Instead, his mind kept returning to what was now the worst moment of his life: that brief time when he thought he would be the reason Zhang died. When he’d seen her in the doorway of the patio, nothing beyond saving her had mattered. His life, sadly even the life of his brother, had come second in his need to protect her.
Rachid turned off the water, toweled dry and padded to his bedroom while wrapping the plush material around his waist.
In another time or life, he would have proclaimed his love for Zhang, but how could he ask her to give up her freedom and career when he wasn’t sure he could keep her safe? He closed his eyes and shook his head at the thought of Zhang hacking into the royal server and taking on his security like some secret agent. All that disobedience had saved his life, and he owed her the same selflessness.
No matter how it looked to his people or what his father said, he would let Zhang go tomorrow. If she needed the cover of his name, they could stay married for whatever amount of time she requested. But he wouldn’t keep her in Najriad. She deserved the freedom she’d fought so hard for. And she would have it.
The light on one side of the room flipped on. There, in the middle of his bed, was the very woman who was tormenting his thoughts. Dressed in a red satin slip of a nightgown, she pushed back the bedsheets and stood, facing him boldly as if they’d always shared a room together.
“How is your brother?” she asked.
Rachid didn’t move. The sight of her, mussed from sleep and reaching for him, was almost too tempting to resist. She deserved better than this, better than him. He turned away before he gave in to the overwhelming desire to lose himself in her arms. “He’ll recover.” With his back to her, Rachid said, “You need to leave, Zhang. You shouldn’t be here. I told you that we’d talk tomorrow.”
Instead of doing as he said, she moved to stand behind him and laid one of her delicate hands on his back. He shuddered with need for her but didn’t turn.
“What’s wrong, Rachid? Why turn me away?”
He clung to the last of his resolve and insisted, “I was wrong to push you to marry me. You can go home with your friends tomorrow.”
“And if I don’t want to?”
“You have to.”
As she slipped around to stand in front of him, he clenched his hands at his sides to stop from pulling her into his chest. He was trying to do the right thing, but the wrong thing was quickly starting to feel like a better option. He fought his weakness.
“Why?” she whispered, and he made the mistake of looking down into those beautiful dark eyes of hers.
Raggedly, he confessed, “I love you.”
Her head flew back, exposing her long, lovely neck while she laughed softly. She said, “I wouldn’t consider that a deal breaker for a marriage. Some might even say it’s a good thing.”
Giving in to his overwhelming need to touch her, he pulled her against him and simply hugged her. Desire shook him again and he said, “Just before Ghalil was shot, I saw you in the doorway, and suddenly it didn’t matter that I had a gun to my head. I have never been so afraid in my life. Nothing mattered except your safety, and I wasn’t sure I could save you. You can’t stay here, Zhang. You have to see that.”
Zhang wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest. “No, I don’t see that at all.”
He groaned and pulled her closer. “I’m no Prince Charming, Zhang. I’m just a man—a man with a crushing amount of responsibility. I wish I could tell you that things will be better next week or next year, but I have to face that they may never be better. Violence may always be part of my life and I can’t ask you to accept that. I won’t put you at risk again.”
Raising her head so she could look up into his face, Zhang said, “You don’t get to make that decision. You don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t handle. It’s a violent world out there, Rachid. The small village I grew up in held its own dangers. I wouldn’t have armed men on my payroll if my own life were without risk. Danger is part of life. No one is immune from it, no matter how they may try to insulate themselves. No, I don’t have a problem with danger.”
When Rachid would have said something, Zhang pinched the skin on his ribs and continued on angrily. “What I struggle with is that you think you have to shoulder all of the responsibility yourself. You say you love me, but what exactly is it that you love? Because I’m not sure you see me. I fought for everything I have and I’m willing to help you fight for Najriad, but I need to know that you love me the way I am. It’s your lack of faith in my ability to share the weight of this that makes me angry. And I suspect that your brother feels the same.”
“Ghalil is just a boy.”
“No, he’s a man who took a bullet for you and is just as willing to give his life for his family and country as you are. Maybe it’s time the two of you sat down and talked about that. You’re not alone.”
Thinking back over the conversations he’d had with his brother, Rachid realized that he’d cultivated the issues he had with Ghalil. By treating his younger brother like a child, he had pushed him to prove his manhood. Of course Ghalil would feel threatened and insulted. How didn’t I see that? Rachid ran his hand through the shoulder-length hair of the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. “Princess Zhang, how did you get so wise?”
Zhang laughed with self-deprecation. “Trust me, I’m no Cinderella, Rachid. I’m just a woman—a woman with very strong opinions and a problem accepting authority. I can’t promise you that life with me will be easy, but when we’re together I feel like I’m—”
He finished the sentence for her. “Home.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Yes. Home. And it doesn’t matter to me if we live in Najriad or on the moon as long as I’m with you. Choose us, Rachid, and we’ll work everything else out.”
The last wall in Rachid’s heart crumbled and he stepped back to lift her nightgown over her head. He kissed her until they were shaking against each other from a mixture of the intensity of their emotions and a desire to express their love in hot actions. “How did I find such an incredible wife?”
Standing exposed and proud before the worshiping eyes of her husband, Zhang joked, “I have this thing for sheikhs.”
Rachid lifted her easily in his arms and tossed her onto the bed behind her. “Sheikhs in general, or one in particular?” He dropped his towel and crawled across the large bed to loom over her.
She laughed up at him, “I’m not sure. There was one who used to do this thing with his tongue that I loved. Was that you?”
With a growl, Rachid pounced. He spread her legs and positioned himself between her knees. Ever so slowly he began to kiss the sensitive flesh of her thighs. His large hands lifted her rump and held her so he could savor the path to her. His hot tongue warmed and teased her stomach and finally parted her folds and delved in with expertise.
Zhang threw her head back, grabbed the bedding beside her and exclaimed passionately, “Yes, that’s what I remember.”
Rachid laughed against her and said, “Are you sure? Because I could spend the night reminding you.” He circled and lapped at her most sensitive spot while his hands firmly massaged her ass. “My own memory is fuzzy, but I seem to remember that you like this . . .” He slid a finger within her and rolled it gently, enjoying how Zhang clenched around him.
He repositioned himself so he could continue to stroke her intimately while he looked down into her flushed face. “God, I hope you meant what you said, because I don’t have the strength to let you go.”
Zhang circled his face with both of her hands and pulled him down for a kiss. She said, “I love you, Rachid. I’m not going anywhere.” When her lips met his, coherent conversation was replaced by an urgency on both sides that would no longer be denied. The rest of the night was filled with intense pleasure, hot whispered suggestions and shared satisfaction until they fell asleep, exhausted and spent in each other’s arms.
Half-reclining, half-sitting against Rachid the next morning,
Zhang sampled the breakfast breads that the house staff had delivered to their room. She popped a small bite into his mouth and shivered in response to the feel of his lips closing around her fingers.
Rachid ran his hand possessively down her bare back and gave her rump a light smack. “We haven’t talked about you using a hacker to access the royal server.”
Zhang smiled and rubbed his chest with one hand. “Genius, wasn’t it?”
Rachid caught her hand and held it to him. “Or treason. What if it hadn’t worked out the way it did? You’re lucky you didn’t land yourself in prison.”
Dismissing what had clearly not happened, Zhang said, “Now that would be a fun fantasy, but I’d rather be the jailor. You could be the very naughty international spy whom I have to interrogate.”
Amusement rumbled through Rachid’s chest and he said, “You and your fantasies! That’s how this all started.”
Zhang didn’t want to think about how one decision had changed her whole life, because then she would have to consider how close she and Rachid had come to never being together. She remembered her American friends cautioning her at Abby’s bachelorette party to choose her wedding escort with care and chuckled at how right they had been. One seemingly random event had changed everything. She shook off the past and refocused on the delectable present. “Exactly. Are you telling me that you wouldn’t love to be tied up while I torture you slowly?” She ran a hand lightly down his flat stomach and muscular thigh, avoiding touching what was eagerly springing to life and begging for her touch. “Again and again until you beg for release?”
He pulled her beneath him and pinned both hands above her head. “What if I like being in control?”
She rubbed her bare chest against his, loving how his breathing quickened and how he burned for her. She whispered against his lips. “We could take turns.”
He smiled and murmured, “I like the way you think.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Still joined together, Rachid and Zhang jumped at the knock on the outer door of his suite. Zhang dismissed it, settled back into position and asked, “Did you order more food?”
Rachid shook his head and eased out from under his wife. “Stay here, I’ll check who it is.”
She rolled onto her back, pulled the sheet up over her chest and closed her eyes again. “See, I can follow orders.”
He leaned down, kissed her relaxed lips and suggested playfully, “Only because you’re feeling too lazy to get up.”
Eyes closed, Zhang returned the kiss, then stretched and smiled into a pillow. “If you wanted feisty this morning you shouldn’t have tired me out last night.”
Not moving from his position above her, Rachid teased, “Is that all it takes to get an obedient wife? Wild marathon sex sprees? You should have said something earlier.”
Zhang’s eyes flew open and she swatted at him with a pillow. He easily avoided the hit.
The knock on the door was louder the second time.
Rachid picked up the white sirwal pants he’d worn the night before and padded to the door. His stomach flipped when he saw it was Marshid, the head of the royal guardsmen. “Is it Ghalil?” he asked in a rush.
“No, Your Highness. The latest report from the hospital is that your brother is awake and out of danger. However, the king wishes to see you and your wife in the library.”
Rachid looked quickly back at the bedroom door he’d closed behind him. “Did he say why?”
“No, Your Highness.”
Rachid nodded and said, “Tell him that we will meet him in fifteen minutes.”
With a slight bow the guard left, and Rachid returned to the bedroom. He said, “My father wants to see both of us.”
Zhang sat straight up in bed. “Is he angry?”
Rachid shrugged, but sat on the edge of the bed. “I would never let anyone hurt you.”
Zhang leaned forward and touched the very serious man she’d made up her mind to spend the rest of her life with. “I know you wouldn’t.”
“He may question the advisability of me taking the title in October.”
“Do you want it?” she asked and watched his expression tighten.
“Yes and no. What if I’m not the right man? What if my brother is correct and I’m not Arab enough?”
Zhang scooted closer until she was kneeling in front of her husband, and then she took both of his hands in hers. “I wasted too much of my life trying to decide who I am, and I didn’t figure it out until I met you. I’m not a traditional, family-oriented woman from a small village in China. I’m not a die-hard, successful career woman of the world. I am a wonderfully complex combination of both those people. My culture is the beautiful canvas on which I have painted the details of my life. Who would I be without either of those elements?” Rachid took her hand tightly in his and absorbed her words. “I don’t think you will succeed here until you stop denying that the same is true for you. It seems like since you’ve come home to Najriad, you’ve tried to deny the man you were for the past two decades. Half a man cannot lead a country. But what if your experience out there gives you the strength you need to rule here? You think you can only be a good king if the people love and fear you, but those ways are outdated. If you stay and show your people what you can do for them—really show them—they will love and respect you. Maybe that’s why your father sent you away—so you would be a bridge between the past and the future.”
Expelling a harsh breath, Rachid pulled Zhang into his arms and held her tightly against his wildly beating heart. “When I’m with you I feel invincible.”
Zhang hugged him back. “I feel the same way.”
Rachid smiled into her hair and said, “Invincible or not, we shouldn’t make my father wait.”
They rushed through a shared shower and quickly threw on clothing. To Zhang’s surprise, Rachid chose a charcoal suit instead of his traditional white thobe. He added the white headdress with black accent rope. The combination was impressive and powerful. The doubt she’d sensed earlier was gone from the proud man who stood tall before her.
He held out his hand to Zhang and said, “Come, it’s time for my father to meet his son.”
King Amir didn’t look pleased to see either of them when they joined him in the library. He left the view from the large window to take a seat, then waved at the two chairs near him and motioned for Rachid and Zhang to join him. They did.
And waited.
The silence was painful and prolonged.
Zhang was the first to speak. “Your Highness, I’m so sorry about Ghalil. I would have never involved him if I had known that the danger was imminent.”
Rachid leaned forward, placed a hand on Zhang’s arm and said, “The fault is mine, Father. I should have told you of my plan.”
Raising one impatient hand, the king said, “Enough. It’s time for both of you to listen.”
They sat back in their chairs.
Nothing about the king’s stern expression implied that they would like what he was going to say. “I have spent half the night sorting through yesterday’s events with everyone from my advisor to each of the remaining guardsmen. Zhang, you accessed the royal server without permission. You brought strangers into my home and spent time alone with the men in their private quarters. This isn’t behavior befitting a future queen. You must learn to respect our ways.”
I would do it all again, Zhang thought, but for Rachid’s sake, she put her pride aside and said, “I will. I do.”
The king continued harshly, “Rachid, do you believe that you will be able to control your wife in the future?”
Rachid looked at Zhang and then boldly met his father’s eyes. “No, and I don’t want to.” His father frowned, and Zhang worried for just a moment until her husband added, “I love her the way she is. If you don’t feel that she is fit to be queen then I am not fit to be king, because she is part of me.” He took her hand in his. “Wherever she goes, I will go.”
His father’s voice boomed throu
gh the small room. “You would abdicate your crown and walk away?”
Rachid squared his shoulders and squeezed Zhang’s hand in his. “Not unless you want me to. You once asked me to go into the world and bring back the best of what I found.” He held up Zhang’s hand and kissed it. “That’s exactly what I did. Proximus could give our people a new source of revenue, and my fierce wife has the expertise to help make my dream a reality. Together, we will fight for causes we feel strongly about—here and across the globe. Najriad is my country, but Zhang is my home.”
“I see,” the king said and rubbed his short beard thoughtfully. “I’m not happy with the way you and your bride dealt with this breach of security.” Zhang and Rachid held their breath. The king said, “However, I am indebted to your wife.”
Zhang wasn’t sure which of her actions of the past week could have earned his gratitude, since she still blamed herself for Ghalil’s injury.
The king said, “Daughter, because of you, my sons have proven to themselves and to the world that they would die for each other. I have always known that for Najriad to survive they would have to stand together.” He looked into his son’s eyes and said, “I know the price you paid honoring my request to leave, Rachid, but I didn’t see another way. My father ruled with fear and I grew up with a tolerance for bloodshed. You needed to experience more than I had. I have done many things that I regret, but I don’t regret you. You will make a fine king, and your brother will help you navigate these difficult times. Together, you can bring a real peace to our people.”
Rachid said, “Father, I will dedicate my life to improving and protecting our people.”
The king nodded with approval and said, “That’s all I could ask for.” A gleam entered his eye as he returned his attention to his daughter-in-law. “That, and grandchildren. At least four.”
Zhang jolted in her seat and looked at Rachid. “Four?” she asked in shock.
Rachid smiled. “You want more?”
“Only if you grow a uterus,” Zhang tossed back.
Both Rachid and his father threw back their heads and laughed.
The Legacy Collection Box Set Page 54