But she accepted the darkest parts she knew of his manufactured history without reservations, with even admiration for what he’d become. It made him hope that when he was able to divulge the whole truth, it wouldn’t shock her, wouldn’t alienate her.
He now only said, “No, he’s not.”
“I thought Black Castle was exclusively a partnership between you and those men you consider brothers.”
“Richard, regretfully, is the exception.”
“Regretfully, huh?” She suddenly chuckled. “And he’s still in one piece and living and unavoidably in your life, too? He is certainly a man worth meeting. Introduce me?”
Grinding his teeth again, he knew he had to comply. At least he’d made Richard realize he would kill him this time if he messed this up with Jenan. He hoped, for her sake, that Richard behaved. He’d rather not kill him in front of her.
Entwining her arm with his, he took her to meet Richard.
* * *
Deep into the night, Numair woke up with a start.
He subsided when he felt Jenan draped over him, every inch of her warm, firm, precious flesh plastered to his.
They’d made love for hours after Richard left. To his shock, Richard had behaved with perfect gallantry in Jenan’s presence. And Jenan had been her usual spontaneous self with him. Numair, however, still wanted to kill him. He clearly had serious insecurity issues, even when he knew he had no reason to.
But he did have a reason, he corrected himself. A huge one. And it had nothing to do with jealousy.
During the past weeks, while everything had fallen into place according to his methodical plans, with him releasing Jenan from Hassan, then forcing him to relinquish Zafrana’s debts one at a time, with the last ones being what Richard had brought him today, he’d kept realizing
that nothing was going as he’d envisioned.
The cousins he’d come here intending to engage in a vicious fight were nothing he’d thought they were. They were all admirable men and women. Even worse, he liked Najeeb more every time he saw him. His plan to wrest the throne from him after condemning his father for a murderer and destroying his family honor no longer seemed feasible. For how could he deal with Najeeb with as much cold blood as he’d always dealt with adversaries when he no longer considered him one?
But that was only his secondary worry. His main one was focused on Jenan. The foreboding that had been building inside him had crystallized during Richard’s visit.
At first, he hadn’t thought a day would come when he’d regret not being honest about why he’d wanted an heir.
But if he put the rest of his plan into action, she’d realize his early purpose. He had no doubt the totally honest woman that she was, who’d accepted his declared reasons in good faith, would feel betrayed and used. Now he didn’t know how to rectify his initial mistake.
His only hope was that she wasn’t already pregnant.
Which was probably too much to hope for after their weeks of unprotected lovemaking.
But she must have been checking regularly, and if she’d said nothing, it was possible she wasn’t yet pregnant. If she wasn’t, he didn’t want her to get pregnant anymore. He didn’t want a child to complicate matters between them more than they already were, to make her more prone to being vulnerable and inconsolable when the truth came out.
But he wouldn’t know where to go from here until he asked her, knew for certain if she was or wasn’t pregnant.
Coming to that conclusion, he closed his eyes again and did something he’d never done before.
He prayed. To whatever was out there and might listen. He prayed that she wasn’t pregnant, that he’d be granted a second chance to make this right.
* * *
Jen watched Numair prowling toward her in the mirror as she brushed her hair in long, leisurely strokes, imagining herself stroking his magnificent body.
Not that she needed imagining. He’d given her absolute freedom to do whatever she wished to him and she’d been losing her mind all over him, doing everything she’d ever dreamed of with that body of his. And he’d been doing everything she’d known about, and many, many things she hadn’t known about, with hers. To both their complete and supreme ecstasy.
He now came to tower over her from behind, his eyes flaring and subsiding like glowing emeralds, snaring her eyes in their reflection. In her mind she only saw a sequence of events that had happened so many times during the past six delirious weeks. Numair picking her up, making her feel weightless, thrilling her yet again with all the power this man of hers possessed. And how he used it all to worship and pleasure her!
Then his hands descended on her shoulders, and she shuddered in anticipation, though she knew she shouldn’t be inviting another session of passion. She’d told her father she’d be back in the palace in an hour to give him proof Zafrana’s debts, and his mess, had been wiped clean. Thanks to Numair.
But surely her father could wait a few hours longer...