“Apparently, exceedingly.”
She stomped her foot and stared up at the ceiling, willing the tears that were burning at her eyes to disappear.
“May I at least speak to a lawyer?”
“I’ll think about it.”
She made a chocking sound and turned to face him. “This is a nightmare.”
“Yes.” His dark eyes swept over her, his expression impossible to read. “It does not have to be, though.”
Hope flared inside of her, then disappeared again. “What do you mean?”
“I am prepared to come to an agreement with my security chief Kalil that might spare your friend from a life in prison.”
She thought of Jack and shook her head slowly. “Right now, I’m not sure if he deserves that, but what’s your suggestion?” Her mother popped into her mind and she again shut her eyes, perhaps in an attempt to stave off the reality of the disaster she was experiencing.
Tamir didn’t visibly react, but inside, something seemed to shift. Some kind of desire or need. He couldn’t explain his feelings, but they were definitely sending strange messages throughout his body.
“I will trade you. For him.”
She wasn’t sure she’d heard him properly. Or that she even understood. “What?”
“Come to Talidar, with me. I will… urge my security chief to forget about this incident.” His meaning was clear. She would be going to Talidar as his mistress. She would be completely in his control.
“Are you kidding me?” She looked around for something to hurl and found a vase. She picked it up, and would have sent it careening towards him, except that Tamir was too quick. He ripped his hand through the air and gripped her wrist, jerking her against his body.
“Destroying another piece of Talidarian art will not help your case.”
She bit down on her lip and then properly observed the vase. She cringed. She had been about to destroy a piece of pottery that was hundreds of years old. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“What for? The violence? The lying? The destruction you were about to wreak?”
She sobbed. “I can’t do what you’re asking. I can’t. I don’t think I can ever look at you again.” She sobbed louder. “When I think of what you believe me capable of, my heart breaks.”
“Don’t.” He expelled harshly. He removed the vase, but kept hold of her wrist. He marched her backwards, the few steps it took for her body to be pressed against the wall. With her hand behind his back, she was his prisoner. “Do not talk about your heart, as though it plays any part in this. And do not play the innocent victim either.”
Her cries were soft sounds in the silence of his room. He lowered his mouth to hers, plundering it, ignoring the hot tears that were running down her face and mingling with their lips. He felt her surrender instantly. The moment when she switched from defiant to desperate. When her hand went limp and then began to claw at his back.
He flicked the robe open, exposing her gorgeous naked body to his touch. He lowered his pants and entered her swiftly, without any preparation, but she parted her legs and welcomed him gratefully, wrapping her arms around his neck as he drove into her and pushed them both to the point of wild release again.
Afterward, he stepped away from her body. But their union had formed an unshakable plan in his mind. An idea that seemed almost gifted from the heavens, for its perfection. “I will make arrangements. We’ll leave within an hour.”
“Tamir, please.” She whispered, shaking, and pressing herself against the wall for support. “My mother…”
“I will arrange for her needs.”
“I’m her needs,” she rebuffed quickly. “I’m her daughter. I love her. Please.”
“Something you should have considered more carefully before setting out to steal something of such value from the Sultan of Talidar.”
She had done no such thing, but she knew Tamir would never believe her.
“You won’t forgive yourself if you go through with this crazy plan. You’ll come to regret it.”
“You are wrong,” he said silently, his kernel of an idea strengthening into a fully formed prospect that would not be ignored. “And this is not a crazy plan. It’s your only opportunity to save yourself, and Jack, from the consequences of your crime.”
Her eyes glowed with hatred.