Arranged: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

by Lexi Blake

  “Do you think Kashmir’s whore of a girlfriend is the only one who knows about your past?” Hanin asked, his tone dark and nasty. “I have been the queen’s right hand for years. I helped her investigate you.”

  “And I assume you disapproved.”

  “Of course I did. You’re common. Worse than that, you’re not even a proper female. You argue with your betters.”

  “My betters being men, I suppose.” Oh, her mother-in-law was going to be disappointed, but Hanin was leaving the palace today. He would not be allowed back, but she was interested in seeing how far he would go.

  “I’m sick of this generation of women not knowing their place. The queen has always known. She didn’t argue with her husband or her son, and her son is an idiot.”

  “I assure you the queen had control. She might have done it in a sneaky way, but Queen Yasmine did not sit back and allow the men around her to run things. She simply didn’t take credit for her work. My generation doesn’t have to dissemble.” She stood up. Maybe she wasn’t so curious. She was ready to go and be with her family.

  She was ready to start the fight for Kash’s heart because he was worth it, and she needed to tell him that. In plain English. Hanin was right about one thing. Her husband could be an idiot at times. Especially when it came to his own emotions.

  “Your generation will bring down this monarchy with your disgusting need to expose yourselves, your every emotion, your wants and needs,” Hanin continued. “No one cares about them. Society can’t work when everyone is an individual. Can’t you see that? We need the crown and the crown needs true royalty.”

  She held up a hand. “You’re dismissed, Hanin. I don’t want to see you here again.”

  He gripped the coffee cup like it was a lifeline. “You can’t do that. You can’t fire me.”

  “I can and I did. My husband will back me up, and once my mother-in-law has heard how you’ve spoken to me, she’ll be on my side as well.”

  “The queen won’t believe you.”

  Day gestured up to the camera that covered the living room. “She’ll see you. She might not hear things, but there’s no doubt you’re being less than gracious right now.”

  His mouth turned up in a nasty smirk. “Oh, but I cut that camera out of the feed. With all the new security, it was easy to explain that the king wanted more privacy. No one questioned it. So we really are alone right now, dear, and I truly wish you’d tried the coffee.”

  That chill she’d felt before went positively arctic as Day glanced down at her own cup. “You poisoned the Scotch.”

  “I was watching the ballroom and I saw when Tasha hauled Kashmir off. I saw when you strode in and made a spectacle of yourself. I’d been watching for days and knew you liked to play the man. I knew you had a glass of Scotch with the king. So when he sent you up, I sent up Jamil with the special Scotch I’d had prepared. I knew you would get there first, and like the weak slut you are, you would need that drink. You almost took it. I almost had you.”

  She’d come so close to falling into that trap. “You could have killed Kash.”

  “It was a risk I was willing to take, but I planned to rush in and save him. Then we could have found a proper bride.” He stared down at the cup in his hand. “I didn’t know Jamil was a thief.”

  “He wasn’t a thief. He was the king’s friend.” She started to back up, trying to put some distance between her and the man who’d tried to murder her only a week before.

  “The king must be taught that he is above us all. He can’t be friends with the help. He must be the king, exalted and revered. That’s what we’re missing. I believe a bride, a pure royal bride, could teach him this. Or at least she could have his child and we could start over again.”

  How long had Hanin been planning this? The idea chilled Day to the bone. “You advised the queen to arrange the marriage.”

  “Yes, but then she wouldn’t listen to me when it came to selecting a bride. She’d found those letters you sent and decided it had to be you. She couldn’t see you for the whore you are. Even after she knew about your sexual perversions, she couldn’t understand that you were wrong.”

  Because the queen mother understood that a person was complex and that sexual differences didn’t mean anything as long as a man and woman were in love.

  She loved Kash. They could work it out. They just had to believe they could. They could get through anything as long as they held on to each other and promised to never let go. That was how a couple in love got through life. They simply held on.

  “I’m going to leave now, Hanin. You should probably run.” Would Malone hear her if she shouted out? The door was thick and the walls well insulated. How many steps before she could put a hand on the door and throw it open? Her guard would be there.

  She backed up, slowly, unwilling to take her eyes off the snake in the room.

  That snake slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun. It was a shiny revolver. “Run? Why would I run? This is my home. It has been for as long as I can remember. Don’t move another inch, Your Majesty, or I’ll be forced to put a bullet in you. I don’t want to. It could make for a much more salacious story for the tabloids.”

  She froze because there was nowhere to duck, nothing to hide behind unless she could get to the entryway. There were two columns on either side of the door that might offer her some protection. “I’m not going to drink your poison, Hanin. You’re crazy if you think I’m going to do your work for you.”

  “So you’re willing to let me kill Elissa when she returns? When that door opens, I intend to shoot whoever is standing there. I’ll know my game is up. I’ll shoot her and then you. I’m willing to die for my cause. I’ve served this crown with everything I have. I’ll give my life to protect it. I will not allow a whore queen to take it all away from me.”

  He also wasn’t as strong as he thought he was. Already she could see his hand shaking. Elissa would be back any moment, but she couldn’t let that fact push her into obedience. She didn’t want Elissa to get shot, but she wasn’t about to help her would-be murderer.

  Of course, he couldn’t know that. He was crazy. He could likely be led to believe any number of things.

  “You’ll have to bring it to me. Bring me the cup you made for yourself.”

  He stared at her, his eyes narrowed. “Drink the one I made for you. They’ll both work. It’s right there. Hurry. Elissa isn’t slow. She’s good at her job. She’ll hurry because she wants to please her queen. She’s young and can’t see you for what you truly are.”

  Which apparently was a whore. Very original of him. “I’m too scared. What if you shoot me? I can’t. I can’t think.”

  Better to let him believe she was far more scared than she was. It was odd, but the fear seemed to be in the background, as though she’d moved into survival mode and nothing else mattered.

  Unless Kash was the one who walked through that door. If Kash took the bullet, she would want her own. She would want to curl up and go wherever he was. He would need her.

  Hanin stood there, his hands starting to shake, and she wondered how much of Hanin was really there. “You ruined everything. Everything.”

  The cup in his left hand started to rattle and she saw her chance. She sprinted for the door. He might shoot her, but it was better to have the chance. The minute that shot rang out, Malone would come in.

  Day screamed as she dove for the pillar.

  The door blasted open and she caught sight of the one thing she hadn’t wanted to see. Kash rushed in, his big body a massive target. He caught her in his arms and shoved her behind him. Rai was there along with Malone, all three men running into the room.

  “Stand down!” Malone ordered.

  “Hanin, you’re caught,” Rai explained. “Put the gun down.”

  The gun clattered to the floor. “It wasn’t loaded. I couldn’t risk hurting the king.”

  Kash still stood in front of her. “But you would kill my queen?”

&nbs
p; The cup and saucer rattled, the sound jarring. Day had to peek around her husband to get a look at Hanin.

  Hanin’s eyes were wild as he spoke. “She’s unfit to be queen. She isn’t royal.”

  “She’s my wife. She’s royal now,” Kash returned.

  “And when they all find out what she does?” Hanin spewed his bile. “How she dominates men? Does she do these things to you, Your Majesty? Is that how she caught you? You’re in her web.”

  Day’s stomach tightened. It was the one thing Kash couldn’t handle. Someone knowing.

  Rai and Malone had heard that accusation. It could kill Kash.

  “Let her go,” Hanin insisted. “No one will follow her, Your Majesty.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Kash replied. “She already has one devoted servant. She has me. I’ll see you hanged for this.”

  “No need.” A hollow look hit Hanin’s face. “This isn’t my home anymore. This isn’t my world anymore.”

  He brought the cup to his lips.

  Day started to yell out, but Kash turned and caught her, his arms going around her. Even as he started to haul her out the door, she could see Hanin falling.

  Kash rushed her out, taking her from the sight. He strode to her room, opening the doors and charging in. He turned briefly and yelled down the hall at his guard. “If that wasn’t poison he drank, Rai, let me know so I can kill him myself.”

  “He’s quite dead, Kash,” Rai replied as he followed. “Malone is calling it in and staying with the body. Who could have guessed snails would be so poisonous? It’s how I figured out it was him. He has a cousin who works at a lab in Western Australia.”

  Kash set her down. “And how did you know it was Day he wanted to kill and not me?”

  “Because I heard him talk about how she would ruin the crown,” Rai replied. “I thought it was idle gossip until I put together he was the one who had poisoned the Scotch. He was in the booth with me that night. He watched you send her away. We all heard that conversation.”

  Then the guards knew? Her hands were shaking.

  Rai reached for one of them, pulling it up. “Your Majesty, you should know that the guards all take an oath of silence when it comes to the family we protect. You should also know that I’ve long believed Kashmir needed a woman who could spank his ass silly, and I’m glad to hear he found one. Not a one of my men sees you as anything less than the queen and Kashmir as anything but one incredibly lucky man. Well, they do worry that our lovely and intelligent queen has been strapped with such an ignorant ass for her husband.”

  Kash was standing beside her, looking down at her hand. “Thank you, Rai. Thank you for wanting to save her.”

  Rai kissed her hand and then let it go, turning back to Kash. “Of course I wanted to save her. You, on the other hand, I would have let drink all the snail venom in the world. I hate you.”

  Kash was grinning. “But you’ll come back to your job.”

  Rai was already moving for the door. “Yes. I’ll return to work but only because I love my wife and this pays better than anywhere else.”

  “Rai, I’m glad to have you home.”

  He stopped at the door, not looking back. “And I’m glad to have a friend who believed in me even when all the evidence was against me. Even when I behaved like an ass. Stay here. I’ll post a guard on the door, but I don’t think we can keep this out of the press. I’ll try, but two bodies in a week is a lot to cover up.”

  The door closed behind him and Kash wrapped his arms around her. He hugged her close. “I’m so sorry.”

  She held on to him and hoped this wasn’t the end.

  Chapter Eleven

  Hours and hours later, Day closed the door to her room with the full knowledge that none of this was over. Hanin was dead, but there was still such distance between her and Kash. Who would have guessed that the attempt on her life would have been the highlight of her day? Now she had to sit down with Kash and figure out what to do with the rest of their lives, with their marriage.

  She looked back into the room. He was sitting on the couch in her sitting area, staring into space. Her bed was not more than ten feet away. How lovely would it be to sink into her comfy mattress and drift off to sleep?

  Perhaps they should put this whole conversation off. The day had been tiring. “I think I should go to bed.”

  He didn’t look her way. “No. We should talk. We can talk here. There are no cameras. We can’t go back to my room. They’re still working in there. In the morning the press will be swarming and we’ll have to admit to everything. We’ll also have to announce that Mother is ill. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

  “All the more reason to get some sleep.” And to put off the moment where they would have to decide whether to even try to make this marriage work.

  “Day, I can’t go on like this. I want this over and done with tonight. I want to walk into that press conference tomorrow knowing I don’t have anything further to announce. I want my world peaceful again.”

  Wow. That felt like a kick in the gut. One little demo and an assassination attempt and he was ready to blow up the marriage. Still, he was the one who’d been forced into it. She couldn’t hold him to a marriage he hadn’t truly wanted in the first place. “I understand.”

  It was going to be a much longer night than she’d planned. They would have to draft a statement and figure out how to deal with the constitutional crisis dissolving their marriage would trigger, but perhaps it was for the best. She wasn’t sure she could stay married to him if they weren’t going to try to have an honest marriage.

  She was in love with him.

  “I don’t think you do understand, and that’s what we need to talk about,” Kash replied. “I’ve figured out what went wrong with the demonstration the other night at Sanctum. We can’t go to clubs. It doesn’t feel right. I’m not an exhibitionist. At least I’m not now.”

  What was he talking about? “Kashmir, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the demonstration. I wish you had, but at least we know.”

  He stood up, gracefully moving toward her. He’d been stiff for hours and still seemed anxious. He shrugged out of his jacket and kicked off the loafers he’d been wearing, getting more comfortable. “Yes, we know that I don’t like the thought of other people seeing me like that, but I have some reasons why I feel that way, why I might never be comfortable sharing that. I know there’s nothing shameful about it, but I’m not there yet. I might never get there. I have to know if you need the crowd.”

  She wasn’t sure what he was talking about. “The crowd?”

  He moved to her closet, disappearing briefly inside. Kash walked out carrying a small leather bag and she winced.

  Her kit. Not that it was actually her kit. That was packed away in the deep recess of a storage closet, along with most of her belongings from before her marriage. The brown leather satchel was the one Kori had put together for her back in Dallas. It was nothing more than a few hanks of jute rope, a paddle, some binder clips, and impact toys.

  He walked over to her four-poster bed, setting the bag down. “Yes, the crowd. Do you require the crowd to fill your needs or is this something you’ll be happy doing alone with me?”

  Hope lit inside her, a tiny flame praying to be stoked. “Kash, what are you saying? I need you to be plain.”

  He turned to her, the look on his face so serious. “I know I didn’t please you that night. I thought about it all the way home, trying to find some excuse. There isn’t one. There’s merely a preference. Let me try again. Let me try while no one is watching. Everyone watches me. Every minute of the day. I play into it. I use it to my advantage. But while I was with you that night, I hated that other people were watching. For the first time in my life, I truly needed something that was private, something that belongs only to me.”

  “I don’t need the crowd. I don’t need it at all.” She needed him. Only him. If he could need her, that would be all the fulfillment she would require. He was telling her he w
as willing to try. Another need rose, hard and fast and nearly volcanic. She’d tamped it down before and maybe for the same reasons. Maybe because she was evolving. “Take off your clothes, Kash. I want to see you naked. No one’s here except the guards, and they won’t leave their stations. It’s you and me and I want to play.”

  “Ah, there she is. Do you know when you lower your voice like that, I can feel it in my cock, Day?” His fingers were on the buckle of his belt, working it free. He shoved his slacks and boxers off his hips, freeing his cock. His shirt hit the floor an instant later.

  His cock obviously liked her Domme voice. It stood tall and proud, almost coming up to his naval. He didn’t have any problems with exhibitionism now. A thrill sparked along her spine. There was no playing now. No candy coating. No gentle easing in. He knew what she wanted. He knew she was the top and he’d done as she’d asked. The question now was how far could she push him? How much control could she get him to give into her hands?

  “Was it only the crowd you didn’t like, Kashmir?”

  He stilled as she moved around him. “Yes. It made it hard for me to relax. It’s been a rough time. I need you to help me be out of my head for a while. I want to be alone with you. I don’t want to share you.”

  Given how often he’d shared lovers, she was taking that as a win. “There’s no sharing now. You’re all mine and I want complete and total submission from you. Can you give me that?”

  “I don’t know. I have to figure out what I can and can’t give,” he said, his eyes down.

  She could handle that. That was exactly the point. “All you have to do is tell me no. If you say no, I stop everything and we go back to the start and there are no recriminations. I want to try this with you but I need you to understand that if it doesn’t work, I’ll choose you.”

  His eyes were suddenly on hers. “You would give this up?”

  She’d thought about it for a long time. What was the scale on this question? How did it balance out? She knew what Kash’s issues were and they ran deep, childhood deep. They were ingrained in his personality. Was she willing to give him up over what was only one piece of their relationship? She’d lost him to his responsibilities before. Could she do it again?