His nostrils flared, his whole being tightening against her as his gaze pinned her.
‘What is it you’re intending to do?’ he questioned with a deadly smile.
‘I won’t cause a scene, if that’s what you are worried about.’
A single tic rippled through his jaw before he regained himself. ‘That’s good to hear. However, I hear a but in there.’
‘I will remain meekly by your side until this ceremony is over. And then you and I will talk.’
One corner of his mouth lifted in a hint of a smile that promised to be lethal given its full scope. ‘My meek little bride seems to have a spine after all,’ he mocked.
The bubble of anger in Niesha’s belly grew. ‘I get that way when I’m misled.’
‘Be careful. Don’t forget whom you’re addressing,’ he warned.
A chill went through her body. ‘Is that a threat, Your Highness?’
‘I am reminding you that we have an audience, and our every move is being watched so if you are going to be disagreeable, I suggest you wait until we are behind closed doors.’
‘Disagreeable? You think I’m being—’
Before she could further vent her anger, he leaned close and brushed his lips over hers.
Like on the balcony, this was meant to shut her up. Niesha knew that. And yet it worked like magic. The high-wattage shiver that went down her spine was so strong she thought she would be lifted right off her feet.
And that was with just a whisper of his lips over hers. She cursed her body’s reaction. Continued cursing it as the song ended and she was led off the ballroom floor with suave attentiveness.
As if he knew and meant to capitalise on her reaction to his touch, Zufar didn’t release her. Long fingers meshed with hers as they moved from group to group holding brief court with their guests.
For tw
o hours she was subjected to his electrifying touch and blasts from tawny eyes that held her fraying nerves on a tight leash.
The evening culminated with spectacular fireworks on the great lawn of the palace. Across the capital city, individual households joined in, with bursts of fireworks lighting the sky across the city.
Niesha barely acknowledged them. All she wanted to do was to retreat at the earliest opportunity and guarantee her fate wasn’t as final as she suspected.
Relief drenched her as her attendants materialised beside her at the stroke of nine p.m. to whisk her off. Moments later, she realised Zufar was not following as she’d expected.
She stopped. They needed to discuss what he’d said now. She couldn’t bear to wait another second. ‘Wait. I need to—’
He intercepted her as she headed back to where he stood with one of his ministers. ‘Go on without me. We will be reunited soon enough, little one,’ he said smoothly as he took her hand and brushed his lips over her knuckles.
Dear heaven, he was smooth.
And calculating.
She was struggling to find her breath when the women firmly led her away.
Niesha was so caught up in the conversation she intended to have with him that she didn’t notice where they were headed until she realised that they weren’t returning to the Queen’s private quarters. ‘What... Where are you taking me?’ she blurted, although she had a fair idea.
Halimah, walking a few steps in front of her, looked over her shoulder and smiled. This time her smile was more tactful, her whole demeanour remarkably altered from this morning.
Of course, Niesha mused, she was now the Queen, and where there’d been whispered speculation and awkwardness before, there were now smiles and an abundance of courtesy and respect.
Even as a tiny spurt of resentment erupted inside her for their about-face, she wanted to blurt out that there was no need for their change of attitude. She was still one of them. She certainly wasn’t going to be Queen for very long, not if she had any say in it.
The thought that her wish might not come true sent a fresh bolt of alarm through her. Zufar hadn’t misspoken. Niesha didn’t know the ins and outs of constitutional law, but she knew the history of the royal family enough to know that there’d been no divorce for generations.