AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He turned, and the impact of his glory left her breathless. His features were sharp, his brows straight and dark. His nose like a blade. His lips... They had done inestimable damage already.
“Dancing,” he said.
She looked at him, and she nearly laughed. Because the idea of him dancing seemed absurd. He seemed twice as likely—even dressed in his custom cut suit—as he was to pull out a sword and start a battle. But he reached out his hand yet again. And she thought that if she had to touch him one more time she would be burned.
She did not know how she could go on. Then, he was taking her hand again.
“It is similar to dances you may have seen or done. It is on a three count. Something like Latin dance.”
“All the dances will be like this?”
“No. But the important dance is that which takes place between you and Riyaz. Your groom.”
“Right. My groom.”
He wrapped his arm around her, with one hand firmly clasped. And they were suddenly pressed tightly together. Her breasts to his chest. His eyes didn’t leave hers. And he began to slowly count. “One. Two. Three.”
And with that count came movements. Slow but decisive. A pause, then a turn. “One. Two. Three.” The slow decisive turn carried them swiftly over the tiled floor. She could not remember the last time she had danced with anyone. Maybe she never had. Maybe it just felt like she should have. She hadn’t had a normal childhood. She hadn’t gone to school dances. Not even after her parents divorced. Not even after the engagement to Riyaz had presumably ended with his captivity.
This was the first time she had ever been danced with. And while she had touched men during garment fittings. It wasn’t the same as this.
This was Cairo.
The only man to ever hold her in his arms.
The only man to ever kiss her.
And it took her a moment to fully realize, but she suddenly had the sense for what this dance mimicked. The movement, the rhythm.
It was like lovers.
A husband and wife. Consummating. Coming together. How could that be? Such an intimate promise to make before all those people.
And yet, she supposed it was as old as time. Hadn’t they hung sheets out the window to prove the woman’s virginity back in medieval times?
The thought of a sheet bearing her blood being suspended from a window made her wish she were dead. But then, she imagined that her inexperience with the rhythm just now betrayed her as a blood spot would. Just the same.
Abruptly, he ended the dance. Abruptly, they stopped moving. “Yes. Just like that.” He stepped away from her, and he seemed to take her breath with him.
“And then what?”
“Then the bride and groom depart the festivities.”
“You said that the wedding lasts three days.”
“Yes. It does. But of course...the marriage must be consummated. Otherwise, it is not legal. That night, after the vows ceremony and the dance, the bride and groom depart to consummate.”
“I’m sorry... You... Are you going to hang a sheet out the window with my virgin’s blood on it as well?”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“I do not think that in this day and age anyone would suspect that a modern, beautiful woman such as yourself to be a virgin. Also, no. As it is not the Middle Ages.”
He really didn’t know? Even after the dance... He didn’t know. She had sort of imagined that he might... Watch her. Have observed something of her life while he was keeping tabs on her. But apparently not. If so, he might know that she never entertained any men. That she didn’t have lovers.
“So I’m simply to go off with a stranger... I have not seen Riyaz in sixteen years. And I’m supposed to show up at the palace, ready for a wedding, ready to consummate...”
