Seducing His Princess (Married by Royal Decree 3)

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because it’s the only thing I can do, ya ameerati al jameelah. I’ve starved for you and I’ll do anything so I can sate myself with you again.”

She stared into his eyes and again could only feel his sincerity. As if whatever else hadn’t been right, this was the one thing that had always been real...his desire for her.

Years of damaged self-worth and disbelief in her judgment trembled one last time...then everything shattered.

As if feeling the second it did, his arms tightened, bringing her colliding with his steely mass, his lips taking hers and swallowing her moan of surrender.

Then she found herself being plucked up by his momentum as he pitched backward on the lush Persian carpet, sprawled over it and stretched her on top of him. She vaguely felt the cats jumping after them, felt them prodding, as if to make sure they were okay.

Cradling her head in his large palms, Mohab turned his to his cats. “I’m going to make love to Jala now, so go eat or bathe or something. We won’t have time for you for a while.”

As if they understood him, the cats slunk away.

Turning his attention back to her, he pulled her down, had her lips sinking into his and her core on his erection. He rocked against her, promising her, deluging her in readiness. Coherence dissolved on his invading tongue, drowned in his taste, her senses igniting like firecrackers with every plunge, sweep and groan....

Remember what he cost you. The havoc he’d still wreak if you surrender. And you still didn’t contest your main gripe.

Feeling as if she’d left a layer of skin stuck to his hot lips and hands, she scrambled off him, getting to her feet clumsily before plopping on the couch again.

Brooding with hunger, radiating it, he rose to his elbows, stretching before her half-naked like a god of abandon.

Before she crawled back over him, she bit her tingling lips. “So I got this part. You want me. Fine. How about we discuss another concern? Your transgressions?”

He was on his feet in what should have been an impossible movement. She was in good shape herself, but this was a level of fitness and strength that was almost scary.

His lips twisted. “Ma gatalnahom bahthann baad?”

Haven’t we already killed them with investigation? The regional expression for draining a topic of life.

She nodded, still shaky. “The old ones. But with you, there’s always new ones.” She sucked in a burning stream of aggravation. “You spied on me. You evidently still do.”

“I tried to stop. I couldn’t.”

So simple. So stymieing. Why couldn’t she do herself the life-saving favor of not wanting him anymore?

He threw himself down beside her, grimacing. “That’s not true. I didn’t try. I knew I couldn’t stop watching over you.” Head resting on the couch, he turned his face toward her, inches from her own. “Jala, we both try to save the world in our own ways. But I’m the one who’s versed in its dangers, who can take measures to eradicate them. I won’t apologize for keeping tabs on you. You lead a very dangerous life.”

“I do social and humanitarian work!”

“In the world’s most dangerous places. Apart from the damages that could befall anyone just being there, you’re a temptation to even the most harmless of men.”

She gaped at him.

“It’s bigger than me, Jala, the need to know you’re safe. And since I’m the one best equipped to keep you safe, I do.”

Incredulity burst out of her. “I keep me safe.”

For a split second, his eyes said she knew nothing.

This brought her sitting up. “Are you telling me you saved me from a danger I was unaware of?”

Another blip said he’d saved her from far more than a danger. But he just shook his head. “Just leave it. I wasn’t ‘spying’ on you. I was reassuring myself of your safety and making sure you were safe. There’s a big difference.”

The lump that now inhabited her throat again grew harder.

Believing this would change so much. Mean too much. And she couldn’t handle more changes of perspective right now. The foundations of her existence, as miserable as they’d been, had constituted her stability. Losing them all, having to erect so many new ones so suddenly, was too...overwhelming. And he was already enough on his own.

In defense, she groped for one of her established suspicions. “Or you were afraid I’d go after Najeeb again?”

He huffed a mirthless laugh. “And what would I have done if you did? I believed you’d gone to him when you left me, and there was nothing I could do about it.” At her glower, he ground out, “I didn’t tell him anything.”

She had no idea why, but this time, she believed him.

Yet another pillar knocked over.

After a moment in which he seemed to debate the wisdom of divulging another piece of the puzzle, he said, “I only found out later why Najeeb cut all ties with you.”

And he told her why. At least what he believed to be true. She knew the real reason why Najeeb hadn’t contacted her again. Because she wouldn’t let him. But Mohab believed King Hassan’s slandering had ended her relationship with Najeeb.

After discovering King Hassan had been behind her ordeal in the past, and knowing he was now the reason behind this current crisis, she didn’t feel bad about not exonerating him from that specific crime. It hadn’t been for lack of trying that he wasn’t guilty of it after all.

Mohab was continuing, “Then you disappeared, and I couldn’t find you for months. When you resurfaced, there was no way I was going to let you out of my sight again.”

She let out her bated breath. “If I say I believe you, you have to promise to stop.”

He must have gauged they’d entered the negotiation zone as he bore down on her again, deluging her in a fresh wave of temptation. “Why? Who wouldn’t want a guardian angel like me? I’m very handy, you know. People pay me tens of millions to keep them safe. I am offering you a free ride for life.”

His arms were halfway around her when she pushed out of them again and stood up, teetering with the urge to throw herself back into them, come what may. But this was just too soon, too fast...too much. She needed to slow down, take a look at where she was jumping, before she plunged into the deep end...again.

Groaning, he stood up as well, his eyes suddenly totally serious for the first time since she’d seen him again. “I’ve told you the truth about everything so far. All but one thing.”