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“I won’t have need of your services after tonight, Colonel. Talk to Mikol and see where he wants you to report to from here, but you should be able to leave for your duty station right away. Thank you for your service.”
I turned to go inside, but he grabbed my arm and whirled me around. “Nice try, Your Highness, but as I said, I take my orders from your parents. And the Royal Consort told me to stay in place until he arrives.”
I jerked my arm away. “How dare you lay hands on me? I said, you’re dismissed. Fired!”
His mouth tightened and he glared down at me. “Good night, Your Highness. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I tried to strike him then, so carried away by rage and frustration that I didn’t know what I was doing. No, that’s a total lie—I knew exactly what I was doing, but I couldn’t control it. I wanted to hurt him, to make him notice me and react to me. I couldn’t take that steely determination and cold indifference a moment longer.
He sidestepped my wild swing easily and grabbed my wrist in a tight grip. “Go to bed, Rakkur. Take off your clothes and get under the covers. You need some sleep. You’re overwrought.”
“No,” I said, and grabbed Tariq’s shirtfront, dragging him inside. I couldn’t stand the idea of talking anymore, and I didn’t want to hear what he might have to say, anyway. I didn’t think my heart could take it.
He came, though he backed up against the door with a wary look. “Rakkur, we need to talk.”
“No, we don’t. We’ve done enough of that for a lifetime!”
I was suddenly so angry, it felt like steam was coming from my ears. He was going to tell me again that he didn’t love me and then give me all the reasons why. I refused to listen anymore.
And yet I was so full of passion for him that my knees were shaking.
“I don’t care what you have to say. I don’t want to hear anything from you.”
He only glared back at me, his face stern and even grim.
“I have to tell you about the new orders I had earlier today, while you were shopping. We need to talk about them.”
“New orders from my omak?”
“That’s right. In fact, he’s on his way here now.”
“I know. You told me.”
“He told me he expected to be here in about three days.”
“But he’s been ill. My father told him he wouldn’t allow him to travel here.”
He shrugged in that infuriating way he had. “It’s not my place, certainly, to tell the Royal Consort what he can or can’t do.”
“Tell me what he said. Every word.”
That irritated him, but I was past caring. “Well? Tell me. I demand to know.”
“He said that he was coming here, like I said. He heard about the incident on the ship and was horrified by it. He seemed to think it may not have been an accident and you’re in danger. He said he had a feeling about it and told me to keep a close eye on you and to make sure you did exactly as I said. He told me to take whatever means necessary to keep you in line. He said, and I quote, ‘Turn him over your knee, if you have to. And I mean that literally.’”
“That’s outrageous. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! You wouldn’t dare.”
He’d been leaning against the door, looking big and muscular and gorgeous and slightly out of sorts, his shapely lips sticking out in a slight pout. He was staring down at his boots, but he looked up at me then from under those thick, dark eyelashes when I said that last part, and one eyebrow quirked upward. I saw a look in his eyes that I didn’t like. It shot a thrill of excitement right through me. I wasn’t frightened of him—I knew he’d never hurt me, because he’d already proven that. But would he try something else? I believed he would.
I took a quick step backward and he took one toward me. His hands flexed by his sides, and his eyes flashed at me.
“N-no. Don’t come any closer.” I took another step back and held out my hand. “Please.”
“Are you afraid of me, Rakkur?”
“Hells yes, I am.”
He gave me the first smile he’d given me in days. It was just a tiny uplifting of one side of his mouth, but it was there. “You surely know I’d never harm you.”
