LITMIR.BIZ

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others. She’d stood silent, a little behind him, but he’d breathed in her light floral scent, been conscious of the stares of others, taking in her beauty. More than once, on turning, his breath had clogged in his lungs as he’d seen her and fought to resist the urge to grab the soft length of her hair, wrap it round his hand and tug her hard against him. He wanted to taste her again, experience the heady combustion of desire when they came together.

       But he couldn’t, damn it...because he was doing the decent thing.

       And did she thank him for it?

      He looked down into flashing violet eyes, the ripe mouth, set in mulish lines, and wondered why even her mutinous attitude was too attractive.

      Because he was tired of people deferring?

      Or because her fire reminded him of how she’d felt in his arms?

      ‘While I appreciate your concern for me, it’s unnecessary.’ Her eyes locked with his, no hint of backing down. ‘Halarq is changing. You’ve said it’s good for women to have careers now. That’s what I want.’

       Damn her! She had the temerity to quote his own words back at him.

      Sayid ground his molars, surprised to discover that while he despised yes-men, he wasn’t keen on disobedience either. ‘There’s no reason you can’t have both a husband and a career.’

      ‘But I’m not ready for a husband. I want to—’

      ‘You’re my responsibility. I’ll decide what’s best for you.’

      Her head rocked back as if she’d been slapped. Yet he’d said nothing untoward. He had an obligation to see to her security and welfare.

      ‘I’m twenty-two. Old enough to make decisions about my future.’

      She had a point. He’d been treated as an adult since he was fifteen. But then his circumstances were different.

      ‘Enough!’ Sayid rounded the desk and sat down, occupying the position of power as she stood before him. ‘You can trust me to find you a decent man.’

      Instead of reassuring her, his words seemed to detonate her intriguingly volatile temper. He’d had hints of it in the past, like when she’d described her undesirable cousins and when she’d boldly met his gaze when so many wouldn’t. Yet he’d had no notion she could be so easily provoked, except in passion. The knowledge was disturbingly...arousing.

      She planted her hands on her hips and her eyes flashed amethyst fire. Her cheeks were rose pink, her lips the colour of mountain cherries.

      She looked...incendiary and captivatingly sensual.

      ‘When I want a man I’ll find him for myself, thank you very much.’ Her chin tipped up. ‘For all your talk of modernisation and rights for the disenfranchised, you don’t believe your own rhetoric, do you? You still see women as possessions, unable to make decisions for themselves.’

      Sayid was on his feet in a second, palms flat on his desk as he leaned across it towards her. ‘Nothing could be further from the truth.’

      ‘Then prove it. Don’t dictate to me.’

      ‘In case you’ve forgotten, Lina, I’m your guardian. It’s my job to make decisions for you.’

      If he’d thought his anger would make her back down, he was mistaken. She paled, but instead of subsiding, she paced right up to the other side of his desk, holding his gaze with all the calm composure of a born leader.

      Her perfume teased his nostrils. That rich rose scent took him straight back to last night, when the taste of her sweet mouth and the torture of her body against his had driven him to the brink of madness. He’d almost taken her right there on the hard flagstones by the pool.

      He shook his head, trying to clear the miasma of desire enveloping him.

      ‘Damn it, Lina. You’ll do as you’re told!’

      She didn’t even flinch. Instead she planted her own palms on the desk and leaned into his personal space, as no one else would dare.

      ‘Are you saying you’d force me?’ She heaved a breath that made her lush breasts swell against the fitted bodice of her red dress. ‘Are we returning to the days when women were chattels to be bartered between men? I thought you objected to that. Or was all that just fine words?’

      Sayid reared back, stunned and furious. Lina couldn’t have got it more wrong. He knew the ugly reality of life for women under his uncle’s outdated regime.

      At fifteen Sayid had been all that stood between his beautiful widowed mother and rape then a forced marriage to one of his uncle’s cronies. Rape then a quick wedding being an easy way to acquire a widow’s wealth.

      Sayid had stood up to the man his mother had rejected, sword in hand, and fought for her right to choose. He’d fought for his own life too, for her disgruntled suitor had no qualms about killing those who got in his way.

      The ancient knife slash up Sayid’s arm throbbed with a phantom pain at the memory.

      ‘You dare to question my morals? This is the thanks I receive after all I’ve done for you?’

      Lina’s ingratitude stung. Yet at the same time Sayid felt something more. A quickening of dark excitement as she stood up to him.

      Heat bloomed anew in her pale face, dark red flagging her high cheekbones. Yet still she didn’t back down. Either she’d completely forgotten whom she was talking to or she was more recklessly courageous than any adult male in the country. For none would meet him head-on like this.

      ‘You want my gratitude?’ She almost spat the word at him. ‘You have it. You’ve had it for over four years. Why do you think I worked so hard at that school, even in the beginning when it was pure torment? Why do you think I stuck it out? To prove your faith in me was justified. That I wouldn’t let you down. Day after day I ignored the ridicule and teasing, the fear that maybe I didn’t have it in me to succeed. Because I wanted you to be proud of me.’

      Sayid frowned. This was the first he’d heard of ridicule or teasing. Surely he’d have been informed—

      ‘Not that you were interested. I never heard from you, not once in all that time.’ She hefted a quick breath that did something strange to his internal organs. ‘But that didn’t matter. I kept at it because I was grateful, and because I wanted an education. I’m working with your educators to pay off the debt I owe you, because I’m grateful and—’

      ‘Enough!’ Sayid put up his hand, horrified at the undercurrent of emotions her words evoked. Emotions he couldn’t, didn’t want to name, but which left him raw and weakened. As if someone had taken a sword to his knees, cutting off the strength in his limbs. ‘There is no debt. You’re free to leave.’

      ‘With a husband you choose for me?’ She shook her head so violently her ebony hair swung wide, brushing his upraised hand, drawing his body to instant arousal.

      Instantly he was back in the courtyard last night, that silky weight caressing his bare skin as he drove his tongue into her mouth, going mad on the taste and feel of her. On the untrammelled hunger he’d never be able to sate.

      ‘No, thank you.’ She was as proud as an empress, looking down her nose at him, even from her inferior height. ‘I’ll work off my debt as agreed. In the position you created to appease my pride.’ He must have started because she nodded. ‘Even I can see you don’t need me when you’ve got trained professionals to do the job. But I’ll stick at it because I’m grateful and I pay back my debts.’

      Fleetingly he thought of telling her those professionals thought she was more effective than the rest of them put together. But that could wait.

      Sayid didn’t know if it was the sniping way she said she was grateful, or the thought of her staying in the palace for months, possibly years, till her conscience

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