‘She’s agreed to it all?’
He ran a hand across his brow. ‘She isn’t being as obliging as I’d hoped.’
Nate chuckled. ‘Yeah, I saw the footage outside the store. By the way, how did you catch her in the first place?’
‘My rooms. She climbed the ivy and broke in via the balcony.’
Nate whistled. ‘That’s a ballsy move. And you expect a girl like that to meekly trot after you, pretending she’s in love?’
She hadn’t been so averse to him in the car.
The roses caught his eye. His mother wanted a great romance for him. Most decidedly he didn’t. It would get in the way. But did that mean there couldn’t be passion? He wondered if the Qaydari Princess would be as thrillingly responsive as Lily had. He pushed that thought aside. That wasn’t important. Their union wasn’t about his pleasure.
‘Sabir,’ he called, ‘take these flowers away.’
‘I’ll put them on my desk, sir.’
‘You will not. You’ll stick them somewhere out in the corridor, where my mother can see them. The same with any more she tries to put in here. For whatever reason.’
‘Of course, sir. No flowers. Under any circumstance.’
Nate’s disembodied voice came again, sounding amused. ‘Having a tantrum over a few flowers? Like I said, mate, you’re out of your depth.’
‘Where the hellareyou?’ Khaled snapped, irritated by the other man’s enjoyment.
‘Doesn’t matter right now. I have friends doing some digging. I’ll get back to you. Keep Lily safe, won’t you? Until we know exactly what’s going on.’
‘Of course. Isn’t that why you sent her on that wild goose chase in the first place? So I’d bring her here?’
‘She’d have been determined to help in some way otherwise, so that’s what I hoped you do once I’d realised you thought I’d stolen from you. What the hell, mate? What was going on in your head?’
Khaled grimaced, feeling guilty for the first time. ‘In my defence, if someone has set you up, they’ve made a damn good job of it.’
‘If?’Nate shouted, and cut the connection.
Khaled tossed the phone aside. Why did the Marchants think they could ride roughshod over him?
He crossed to the window where Lily had been. His fingers drifted to the sore spot on his neck. If her claim to be experienced was true he had a low opinion of her lovers. Whoever they were, they’d obviously been selfish bastards, seeing to their own pleasure and ignoring hers. Because that had been the first time a man had given her an orgasm. He’d bet his life on it.
Was that why she’d looked so shocked? As if the world had just shifted beneath her feet and she had no idea how to deal with it?
He wanted to do it again—but next time he wanted them both naked and to be buried to the hilt inside her when she came apart.
He ran his palm down his face.
There would be no repeat. It would only complicate matters.
He put it from his mind.
He had more important things to worry about.
Back in her sitting room, Lily was feeling just as conflicted. Thinking she was either about to burst into tears or sprint from her room, run towards the beach and never stop. She just couldn’t quash the idea that something momentous had happened.
Which was ridiculous.
All she’d done was make out with a man in the back of a car. People did that sort of thing all the time.
Except in this case the man was a prince, the car a bulletproof limo, and it had felt like so much more than just making out. More as if she’d handed over an essential part of herself.