Mehdi met her gaze and laughed. “Oh, I can see where you’d be confused. No, I am not. However, I do know what it’s like to have choice taken away from you, and I didn’t want you to have to suffer the same fate. I’m giving you a choice now, Steph. You can go back to the limo and I will have my driver take you to your original destination with no questions asked, or you can stay a while with me and enjoy breaking the rules a little bit.”
Steph’s brain struggled to catch up with what was happening. Mehdi had sent a decoy limo to rescue her from an arranged marriage, and he was now offering her asylum until she was ready to face the consequences of that action.
She stopped in the main foyer, closing her eyes. “Wait. Hold on a minute. I just need to process this.”
She opened her eyes and looked back up at Mehdi, who was staring down at her patiently. She pointed at him.
“You’re like…the king of El Farah,” she said.
“That’s right,” Mehdi said with a nod.
She waved her hands around the room at large, which, she noticed, was extremely large and glittering with gold designs.
“And this is your home,” she said.
“That is correct.”
“And you aren’t supposed to be marrying me today,” she said, and he shook his head.
“Unfortunately not,” he said, and Steph noticed a small pang of disappointment in his voice.
She stared at him for a moment as it all came together. Then she burst into a wide smile.
“You are insane,” she said, and Mehdi laughed.
“Probably, but here we are. So what do you choose, Steph?”
“What do I choose? You just kidnapped me from my own wedding!”
She was torn between feeling indignant and feeling relieved. Mehdi looked completely unrepentant, the paragon of confidence.
“It’s as I said. I think you deserve to choose, and I took action accordingly. If I have acted out of place I will apologize, but I think there is a part of you that is glad you’re not in the middle of a wedding ceremony right now.”
“And you are used to doing as you please, given your status? Is that it?”
Mehdi frowned. “Yesterday I told you that I lived in my own gilded cage, always meant to behave in a certain manner. Do you now hold me to that standard, now that you know who I am?”
Steph thought back to the aquarium, when that worker had been so quick to give Mehdi whatever he wanted. That all made perfect sense now. She felt a stab of guilt at his words.
“You’re right. I’m already making assumptions about you, and that’s wrong. But you made assumptions about me, too, when you assumed I would be perfectly fine being kidnapped.”
“And are you?” he asked, his eyes searching hers.
She could have fallen into his arms and kissed him then and there, but instead she stepped back and crossed her arms, mostly to keep them for wrapping around him without her permission.
“Maybe,” she said, and Mehdi smiled.
“Aha! There’s the truth now. Worry not, fair maiden, for you will not be another man’s bride this day,” he said, his tone playful.
Steph glanced down at her elaborate dress. Compared to Mehdi’s casual outfit, she definitely felt silly, even if her surroundings were appropriate for a ceremony of some kind.
“It does feel strange, to be in this gown with nothing to show for it.”
“Perhaps you would like a change of clothing?” he said.
“You keep women’s clothing on hand for just an occasion such as this?” she asked with a skeptical brow.
Mehdi laughed. “Steph, it’s the palace of El Farah. I’m not the only person who’s lived here. My parents had many dignitaries visit, and they housed many people for a variety of reasons. It is always pertinent to have spare clothing around. At the palace, anything can happen, and it has.”
Steph thought about anything happening at the palace, and her thoughts turned to Mehdi’s lips before she gave herself a mental shake. Obviously being in a wedding gown was not helping the direction of her thoughts.
“I would be grateful for a change of clothing, yes,” she said.