Сьюзен Мэллери - The Sheik & the Princess in Waiting

She scooped fresh fruit onto her plate, along with some eggs. After taking a biscuit and butter, she returned to the table and poured them each coffee. Reyhan waited until she was seated before claiming his chair.

“You slept well?” he asked.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Dr. Johnson said that your fainting was not likely to reoccur. He decided it was the combination of lack of food and sleep, along with minor dehydration and the shock of seeing me again.” Reyhan’s steady gaze never left her face. “Had I known you would react so strongly, I would have given you some warning. Stunning you into fainting wasn’t my goal.”

“Imagine what you could do if it was,” she said lightly.

She noticed his single raised eyebrow again, but Emma refused to be intimidated, despite the instinct to cringe and apologize. She turned her attention to her breakfast instead and plunged her fork into a piece of mango. Sexual awareness swirled through the room like an erotic mist, but she was determined to ignore it.

Maybe she always had reacted so strongly to Reyhan but wasn’t aware of it, she thought wryly. Maybe when they’d first met there had been this same powerful physical attraction between them but she’d been too young and innocent to recognize it. All she’d known back then was that she loved him and feared him with equal intensity. It was amazing she’d managed to find the strength to leave him.

Then she reminded herself that she hadn’t left him. He’d left her and she’d hid out at her parents’ home. Any additional contact had been through them. She hadn’t even had the courage to tell him she didn’t want to see him again. Not that he’d tried very hard.

“Why the heavy sigh?” he asked.

She looked up. “Did I sigh? I didn’t mean to.”

“You were thinking of the past.”

“It’s a logical place to go.”

He nodded. “We will speak of it.”

A statement or a command? “And if I don’t want to?”

The words were out before she could stop them.

His mouth curved up in amusement. “You defy me?”

“Will that get me fifty lashes or time in the tower?”

“Nothing so boring.” He sipped his coffee. “Why do you not wish to talk about our situation?”

“I do.” She shrugged. “Knee-jerk reaction, I guess. My parents were always so protective. They meant well—they still do. My independence is hard-won and I get my back up when someone gives me orders.”

“I see.”

She had no idea what the silken words meant, nor did she want to ask for an explanation. She doubted whatever contact Reyhan had had with her parents had been especially pleasant.

“You’re right,” she said. “We need to talk about what happened and what’s going to happen.”

He nodded slightly. “If you wish.”

“You’re mocking me.”

“I am terrified by your steely will.”

Emma doubted anything terrified Reyhan. Which meant he was teasing her. Interesting. She wouldn’t have thought royal princes had senses of humor.

“Do you believe our marriage was real?” he asked.

“I don’t want to, but, yes. You have no reason to lie, and my presence here is more than enough proof.” She shifted in her seat. She’d been married for six years and hadn’t known. Talk about being a fool.

“Why did you marry me?” she asked him, knowing it hadn’t been for any of the usual reasons. At the time she’d thought Reyhan had loved her, but his behavior proved otherwise.

He chewed and swallowed. “You were a virgin,” he said calmly. “I would not have defiled you.”

Ten simple words that made her drop her fork, push back her chair and spring to her feet.

“What?” she demanded. “You married me to sleep with me? The whole thing was about sex?”

If love was out of the question, shouldn’t he have at least liked her? Shouldn’t he have pretended to care?

“Sit down, Emma. You’re overreacting.”

She took her seat before she remembered she wasn’t going to let anyone run her life ever again. Once seated, it seemed silly to stand up and make a fuss. She settled on glaring at him.

Reyhan looked at her. “Why are you so outraged? Do you think there are any men who marry without the thought of their wives being a sexual partner?”

“Most men think about more than just doing it.”

That made him get stiff and stern. His gaze narrowed. “I am Prince Reyhan of Bahania. When I married you, I not only gave you my name and protection, but honored you by making you a princess of my country. Had you been willing to continue our relationship, I would have brought you here where you would have lived in this palace. Neither you nor our children would have wanted for anything. I would have been faithful to you until I breathed my last breath. Who and what you are would have been passed along to our children, and through that, you would have joined in the history of my people. I believe that would be defined as more than just doing it.”

“But you never told me any of this,” she reminded him, feeling more than a little embarrassed. “Nor did you ask me if this is what I wanted with my life. What about my plans? My dreams? Marrying you could have changed my world forever.”

“Is that such a bad thing?”

She thought of her small apartment and her quiet life. She remembered her conversation with Cleo the previous night and what she’d said about the palace and the princes.

“You didn’t give me a choice,” she said. “Not about staying or going. You married me without telling me the truth, then you disappeared without a word.”

Reyhan leaned back in his chair. “Our recollection of the events that happened are very different, but that is of no consequence. What matters is our present circumstances. We are married—something neither of us wishes to continue. The king’s permission is required for a prince to divorce, and he has insisted you spend two weeks here until he will grant the decree.”

Countless years of having her life run by her parents had made Emma hypersensitive to being told what to do. Her first instinct was to tell Reyhan that maybe she didn’t want a divorce, thank you very much. Maybe she wanted to stay married.

She stopped herself before she could blurt out the irrational statement. She didn’t know the man. She didn’t want anything to do with him. Of course she wanted to go get a divorce and go back to her life.

“You didn’t need his permission to get married, but you need it for a divorce,” she said. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“I did need his permission to marry. I defied him.”

Simple words, she thought, but stunning. He’d defied the king? To marry her? Which brought her back to her original question—why?

For sex? He was a handsome, wealthy, royal guy. Couldn’t he get any woman he wanted? So why her?

She had a feeling that the earth would stop turning before she found out the answer to that one, so she chose another topic of conversation.

“So after the divorce you’ll marry someone else.” A thought occurred to her. “Have you already chosen your new bride?” Cleo had said he wasn’t engaged, but was he already in love?

Reyhan shook his head. “My marriage will be arranged.”

Emma blinked at him. “You mean she’ll be picked by someone else? What if you don’t like her?”

He shrugged. “That is of little consequence.”

It felt like a really big consequence to her.

“But she could make you crazy.”

“Then we will have little contact. My duty is to produce heirs for the kingdom. I will not turn my back on my responsibility.”

He had a duty? But where had all that duty been when he’d married her? And why would he agree to a wife he might not even like?