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Were it not for the pledge he’d made Syed, he would have walked out of the whole thing then and there.
“Do you think your father won’t act in your best interests?” He prompted.
She rolled the berry between her fingers and finally lifted it to her lips.
Great, just what he needed. Seeing it poised for a moment between her mouth before she sucked it in and savoured the sweetness had him at a tipping point.
He stood uneasily and moved to the window, staring out at the ocean and thinking of anything unsexy he could fathom. Maggots, infected sores, his dying uncle.
She didn’t answer and that inspired curiosity deep within him.
The silence stretched like elastic. It pulled and pulled until finally Ash turned around and looked at her. In a moment of privacy, when she thought herself unobserved, Charlotte had dipped her head forward and caught it in her hand. He studied the gesture long and hard, his mind trying to comprehend her situation. Was it possible that she didn’t want to go ahead with this marriage?
That would solve Syed’s problem, surely. If both parties didn’t want the union, it couldn’t go ahead.
“Is something the matter?” He prompted, hoping for selfish reasons that he was right.
“I don’t want my father to be bothered by this,” was all she said.
Ash frowned. “The King isn’t well?”
She nodded. “He’s fine. He’s just … busy.”
Ash rubbed his hand across his jaw; it was a gesture he did often when deep in thought. “Too busy to be bothered with his only daughter’s marriage?”
“He will see the contract before we agree to terms. I imagine there will be a great many points for you and me to discuss before it reaches that stage.”
“I see,” Ash murmured, thinking that ‘a great many points’ gave a great many options for things to go awry. Which is what Syed wanted. Hope that he might not have to bother worrying about Charlotte’s past, and discovering a means with which to discredit her, flared inside of him.
“I don’t intend to be difficult,” she murmured, reaching for another berry and holding it between her fingers for a moment. It was softened – whether by its heat or the transport to the embassy – and it stained her fingertips. “But I refuse to marry a man I don’t know without having at least some say over the type of marriage we’ll have.”
Ash felt a twist in his gut; a low, throbbing pain. It caught him completely unawares.
“And what terms are important to you, Your Highness.”
Her lips twisted in a mocking smile. She seemed to realise that her fingers were dark red. She lifted the berry to her lips and ate it, then placed her finger in her mouth for a moment. He stared at the gesture, his stomach churning with a desire he could no longer ignore.
But he knew what his duties required of him, and that certainly didn’t include fantasising about Charlotte Shareef.
“I don’t think we need to refer to one another by our titles, do you? We are, after all, going to be family.”
Family.
There it was again. That strange stitch inside of his chest.
“The terms?” He heard himself ask, his voice far more scathing than he’d intended. But he was impatient, and his anger was all self-directed.
She seemed to recollect herself. “Where we’ll live. How often we’ll be expected to see one another.” Her cheeks flushed. “The expectation of intimacy.”
His arousal was threatening to come back to life. He felt it kick and internally he muttered every curse word he knew.
“I see. Anything else?”
She nodded. “I understand there was to be a financial settlement – of course that needs to be finalised. The issue of an heir, or heirs, should also be addressed.”
Ash nodded. These were all valid terms, and he had expected to deal with each and every one. Though he’d imagined sitting in a boardroom, facing off against several palace officials and lawyers, as well as Charlotte’s father, King Rama. Not with Charlotte.
“This will take some time.”
