Bound to the Sheikh: An ancient debt. A deathbed promise. A marriage of duty and obligation. Desire too strong to control.

by Clare Connelly

  “Oh, you can have that,” she muttered angrily. But he didn’t want to sleep with her! She had heard for herself how he regarded her. She had heard what he’d said to Elon. This was a bluff. He was trying to scare her.

  The certainty calmed her instantly. She blinked up at him, her acting abilities again clicked into gear. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  Oh, it was a lie. A complete fabrication. But fortunately, Laurie knew she would never have to prove it. Afida didn’t want to sleep her with her. Not when he had May.

  “Good,” he murmured, lowering his head further so that he could whisper into her ear. “And though many men have had the pleasure of your body, I will make it mine more completely than any of them has ever dreamed of.” His breath fanned her neck and sent goosebumps dancing on her skin. “I will taste every single inch of you. I will take your breasts into my mouth until you cry for sweet relief. I will move inside of you in the way you crave. I will take your body and command it with mine until you beg me to release you. You may have known many men, zivzel, but never have you known what I will make you feel.”

  Shivers ran down her spine. He was right, she knew it. And he had easily assumed the upper hand once more. “But why?” She whispered pleadingly, when she was finally able to speak. The song finished, and the band immediately moved into another. Now, other guests began to dance, so that they were no longer so completely on display. For her part, Laurie was relieved. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep the despair from her features.

  “Because you are to be my wife.”

  She shook her head. “But you have May.”

  The words were out before she could silence them. She realised she had erred the minute she spoke. She had revealed both far more knowledge and far more interest than was wise.

  “Yes,” he didn’t bother trying to deny it. “I presumed whispers of my mistress would reach you in time, though I presumed it would take longer than a week.”

  “So people do gossip about you after all,” she pointed out tartly, absolutely refusing to tell him that it had been his own words that had tipped her off.

  His smile was lacking warmth. “I am a powerful ruler. Of course there is talk of my private life; as in any culture, someone such as me is a figure of curiosity.”

  “You’re changing the subject.”

  “You did that when you broached May.”

  “No.” She shook her head and finally stopped dancing. He didn’t release his hold on her waist though, and his touch was both mocking and addictive. “You were talking about us developing a … er, physical relationship … and so I simply pointed out that you already have that.”

  “So?”

  “So you don’t need me to fulfil that role …”

  “Perhaps not,” he agreed stonily. “But you would never be to me what May is.”

  How did he do it? His ability to pinpoint the very worst thing to say and sledge her with words was a cruel gift.

  “I don’t want to be,” she murmured quietly. “I don’t want to be anything to you. I’m grateful that you’re intent on helping my father. That’s the sum total of what I feel for you.”

  His laugh was soft and threatening. “Careful, Laurena. That sounded like a challenge, and there is nothing that inspires my interest more than that.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “I don’t need all this,” Laurie said firmly, scanning the documents for a third time and stifling a yawn. The reception had gone late into the night, as Afida had promised it would. She had danced with many delegates after the terse words she’d exchanged with her future husband. And though he hadn’t spoken to her again, she had been ever conscious of his watchful gaze.

  “You will get used to the pace of palace life,” Elon promised, his smile so easy and natural that Laurie found herself returning it freely.

  “I’m more of an early bird,” she confided with a shrug. His expression was blank. “You know, early to bed, early to rise.”

  Elon nodded, but his expression was comically rich with disbelief. “That sounds rather boring.” He wondered about this woman’s nightlife though. As his closest friend and confidante, Afida had explained about the work she’d done on the side. The very well paid escort job she’d kept from even her father.

  “Not at all. You’d be amazed at how much you can get done if you start your day with the sun.”

  “That would be a problem in Aktaria, for it rises before five for half of the year.”

  “Bliss,” she responded, her smile not dropping. Her steady green gaze shifted back to the contracts before her, and she pushed them away. “Anyway, like I said, I don’t need this.”

  Elon was careful not to reveal his surprise, though it ran as a deep river through him. For a woman who was marrying for money and power, she was showing startlingly little interest in either.

  “This amount is not excessive. It is appropriate, in fact, for you to have this sum at your disposal.”

  She couldn’t help the snort of amusement. “For what? In case I decide to buy a gold-gilt palace? Or a small island?”

  “Yes.” Elon’s dark eyes glinted thoughtfully as he studied her beautiful face. How was it possible that Afida didn’t see this woman’s appeal? For her face was a mix of classically well-proportioned features and an indefinable magic that burst from her every expression. Her green eyes, wide set and rimmed by curling black lashes, seemed to whisper secrets at him. She was a sort of modern Mona Lisa, ethereal and enigmatic, and miraculously it seemed that she was largely unaware of her appeal.

  “Ridiculous.” She toyed with the pen. “I need only twenty seven thousand pounds, and then nothing more.”

  “Twenty seven thousand pounds? That is a rather specific figure.”

  Though her cheeks showed a flushing of colour, her reaction didn’t shift. “Yes,” she agreed, shrugging her shoulders in a way that he knew was contrived to send a message of calm disinterest.

  “Then take this out of the remainder,” he suggested.

  “No.” She bit down on her lip.

  “For what reason could you possibly wish to give up your claim to a sum such as this?”

  She thought about hedging the question. After all, the matter of her marriage was private. At least, it should have been. But she’d already heard, with her own ears, the degree to which Afida trusted this man. What could be served by staying silent? “Afida is going to spend a lot of money to help my father. A sum that can never be repaid.”

  “Repayment is Afida’s responsibility. The debt he settles with your father is far greater than any sum of money could repay.”

  “You both keep saying that,” Laurie spoke with a quiet dignity. “But my father acted only as his conscience dictated it. Don’t you see the flip side to this? His kind act of bravery, if that’s what you want to call it, is being diminished by this insistence for repayment.” She stood, and wrapped her arms around her slender waist. “Don’t mistake me. I’m so grateful for Afida’s … insistence on helping. I cannot bear to see my father as he has been for these last years. But I can’t accept any money from him personally.”

  “Except twenty seven thousand pounds,” Elon pointed out, focussing on the papers so that he wouldn’t stare at her as he seemed to want to do.

  “Yes,” she whispered, hating even that weakness. “I wouldn’t ask, except that I can’t very well keep working while I’m married to the Sheikh, can I? And with no income of my own, I need to … attend to certain matters.”

  Elon nodded, naturally assuming she was referring to the flat she lived in, or something of this sort. “I must be honest with you, Laurena –,”

  “Laurie,” she interjected, her lips lifting in a half-smile at some private, remembered joke. “I’ve never been called Laurena.”

  “Fine, Laurie. Allow me to be honest. Fida will not take an interest in this. He has asked me to see you are prepared in the lead up to the wedding. Whatever you and I decide is as it will be.”

  He
r lips tightened infinitesimally. “You drew the short straw, huh,” she murmured.

  “I am sorry, I’m not familiar with that idiom?”

  She waved a hand in the air. “It’s a silly expression. It means you fell on your sword. You got the bad luck of handholding me.”

  “Not at all. It is an honour to help my oldest friend and you at this sacred time.”

  The door opened inwards, and a team of five attendants bustled forward, none of them making eye contact with Laurie.

  “Dress fitting,” she murmured apologetically to Elon. “My every minute is scheduled.”

  “You will grow accustomed to this also.”

  She let out a dramatic sigh. “If it’s up to you and me, then let’s just agree to the twenty seven thousand pounds. Please.”

  He shook his head ruefully, then drew a clear, precise line through the obscene amount that Afida had suggested. “No. I will halve Afida’s offer, but I know he would not wish me to go lower than that.”

  It was still more than she could ever have earned in ten lifetimes. “Thank you.” She turned back to the view of the desert, perfectly framed by the large glass doors. “It’s hot again today.”

  “Yes.” He stood, shuffling the papers into a neat pile. “Have you been shown to your pool?”

  “My pool?” For the first time since arriving, she felt a small burst of enthusiasm. “No. Where is it?”

  Her urgency was adorable. Elon suppressed the thought. It was not his place to find her adorable or otherwise. “Come, I will show you.”

  “Oh. But they’re waiting for me,” she pointed to the attendants, earning a reassuring smile from Elon.

  “Then let them wait. You are to be the second most important person in the land in a matter of days. No one will begrudge you a few moments tardiness.”

  “Oh.” She looked at the group with a grimace. “Okay.” And though she was desperate to see this pool, now that she knew of its existence, she felt flush with guilt as she walked past the silently assembled team.

  “Do not worry so much,” Elon laughed, handing the contracts to one of the maids. He spoke rapidly in the language of the land, but Laurie was already picking up a few words.

  “You just asked her to file the documents immediately,” she said hopefully. “Right?”

  Elon’s surprise was evident. “Very good. In time your grasp of Aktarian will be better than mine.”

  “You speak it well,” she demurred, though she had detected that he was halting where he should have been smoother.

  “No, I don’t.” He laughed. “Both Afida and I speak English almost natively, and this is why we communicate in your language. He grows frustrated with my clunky Aktarian.”

  Laurie laughed, and it was a sincere sound, like bells pealing on a sun-warmed morning. “Then I’ll wait until I’m completely fluent before I practice on him.”

  It sobered Elon. This woman was not just a glamorous and exotic guest at the palace. She was engaged to his dearest friend. She was spoken for. She would be practicing many things with her husband, in time, despite Afida’s evident disinterest. A surprising torrent of bitterness flushed through him.

  “This way,” he pointed to a narrow doorway that was in the middle of their adjoining suites. She hadn’t noticed it before, as a tapestry hung completely over the golden opening, leaving it cleverly disguised. The staircase was narrow, carved out of stone and capped in marble.

  “Originally, when the palace was built, this was used as a secret escape route for the royal couple.”

  She frowned. “But it goes up. Where would they go then?”

  He grinned. “Back down – on the other side of the palace.”

  “I see. They must have been fit.”

  He smothered a laugh. “After you, madam.” It was an attempt to inject their relationship with a more formal footing. It didn’t work.

  He held the door for her and waited while she breezed past. Her fragrance was soft and sweet, like vanilla and jasmine. He tried not to inhale. “Oh, Elon,” she was so overcome by the beauty of the rooftop area that she forgot to pretend that she was distant and untouchable. “This is stunning.”

  And it was, Elon thought. All the more so with her presence. She stepped across the ground like a dancer, graceful and energetic, and crouched down beside the water. The pool itself had gold tiles and the water shimmered as though it had been kissed by sunlight. An arbour had been constructed over one side, and a vine grew rampant across it, providing shade for hot summer’s days. The view perfectly showed the desert she was coming to love.

  “Elon, I love it. How come I didn’t know about this place?”

  “You never asked.”

  Afida’s voice brought an instant sobering to Laurie. She stood and clasped her hands behind her back as though he had chastised her. Elon, too, straightened, and all the comfortable ease they’d been enjoying evaporated into the fierce midday heat.

  “What are you doing here?” She asked quickly, her breath hurting in her lungs.

  He cast his wife-to-be a glance of curiosity and then turned to Elon. “Is everything in hand?”

  Elon’s glance was decidedly guilty. “Yes.”

  “Good. You are selecting a dress, are you not?” Afida turned back to his bride. She was staring so wistfully at the water that he wondered if she liked to swim. Or was she just finding the desert heat an adjustment too difficult to make comfortably?

  She nodded, her green eyes not quite meeting his.

  He had been hard on her the night before. An unfamiliar pang of regret assailed him, but he ignored it.

  She was inconsequential. A means to an end. A pawn in a strategic chess manoeuvre that would see an ancient debt finally relieved.

  His nod to Elon was dismissive, and yet the other man lingered.

  “Thank you,” Laurie moved away from the water, so that she could step closer to Elon. “I appreciate all of your help.”

  Elon’s eyes glittered with something like speculation, and then it was gone. He nodded curtly and turned away from the couple.

  “Elon?” Afida caught him at the door. “Have dinner with me tonight.”

  Elon’s eyes dropped to Laurie’s and he caught the sharp rejection there. Oh, he didn’t think Laurie was aching for Afida’s company. Just company of any sort. Companionship.

  Elon nodded, though. He had done enough meddling. It would only wound him if he forgot where the boundaries were. “Until this evening,” he nodded his head.

  And so, they were alone. The pool area was perfect, but Laurie was no longer capable of enjoying it.

  “Excuse me,” she murmured to her fiancé. “I have people waiting for me downstairs.”

  “Let them wait,” he shrugged with an arrogance that came naturally to him.

  Laurie eyed him warily. Elon was handsome. Different in looks to Afida, but still tall, dark, gorgeously sexy, with glittering black eyes and a dimple in his chin. Only she hadn’t had a single heart flutter the whole time she’d been with him. Afida had only to look at her and she felt her knees trembling, and it had been that way since the first time they’d met.

  “Why?” She whispered, clearing her throat and trying to find more strength.

  “I wish to see you.”

  Laurie arched a brow. “No one is here now. You don’t need to pretend to like me.”

  “Is that what I am doing?” He asked quickly.

  “I don’t know.” She flicked her face away, eyeing the city in the distance. “But we are getting married, and I currently don’t have a dress to wear.”

  “You have many dresses, and only a decision to make.”

  “Same thing,” she said stoically.

  “Do you wish to swim?” Afida changed the subject, earning a fervent head shake from Laurie.

  “With you here? No.”

  His laugh was torture. Her nipples were straining against the fabric of her dress, and as his gaze travelled slowly lower, she knew that he saw the betraying shape.r />
  “Are you certain?”

  “Yes,” she nodded, hoping he wouldn’t push the point.

  “You see,” he took a step closer to her, so that his body was in intimate contact with hers. Laurie moved to stand back but his arm clamped around her waist and held her tight to his chest. “I was thinking about you last night. About how it had felt having you in my arms while we danced. And I realised that I do not have to like you to find you desirable. In fact, I can still despise you, and want you.”

  She shook her head achingly from side to side, her hair teasing his nostrils with its sweet fragrance. “I don’t want you though,” she murmured. It was a lie and they both recognised it as such.

  “Then say no,” he drawled, dropping his mouth to her neck and kissing the frantically racing pulse point he found there. He traced his tongue up higher, to her mouth, and plundered her lips with devastating power. “Say no, and I will step away from you until you beg me to take you. Say no and I will stop.” With his body, he pushed her backwards, until she connected with the wall of the palace. Imprisoned between a rock and a very hard place, she could only whimper with the impossible sensations of need that were spiralling through her.

  “Say no,” he taunted. “Say no if this is not what you want.”

  “I …” She lifted her arms and hooked them behind his neck. Her fingers sought his hair and curled into the darkness there.

  “Say it,” he demanded, pushing at her dress so that it fell away from her shoulders and revealed her lace bra. He disposed of that quickly, dropping it to the floor at her feet.

  When his warm mouth encircled one of her erect nipples and his tongue swirled around it, Laurie cried out loudly. She bucked her hips forward as fiery hot darts of desire began to build in her abdomen.

  “I told you I would own you. I told you I would take every part of you and make it mine.” He ground his hips against hers, so that she could feel for herself his powerful arousal. “Do you want that, zivzel?”

  In response, she shifted herself a little, silently begging him to take her other nipple in his mouth.