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“Yes. And as soon as we can arrange it.”
Her jaw dropped. “Elon, no. Absolutely not.”
“You mistake this for a negotiation,” he said with vice-like strength.
She shivered, shaking her head. “Whereas you intend it to be a threat?”
“A threat?” He prowled across the room, propping his hands on the arms of the chair, his face looming over hers. “Let’s be clear. There is no threat to you in our marriage. You will be given freedom, latitude, luxury and I think we can rest assured sexual chemistry will not be an issue.”
Heat burned her insides. Indignation came to her rescue. “This is preposterous. I’m not – I cannot – marry you. I refuse.”
“Refusal is not an option.”
She shook her head firmly. “Don’t be absurd.”
“You forget, habibte, you are on Salim land now. If I say we are getting married, then we shall.”
Ella didn’t want to analyse why that decree didn’t bother her more. She knew the answer wouldn’t reflect well on her. She fixed him with a level stare, calling on all the rapid-fire training she’d received when Tasim had first brought her to Mosar, doing everything she could to convey an image of icy cool and calm when actually, she was trembling like a leaf.
“So I have no free will anymore? Just because you kidnapped me to bloody Salim?”
His features grew tighter. “I did not kidnap you.”
“You literally hoisted me over your shoulder and dragged me here,” she reminded him, aware that he’d also likely saved her life, and not much caring given the way events had transpired.
“And did I also drag you into bed, little one?” He demanded, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at her, daring her to say those words.
But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t rewrite history and what they’d shared had been very, very consensual.
“No,” she whispered, dropping her eyes to the floor.
“I’m glad you do not try to claim this was something other than what it was.”
Ella swallowed, the emotions of the day finally catching up with her. Tears stung her eyes and strained her throat. “I’m not. What we shared was amazing, but it was just sex,” she said quietly, her voice uneven. “I wasn’t lying when I told you I wanted it to be meaningless. A one off, that wouldn’t go anywhere. I swore a long time ago I’d never get married, and I can’t – absolutely can’t – marry someone like you.”
“And what exactly is wrong with me?”
She pulled a face. “Everything.” An angry laugh. “And nothing. Don’t you get it? You’re just like him. Even the way you’re acting now is so like my father, it makes me want to scream! Do you think he asked my mum, even once, what she wanted or needed? No, of course he didn’t. He decided in his high-handed way that he knew what was best for us, just like you’re doing now.”
His only response was for him to straighten, so he stood even taller and more imposing.
“Marriage isn’t something you can force someone into, and you sure as heck won’t be forcing me into it,” she railed. “I refuse. I refuse now and I’ll refuse tomorrow and the day after that and every day until you get it through your thick, handsome head that I want no part of this.”
Her rapid breathing filled the cabin. Spent, and weary, she turned away from him, walking towards the fire. She held out a hand, needing the other to hold his robe in place around her shoulders.
“Are you finished?” The words were deep and gruff.
She nodded quietly.
“I have no doubt your father and I have some traits in common. Given our positions in our respective countries, that’s not surprising.”
She sank to the ground, sitting cross legged and staring at the flickering flames.
“But let us be clear on this point: What your father did to your mother is something I find reprehensible. He stranded her, he embarrassed her, he left her suffering and alone.” He came to crouch beside Ella, his finger and thumb gripping her chin and tilting her face towards his. She resisted at first, but surrendered after a moment, his proximity strangely calming.
“But what your father did to you? That’s a crime for which he should suffer eternally. To leave his own child in the cold, to make her feel unloved, unwanted, undeserved, as though she were an embarrassment, a problem he had to deal with, as though she didn’t warrant his time or energy, nor her rightful acknowledgement as one of his heirs?” Elon shook his head and Ella felt the strength of his anger, the truth of his words. “This was a despicable, cowardly act, and if my marriage proposal shows you anything, it is that I am nothing like him in any of the ways that matter most.”
Warmth spread through her, travelling through her backbone and straight to her belly.
