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Kadeem wanted Eliana, and with a passion that threatened to set him on fire every time he was near her.
And, more importantly, he had made a decision.
He would have the Princess Eliana of Zahram. Even if it was the last thing he did.
CHAPTER THREE
Eliana flopped down onto the wooden seat inside the open-sided gazebo. Like everything in the palace, the gazebo was grand and very large, elaborately decorated on the outside in a particularly Qazhar style.
She watched as Kadeem took his place next to her. He'd been strangely silent throughout most of the walk across the lawn. Apart from that brief exchange which had ended up being just another one of their typical disagreements.
She gazed out at the garden. The sun was bright in an azure blue sky. The carefully tended garden was a riot of colored flowers. Trees and hedgerows stretched all the way to the palace's high external wall. Beyond that was the desert.
Eliana felt the cool air brush against the warm, bare skin of her arms. She was grateful to be in the shade.
Kadeem glanced at her expectantly. "You wanted to say something?" he asked, too casually for her liking. There was that taunting tone in his voice, she told herself. The one he used when he wanted to annoy her.
She turned to face him. Eliana saw Kadeem's gaze shift briefly downward as she moved, twisting her hips and placing a hand across her middle.His gaze was casual, but also penetrating in a strange way. She hesitated before speaking, realizing that his piercing look had stopped her in her tracks. Just like he'd done so many times before, she told herself. But she'd never tell him that. Never.
Eliana cleared her throat and then spoke. "Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Tell my mother what you know perfectly well is a lie," she snapped.
Kadeem narrowed his eyes. "What exactly did I lie about?"
She felt herself bristle. "Seriously?" Eliana gasped, squinting at him. "You just told both our mothers that there would be an announcement. And you clearly implied that it might be good news. For them, at least," she said. "But, we both know what you really meant."
"And what is that?" he asked.
She glared at him. "We have an agreement, Kadeem," she reminded him.
"Of course we do," he replied. "I haven't forgotten that."
She widened her eyes. "So. Isn't that what we agreed we wanted to avoid doing?" she exclaimed.
"Give both of our families good news?"
Eliana gritted her teeth and said nothing. He'd done this before, and she was determined not to take the bait.
He leaned back against the seat and stretched his legs out. She tried to ignore that gesture, and to ignore the reaction the sight of his lithe body had triggered in her.
"But, it's what we promised each other, isn't it?" she said.
He nodded and sighed. "The agreement," he observed with a wry tone of voice. "Our famous agreement."
She frowned. "Don't tell me you've changed your mind."
"Haven't I kept my side of the bargain?"
She shrugged. "I suppose so," she admitted slowly.
He lifted a hand and counted on his fingers as he continued. "I agreed to do all of this, whenever we were in the company of other people. Treat you coldly and with some degree of arrogance. Check. Pay you almost no compliments. Check. Completely ignore you from time to time. Check." He lifted his eyes up to the roof of the gazebo. "And finally, make sure I never try to kiss you in public. Check."
He looked at her and lifted a brow. "Looks like I kept my side of the bargain. Don't you think?"
Infuriatingly, he always had a way of playing the winning hand in any argument, she told herself. But, she wasn't going to give in so easily. Not this time.
