Fiona McArthur - One Night with a Seductive Sheikh - The Sheikh's Redemption / Falling for the Sheikh She Shouldn't / The Sheikh and the Surrogate Mum

He found himself on his feet, facing her across the bed, memories unraveling with a sick charge along his every nerve.

“What’s this? Anyone would think it’s you who have a grievance against me, that I’m the one who walked out on you. May I remind you that you are the one who left when I outraged your sense of independence, sinned in believing I was more than an ‘exotic fling’ to you? And are you pretending that keeping our relationship secret wasn’t exactly what you wanted, then and now? I’m giving you what you always wanted. No demands on my side, no obligations on yours, only no-consequences indulgence. What more do you want?”

Why? How?

She’d long known that he felt nothing for her. So why and how did getting confirmation of that tear her apart all over again?

He came around the bed, raven hair raining down his forehead, the shirt she’d torn hanging open to reveal the magnificent sculpture of his torso, which she’d barely had a chance to worship.

He stopped less than a foot away, bearing down on her with his overwhelming beauty and rising exasperation. “What kind of game are you playing now? What’s with the indignant act? According to you, we had only a sexual liaison, and you ended it. Now that it would be feasible and pleasurable for both of us to resurrect it, why are you behaving as if I once betrayed you? As if I’m degrading you and trying to take advantage of you?”

“Because you did. And you are.”

He stared at her as if she’d grown a third eye.

And everything she’d spent years holding back came flooding out.

“Being honest about how you’ll take what you want and give nothing in return doesn’t make you honorable. And it sure as hell doesn’t make you the wronged party here. It only makes you an unfeeling bastard who cares only about getting what you want, who would use anyone in the most horrible way for your own purposes, even the trivial one of telling someone ‘I told you so.’”

Every word fell on him with the visible effect of a slap. “ B’ haggej’ jaheem , what the hell are you talking about?”

And she shouted, “I’m talking about your bet .”

He stumbled back, his face going slack with shock, reactions rioting across his eyes.

Then he finally rasped, “You know.”

It was a statement. An admission. At last.

She’d thought it would bring her relief. It didn’t.

Feeling hers eyes tearing, she tore her gaze away, looked feverishly around for her sandals.

She shoved her feet into them, tried to regain her shaky balance. “Thank you for not insulting me more by pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“You heard me and Jalal that night.”

The same conclusion Jalal had come to. She hadn’t refined his deduction.

She did Haidar’s. “That was only how I made sure.”

He blocked her path as she tried to head for the door. “How did you find out in the first place?”

“I don’t owe you anything, least of all an explanation. And if you want someone to play sexual games with, I can recommend dozens for you to pick from. I’m sure you have your own waiting list.”

He spread his arms, stopping her from circumventing him, his face gripped in urgency and frustration. “ B’Ellahi , Roxanne, just tell me!”

Her chest heaved with the remembered humiliation, her eyes threatening to pour long-dried tears. “How do you think?”

Realization detonated in his eyes. Certainty. He dropped his arms, staggered away. “My mother.”

She let the entrenched fury in her eyes confirm.

“How did she know?” he groaned.

She shrugged. “She said she knows everything about you and Jalal. But especially you.”

Agitation receded in his eyes, determination filtering into its place. “I need to know everything she said.”

“I’ll tell you what my mother said. When you approached me at that ball expecting me to fall at your feet.”

Heated recollection overlapped agitation in his eyes. “Your words were cool but your eyes were incendiary. I could think of nothing but erasing your reluctance, making you admit that your desire was as instant and as powerful as mine.”

She backed away as if from the memories. “The jury will remain out on that similarity. But my mother saw you for what you are. She also saw that you had me blinded and realized that to stop me from falling for your seduction, she had to tell me a secret.”

“What secret could she have told you? I have none.”

“Of course you don’t. You keep your vices and transgressions proudly out in the open.”

That silenced him. His steel eyes, so like his mother’s, turned black. As if her opinion hurt.

She ignored the spasm of guilt at what she had to admit was a gross exaggeration. “It was a secret of hers. During her first stint in Azmahar. She was beginning her career, and she fell madly in love with a royal. She discovered his illegal activities, yet still couldn’t walk away. But he fabricated evidence against her, preempting her in case she attempted to expose him, forcing her to leave the kingdom in silence or she would have been publicly disgraced and prosecuted.”

His eyes narrowed. “Was that man your father?”

It was the first time he had asked her about her parentage. “No. My father was a one-night stand she had when she returned home from Azmahar heartbroken. But years later, that royal found himself in need of her support and got her an even better post in Azmahar. She was in no position to say no. That was when we came here. He tried to weasel himself back into her good opinion and bed, but she told him where he could put his lies and platitudes.”

He said nothing, waiting for the punch line.

She delivered it. “Moral of the story—don’t get involved with a royal. He will use you for his whims and abuse you for his benefit. And when I didn’t listen, worse happened to me.”

His frown turned spectacular. “What do you mean, worse?”

“You didn’t even notice that my life was being messed up and my future destroyed. The one thing that mattered to you was that I showed up for your scheduled sex sessions.”

“Are you talking about the setbacks you had in your studies?”

Her heart lurched. “So you knew. And you didn’t ask me about it, or even offer a word of concern or encouragement.”

His already black frown darkened. “Jalal informed me you’d started out so far at the top of your class, you were in one of your own. He made it sound as if I was the reason you were falling behind. I … didn’t know what to say. Or do.”

“You thought our liaison and the hoops you made me jump through to maintain its secrecy were taking their toll on me, but tough for me, right? You had your pleasure and your convenience, and to hell with me and my future.”

He grimaced again. “All I saw at the time was that you’d told Jalal, but not me.”

“And we’re back to the one thing that matters to you. Your rivalry with Jalal.”

“It wasn’t like that. This was about you.”

“Sure. It was so about me you didn’t care that my academic progress was in jeopardy, even when you believed you were the reason for the deterioration. You knew me so little you believed I’d let an affair stop me from excelling in my work.”

“But … if I wasn’t the reason, then …” He stopped, shock blossoming in his gaze all over again.

“And he sees the light. Yep, your mother again. She had more influence in Azmahar than the rest of the royal family put together. Your efforts at secrecy worked on my mother and the rest of the kingdom, but your mother knew everything about us and decided to rectify the situation. I found out how when I was protesting my inexplicable grades to my favorite professor. She confessed she and the rest of the staff had instructions to increase pressure until I had to leave to save what I could of my future. She said I would harm her if I didn’t keep it a secret and advised me to stop whatever I was doing to be on your mother’s bad side. You were the only thing I was … doing.”