A Whisper of Disgrace

Kulal shrugged. ‘Weddings are news, I’m afraid.’

‘Particularly a wedding involving a sheikh who was recently engaged to someone else and particularly if he’s marrying a woman from a notorious family,’ she answered drily. Rosa stared down at the sparkle of her brand-new ruby-and-diamond ring, which had been hastily despatched to her hotel by motorcycle courier late last night. She supposed there might have been less romantic ways for a man to give a woman an engagement ring, but right now she couldn’t think of one. She looked up into his face and once again she couldn’t help herself from being stirred by his proud, dark beauty. ‘I can’t imagine how my family are going to react when they find out what I’ve done.’

‘They’re going to have to accept it because they’ll have no choice. And you’ll no longer have to fear their influence, Rosa, since from now on you will come under my protection.’

Protection. It was a word which meant different things to different people, but it had particular resonance for someone from Sicily and Rosa gave him an ironic smile. ‘One cage exchanged for another, you mean?’ she questioned lightly, glancing up at the high, moulded ceilings of the exquisite embassy room. ‘Even if this cage is considerably more gilded than the one I knew at home.’

‘You seem to forget that this marriage is nothing but a temporary arrangement,’ he said softly. ‘One which has been manufactured to satisfy our critics. It’s not as if it’s going to be a lifetime commitment.’

Kulal’s words nagged at her conscience throughout the short service which followed and Rosa thought about the woman he’d previously been engaged to. Had she heard about this wedding and was she lying and sobbing her heart out on some faraway pillow, thinking about the man who got away?

And then, rather more selfishly, Rosa thought about herself, knowing that she was here on false pretences, in more ways than one. She held out her hand so that Kulal could slip on the glittering diamond wedding band, knowing that he’d be expecting great things from her in the bedroom and she wondered how he was going to react when he discovered the truth. What was he going to say when he discovered that the only thing she knew about sex was that amazing orgasm she’d had on the plane?

‘You may now kiss the bride,’ said the celebrant.

Rosa stared up into the gleam of Kulal’s eyes and held her breath as she waited, but the swift, almost perfunctory graze of his mouth over hers left her feeling oddly rejected.

Her disappointment was so great that she summoned up the courage to rise up on tiptoe to put her lips close to his ear. ‘That wasn’t much of a kiss.’

‘I agree that it was briefer than any kiss I have ever given any woman, but I fear that once I start kissing you, I may not be able to stop.’ He linked his fingers in hers and gave them a squeeze, putting his lips to her ear so that nobody else could hear. ‘And perhaps it would be inappropriate for me to ruck up that pretty dress and take you unceremoniously against the wall, which is what I feel like doing.’

‘Kulal!’ The word trembled from her lips. ‘That’s the kind of thing a savage would say!’

‘But perhaps my “savage” words turn you on, my beauty.’ His black eyes gleamed with challenge as he observed the sudden flush of colour in her cheeks. ‘Am I right?’

And although she shook her head to halt his erotic line of questioning, the truth was that he was turning her on. Turning her on in a way she wouldn’t have thought possible, especially when all he was doing was holding her hand. Rosa could feel her breasts pushing against the bodice of her gown, as if they were anxious to be freed from their lacy confinement. Her mouth was drying and her skin was tightening with anticipation, so that she felt almost dizzy. But even though she felt a little daunted by this rush of unfamiliar sensations, she met his eyes with a sudden fearlessness, recognising that this was her opportunity, her time to grow. She had married Kulal to be free and independent, not to cower in the corner just because he was making her body respond to him in a way which was perfectly natural.

‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘Your words turn me on. They turn me on very much, if you must know.’

She saw the sudden tension which passed over his face before he nodded. ‘Then let’s get this next bit over with,’ he said, sliding his arm around her waist. ‘Let’s go outside and give the press exactly what they want.’

But despite his warning, Rosa was unprepared for the wall of blinding light as the embassy doors were opened onto the street, where the small number of photographers had grown into a jostling crowd.