A Secret Birthright
He hadn’t taken her to his private domain, had kept her in what was to him, for all its wonders, an impersonal space.
Relief had trumped the pain of knowing he hadn’t thought her worthy of sharing his own bed. She didn’t wish the depth of her involvement on him, wished him only the mildness of fond memories when she left his life, not the harshness of unquenchable longing she’d live with.
But as he’d said, it was too late. Whatever he’d felt for her had now been forever soiled and soured.
It wasn’t too late to escape. This time, she wouldn’t let anything stop her. She’d at least spirit Ryan and Rose away.
Panic finally got her legs working. At the door, her hand slipped on the handle…then she stumbled back.
The door was opening. Fareed. He’d come back as she’d feared.…
Next moment, she stood gaping at the stranger…strangers on the other side of the door.
The dark, imposing man who looked like the highest-ranking among them, advanced on her, said without preamble, “You will come with us. The king has summoned you.”
The ride to the royal palace passed in harrowing silence.
Her escorts wouldn’t answer her questions. They’d said the king had summoned her, but in reality, she was being abducted.
Even if she hadn’t heard enough from Hesham about his father, this act of blatant disregard for her most basic rights made her expect the worst.
She’d long dreaded this man. Her fear only deepened with every step through his palace’s impossible opulence and extravagance.
Then she was ushered into his state room.
As the door closed behind her, she felt engulfed by malice.
It didn’t matter. She’d fight him, king or not.…
“Harlots always had the intelligence and self-preservation to try to entrap my sons outside my domain.”
The voice was pure wrath and mercilessness, short-circuiting her resolve. It issued from the deep shadows at the far end of the gigantic room.
The owner of the voice rose from a throne-like seat and advanced to the relatively illuminated part where she stood. She almost cringed. Almost. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“But you’re here to steal Fareed under my very nose. You’re either recklessly stupid or unbelievably cunning. I’d go with the second interpretation because you managed to have my most-level-headed son eating out of your hand.”
This was about Fareed? He didn’t know who she was?
Relief almost burst out of her, but she couldn’t give any outward sign of it. She stood staring ahead, face blank.
This provoked him even more. She felt his rage encompassing her as he stormed toward her. Then she saw him clearly for the first time. It took all that remained of her tattered control not to recoil.
The man was an older version of Fareed, as tall but bulkier, must have been as blessed by nature once upon a time, but ruthlessness had degraded his looks, turning him forbidding, almost sinister. And he was incensed.
“You think I’ll lose another son to another American hussy? One who wants to foist her bastard child on him, too?” He snatched at her. Her heart hit her throat as she stumbled out of reach. He brought himself under control. “But I’ll give you the choice I would have given the trash who deprived me of my youngest son. Leave, disappear, and I’ll leave you alone. If you don’t, what happens to you and yours will be your fault.”
And she knew. That the lengths Hesham had gone to, to hide from that man, what she’d always suspected had been at least a little exaggerated, had been warranted, and then some.
But ironically, because of the king’s ignorance of her true identity, he was giving her a way out of this horrific mess. He’d even provided the means for her to leave against Fareed’s will, what she might have never secured on her own.
“What will it be?” the king rumbled, a predator about to pounce and to hell with giving his opponent a running chance.
She looked him in the eyes, made her answer a solemn pledge. “I’ll leave. And I’ll disappear. Fareed will never find me again.”
The king had believed her.
But knowing that Fareed wouldn’t just let her go, he’d said he would give her every assistance in her disappearance efforts.
His men had delivered her to Fareed’s mansion to collect Rose and Ryan on her way to the king’s private airstrip. She’d phoned Rose ahead, told her to be ready, wouldn’t answer her confusion.
She now ran into the mansion, had reached the bottom of the stairs when his voice came out of nowhere.
“If you’re still trying to leave, Gwen, don’t bother.”
She stumbled with the force of the déjà vu.
Fareed was separating from the shadows at the top of the stairs like that first night he’d made her his.
God, no. Now this wouldn’t be the clean surgical amputation she’d hoped it would be.
He was coming down the stairs now, as deliberate, as determined as that other night. But instead of the passion that had buffeted her then, the void emanating from him did now.
“I’m not letting you and Ryan go, Gwen. And that’s final.”
She took one step back for each he took closer. But nothing stopped his advance. He was now mere feet away.…
Then two things happened at once.
Rose appeared at the top of the stairs with Ryan. And the king’s men, all six of them, who’d been waiting for her outside, entered the mansion in force.
Fareed swerved to advance on them in steps loaded with danger, putting himself between her and them, his expression thunderous.
“What’s the meaning of this, Zayed?”
The man who’d led the task force that had taken her to the king gave him a curt bow.
“Forgive me for the intrusion, Prince Fareed, but the king has changed our orders. Only this woman and her female companion will leave the kingdom. The child, Prince Hesham’s son, will remain—will be taken to him.”
Chapter Eleven
“This woman and her child are in my protection.”
At Fareed’s arctic outrage, her gaze slammed from Rose and Ryan—frozen like her at the top of the stairs—back to him.
“My father is never coming near either of them. As for all of you, you will leave my house, right now, or suffer the consequences.”
She’d never dreamed Fareed could look so lethal. And she knew. He would fulfill his threat without a second’s hesitation. He was ready to fight, go to any lengths, inflict or sustain any injury, in their defense.