Worse still, she had the distinct sensation that he knew it.
“It is more a proposition than a question,” he told her.
And Anya did not need to let that word kick around inside her, leaving trails of dangerous sparks behind. But she didn’t do a thing to stop it. “Do you often proposition your former captives?”
“Not quite like this, Doctor.” He didn’t smile then, though she thought his eyes gleamed. And she felt the molten heat of it, the wild flame. She thought she saw stars again, but it was only Tarek, gazing back at her. “I want you to marry me.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“MARRYYOU?”HISsuspicious doctor echoed.
Notably not in tones of awe and gratitude, which Tarek would have expected as his due from any other woman not currently seeking asylum in the Canadian provinces.
But then, that somehow felt to Tarek like confirmation that this woman was the correct choice for this complicated moment in Alzalam’s history. And for him, because she was...different. A challenge, when women had always been an afterthought at best for him.
“It is an easy solution to a thorny problem.” He watched, fascinated, as a hint of color asserted itself on her fine cheeks. “I assume you acquainted yourself with the media coverage of your case before dinner.”
Her color deepened. “I did not.”
He lifted his brows. “Did you not? I find that surprising.”
She moved her shoulders, but it was less a straightening, or even a shrug. It was more...discomfort, he thought. And he found he liked the idea that she was not immune to him, to this. That he was not the only one wrestling with entirely too much sensation.
“I haven’t had access to the internet for a long time,” she said after a moment. “It seemed almost too much, really. I’m sure that will pass and I’ll find myself addicted to scrolling aimlessly again. Isn’t everyone?”
Tarek did not allow himself the weakness of addiction. But he did not say this here, now. He liked, perhaps too much, that she had not raced off to look herself up. That the stories others told about her—and about him—had not been her first priority.
That she was in no hurry to resume her old life could only support his proposition, surely.
He should not have let that notion work in him like heat. “I assume your ambassador and his men shared with you that you have become something of a cause célèbre.”
Anya didn’t meet his gaze. And though he hadn’t known her long at all, it was clear that looking away was not usual for this woman. She was all about her directness. She was forthright and pointed. A scalpel, not a soft veil.
That, too, was its own heat inside him.
“I don’t exactly know how to process the notion that anyone knows who I am,” she said after a moment. “I know some people enjoy being talked about like that, but I’m not one of them.”
“Allow me to recap,” Tarek offered, sitting back in his chair so he would not indulge himself and touch her. Though he marveled at how much he wished to do so. “Because I did spend the evening catching up on the sad tale of the American doctor we so cruelly imprisoned here while handling a small, inconsequential revolution. After she illegally crossed our border.”
Her gaze snapped to his then, and Tarek wondered why it was he preferred her temper when he would not have tolerated it from anyone else.
“Careful,” she said softly. “The mocking tone doesn’t help your case.”
“Forgive me. It is only that looking at you, it is hard to imagine that you suffered at all.” She looked too ripe. She glowed. She was...You must remain calm,he ordered himself, when he could not recall the last time he was not calm. Supernaturally calm, his brother had once claimed. It was only now that Tarek understood that had been a warning he should have heeded. “I know, of course, that is not the case.”
“You’re always welcome to lock yourself away for eight months and see how you enjoy the experience.” Her smile was sharp. “I wonder how you’d look at the end of it.”
He felt his lips curve despite himself. “Touché. Consider me adequately chastened.”
Her smiled lost its sharpness. “You were telling me my story.”
“Indeed. The fact is, while there was certainly interest in all the doctors disappearing that night, when the male doctors were returned but you were not, it created...consternation.”
She looked amused. “Consternation?”
“Concern,” he amended. “The news reports have been increasingly more frantic as time has gone on.”
“I’m surprised the ambassador didn’t insist upon seeing me sooner, then.” Her gaze darkened. “Or at all.”