They’d kissed twice.
That was it. The sum total of their physical interaction. And yet one gentle, polite touch was enough to make her nipples stand erect; to make her breathing laboured, and her insides tremble with desire. It was not the time. She couldn’t think about it. At least, she couldn’t think about it much.
They rode the elevator in silence, and emerged into the frigid Manhattan afternoon as a burst of wind ran up Fifth. Eleanor didn’t react. Her emotions and feelings were already maxed out. The weather was simply an irrelevance she had no time for.
But Aki noticed. He felt. He shrugged out of his coat and wrapped it around his wife’s shoulders, wondering if it was possible that she’d lost weight in the brief time they’d been married. The thought gave him little pleasure. In fact, a strange sense of guilt and anger, directed at himself, flooded his body. “Did you eat today?”
She pulled a face as she slipped into the back seat of the sleek grey limousine. “What do you think? My stomach is in knots.”
“You must take care of yourself.”
“I can barely even drink water,” she said with a shake of her head. “Let alone eat.”
He studied her surreptitiously. Yes. Her face had definitely lost some of its sweet roundness, leaving a far more gaunt, sophisticated woman sitting opposite him. She had not really had weight to lose. She had been pleasingly curved in a way that had stirred his whole body. While she was still beautiful, he could now see her collarbone protruding from beneath the delicate skin at her neck and it added to the rabble of emotions that were sledging through him.
“Tonight, you will eat,” he said firmly.
She would have laughed, if not for the fact she was beyond overwrought. “Oh? Because you order me to do so?”
“Yes.” He said confidently, then furrowed his brows. “If that will do it.”
“It won’t,” she said. “I feel sick at the very thought of food.”
He looked out of the window, his face set in a line of quiet disappointment. Eleanor understood. She was failing him in every way. She was not the wife he’d wanted. And now that they were married, she was turning out to be a whole lot of trouble, too.
She dug her fingernails into her palms and told herself not to be such a wet drip. She was not a disappointment to anyone but herself. If she’d made a decision that was making herself, Aki, and anyone else miserable, then she, and only she, could remedy it.
“You have lost weight,” he said without looking at her.
She had. She knew it was true. Many of the clothes she’d been given after the wedding were now loose where once they’d fit perfectly. “I know.”
“Too much weight for it to be a reaction to your sister’s news.” He still didn’t look in her direction, but his voice was hoarse with emotion. “So it is a reaction to our marriage.”
A statement of fact. Not a question. Just an obvious explanation for the circumstance. So obvious that Eleanor didn’t feel it was necessary to respond. The limousine moved through uptown Manhattan as a fish through a stream, courtesy of the two police motorcycles who rode ahead, clearing the path of traffic for them.
The air within the confines of the luxury vehicle was thick with emotion and worry. Eleanor blamed herself. She had known that something was wrong when she’d last spoken to Michelle. It had been blatantly obvious to her that something had happened to ratchet up Michelle’s usual level of panic and fear. But she’d ignored it. Because her own life had been unravelling and she’d found it essential to focus her energy on that. She shook her head now, frustrated with herself for being so selfish.
How had one decision made such a mess of everything?
The car pulled to a gentle stop and Eleanor recognised the familiar entrance to Mount Sinai. She reached out and gripped Aki’s hand. Despite everything that seemed to stick between them, the touch helped to settle her nerves now. “I know I said for you to wait outside but… would you mind… I mean… I know it’s stupid…”
He nodded. “It is not stupid. If it will help ease your worry, I will walk with you.”
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Thank you.”
Her fingers released his hand, and Eleanor was filled with a sense of foolishness for having sought comfort from the man who bore her so little affection. Aki might have been her husband, but theirs was not a real relationship. She pushed the thought from her mind as she stepped from the car. Again, the chill wind brushed past her, and she lifted her face heavenward, comforted by the bleak grey sky that was so familiar to her.
“Aki.” Eleanor turned to look up at her husband, and felt a throb of attraction. In a bespoke suit, he was every woman’s fantasy. But he shouldn’t be hers. There was nothing fantastic about what they were to one another. “There’s something else you should know.” She began to walk towards the hospital doors. “Jak works here. He’s a surgeon. It’s imperative that our conversation with Michelle happens away from any staff.”
A muscle flexed in his cheek. “Of course.”
For once, Eleanor found it impossible to resent the constant security presence in their lives. Aki turned and spoke a few sentences in Talinese to his senior agent and then nodded at Eleanor. “It will be arranged.”
“Thank you,” she nodded tersely, keeping her face locked in a forward direction.
And though she’d known her sister was not in a good way, Eleanor was still ill-prepared for the sight of Michelle. Lying against the crisp white hospital sheets, she was flatter, and whiter, and oh so slender. So fragile that one fierce gust of wind might break her in two.
“Shelly,” Eleanor said on a sob, moving quickly across the linoleum floor and lifting her sister’s hand.
“Ellie?” She blinked, disoriented and confused. “What are you doing here?”
“Papa told me you were in hospital,” she said gently.
Michelle’s eyes were squinting in the bright light. Aki moved to the bedside table and turned on a lamp, then hit the wall switch so that the room was plunged into a dim glow.
“Thanks.” Michelle’s voice was a husk.
“Would you like me to wait outside?” Aki asked, his gaze resting on Eleanor. She understood the compassion in his face and was grateful for it.
“For a moment,” she said with a nod.
Once he’d pulled the door softly shut behind himself, Eleanor propped herself on the side of the bed, and put a hand lightly on Michelle’s thigh. “What happened?”
Michelle’s eyes skittered across the room. “An… accident.”
“No.” Eleanor’s eyes moistened with tears. “Not now. You cannot protect him after this.”
Michelle bit down on her lower lip, as was her tendency when she was stressed. “I… what do you want me to say, Ellie? He’s my husband. I love him.”
“Do you?” She asked, leaning forward so that Michelle had no choice but to meet her enquiring stare. “Do you love him, or do you fear him?”
“You couldn’t possibly understand,” Michelle said. “No matter what he’s like, I still remember the kind, sweet man I first met.”
Eleanor bit back the temptation to point out that that man had probably never really existed. How easy it would have been for a man like Jak to fool a naïve, trusting teenager as Michelle had been. “Did he hit you?”
“No.” His voice wobbled over the angry denial.
“Did he hit you?”
Michelle and Eleanor had a bond that surpassed all others. Best friends, confidantes and sisters, their understanding of one another was unmistakable. Michelle dropped her gaze now, shying away from that intimate understanding. “He didn’t mean it.”
Eleanor had been prepared for this. Years earlier, when she’d realised how completely dictatorial Jak was, she’d gone to a night course on domestic violence. And all the years since, she’d been subconsciously bracing herself for this moment. Hoping against hope she wouldn’t need to use the information she’d gained, but knowing she probably would. “If I w
alk out of here now, you will go home to a man who appears repentant, until he loses control the next time. And each beating will be worse and worse, until you are dead. What do you want to do, Shell?”
“Stop it!” She squawked, her face pinched.
“No. Because he won’t stop, and so nor will I. You’re my sister, and I will not let him take you from me.”
The door pushed in at that moment, and Aki strode confidently in, ahead of a white-coated Jak. Beyond them, the security presence of Aki’s forces was reassuringly placed as flanks on either side of the room.
“Eleanor,” Jak said with a curt nod. “The nurse said Michelle had visitors. I didn’t realise it would be you and Aki. It seems like a lot of fuss over a simple concussion.”
Aki’s expression was filled with derision and disrespect. Eleanor shot him a warning look. This was her battle. Or, it was Michelle’s, but Eleanor was going in to bat on her behalf. She stood and unconsciously moved her body between her sister and brother-in-law.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened, Jak?”
His ice-cold eyes drifted to the pathetic picture of his injured wife. “An accident,” he said. His uncertainty was clear. How much did they know?
“Is that what you call it?” Eleanor spat derisively. “I would have thought a surgeon like you could come up with a better cover story. Isn’t it usually ‘fell down the stairs’? Or ‘walked into a doorknob’?”
Jak took a menacing step closer to Eleanor, and she felt Aki stiffen. To his credit, he didn’t move to protect her, though it was pretty obvious that he was struggling to stay out of the argument.
Eleanor lifted her chin, and the smile on her face was loaded with disdain. “What? You want to hit me, too? Isn’t that how you handle your frustrations, Jak? Pick on women?”
“Ellie,” Michelle’s voice was cracked with grief. “Stop it.”
“You heard your sister. You would be better to listen to her.”
“No. She is listening to me, whether she wants to or not. She will not be coming home to you.”
Jak rolled his eyes. “And how do you propose to arrange that?”
“I don’t care if I have to bind her and gag her, she will never be alone with you again.” Behind her, Michelle reached out and laced her fingers through Eleanor’s. She squeezed them. And because of their unique understanding, Eleanor knew. She knew that the squeeze conveyed gratitude and relief.
“Now get the hell out of here before I start screaming this hospital down. I will have no hesitation telling your superiors just what you’re capable of, you misogynistic, abusive bastard. Do you understand me?”
Jak stared at her for a good minute, weighing up his options. Finally, he turned toward the door. Before leaving though, he stopped and levelled one last cold stare at his sister-in-law. “This was a mistake, Eleanor. A mistake you made on behalf of yourself and your sister. I am sorry that you will live to regret it.”
A shiver ran down Eleanor’s spine. Now that it was over, she felt terrified. She had made it impossible to turn back from this fork in the road. No. She hadn’t, she corrected herself. Jak had done that. Jak and his fists and his hateful arrogance.
Now, Aki moved to his wife’s side. He put an arm around her waist. “Are you okay, azeezi?”
“I’m fine,” she said with a small nod. “But what the heck do we do now?”
He pressed a finger beneath her chin and lifted her face to his. “There is a silver lining to ruling a country, Eleanor. I think you will find that even the most difficult obstacles are easily overcome when you have staff and servants to assist you.”
He kissed her lightly on the top of the head, because he felt she needed strength and comfort, and then stepped backwards. In the end, it was not Aki’s staff or servants who overcame the obstacles, though. It was Aki himself. With the deftness of a man who had spent his whole life calling the shots, he arranged for Michelle’s immediate transfer from the hospital. “Go with her,” he said to his wife. “She is afraid. You must make her understand that she is under my protection, and no one will dare hurt her now. Can you do this?”
Eleanor nodded, and felt that odd, gravity-defying lurch in her chest again. “Thank you.” She said, though the words were insufficient for the gratitude she was experiencing.
“Where are we going?” Michelle asked, once in the back of an ambulance.
Eleanor frowned. “I don’t actually know.”
Michelle closed her eyes, but tears leaked out regardless. “It must be nice to trust your husband so completely.”
Such a simple statement. A completely understandable observation to make, given the circumstances, but it came as a revelation to Eleanor. She trusted Aki. With her life, and her sister’s life. How was it possible? Their relationship had been founded on his dislike and enmity, and her lust and naivety. How was it now possible that she was willing to put all her faith in him?
Eleanor didn’t have an answer to that. But some things in life were certain even without proof, and her trust in Aki was one of them.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Eleanor tapped her Kindle down quietly, watching Michelle’s sleeping form to be sure the movement didn’t disturb her. The time on the bedside clock showed that it had just gone midnight, and finally, she’d heard a sound downstairs.
For the briefest of moments, it occurred to her to be afraid. After all, what if it was Jak? The fury in his face had been truly terrifying.
But she wasn’t in a normal apartment. Aki’s penthouse was fortified like his palace. Which meant the noise she’d heard was more likely to be Aki.
She padded silently to the top of the stairs and peered down. Despite her certainty that it couldn’t be Jak, an irrational fear made her cautious.
A gasp was pulled from her chest when she saw Aki. His shirt was torn down the front, and had blood splattered over it. His cheek was blackened.
“Oh my… what the hell…?”
Aki looked up, his expression inscrutable.
“Aki?” She ran down the stairs and crossed the vast space quickly. “What happened?”
Eleanor lifted a hand to his cheek and touched it lightly with her fingertips. The bruise was massive.
“It is fine,” he said dismissively. His eyes ran over her face, taking in every detail. “How are you?”
“Me?” She shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. You look like you’ve been hit by a bus.” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “You fought with Jak?”
He dipped his head in silent confirmation.
“Oh, God. I’ll kill him,” she muttered, lifting her other hand and splaying her fingers over his uninjured cheek. “The doctor just left. I’m sure we can get him back.”
His eyes clung to hers; his tone was droll. “It is simply bruised. I am reasonably confident I will survive.”
Eleanor crossed her arms over her chest, unconsciously drawing his attention to the swell of her cleavage. “You don’t have to be all macho about it,” she said with a shake of her head. “Go and sit on the sofa.”
“Why?” He asked with an amused frown.
It was wrong to feel frustrated at a man who’d just been in a fistfight to defend your sister’s honor. So she tried to keep that annoyance out of her voice. “Just, for once, stop questioning me.”
He quirked his lips and shrugged. “As you wish.”
Eleanor appeared just a minute later, clutching a glass of water, and a tea towel that she’d stuffed with a handful of ice cubes. She knelt before him, her eyes on his bruise, as she lifted the makeshift ice pack to his face and administered it gently to the bruised skin. Aki couldn’t help the way his eyes devoured her. In the soft glow of the moonlight and the electrics from other buildings, she was ethereally beautiful.
“What happened?” She asked, her dark rimmed eyes filled with worry. “Tell me, Aki.”
He lifted a hand and wrapped his fingers around her skin. Gently, he lowered the ice pack from his face, but kept his grip on her
slender wrist. “I did not want your sister to have to lodge a complaint with the police.”
“You were worried she wouldn’t.” Eleanor corrected, for she had experienced the same concern.
“Perhaps a little of both. If she recovered and realised she was not prepared to file a complaint, then Jak would be free. Men who beat their wives do not often stop with their wives,” he said with a shake of his head. “Do you not see, Eleanor, that your parents would have been in danger? That you might have been in danger?”
“My parents!” She exclaimed, her expression stricken.
He made a hushing sound. “They’re no longer in the city. I thought it best that they not see Michelle as she is; and that they be as far from Jak’s rage as possible.”
The desperate intensity in his voice made her stomach turn over. “And so?”
“When I explained his situation to him, he attacked me,” Aki said firmly. “Jak is a bully, nothing more. He had become used to the fact that he could behave as he wished and meet no discernible opposition.”
Perhaps she was over-sensitive, but she detected an underlying criticism of her father in his statement. “It’s been so hard, Aki. Michelle has been impossible to crack. She has always defended him.”
He nodded. “Nonetheless, the police took his attack on a visiting Sovereign extremely seriously. It is unlikely that he will be able to bother you, your sister, or your parents, again.”
“You goaded him into attacking you.”
His lips twisted into a scornful grimace. “It was not difficult. He has a loose grip on his oversized temper.”
She looked down at his hands. They were unscathed. “Did you… Did you hurt him?”
He narrowed his gaze. “Unlike your brother-in-law, I do not employ physical violence when I am angered.”
“You didn’t even hit him?”
“No. I had no interest in hurting him. That would make any case against him weaker.”
“Your self-control is admirable.” She said, not sure she would have been able to resist raining punches down on Jak if she’d had the chance.
The Sultan's Virgin Bride: A story of lust, loyalty and passionate resentment. Page 8