Page 24 of Sheikh's Secret Love-Child

“I imagine we can trace your foolhardy stubbornness and unnecessary independence to that experience.”

“Or, perhaps, to me simply being an actual adult. Who, like most actual adults, doesn’t like being bullied by strange men.”

“Yes, men. You know so much about them, you tell me. You have a great many philosophies. And yet my investigators were unable to come up with the slightest shred of evidence that you’ve ever touched one.” He smiled. “Aside from me, of course.”

She studied him for a moment. “Does that make you feel special?”

But before he could answer, she laughed. And Malak did not like the way she laughed. And kept laughing, as if he’d told a marvelous joke. She even wiped at her eyes, as if she’d laughed so hard she’d made herself cry.

“I had a baby, Malak. And not in a palace like this. There were no packs of nannies roaming about the streets of New Orleans, desperate for the opportunity to give me a hand. Even if I’d wanted to date somebody, I had no time. And I definitely didn’t have any energy.” She shook her head at him. “Besides, the experience of having a one-night stand and being left pregnant and alone to handle the consequences was somehow less entertaining than you seem to imagine. Why would I want to repeat it?”

“This confirms what I thought,” Malak said after a moment. “Last night in particular. You don’t know.”

He could feel the tension in the air between them. But he knew, now, it wasn’t the way she looked at him. It wasn’t the lies he imagined she told herself to explain it all away. Perhaps she took solace in them.

But the truth was, she didn’t know.

“What don’t I know?” Shona asked, in the tone of one who would have much preferred not to ask the question at all.

Malak thought about her taste. Her scent. The sweetness that was only hers and that he wanted almost more than he could bear. “You don’t know that this isn’t normal. This thing between us. You think this happens all the time.”

She laughed again, though he thought it sounded far more uneasy than before. “I was under the impression that for you, it did.”

“Sex, Shona. Sex is easy enough. But this?”

He leaned forward then and stretched his hand across the table. He saw her jolt, as if she meant to pull away but then ordered herself to remain still, to fight some more, because that was what she did—what they did, if he was honest. He reached over and took one of her hands in his. That was all.

But it was enough.

“This,” he told her softly, as wildfire arced between them. The sizzle. The burn. “This is in no way usual, my fierce little queen.”

Shona stared at him, her gaze too dark to read.

“Careful,” she said quietly. “You wouldn’t want someone to think you were falling in love, would you? Not after all the bold statements you made.” She tilted her head to one side. “My little king.”

Malak didn’t like any part of what she’d said. Not the absurd mention of love when he’d already told her he was immune, or the insulting endearment he was sure she knew was offensive. But he would be damned if he’d let her see that. Any of that.

He didn’t have it in him to ruin himself the way the rest of his family had.

He refused.

“You don’t need to worry about whether I might fall,” he said, somehow keeping his temper in check. He imagined it had something to do with the wildfire greed that coursed through him, making him hard. Making him as close to desperate as he’d ever been. “Better by far you should worry about yourself.”

“I’m not worried about me at all.” That belligerent chin of hers lifted. “Are you?”

“I want you in my bed,” he told her, and watched that molten heat make her eyes go glassy again, just the way he liked them. “I’m tired of this game. There is no escaping this marriage or this throne, and I regret to inform you that you are stuck in it as surely as I am. But what I don’t understand is why you want to fight when you know how good it is between us.”

“You’re talking about sex,” she bit out, though her voice was hoarse. “That’s not a marriage.”

His hand gripped hers tighter when she tried to pull it away. “It’s the best part of a marriage. And the only part I have any interest in, if I am honest.”

“Marriage is more than stunts out on balconies,” she threw at him, her voice stronger. And this time, when she pulled her hand away, he let her. “It’s about sharing your life. It’s not about threatening someone with their own child. It’s not about battles for custody and kidnap attempts. It’s supposed to be a partnership.”

He bared his teeth. “What do you know about marriage?”

“Nothing,” she threw at him, as if this was another battle. But he thought she sounded desperate, as if she feared she was losing it. “Nothing at all, except that I don’t want to marry you. I don’t.”

And this time, when she stood up and made as if to walk from the room, Malak concentrated on her desperation, that suggested he’d already won, and let her go.

---