs, and your nipples...’ he dropped his gaze ‘...have been begging for my attention since I stopped you from leaving this room. If I touched your most intimate places, I would feel your heat and need for me against my palm, just as I did in New York.’
She sucked in a ragged breath.
‘It would be easy for me to kiss you and make you forget the path you’ve chosen, just as I did in America. It would be easy for me to override your instincts and make you mine. But you would hate me for that, wouldn’t you?’
Would she? She couldn’t say. She was a mess.
‘You think forcing me to marry you isn’t already sufficient grounds for hate?’
The anger of her statement surprised her, though it shouldn’t. She felt backed into a corner—lashing out was a normal response.
‘It’s ample,’ he agreed with a small shift of his head, but his eyes were dark and they bore into hers.
‘Why are you doing this?’ she whispered quietly. ‘You don’t want this to be a real marriage. You told me that at the embassy that night.’
He pulled a face. ‘I wasn’t referring to sex.’
‘No?’
His features shifted for a moment. ‘I have known, all my life, that I would never love whomever I married. That’s what I was referring to that night. So far as I’m concerned, sex is just a biological act. It can be shared without any true danger of intimacy.’
She felt as though her chest were being cleaved in two. She stared up at him, unable to explain the pain that was lashing her, or its source. But on some level, she found his assertion to be repugnant.
‘And intimacy is bad?’
‘It’s not bad. It’s simply not part of the equation for me. I accepted a long time ago that my duty to my country would require me to choose this path.’
He brought his body closer, so his broad chest was pressed to her breasts, and her nipples tingled painfully in anticipation. ‘But sex? Sex without emotion, without love, can still be amazing.’ He lifted a hand to her face, holding her still, and she caught her breath, waiting for him to kiss her, certain he would.
She felt his needs as surely as she did her own, his desire palpable, his body hardening against hers. Nothing moved, even the very air of the desert stood still, waiting, expectant.
‘However, I swore I would keep my distance.’ He dropped his hand and, with obvious regret, moved away from her. ‘And I intend to honour that promise.’
It took several moments for her breathing to achieve anything close to normal.
‘I have given you space, since you came to Haleth.’
Still, she couldn’t speak.
‘But three weeks without a sighting of the new Queen has left a hole for the media to fill. It’s time for my people to begin a relationship with you.’
Her heart began to speed for a different reason now and anxiety caused a fine bead of perspiration to break out on her forehead. It took her several moments to remember how to form words. ‘Do you mean...like an interview or something?’
‘An interview is a good idea.’ He nodded, no sign of the conversation they’d just had, which had left her all kinds of shaken up, in his handsome face. ‘But initially, there is to be a ball. My parliament and foreign diplomats will attend. The event will be held in your honour.’
