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Tahir’s lips twisted. ‘That is either an outright lie or you were purposefully vague enough not to have been taken seriously by my palace staff.’
He suspected the latter. ‘I couldn’t say what I wanted...’ She paused, took a deep breath, and Tahir willed his gaze not to drop lower to her chest. To the supple breasts he’d once cupped in his hands, those pale pink nipples he’d feasted on like a starving man granted a feast that would sate for a while but never fully satisfy, making him a slave to his lusts.To her.‘This matter is private,’ she finished.
He ignored the sharp curiosity her response triggered. Curiosity was what had led him down the path to near-destruction twelve years ago.
‘Tell me, Miss Winchester, does your Queen invite strangers in who turn up at her front gates demanding to speak to her?’
She flinched at his formal address. Then her lips,stillsumptuous,stillfar too distracting, pursed. ‘Of course not. But like I said, I had no choice.’
‘You could’ve left. Returned to whatever hole you crawled out of.’
She gripped the strap of her handbag until her knuckles turned white, her nostrils quivering as she inhaled slowly. ‘I couldn’t,’ she whispered urgently. ‘This is important.’
He ignored the effort it took to stop her words from sneaking beneath his armour. But he managed it...just. ‘My great-grandfather was assassinated by one of his subjects invited in from the palace gates. Did you know that?’
Her head shot up, eyes widening, her gaze direct and curious. ‘What? No, I...didn’t. I’m...sorry—’
‘Oh, yes. My mother, too, came close to an unfortunate brush with harm by believing all her subjects were benign creatures she could indulge at her whim. She was cuddling a subject’s infant when the attempt on her life was made. So you see how pandering to random strangers who turn up at my palace gates is ill-advised?’
She sucked in a quick, affronted breath and swiftly shook her head. ‘I’d never... I wouldn’t do such a thing! Surely you know that?’
‘Do I? What I know is that the last time we were together, you betrayed me and walked away without a backward glance. True or false?’
Her lips were no longer thinned in outrage. They parted as she attempted to suck in a breath. Her face was devoid of colour and her eyes were dark pools of false shock as she stared at him. ‘I... I’m... I can explain—’
‘True. Or. False?’ he demanded; his throat raw with emotions he could barely contain.
Again, she shook her head. Denying him or denying herself? ‘I’m sorry.’ Hushed words, whispered into the chilled silence of his regal domain.
He took his time strolling to her, needing every nanosecond to grapple his emotions under control. A dozen feet away, he stopped. ‘Look at me,’ he ordered, every right bestowed on him as the ruler of his prosperous kingdom throbbing in his voice and brooking no disobedience.
Slowly, her head lifted, her lushly fringed eyelashes. Then those green pools were snagging him again, luring him into their endless depths. He resisted. Because he was no longer the clueless fool he’d once been.
And Tahir Al-Jukrat took pleasure in uttering the three simple words. ‘Apologynotaccepted.’
Her throat moved in a swallow and for a flash of a second, Tahir mourned the vibrant woman who’d gone toe to toe with him; their intensely stimulating conversations lasting well into the early hours of the morning, when the only thing that’d worn them out further was the marathon sex culminating it.
Despising the heat billowing freely inside him at the memory, he folded his arms and pierced her with another look.
‘I understand that you’re angry—’
‘You do, do you? Or are you merely trotting out platitudes in the hopes that I’ll be placated long enough to listen to whatever reason has brought you here? What is it? A bureaucratic favour of some sort? I’m assuming you followed your passion and went into the public sector?’
He prided himself for having never once been tempted enough to look her up. Lauren Winchester had taken far too much real estate in his head during his year-long internment in the desert for him to waste further time on her once his punishment was complete, especially with his father’s disappointment branded into his soul. No, his time was better spent pursuing the goal he’d temporarily lost track of—following his forebears’ footsteps and cementing the foundations needed to become the sovereign ruler of his beloved kingdom as his destiny dictated.
‘Yes, I did...in a way.’
He resisted the urge to ask what she meant, focusing when she spoke again.
‘But I’m not here on my own behalf.’
Several turbulent emotions spiralled through him, making him wonder if perhaps he should’ve reconsidered this meeting. Because he seemed patently ill-equipped to deal with the notion that she hadn’t come here to beg his forgiveness. Or even seek an audience with him on her own behalf.
She was here...for someone else.
His gaze dropped to her fingers. Herringlessfingers. But the observation did nothing to ease his agitation. Lauren Winchester not displaying conventional signs of matrimony didn’t mean she hadn’t beguiled another unsuspecting fool.
Tahir recalled her family circumstances. A set of arrogant parents, especially a father whose lofty cabinet minister position he bandied about like a threat. A younger brother who believed the sun rose and set on his good looks and upper-class connections. He’d been frequently stunned at how different Lauren had turned out compared to her family.
