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want to talk to him though. She thought it was much better to let the lawyers handle everything and keep the dissolution of their sadly short little marriage unemotional and impersonal. On the other hand, she didn’t want to be unreasonable and wondered if he was really hoping to see more of the twins after their nap. She climbed the stairs behind Jane, each of them cradling a twin.

      An entire nursery had been assembled for the babies’ use and she wasn’t surprised—even a few short weeks living with Jaul had taught her that with sufficient money almost anything could be achieved overnight. Once Tarif and Soraya were settled she walked slowly downstairs again.

      Jaul was in the drawing room and a fresh tray of coffee awaited them. Chrissie shot a rueful glance at it. ‘You’re a brave man,’ she commented, thinking of the sugar bowl and jug she had hurled on her previous visit.

      ‘You couldn’t hit a wall at six paces,’ he teased, a slow grin curling his strong, sensual mouth and chasing the gravity away entirely, giving her an unsettling glimpse of the slightly younger, lighter-hearted Jaul she had married.

      ‘Aren’t we being civilised?’ Chrissie remarked in turn while she poured the coffee and offered him a cake like the perfect hostess.

      ‘Perhaps you should put the cup down now,’ Jaul advised, poised straight and tall by the window. ‘Because I don’t want a divorce.’

      Her turquoise eyes flew wide and her coffee cup rattled against the saucer she held. ‘I beg your pardon?’

      Jaul breathed in very slow and deep, broad chest expanding below the T-shirt. ‘If the children are to take their proper place in the royal family I cannot give you a divorce now,’ he explained tautly. ‘I can get away with producing a wife and children like rabbits out of a hat and people will understand because my father’s prejudice against Western women was well-known. But for the sake of the family and my country I cannot throw in an immediate divorce—’

      Without the smallest warning, Chrissie felt ready to scream with vexation because it seemed to her that they were programmed to be at odds with each other. She had lain awake the night before remembering how she had foolishly threatened to make getting a divorce difficult for Jaul and she had seen no sense in taking such a stance. Surely it was wiser for her to agree to a quick divorce and move on with her life? Why the heck would she want to prolong that process and leave herself neither married nor single purely for the sake of causing Jaul some temporary aggravation? In the end she had decided that a quick divorce would be best for both of them, particularly if she was going to have to share the twins with Jaul.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ Chrissie now said flatly. ‘But I do want a divorce and I can have one whether you like it or not. I’m afraid I don’t owe you or your country anything—’

      Jaul shifted a graceful hand in a silencing motion. ‘Perhaps I phrased this in the wrong way. I’m asking you to give our marriage another try—’

      Chrissie set down her cup with a jolt and stood up. ‘No,’ she said, refusing to even think about that suggestion. ‘Too much of my life has been screwed up by you and I want my independence back—’

      ‘Even if it’s at the cost of your children?’

      ‘That’s not a fair question. I have done everything possible to be a good mother—’

      ‘Tarif is the heir to my throne. I must take him home with me,’ Jaul murmured very quietly. ‘I do not want to part him from you or his sister but it is my duty to raise my heir—’

      Chrissie’s knees wobbled and every ounce of colour had leached from her drawn cheeks. He was talking about taking Tarif back to Marwan as if that were already a done deal. Did that mean he had already established that he had that right? Her stomach dive-bombed and her throat convulsed. ‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this. You’re asking me to give our marriage another go because you want the kids, not me—’

      ‘Don’t be stupid,’ Jaul urged with sardonic bite. ‘I wanted you back the moment I laid eyes on you again. You’re like my “fatal attraction” in life and I very much suspect that that works both ways.’

      ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ Chrissie demanded tempestuously, breasts heaving below her top.

      Lustrous dark eyes flickered pure gold. ‘You want me too,’ Jaul framed silkily. ‘You want me so much you’re eaten up with it and I’m the same—’

      ‘That’s the biggest piece of nonsense I’ve ever heard!’ Chrissie proclaimed furiously.

      ‘You need me to prove it?’ Jaul launched back at her, dark eyes blazing threat.

      ‘You couldn’t prove it because it isn’t true!’ Chrissie argued. ‘I’ve moved on way past you...’

      ‘In what way?’ Jaul demanded.

      Her temper was jumping up and down inside her like a screaming child because she had suffered so much because of him and that he should show up again and start laying down the law about his wants, his needs was too much for her to bear.

      ‘I’ve been with other men,’ she lied with deliberation, knowing how possessive he was, how jealous, how all-consuming his passion could be...and knowing just how to hurt.

      ‘I expected that,’ Jaul framed in a harsh undertone. ‘You didn’t need to spell it out—’

      But Chrissie had watched him pale below his vibrant skin and it made her feel like a total bitch, especially when she was lying, but it seemed so important to her right then to drive a wedge between them, to prove that she was completely free of him and what they had once shared. ‘So, you see, I don’t want you the way I once did.’

      Burning bright golden eyes trailed over her from the crown of her head right down to her curling toes and she felt her body react the way it always did around Jaul. Her breasts swelled in a bra that suddenly felt too tight, her nipples pinching taut while lower down she felt hot and moist.

      ‘And you are one hundred per cent certain of that, are you?’ Jaul seethed as he stalked closer. ‘So certain you won’t even give me a chance?’

      Chrissie snatched in a ragged breath. The atmosphere was smouldering like a combustible substance and the tension was suffocating because she recognised that Jaul was on the edge of his hot temper, which when lost was considerably more dangerous than her own. ‘Yes, I’m certain,’ she told him stubbornly.

      ‘You’re a liar,’ Jaul told her harshly. ‘You’re lying to me—you’re even lying to yourself! We’ve been down this route before—’

      ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about—’

      ‘Oh, yes, you do, habibti,’ Jaul contradicted. ‘I’m talking about the months you made me wait for you—’

      ‘I didn’t ask you to wait—’

      ‘You turned your back on the attraction between us. You refused to acknowledge it.’

      ‘Well, I didn’t think you were my kind of person and...oh, yes, didn’t I turn out to be right about that?’ Chrissie boxed back without hesitation.

      ‘Stop it,’ Jaul grated, locking both arms round her to haul her up against him.

      ‘No, you get your hands off me...right now!’ Chrissie snapped back angrily. ‘We’re getting a divorce and you’re not allowed to touch me!’

      ‘You’re still my wife.’

      ‘But you don’t get to touch!’ she warned a split second before his beautiful mouth, warm and wet and rawly sexual, came crashing down on hers in an electrifying collision. His tongue pressed in deep.

      For a split second she imagined she saw a shower of sparks because the taste of Jaul’s mouth on hers was as wildly exhilarating as hitching a ride on a rocket ship. Her legs went numb and her body hummed like an engine cranking

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