LITMIR.BIZ

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      ‘I’ve given it considerable thought, yes.’

      Gabi had walked in here last night without a doubt that it would be over by the morning.

      Certain of it.

      Reassured by it, in fact.

      For Alim was a self-confessed reprobate and her heart could not be dangled on elastic by him, waiting to be hauled to his bedroom one minute, ignored or discarded the next.

      She was shaken, seriously so.

      ‘What happens when someone else comes along?’

      She was direct with her questions and he liked that.

      ‘Alim, I take my career seriously...’

      ‘And I admire that you do,’ he responded. ‘I shan’t mess with it. And,’ he offered, which for Alim was a great concession, ‘there will be no one else.’

      ‘Why a year?’

      ‘Because I will be called home to marry.’

      How cruel that he held her as he said that.

      ‘Gabi.’ He had felt her stiffen. ‘Please, listen to me now. When Fleur fell pregnant my grandfather invoked a pre-marital diktat on my father. It is a harsh law, one intended to bring a reluctant groom to heel. Once invoked there can be no lovers, save for in the desert.’

      ‘The desert?’ she asked. ‘You mean a harem.’

      ‘That is what it meant then; they could have worked around it, but Fleur refused to be his desert mistress.’

      ‘I don’t blame her for that.’

      ‘By the time James was due to be born my mother was pregnant with me. Fleur gave birth in London; my father could not leave at the time. But later, once he had royal heirs, things were easier for them and my father was more free to travel...’

      Gabi didn’t want to hear it. She sat up and clutched the sheet around her ‘This conversation is medieval.’ She did not like what she was hearing—it unnerved her, in fact—but Alim calmly spoke on.

      ‘Perhaps when you see the doctor this morning you should speak about going on the Pill. I can call and arrange for him to see you here...’

      ‘I make my own appointments, Alim, and I don’t need to be told what to ask for.’ She shot him a look. ‘I don’t need to go on the Pill because I’m not going to be your mistress...’

      ‘Lover,’ Alim corrected, for they were two very different roles.

      ‘I am not going to be your lover for a year until your father summons you home.’

      ‘I have given it a lot of thought.’

      ‘Have you, now?’

      ‘I don’t see the issue.’

      ‘Your assumption, for a start.’

      She got out of bed and headed for the shower.

      Gabi was sore from last night and her head was whirling from all she had been told.

      And he was wrong about not messing with careers, Gabi thought as she showered.

      Wrapping a towel around her, she headed out and told him so.

      ‘What about Marianna? She’s given the Grande Lucia years of her life and you’d discard her like that.’ She tried to snap wet fingers; it didn’t work.

      ‘She wants to wind down her hours,’ Alim answered. ‘I would offer her a consulting role.’

      She looked at him and for a brief second he seemed not so ruthless but then his hand shot out, stripping off the towel, and she stood naked. He would be ruthless to her heart, she amended.

      But her body craved him.

      It would be foolish at best not to go on the Pill because all she wanted at this moment was to climb back into bed.

      ‘I know it’s a lot to take in,’ Alim said. ‘But at least give it some thought.’

      He did not understand her anger; most women pleaded for more time with him after all. ‘Would you prefer it to have been just a one-night stand?’

      ‘Yes.’ She actually laughed—somewhat incredulously. ‘Yes,’ she said again, for this was too much for her to deal with.

      ‘Liar.’

      She caught his eyes and her laughter died. Gabi swallowed, because he actually meant it, she was starting to realise.

      No!

      ‘A year at your bidding?’ she mocked.

      ‘It works both ways,’ Alim responded. ‘I would be at your bidding too.’

      He watched the colour spread up her cheeks and across her chest as she attempted indignation. He watched as she stood to pull on her knickers then sat back down to put on her bra.

      He sat up and did it up for her and then kissed the back of her neck.

      His tongue was thorough and he moved so he sat naked behind Gabi and kissed her neck harder as his hands played with her breasts.

      ‘Alim.’

      She was hot in the face and unable to stand and he knew it. Now one hand came down and slipped into her knickers. She was sore and swollen from last night, and his fingers were not there with the intent to soothe.

      This love would hurt.

      And it would be love, it possibly already was, but a year at his beck and call would only cement that fact.

      ‘Alim...’ She wanted to turn in his arms, to wrap herself around him, but he just upped the beats of pressure and kept bruising her neck with his mouth as she came.

      And then he released her.

      Somehow Gabi stood.

      ‘The offer’s there,’ he told her.

      And the pleasure might have been hers, but Alim knew it had been worth the restraint from him, for now they ached for each other.

      It was the greatest feat of her life to dress and leave, yet she needed the ice of the winter morning just to learn how to breathe again, and somehow think.

      But the confusion he’d spun her into was not yet complete.

      Alim leant over and opened a drawer to his beside.

      The rumours were true, for there, in a small dish, as one might display after-dinner mints, was a collection of diamonds.

      They sparkled in the wintry light, they beguiled, and one alone could make the months ahead so much easier for Gabi.

      ‘Choose one,’ Alim said. ‘And then tomorrow—’

      ‘I shan’t be your whore.’

      ‘In my country the tradition is—’

      ‘We’re in Rome, Alim,’ she interrupted, and her lips pressed together in anger. Gabi shot him a look and then walked into the lounge and straight to her purse.

      He made her feel confident. She felt emboldened.

      Somehow he gave her permission to be completely herself.

      And that self was cross!

      ‘Here...’ She opened up her purse and emptied the entire contents onto the bed. It wasn’t much—a lot of coins and a few notes—but she tipped them all out and made him the whore now. ‘Treat yourself, baby,’ Gabi said.

      As she walked out, to the surprise of both of them, Alim laughed.

      He never laughed, and certainly not in the morning, yet here he was doing just that.

      And, as the door slammed, Alim knew but one thing.

      He wanted

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