When he’d met Rosanna, for instance, their conversation had been easy and entertaining and felt as natural as water bubbling from a mountain spring.
Rosanna’s frown didn’t shift. ‘So conversation is important. You want someone who talks easily and is interested in a lot of subjects.’
Put like that it sounded very basic, but that was precisely what he wanted. ‘That’s right.’
‘So, then there’s Natalya.’
‘No sexual spark.’
Rosanna’s eyebrows shot sky-high. ‘Sorry?’
‘She’s a nice woman, I’ll give you that. She’s friendly and intelligent and not at all fazed by life at court, but I wasn’t attracted to her.’
‘But she’s a model. She’s the face of a multi-million-dollar cosmetics campaign!’
Salim shrugged. ‘She’s beautiful. But not for me.’
For some reason her ice-blonde beauty didn’t move him. He’d spent several hours with her and felt not the least stirring of sexual awareness.
Whereas, he realised, he just had to be in the same room with Rosanna MacIain for his libido to throb into life. He set his jaw, determined to get this over. ‘Who’s next?’
They dealt with several more on her list. Salim’s answers grew shorter and Rosanna’s mouth tighter as she noted his objections. Everything from shyness to an annoying, high-pitched giggle, to one who’d tried to seduce him at their first meeting and whom he labelled too pushy.
Rosanna drew a slow breath and made yet another note. She looked grimmer than ever.
‘So, you want a woman who’s aristocratic, preferably royal, or used to mixing in such circles. She must be beautiful, but in a way you can’t specifically describe. She has to be confident but not too confident. Able to satisfy you sexually but not be sexually predatory. You’d like a competent, career woman but not so focused she isn’t interested in other things. She needs to be able to talk with anyone, but not presume to put words into their mouth. Someone who’s at home in a formal setting but not just there. She must have a sense of humour and warmth but not an annoying laugh or any sort of verbal tic. Plus she has to like Dhalkur, be an accomplished linguist with not a whiff of scandal about her and be eager to have children.’
Salim nodded. ‘Excellent. You’ve described her well.’
As he watched, Rosanna pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. She drew a deep breath then busied herself making another note. But she didn’t raise her eyes to his.
‘Right, what about Maryam, the last woman you met? She meets a lot of those criteria.’
Salim was already shaking his head. ‘On paper she seems right, but in reality...’ He paused, remembering those big doe eyes looking up at him. ‘She deferred to me all the time. Even when I asked her a straightforward question she was reluctant to commit herself in case it wasn’t the answer I wanted.’
‘With respect, Your Majesty, that’s not surprising.’ He didn’t miss the snap in Rosanna’s voice, as if she held her temper by a thread. ‘You can be quite daunting.’
‘I told you to dispense with my title in private.’ The way she said it, as if it tasted sour on her tongue, irked him. Or maybe it was the judgemental way her mouth flattened as he gave his completely legitimate reasons for each rejection. ‘As for yourwith respect, that’s what you say when you’re feeling not at all respectful.’
She met his eyes, her stare fulminating. Yet she retained her composure and said nothing. Salim realised he was trying to crack the barrier she’d erected around herself. She challenged him yet pulled back at the final moment.
That was a good thing. It was safer that way, for both of them. Yet it frustrated him.
He wanted more from her.
‘If you feel you’re not up to the job...’
‘Are you sure there reallyisa job?’ She set aside her laptop and stared up at him, her gaze probing.
He frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Your requirements keep changing and expanding. I bring you one of the world’s most beautiful women and you claim you don’t find her attractive.’
‘I didn’t say that. She is attractive. I just don’twanther.’
Because, infuriatingly, his body and mind were fixated on Rosanna MacIain. The knowledge made him grit his teeth in annoyance. He was lord of all he surveyed and the one thing he wanted was the one thing he shouldn’t want. Because she was his guest, his employee...
And the source of more frustration than he’d ever felt in his life. When he was with her he didn’t feel like a king or her employer. He felt like a man lost in the desert, thirsting for a single taste of pure, lifegiving water.