He downed a finger of Scotch. ‘I’d like to dull the pain first.’
‘We’re not really getting married, you know.’
‘We’re not?’ He added ice to the glass this time before leaning back against the bar, taking in her rigid stance. ‘That whole thing was just an act back there? Damn, I wish I’d known. I would have organised party music.’
Her soft lips pinched together. ‘Don’t you know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?’
‘It’s fitting, then,’ he drawled. ‘Since I can’t remember feeling this low before.’
‘You and me both,’ she said on a rush, sinking down onto one of the sofas and removing her heels; her sigh of pleasure hitting him exactly where he didn’t need it to right now.
‘You know, if you drop the kidnapping charges I could probably get my father to withdraw his demands that we marry.’ Her pleading look was one of innocence and hope and for a fleeting moment he had to fight the urge to go and comfort her.
Clearing his head with another dose of alcohol, he cast her a cynical smile. ‘Oh, I’m sure you’d like that,’ he bit out. ‘But it’s not that simple any more.’
‘I don’t see why not.’
‘Because your lack of a convincing denial that I have dishonoured you has set something bigger than the two of us in motion. But then, maybe you knew that all along,’ he added softly.
‘Knew what?’
Zach paced to shake off the adrenaline that surged through him. Her puzzled expression was either genuine or a good act. His money was on the latter. ‘Marrying me has enormous benefits.’
‘Like what?’ She gave a derisive snort. ‘Being close to your enormous ego?’
Unable to remember another woman who had dared to speak to him with such disdain, he stopped in front of her, forcing her to have to look a long way up to meet his gaze. ‘Money. Power.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘A Hajjar potentially on the throne one day.’
Instead of being intimidated by him, she just looked annoyed. ‘If you’re implying that my father wanted this to happen...’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘That’s ludicrous. He loathes your family.’
‘He loathes that my family is on the throne, and now we’re to be married. A bit opportune, don’t you think?’
‘No, I don’t think that at all, and if you thought about it logically you’d know it’s not true. My father is stuck in the past and thinks that all women need a man to take care of them. That’s the only thing that’s going on here.’
It wasn’t the only thing going on here but perhaps he should have stopped at one whisky because what she said made sense. Not that he wouldn’t put it past Hajjar to capitalise on a situation that had arisen as a result of his own poor judgment in lifting her onto that horse in the first place.
Zach crushed an ice block between his teeth. ‘Unfortunately I don’t feel particularly logical right now. And your father gets to go free with you as the sacrificial lamb.’
Her face paled. ‘No, there has to be another way.’
‘Why, so you can go off and marry your boyfriend, the knight, instead?’ he asked silkily.
She frowned. ‘Amir?’ she finally said. ‘No, I don’t want to marry Amir or anyone, and given your reputation I’d think you would feel the same way.’
Zach stilled. ‘My reputation?’
‘We get magazines in the mountains,’ she said loftily. ‘And I think the amount of different women you’ve been photographed with speaks for itself.’
He gave a rough bark of laughter. ‘You’re making me out to be the bad guy here?’
‘Are you saying you want to get married?’
‘As a matter of fact, I was nearly married once.’ Or at least he’d contemplated asking Amy to marry him, which was close enough for the purposes of putting this little heathen in her place. ‘So, yes, I do want to get married—just not to you, Miss Hajjar.’
Her face went even paler before flooding with colour and he felt like an ass.
‘I suppose it doesn’t matter to you because you can have a hundred wives if you choose.’
‘I admit that I have great stamina in the bedroom,’ he drawled. ‘But even I would struggle with a hundred women. But, regardless, that law is about to be repealed.’
Farah’s eyes climbed her forehead. ‘It is?’
‘Yes. It’s time Bakaan entered the twenty-first century and my brother and I intend to see that happen. By the look on your face, you don’t agree.’