‘You love it when I touch you.’ His look told her he knew her weakness and intended to make the most of it. He slid an arm around her bare back and secured her tightly.
The air around them shimmered with tension, with sparks of electricity, with combustible emotional energy.
‘No!’ She couldn’t afford to give in now—not when she’d gathered the strength to do what she must.
But her resistance had no effect. He slipped his other hand over her breast, moulding it in a possessive grasp that sent desire shuddering through her.
How was she meant to withstand him when she couldn’t fight her own weakness?
‘Please, Tahir. No.’ She squeezed her eyes shut and her head lolled as she arched instinctively in his hold, pressing wantonly for more.
‘Yes, Annalisa. You will be mine. Whatever I have to do. Whatever it takes.’ He dragged in a rough breath. ‘I gave you up once before. At the oasis I deliberately baited and insulted you so you’d turn away and not look back. I didn’t deserve you and I knew it, so for that day I became the sort of shallow bastard I knew you’d abhor.’
The urgency of his words, the deep hoarse timbre of his voice, mesmerised her.
‘I owe you apologies for that. You don’t know how it cut me to hurt you that day, when all I wanted was to drag you close and not release you.’ Searing blue eyes met hers. ‘But I can’t do it again. I can’t force myself to give you up. You can’t expect it of me.’
Was it true? Had his loutish behaviour been a ploy to scare her off? She could barely believe it. Yet it would explain the puzzling difference between his behaviour then and since. Could he have cared so much and behaved so foolishly?
Yet what did it change? Nothing.
She shook her head in mute desperation, knowing she had to escape before she succumbed to him again. But her body already betrayed her. With Tahir she lost the will for self-preservation. He even undermined her pride.
‘I can’t—’
‘You can, Annalisa. You will.’ He mouthed the words against her neck as he swept kisses over her throat.
‘For how long, Tahir?’ Anguish drew the words from her. ‘How long will you want me as your mistress? How long before the next woman takes your fancy?’
He froze, hands tightening on her. She felt the heavy thud of his heart through the thin fabric. Finally he raised his head and she met his curiously blank stare.
‘There will be no other woman.’ The words sounded like a vow. ‘I’ve never wanted a woman the way I want you. I never will want another woman.
How self-delusional could she get? She shook her head, trying to dislodge the illusion that he meant it.
‘So you say.’ She spat the words out. ‘Will you expect to keep me somewhere conveniently close and still come home to your royal wife?’
His head reared back as if struck. Dull colour mounted his high cheeks.
‘What are you talking about? You’ll be my wife.’
If she didn’t know better she’d believe the confusion on his face. Even now it was a struggle to accept the truth. Tahir had never lied to her before.
‘Don’t.’ She pushed fruitlessly against his broad chest. ‘Don’t pretend. I know you’ve cancelled the wedding. And I know why.’ She turned her head, unable to meet his piercing gaze any longer. ‘I know you can’t marry me. I’m not suitable.’ The word tasted bitter on her tongue.
All her life she’d been an outsider. Never more so than now, when she wasn’t deemed good enough to marry the man she loved.
Tahir swore, long and low and comprehensively.
‘Who told you that?’ His voice sliced the air like a cold steel blade, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. ‘Give me his name, Annalisa.’
She turned her head, shivering at the deadly intent she read in his taut features.
‘Who was it?’ His voice burred with barely veiled threat.
‘I heard it with my own ears, Tahir. You and Akmal. There’s no use pretending.’
He tugged her hard against him, arms encompassing her. ‘I wouldn’t have had you overhear that for anything.’
‘No. I’m sure.’ She tried to stand rigid within his embrace but it was impossible.
‘I thought you’d decided you couldn’t trust yourself and the baby to a man like me.’ The echo of pain in his voice drew her skin tighter. ‘That you hold my past against me.’
‘No!’ She was aghast he’d even think it. ‘This isn’t about trusting you as a father.’
Her throat closed as she realised how much she wanted him as a hands-on dad for their child.
‘This isn’t about you, Tahir. It’s about me. About the fact that I won’t make a suitable queen.’ She lifted her head. ‘And about the fact you don’t want to marry me. Now, please,’ she said, summoning the last of her pride, ‘don’t make this harder. Let me go.’ Her voice wobbled and she bit her lip hard, striving for control.