A Whisper of Disgrace

Rosa swallowed. ‘This terrace is completely private.’

‘Nowhere is completely private. There are long-range lenses and buildings all around which offer perfect vantage points.’ His black eyes shot out black fire which blazed over her. ‘Unless you are turned on by the thought that someone might be watching? Perhaps deep down you are longing for the kind of notoriety which would come from being the first woman to be photographed having sex with the sheikh?’

She stared at him, her heart beginning to pound painfully in her chest as she heard his unjust and harsh accusation. ‘Is that what you think?’ she whispered. ‘Is that what you really think?’

‘I don’t know what to think. You are a constant series of surprises to me, Rosa—surprises which are becoming more apparent by the day. I had no idea, for example, that you were a frustrated television star.’

Shaking her head with indignation, she jumped off his lap and ran back inside the apartment but she quickly realised that he was following her. She could see his huge shadow dwarfing her and could hear him pressing a button so that the blinds floated silently down, leeching the room of all brightness and colour. She turned, seeing the look on his face.

‘Don’t,’ she said, her heart quickening.

‘Don’t what?’ he questioned. ‘Don’t continue what you started outside, only without the possibility of some paparazzi salivating over his camera? I thought that was what you were angling for, Rosa.’

The prospect of sex when he was looking as aroused as that made Rosa’s body tremble for his touch, but pride made her shake her head with a sudden fury. ‘Don’t keep treating me like some mindless puppet who can’t think for herself,’ she said fiercely.

Her unexpected words made him halt in his tracks and he deliberately made his voice grow silky. ‘But I’m just acting in your best interests. Surely you can see that it was unwise for us to be intimate outside, with the possibility that we could be seen by the paparazzi?’

‘Yes, I can see that,’ she said impatiently. ‘But there are more diplomatic ways to tell me than by making me sound like some little tart who is seeking a crude kind of notoriety.’

There was a pause for a moment as he considered her words, his eyes travelling over her hurt and angry face before, slowly, he nodded. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

For a moment she thought she’d imagined it. She stared at him in disbelief. Had Kulal actually said sorry? ‘You are?’ she questioned cautiously.

‘Of course I am.’ He gave a heavy sigh. ‘You’ve just given me what is probably the best homecoming I’ve ever had and all I’ve done is throw it back in your face.’

For a moment Rosa was too overcome to respond. Because Kulal had used an emotive word which could mean so much, especially to someone like him. Homecoming. Coming from a man whose own home life had been shattered by the death of his mother—wasn’t that the greatest compliment he had ever paid her?

‘It’s okay,’ she managed, but she was shaking with emotion all the same.

‘I can be an ungrateful bastard at times,’ he admitted as he stepped forward and took her in his arms. ‘I guess part of me was still worried that you’d gone ahead and allowed yourself to take Bertrand’s ridiculous suggestion seriously.’

Rosa stilled as the truth dawned on her. He thought she’d changed her mind. That she’d opted for the docile role of compliant wife—the role he obviously expected of her. That she was doing what he wanted her to do. She bit her lip. So what did she tell him? She could play safe by phoning Arnaud in the morning and telling him she’d changed her mind, thus guaranteeing harmony in her marriage. But at what cost? Was she going to have to subjugate everything about herself which didn’t please this demanding sheikh? And for what? For him to turn around and leave her when the year was up, no matter what she did.

‘You think it was a ridiculous suggestion?’ she said carefully.

His lips gave the flicker of a smile. ‘I’m afraid it was. I know what these people are like, Rosa. He wants to make sure that I give him permission to film in Zahrastan, which is why he chose to flatter you. People often try to target powerful men through their wives. Though if he was a little more discerning, he might have realised that his behaviour has angered me and that I dislike men fawning over you in such a way.’

For a moment Rosa was so outraged that she couldn’t speak, even though his attitude was one she was used to. One she’d grown up with … He was making her sound like a racehorse, or a fancy car which another man was attempting to joyride. How dare he speak of her in such dismissive tones? She stared up at him, trying to stop her voice from trembling as she spoke. ‘You think that’s the only reason he showed interest in me—to get close to you?’