Possessing the Princess

16

ROYA

“IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME,” Yasmin announced when Aris guided me out onto the restaurant’s bright courtyard. “Konstantin was pretending to have manners and wouldn’t let us order until you got here.”

In the busy Dubai Marina neighborhood, we took over the restaurant’s entire inner square, a pretty fountain cascading water as the patio’s centerpiece with tall palms swaying above to provide much welcome shade. Aris’s soldiers remained stationed at all the entrances while Zain, Yasmin, Konstantin accompanied by his wife Lina, and of course Yasmin’s girlfriend Daisy sat around a large table.

Aris smirked. “It’s Roya’s fault that we’re late. She didn’t want to get out of bed.”

“Aris!” I reached back, smacking him lightly on the arm while Konstantin and Zain smothered masculine chuckles at my expense.

Even Daisy snickered. She might’ve looked all fresh-faced and innocent, but I thought she had a streak of humor as wicked as Yasmin’s.

“Well, you’re here now, and I’m fucking famished.” Popping her sunglasses up on her head, Yasmin studied the menu, one of her hands playing with Daisy’s wildly curling hair.

I was starving as well. My appetite had soared recently, not to mention I felt like nodding off at the most inopportune times. Hence the reason why I’d overslept.

“Roya.” Aris had nudged me awake with a lingering kiss to my lips just an hour earlier. “Wake up. Did you forget about brunch?”

I’d stretched before twisting my arms behind his neck, meeting those compelling blue eyes. “What time is it?”

“Time to get moving. As much as I’d love to keep you in bed all day . . .” His words drifted away, the power of his hot gaze enough to show his intent.

Yes. He’d love to keep me in bed and naked, wiling away the hours with his delicious loving.

Six weeks had passed since my abduction, when my uncle had snatched me away to Iran and imprisoned and tortured me. My world—once so small and contained—had altered drastically.

Some of the changes to my life were inconsequential and might have been meaningless to anyone else.

Since Father had deemed my secret wardrobe of clothing inappropriate and had everything destroyed those weeks ago, Aris had decided to indulge me with a shopping trip.

He’d squired me around to the high-end boutiques and definitely enjoyed choosing lingerie for me, some of which was downright scandalous.

After my first night back with him, I’d discovered he hadn’t just purchased the silk pajamas for me. No, the man had somehow found and replaced a few of my favorite items. The red leather skirt, a pair of bone colored stilettoes, several beautiful blouses. . .

And then there was the red dress with the revealing back. Incredibly, he’d had the straps repaired, kept the garment hung in his closet amid all his suits.

He also gave me my dagger back, telling me he’d kept it in his study, in the center of his desk the whole time I was gone from him.

He had been thinking about me, missing me as much as I did him.

I glanced at him now after he pushed the chair I sat in up to the table.

Standing behind me, he framed my face in his palms. He tilted my neck back and delivered a startlingly sensuous kiss right there in front of his friends.

Our friends.

“Beautiful,” he murmured, a smile in his eyes. “I’ll be right back. Just want to check on the soldiers and make sure we’re secure here.”

I watched him depart, grateful for my own sunglasses so the others couldn’t tell my eyes stayed glued to his tight backside.

Lina raised her eyebrows. “Now that’s a side to Aris I never expected to see. It appears you’ve got him fully trained.”

“Trained?” Throwing back my head, I laughed. “I would not go that far.”

There would always be something savage and animalistic about him, a part of himself he kept barely leashed most times.

“You forgot to mention that he’s also crazy overprotective,” Yasmin said dryly.

I couldn’t argue with that. Aris was all those things and, above all else, highly possessive and passionate.

“I think it’s cute.” Daisy tangled her fingers through Yasmin’s.

Zain rolled his eyes.

Yasmin peered at her girlfriend. “So you’d think I was cute if I had you tailed by soldier goons all around the city every time you left the loft?”

“Okay, okay. I take it back. He’s a stalker.” But Daisy winked at me.

I wouldn’t go that far.It was simply that Aris had rules when it came to my safety, with good reason considering the attempted kidnappings. I was still a royal princess after all and no longer under lock and key.

In fact, now that I was out from under my father’s thumb, my freedom was mostly unlimited.

Reluctantly, Father had parted with my precious dowry, giving it over to me to do with as I wished. My horrible betrothal to Hamzah was most decidedly over, and I’d never have to endure his sausage fingers on my flesh again.

I had made a few other demands of my father too, almost daring him to deny me. It had felt so satisfying to stand up to him, to leave him stupefied and stuttering in my wake.

I’d orchestrated a deal for all of my sisters, whole and half siblings alike. When they came of age, they were to be given their freedom too instead of being forced into loveless marriages to benefit Father’s ambitions.

In the end it had been as simple as bribery. I’d learned well. He didn’t want his brother’s true nature—his insanity—to get leaked to the press. The royal family couldn’t be seen as having such shameful skeletons in the closet, after all. And, as I was the key witness to Uncle’s lunacy, I got what I wanted. And I was all right with keeping that family secret because Uncle Abdullah was dead and gone by Aris’s hand.

Oh, Aris.