“No, I can’t.”
“Why not?” she pursued. She was relentless. Didn’t she ever quit?
He turned around, completely exasperated. “Because, Elaheh, I need a break from you!”
He hadn’t meant to say it. Rudeness wasn’t something he appreciated in others or himself.
She snapped her laptop closed and glared at him. “You, Xander, are rude and uncouth!”
“And you, Elaheh, are a trial to do business with!”
The silence was thick with anger. “A trial?” she said, between tight lips. She rose. “A trial?” she repeated, as she walked around the table towards him. “Do you want to know what a trial really is? It’s being forced to work with someone like you. You have no idea what it’s like to be a Bedouin, no idea of our culture, our life, and yet you return to your place of birth, take up the crown and pretend you are one of us. You’renotone of us, and nothing will ever make you one.”
There, she’d just done it—hit the bullseye with the point of her rapier sword. He felt the sharp thrust at his innermost pain distantly. He’d spent his whole life covering it with layer upon layer of numbness and indifference, topped with the visible layers of arrogance and lazy charm. It fooled everyone except his brother. And he couldn’t believe it hadn’t fooled Elaheh. What she’d done, she’d done by instinct alone. Killer instinct.
He narrowed his gaze, trying to reduce the amount she could see. She advanced on him as if scenting his weakness. She was close now, so close he could see the flecks of gold in her dark eyes—eyes that he’d first thought were like tiger’s eyes. That was before he knew that there were more ways than one in which she resembled a tiger, and none of them were attractive. He gritted his teeth, trying to keep control of his temper.
“Stop it, Elaheh, before one of us says something we’ll regret.”
“I’m not stopping anything!” Her eyes were aflame and she did, indeed, look unstoppable. “I’m being forced to deal with one such as you—a king by default only, a foreigner!”
“Believe me, Elaheh, I’ve a million things I’d prefer to be doing right now, and none of them would be with you. You are the worst, coldest, most charm-free woman it’s ever been my misfortune to meet! No wonder none of the other kings wanted to marry you!”
The formidable look melted away and for a few long, interminable seconds he saw a look of vulnerability and hurt which mingled with his own and made everything a whole lot worse.
He reached out and touched her arm, instinctively needing to make contact, to mend the hurt he’d inflicted. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
Her beautiful eyes now glittered like gold with tears that didn’t fall. She shook her head. “Youdidmean it. You’re too honestnotto speak the truth. That much, at least, I know about you.” She pulled her arm away from him, looking at it as if his touch had burned her.
He reached out again for her. He needed to take away her pain, he needed to bridge the gap that had widened like a treacherous ravine between them. But she tore her arm away and rubbed it. “Don’t touch me. I hate being touched.” This was getting worse.
She backed away from him as if she was frightened of what he might do. He held up his hands. “Elaheh, look, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, or frighten you. You must know that I’m not the hurting kind.”
She walked quickly to the door.
“Please, Elaheh, don’t let’s leave it like this. I apologize for my stupid comments. I didn’t mean them. It’s just you drive me crazy.”
She slowly turned around. “That’s not my problem.”
He panicked at the thought that she’d walk away and their talks would stall. “No, you’re right. But we can get through this.”
“Of course. Did you think I was leaving? Not before business has been completed. I, Xander, am a professional. I don’t put the personal before business. And neither should you.”
He watched her leave the room with a rustle of her robes, her scent lingering on the air. He took a deep breath of it. At first he’d thought it too strong, not as subtle as a French perfume, but the rich fragrance had filtered into his system somehow and brought a frisson of unwanted emotion with it. What kind he couldn’t have said, as he quickly stifled it.
He needed to take a leaf out of her book and push the personal back where it belonged. Nowhere.
Elaheh smiledat her maid ruefully as she entered her room, instantly allowing the brittle veneer with which she protected herself to melt away, as she accepted a cool drink. She shrugged off her robes, revealing the loose shift dress she wore beneath. Some people wore jeans and shorts under their robes, but she preferred a smart dress based on the traditional. It was white, as were all her clothes. She favored it.
But she didn’t take a sip from her glass. She was too wound up. What Xander said had hurt. She felt the rustle in her pocket and withdrew the folded-up letter. This time she read it properly and she noticed the threat at the end. But more than that, she was concerned about how it had reached her. No one, apart from her close circle of inner advisers knew where she was. She looked around at the maid, and the others who worked close by and suddenly felt distrustful of everyone. And, for the first time in her adult life, she felt scared.
Chapter 2
“So,” said Xander, smoothing the map of their two countries across the table which stood between them.
“So,” repeated Elaheh warily, as she looked at Xander, not the map. The map she knew inside out, Xander she didn’t. She needed to understand him if she was going to work with him.
He glanced up, his dark eyes impenetrable and cold. She almost flinched under their gaze but knew it wouldn’t be visible to him. She’d spent long years ensuring no one would know what was going on in her brain, or in her heart. It was her only defense against the world of men in which she lived.