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His thumb glided down to capture her chin and lift her face to his. ‘Am I wrong?’ he asked, his tone coaxing now.
She looked away from him, the gentle question making her throat tight again. She blinked furiously, unsure about why she was becoming so emotional.
‘Why does it matter?’ she replied, feeling weary and defeated. ‘It’s not as if I’myourfirst, now, is it?’ she added, the indignation brewing again.
‘This is true,’ he said, making her feel even more deflated. But then he slipped his finger into her hair and hooked the unruly curls behind her ear, forcing her to look at him again. ‘But you are very different from the other women I have been with.’
‘How?’ she asked, hating the neediness in her voice, but wanting to know.
‘I cannot really explain it,’ he said. ‘We have exceptional chemistry, but also...’ He paused, as if he were searching for the right words. ‘You are my first too in many ways.’
He frowned, and she suspected he had said more than he had intended to. The warmth spread in her chest, but she pushed it away, not quite able to believe he meant it. Was he trying to flatter and cajole her? He had always seemed like a very blunt man, but she knew he still wanted to marry her, so there was that.
‘Is it because I will one day be Queen of Narabia?’ she asked, deciding to put him on the spot.
Was he like all the others? Attracted first and foremost to her status, wanting her forwhatshe would be one day, not who she was now? She felt the dart of pain in her stomach, knowing that somehow it would be so much worse if Kamal was like the rest.
His brows shot up his forehead, the puzzled expression on his face making relief course through her, and then he laughed. ‘You are already a queen, Kaliah. The Queen of Trouble.’
A chuckle burst out of her mouth at the outrageous statement. But something about the playful smile on his lips—something she already knew was rare, because he was an extremely serious man most of the time—made her heart bounce.
‘Fair point,’ she said.
He laughed again, the rough, rusty sound impossibly beguiling, then reached out and captured her hand in his. ‘Come back to bed. I promise I will not ask you any more questions. Let us lie together. I wish to have you in my arms when I wake tomorrow,’ he said, the flirtatious light in his eyes another surprise, but no less compelling. ‘And you robbed me of this on our first night.’
She knew she shouldn’t encourage any more intimacy between them, but she couldn’t find the will to object when he led her back towards the bed.
Now they were actually talking again, she would have to press him about contacting her father first thing tomorrow. She should explain to him the danger he was putting himself in if her father discovered he had kidnapped her.
But as she climbed into the bed with him, and allowed him to tuck her against his chest and hold her, contentment settled over her. She could feel his heart thumping against her back in heavy thuds, feel the still firm erection nestled against her bottom—and the feeling of connection she had never shared with another man overwhelmed her.
It was an illusion, of course, a result of the fact he had been her first. But it felt good to know she wasn’t the only one who had been altered by their encounter. She doubted she could ever be friends with this man, but as she drifted into a deep, exhausted sleep—her body tingling insistently in all the places he had touched and caressed—it felt as if sex wasn’t the only thing that connected them.
Kamal saw her in a way no other man ever had. Not just as a sexual being, but also as an equal, different from the other women he had known, in the same way he was so different from the men she had known.
And that felt important...and precious. Somehow.
CHAPTER NINE
WHENLIAHJERKEDawake the next morning, she found the bed empty beside her and the sound of distant rumbling in the air.
Was a thunderstorm coming? And where was Kamal?
She dressed hastily in the clothes scattered around his bed chamber and rushed out of the tent, her heart pumping double time when she spotted Kamal standing with his back to her, staring down the gorge.
The rush of euphoria turned to panic as she realised the rumbling was the sound of horses’ hooves echoing off the canyon’s walls.
She reached Kamal’s side just as her father appeared, galloping towards them on his stallion Zufar, leading a column of at least fifty men.
She grasped Kamal’s arm. ‘Let me speak to him, Kamal,’ she said urgently over the noise of the approaching army. ‘This could get awkward.’
Kamal’s brows furrowed. ‘I am not afraid of your father, Kaliah,’ he said, placing his hand over hers. The touch of his palm sent sensation skittering.
She tugged her hand out from under his—the possessive gleam in his eyes not helping with her anxiety attack.
Terrific—just what I need. My endorphins playing tricks on me when I need to come up with a plan—fast—to save Kamal from the consequences of his actions.
He’d brought her here against her will, but she knew now he wasn’t a bad man, just an impulsive, impetuous one who tended to act first and think later.
