Only, again...he’d told her she wasn’t leaving him. And he’d said it in that ruthless way that he usually reserved for business. He’d meant it.
Could it really simply be about sex for him?
The pictures said otherwise, because if they showed Jenna’s love, they were equally revealing about an amount of emotion coming from Dima that did not jibe with their relationship being nothing more than friendship and sex.
He’d been adamant when he said they were lovers, and she couldn’t help wondering...hoping...that meant they were two people in love as well as sexual partners.
The only way to find out the truth would be to talk to him. One thing Jenna knew. She wasn’t walking away from this thing with Dima without having a real conversation about real feelings.
She found him sitting sideways on a lounger by the pool, his head bent, his focus on the empty, sparkling water, a whiskey in his hand.
It was a Dima as she had never seen him. His tie was askew, the top button undone on his shirt. His jacket had been discarded entirely, and his hair looked like he’d been in a windstorm. Or, you know, running his fingers through it and tugging at it in agitation.
So not like Dima.
“I’d like the originals.” She stopped beside him, letting her knee bump his leg. “Do you think we could get them?”
He looked up, his expression grim. “They’re already online. Even I can’t put that genie back in the box.”
Suddenly far more sure of herself than she had been in the bedroom, Jenna smiled. “Even you?”
His bleak expression didn’t lighten.
Jenna shook her head. “Have a look at those pictures, Dima.”
“I have looked.”
“Then you know they answer a question I’ve been asking myself since we got to Abu Dhabi.”
“What question?”
“Set yourself to rights and I’ll tell you over dinner.”
“We were to go to the Grand Mosque first.”
“Then let’s go to the Grand Mosque,” she agreed easily.
“That’s why you were looking for your scarf.”
“Yes. It would not be appropriate to enter the mosque without a head covering.”
He stood up, but arrogant, autocratic Dima was gone. Her prince looked like he didn’t know what to do with himself.
Jenna stepped right up into his space and leaned up to kiss the underside of his jaw. “Go take a shower. You’ll feel better for it.”
“Join me.”
“If I do, we won’t leave the condo, and I have plans for tonight.”
“I did too. Have plans for tonight.”
“Well, then...” She indicated the bathroom with a tilt of her chin.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
JENNAFINISHEDREADINGthe article while Dima was in the shower.
The sheer amount of lies and speculation might have staggered her if she hadn’t been Nataliya’s BFF.