‘Tell me about what happened when you were in England, when you were at the boarding school.’ He watched her face pale, but she lifted her chin and looked him in the eye.
It had been those rumours of her time at the English school which had clouded his judgement on their wedding day, made him doubt his bride’s innocence even before her little dance. Now he wondered if they had forced him to think things that might not have been true, despite the fact that he’d wanted to disregard them, but the way she’d acted had made him question his judgement.
‘There is nothing to tell; not when you have already condemned me.’ Her retort flew at him so fast that the pain of each word hit him hard in the chest.
‘So it is not true?’ He stepped closer, her stance and angry glare asserting that it wasn’t, and he regretted having listened to palace gossip.
‘No, for what it’s worth. I was in the hotel room, not to meet with a man but to save a friend’s reputation. She was the one meeting her lover, not me.’ She maintained her frosty expression.
‘That’s it?’ Her simple words didn’t come anywhere near the scandal that had whispered its way into his palace within hours of their wedding.
‘A friend had taken a lover, a married man, and she’d been meeting him regularly.’ Amber paused to look up at him and he kept his expression impassive, hoping his silence would encourage her to continue. ‘One day her lover asked her to bring a friend, saying we would all go out.’
‘You went, as the friend.’ It was slowly beginning to make sense. She’d been set up, sold to the highest bidder for her story.
She swallowed, lowered her eyes briefly then looked back up at him. ‘This other man was a reporter on the hunt for the scandalous story that would make his career. I didn’t know this and foolishly told him things I shouldn’t have. My friend and I returned to school, the same way we got out, through a back window. The next day I got the letter.’
‘How did you deal with that?’ Kazim couldn’t recall anything in the papers and surely his advisers would have mentioned the scandal during their marriage negotiations.
‘My mother can be very formidable when necessary.’ Amber smiled a light smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and it touched him that she’d shared it with him. If only he hadn’t heard the rumour on their wedding night. His pulse leapt at the thought.
‘Then I believe you.’ He stepped closer, not sure if he really believed she was completely innocent, but right now he wanted to and he needed her to trust him. He needed the world to see a couple reunited and happy about it.
* * *
Amber looked into the increasingly dark depths of Kazim’s eyes and her stomach tightened. ‘What exactly do you want, Kazim?’ she whispered so softly she wondered if she’d actually spoken.
‘What I want? Right at this minute?’ His voice deepened and became husky as he stepped closer to her. ‘I want you.’
She dropped her chin and looked down, not trusting herself. Surely she’d misread the passion that swirled in his eyes. From what he’d said about the rumours, he’d thought she was far from a virgin on their wedding night. Had that been what had made him reject her so harshly?
Should she tell him that she’d made only one mistake? Throwing herself at him. Should she let him know the only man’s lips to have touched hers since their wedding night had been his? She pressed her fingers to her lips, remembering his kiss just a short while ago.
‘You didn’t want me on our wedding night.’ She tried to move past him but he reached out and took hold of her arm, keeping her in front of him, leaving her no option but to look up into his face.
‘I didn’t want to be married. Marriage was a duty. That was all I ever saw it as.’ He kept his voice calm. ‘You weren’t what I was expecting. I was angry—at you and my fate.’
She gazed up at him, all the pain she’d felt that night now drowning her. She swallowed hard then took a deep breath. ‘I made one mistake, Kazim, one moment of madness, and because of that you punished me, sending me away, publicly humiliating me and my family. My father still hasn’t forgiven me for it.’
‘None of that matters now,’ he said as he brushed her hair back from her face, a gesture so full of tenderness that her breath caught in her throat. Could she really believe him? Her heart wanted to, but in her head a voice screamed caution.
She covered his hand with hers, stilled the caress that was almost loving. Just that one touch was enough to set light to her body, to ignite the slumbering heat into a wave of red-hot fire. If she didn’t step away from him, break the contact, she would be engulfed and then she would want more. But wanting more from a man who had rejected her was insane.
‘It matters to me, Kazim.’ She pulled back from him and his hand dropped to her shoulder, preventing her from moving any further away. ‘I can’t go back to Barazbin. I can’t be your wife, your princess, not when that one silly moment will always be between us, always causing you to look at me with disgust.’
‘I don’t want it to be that way, Amber.’ His voice had deepened and become husky once more, raw emotion in every word. ‘The truth is I want you.’
Her heart thumped loudly in her chest, an echoing pulse pumping around her body. He wanted her. It was as if, piece by piece, he was dismantling the wall of protection she’d erected around herself.
She shook her head and moved away from him, away from the temptation of his touch, his smile and his kiss. She wanted him too, so much that she could throw herself into his arms and plead for him to make her his, but such actions had caused all the pain, all the heartache she’d been living with for almost a year.
This time she would be strong, she would resist the powerful urge to be his, to allow his touch to claim her or his kisses to force her to surrender. This time she would be the innocent she was.
‘No, Kazim.’ She forced the words out, firmness injected into them as she tried to buy herself time so that she could gather up her wayward emotions once and for all. ‘I need to know you have kept your side of the deal.’
He undid his tie, pulling it down until it hung loosely, and then opened the top button of his shirt, revealing olive skin, dusted with hair. She knew she shouldn’t look but she couldn’t help herself and when she moved her gaze back to his face it was to see a satisfied smile playing sexily at the corners of his mouth.
‘I’m not sure you are in a position to demand terms, Amber.’ His eyes sparked with mischief, tying her stomach in knots.
She laughed softly, hardly able to believe the throaty sound came from her. ‘You were the one to seek me out, Kazim, so surely that makes you the one who shouldn’t be making demands.’
‘Is it not you who seeks reassurance that you will get what you want?’ He stepped closer to her again and she moved backwards, her legs meeting the sofa, leaving her no option but to sit down.
The softness cushioned her as she sat but instantly she wished she hadn’t. He seemed so much more powerful as he towered over her. She watched, helpless to drag her eyes away, as he took off his jacket, tossing it onto a chair before sitting next to her, his arm along the back of sofa behind her head, bringing him unbearably close. So close she could smell his aftershave, the spicy scent unable to completely cover the essence of pure male.
He came even closer and she knew he wanted to kiss her, just as she knew to allow it would be her undoing. She looked into his eyes, saw the molten bronze swirling in their depths, and knew she was lost.
His hand touched her face, caressed her cheek then pushed her hair behind her ear. The warmth of his touch as he looked down at her melted