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He shrugged. “I can do anything I put my mind to. I always have. And I always will.”
Her edible lips hung open for moments before a breathy chuckle escaped them. Her every expression and sound inflamed him. Her every inch, even in that unflattering dress, seemed to be exerting an inexorable gravity on his every cell and sense.
She shook her head in dazed humor, and the silky waves of her hair undulated around her shoulders. “You know what? I believe you can. The universe must bend over backward to accommodate you.” Her eyes turned serious, and he wished to fast-forward in time to when she’d look up at him with eyes blazing with passion as he rode her to ecstasy. “But don’t you want to know what this is all about before you make such a commitment?”
He shrugged again. “All I need to know is that you enlisted my help in escaping a fate I believe is worse than death to you. Whatever needs to be done, I’ll do it.”
“But you still need to know details, so you can decide what needs to be done.”
And he gave in to the urge. He reached out and cupped her face, groaned as her firm softness filled his palm, as her flesh singed him with that perfect storm of chemistry that had erupted between them.
He barely stopped himself from swooping to claim the lips that spilled such an intoxicating gasp at his touch. He groaned. “You can tell me everything you want...in my suite.”
His hand melted down her neck and shoulder before it closed over a resilient arm as he turned toward the French doors to lead her outside.
At her rooted unresponsiveness, he frowned. “You do know who I am?”
She had to. She wouldn’t have asked what she had from someone else. For who else could she think could thwart a king?
But he was suddenly uncertain she knew. After all, nothing so far had followed any logical projections.
She silently nodded, her eyes still filled with that shell-shocked expression.
He pressed. “You’re not sure you can trust me?”
She shook her head, then squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, they blasted him in an even hotter wave of unconscious sensuality. He barely suppressed a shudder.
But her color had become hectic and her breathing erratic. She swayed unsteadily in his grip.
Suddenly anxious, he asked, “Are you all right?”
She nodded again, then groaned. “Hell, I keep nodding and shaking my head as if I’ve forgotten how to speak.”
His eyes assessed her as he took his hand reluctantly away. “Maybe you don’t want to speak to me anymore.”
Her cough was incredulous. “You’re kidding, right?”
“You tell me. It’s clear I’m...agitating you.”
“Oh, you are. But it has nothing to do with not trusting you. I do trust you.”
He surveyed her expression, not sure if he was reading it right. Because even knowing who he was, such conviction should be premature. And she didn’t strike him as someone given to making such serious claims lightly.
He gritted his teeth. “You don’t need to say what you don’t feel to placate me or to be polite. You have no reason to trust me. Yet. But I will give you any guarantees you demand so you’ll feel safe with me.”
A chuckle burst from her lips. “Oh, you have much to learn about me. When I’m not in my professional mode as a multinational business consultant, I lead with my real opinions first and don’t bother asking questions later.”
This did feel like the truth. This attitude suited her, and everything he felt from her.
His lips relaxed in response to her infectious smile. “I would have nothing less than the whole truth from you.”
“Well, you’ve come to the right person for that.”
“I’ll count on it. I have no tolerance for empty etiquette and pulling punches, either.”
“Yeah, I noticed. You tell it as it is, in the most shockingly direct way possible. Welcome to the club.” She grinned up at him, and he again wondered how he didn’t have her pressed into that column at her back and was all over her. She made his condition even worse when she sighed, the sound caressing his every nerve. “But I do trust you. I just know you’d never harm me in any way. And don’t ask me how I know that. It has nothing to do with anything I know about you. I just do.”
“Then why were you so alarmed about coming to my suite if it didn’t occur to you I’d take advantage of you?”
Again that unfettered chuckle. “As if. I bet you bound over women who pursue you begging to be taken advantage of.”
“You’re not women. You’re you.”
“Even if you consider me different...”
“Not different. Unique.”
Her color heightened again with pleasure at what should have been an exaggeration but was anything but. “Even if you do consider me that, I can’t imagine other men’s weaknesses ever applying to you. You wouldn’t prey on anyone weaker.”
Her opinion of him had something searingly pleasurable swelling inside him. Yet...“I felt your anxiety, your distress. I still feel them.”
Something soft and even more hard-hitting than all her previous expressions came into her eyes as she cocked her head at him, her lips quirking. “Hello? You do realize you’re the most overwhelming man alive, right? As if that wasn’t enough, we broke every rule of personal interaction. Heck, we’ve already progressed to discussing wedding-busting plans. Excuse me if I’m rattled to my core.”
“You don’t need to be. I care nothing about rules. Between us those don’t exist. And you know it.”
“You think I know anything right now? I’m not even sure this is really happening or that you really exist. I only know that nothing has ever come close to hitting me this hard.”
“Another thing we share, then. Even before I saw you, you hit me harder than anything ever had.”
She scrunched her nose at him in adorable teasing. “Don’t you say what you don’t mean to try to tickle my ego.”
His lips twisted, admitting his condition to himself even as he did to her. “I do mean it. Your ego has every right to be rolling on the ground laughing.” Her chuckle tinkled like crystal with such genuine pleasure, he had to fist his hands to keep them from grabbing her. But he also needed to resolve this issue. “So were you just surprised I asked you back to my suite?”
That delightful lopsided grin flashed wider again. “Surprised is the understatement of the century. But seriously, I just needed a moment for a reality check. And to breathe. You, sir, are more breath depleting than the most insane roller-coaster ride.”
Just then another unprecedented thing happened. His own lips spread with a combination of emotions he didn’t recognize. If forced to name them, he’d guess they most approximated delight, indulgence, even tenderness.
His smile had an equal and opposite reaction on her. While everything about her made him hard as steel, she melted against the support of the column at her back.
Her gaze poured hot, glazed reproach over him, making him start to ache, throb. “You should be banned by law from doing that. Everything about you is already overkill. A smile, and that kind, too, can cause widespread damage.”
His smile only widened as triumph revved inside his chest. “No danger of that, as I have no smiles of any kind for anyone. This is exclusively for you.”
“So I’m a target group of one, huh?”
Something tightened in his chest as he heard the word target on her lips. What she’d been to him before he’d seen her. Now it suddenly felt wrong.
Oblivious to his thoughts, she gazed up at him with what he now believed was trust and...was that admiration, too? “I came here tonight thinking I’d run out of luck for life, but because I met you and you’ve offered what you have, no matter what the outcome will be, I’d already revised my opinion. But to be the sole recipient of your smile? Talk about my luck making a total turnaround.”
Giving in to his compulsion, he tugged her to his side. “I’m willing to talk about anything. Just not here. Come with me?”
She nodded, shyness tingeing her gaze, affecting him more because he knew only he elicited such a reaction from her, and it was genuine, like everything else about her. “Just promise me a chance every now and then to catch my breath.”
“Although it’s the last thing I want, I’ll give you all the time you need to feel at total ease with me.”
Her eyes twinkled impishly at him. “I don’t think it’s humanly possible to feel relaxed around you.”
After that first smile, another came easier to him. “Tension works, too. As long as it’s the delicious kind.”
She sighed dramatically. “I don’t know about that. What you provoke is too scalding to be called anything so benign.”
Her ready confessions of his effect on her surged through him again with such unstoppable desire. Unable to wait any longer, he swept her outside.
As he had her rushing to keep up with his eager steps, she melted into him, as if she needed his support. Then as he steered her toward the elevators, he felt her tensing against him.
This tightness in his chest returned. “Worried again?”
Her smile brightened once more, becoming whimsical as she shook her head. “You’d never be a threat to me, Sheikh Numair. If I have anything to worry about, it’s what an overpowering temptation you are.”
Something twisted in his gut when she called him sheikh. It sounded...so right.
His arm tightened around her, as if in thanks. “It’s only fair, since you’re that, and more, to me.”
Sharing a smile of expectation with her, feeling as if everything he’d ever wanted was within his grasp, he took her into the elevator.
* * *
As Numair held the door open for her, Jen walked past him on legs that at once had the consistency of steel and jelly.
She was really here. In his suite.
Trying to focus on anything besides the feel of him at her back, his scent and heat flooding her senses, she tried to look around.
Though she’d stayed at The Plaza before, it had never been in such a room. The one-of-a-kind Royal Plaza Suite was on a level of magnificence that equaled Zafrana’s royal palace. Though with the hard times her homeland had fallen on, the state of the two places couldn’t be compared. This suite that sprawled over almost five thousand square feet in the most private area of the legendary hotel, overlooking the most prized views in Manhattan—Fifth Avenue and the Pulitzer Fountain—was impeccably maintained. With its rich decorations, sumptuous textiles and exquisite furnishings, all inspired by the ambiance of the royal court of Louis XV, it was the ultimate in luxury. While Zafrana’s royal palace, where she’d grown up, was on its way to becoming dilapidated.
Her gaze strayed back to Numair, and she found herself wondering what his home looked like.
Not that she’d ever find out. Whatever was happening here, whatever he was offering, whatever he wanted in return, she had no illusions it would be anything but transient.
Which she was okay with. Anything she’d have with him, anything he could do for her, would be far more than anything she’d dared dream of an hour ago.
Ya Ullah, had it been only an hour? She felt she’d known him, had been in this state of agitated excitement in his company, forever. It felt like days ago when she’d made her reckless request.
She’d more than half expected he’d shrug and move on. His immediate and unequivocal response had been the last thing she’d expected. And it had shocked the hell out of her.
But what else was new? Everything from the moment she’d laid eyes on him had been one shock after another. And here she was. In his suite. What she’d never done with any man. Not even the man she’d once married. She’d always met any man on her turf. She’d dictated the pace, the rules.
She hadn’t even thought of trying to impose those on Numair. Even when he’d made it clear he’d accommodate her every wish. It wasn’t because she needed his help or because he’d promised it. He was just...overriding. And for the first time in her life, she loved being swept away, not being in control of herself or the situation. Numair made what should have been a disconcerting experience, to someone as obsessive about autonomy as herself, exhilarating.
His hand once again burned her waist through her dress as he guided her through a succession of vestibules to a massive space hosting a sumptuous ten-seat dining table and a luxurious sitting area.
Stepping away from his electrifying touch, she sought the refuge of the grand piano at the far corner. Once behind it and taking in the whole scene with him at its center, she felt herself stumble out of the surreal state she’d plunged into.
Numair might have admitted her equal effect on him, but would he consider it equally her right to follow her instincts as it was his? She did trust him not to make any move she didn’t invite, but she suddenly didn’t trust he’d view this whole thing as she did. Could he be so progressive he wouldn’t hold it against her and change his treatment of her?
Well, if he wasn’t, it would be his loss, and she’d be well rid of him. As she had been of her ex.
Striving for an even tone, she asked, “Are you in New York to attend the reception?”
Those amazing emerald-like eyes of his glittered. “I wasn’t invited, no.”
“So you heard royals from your region were having an engagement celebration at your hotel and you simply decided to investigate?”
“Something like that.”
She’d have to be satisfied with that, because he didn’t seem about to elaborate. Not that it mattered why he happened to be there. What mattered was whether he could truly help her.
Before she could reintroduce the subject, he came around the piano. “I detect a severe drop in temperature since we entered the suite. Having second thoughts after all?”
His voice had deepened, calmed, as if soothing a skittish mare. He reached for her hand that lay fisted on the black, polished surface of the piano. His hand was big enough to lose hers in, tough enough it could pulverize brick. Yet the gentleness with which he coaxed her hand open, the consideration in his eyes as he surveyed her no doubt tense face, suddenly made her ashamed of her surge of doubt.
Squeezing her eyes in contrition, she groaned, “I guess I got a bit paranoid.”
He frowned. “Were you worried that your trust in me was unsubstantiated, and I’d do something against your will once I got you here?”
She shook her head vigorously, needing him to know this was something she’d never suspect. “Not that. I just worried you’d change your...attitude.”
“Like men usually do, once they think they’ve gotten their objectives and no longer need to hide their nasty natures and double-standard convictions?”
From the way his gorgeous lips thinned, she knew if such men crossed his path, they’d regret it for life. He did have that protector/punisher vibe going.
She wished he’d let this go but knew he wouldn’t. This man needed to know everything, to have a tight handle on every situation. He’d probe until she spilled everything that had crossed her mind in those moments of unease.
She sighed. “Men are like that to one degree or another in my experience, but mainly men from my region, yes.”
One dauntingly arched eyebrow rose. “Are all men chauvinists there?”
“Double standards are the general stance, perpetrated by women even more than men. Anyone, especially a woman, who dares flaunt cultural rules and restrictions becomes stigmatized, no matter how modern everyone looks on the surface.”
“Why did you fear I’d be like them? I was born in your region, but I was not raised there.”
“Indoctrination happens at a very early age. It takes very progressive families and especially mothers not to imprint their children with the worst of the culture. In general, men there are raised to have very cruel opinions of women whom they perceive as ‘loose.’”
“And you thought my early programming would resurface, and I’d judge you for coming up here with me?”
“It was a passing thought, okay? An ingrained reaction that really has nothing to do with you.”
“But it wasn’t ingrained in you because of the general state of affairs in your homeland. It was out of personal experience, wasn’t it?”
