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This urge to surrender.
So she struggled. Against herself more than anything, but he did not seem bothered by it. Not at all. He extracted her from the limousine and carried her to the doors of the private plane.
And he hauled her right up the steps.
She kicked and struggled, and there was a smiling flight attendant on board. She looked at the other woman in disbelief. The other woman simply smiled. “Can I get you some champagne?”
“Are you...” she asked. “This man iskidnappingme.”
She only grinned wider. Like a terrifying fem-bot. “Sheikh Cairo is of course the ruler of that which he surveys, and the reigning power in this facility. I assure you that it is functionally impossible for him to kidnap anyone in this sphere.”
“I assure you it’s not,” she said, still wiggling as he set her down on one of the seats inside the cabin.
“Champagne?” the woman asked again.
“You’re all shocking,” she said.“Complicit,”she added for good measure.
“No champagne then?”
“Of course I want champagne,” Ariel snapped.
And she let the grinning woman pour her a glass of champagne, and she felt slightly like she’d lost some sort of battle, but she was on the plane with or without a drink, so she might as well indulge.
She took the glass from the woman, who smiled and turned to Cairo. “None for me. You may go.”
He didn’t use her name or accept her services and Ariel felt slightly irritated that she’d accepted.
And the woman vanished. Just as he’d commanded.
“Do you have her under a spell?”
“Yes, Ariel. That spell is called power.” He reclined in his chair, his hands behind his head, tightening his shirt over his broad, muscular chest.
She was trying to wrap her head around the fact that this was both Syed and Cairo. When she’d seen him at her house he’d been recognizable only as Cairo. It was the impact of him, his eyes, and the fact he’d appeared right after her mother’s text.
But now, with him on the private jet, sprawled out like a man waiting to be served, she saw the infamous playboy and businessman. She was shocked they’d never moved in the same circles; in fashion she interacted with many men like him, and as he’d said, he bought her jewelry for his mistresses.
But it was by design. She knew that. She didn’t even have to ask.
“You’ve changed,” she said.
“I would hope so,” he responded, his tone dark. “My parents were murdered and I was separated from my brother and my homeland. I ought to have changed.”
For the first time, regret and pity swamped the rest of what she felt. Overtook her concerns for herself.
“I’m sorry. For what you went through, I really am. I felt like I lost something that day too.”
His eyes went hard, and she knew she’d miscalculated. “You were never happy there.”
“I wasn’t happy I was being forced into marriage. Show me a girl who would be?”
“My brother is the ruler of Nazul. Many women would line up for the chance.”
“I never wanted to be a wife. By which I mean I never wanted to be defined by that. My mother’s whole identity was my father. She just...went along with everything he said. She loved me, she loves me. But she...she doesn’t know how to make up her own mind. She doesn’t take a stand, ever. She’s never known how to be alone or single. It’s why we don’t see each other very much now. She’s had two husbands since my dad.” She shook her head. “Why would I want that? Maybe I wouldn’t have wanted to get married at all. Maybe I don’t like men. No one ever asked me.”
His lips curved upward, his head tilting to the side. “Do you not?”
“Do I not what?”
