Gambling With the Crown Read online

  “Grazie,” Kadir said. “As always, you have pleased me greatly.”

  A sharp feeling sliced into her then. She remembered now why Guido’s name was familiar to her. She’d been so distracted by everything today that she hadn’t dwelled too much on why. But she had seen his name on bills. For shoes, clothing, jewels, handbags and silk scarves.

  Of course she had. She wanted to put her hand to her temple and rub, but she didn’t. What did she care if Kadir was buying her clothing at the same place he had bought things for his lovers?

  Kadir might be a player of the worst sort, but one of the things he had never done was make Emily buy gifts for his ladies. He took care of that himself—and now she knew how. He picked up the phone and called Guido.

  Emily smiled and thanked Guido and his staff personally, and then Kadir ushered her out the door and into the waiting limousine while a man in a dark suit and headset stood beside the car door, looking quietly lethal.

  Once they were inside, the bodyguards seated in this car and the one following, the driver pulled into traffic and began the return trip to the airport.

  Emily fixed her gaze on the passing city and tried not to look at Kadir. But she knew he was looking at her. In fact, he hadn’t stopped since they’d gotten into the car. Her skin prickled with awareness that she tried to squash down again.

  She did not need to be aware of Kadir. Not like that.

  Finally, when her nerves were stretched to the breaking point, she whipped her gaze to his. “Is something wrong? Am I not being unsuitable enough for you?”

  Kadir looked all dark and handsome and broody in his corner. He somehow managed to appear supremely relaxed and completely tense all at once. The tension was in his eyes rather than in his body.

  “You are perfectly unsuitable. I am quite pleased thus far.”

  She ran her fingers over the fabric of her dress and stomped on the tendril of panic unwinding in her belly. “Well, that’s a relief.”

  She couldn’t help the bite of temper in her voice. Or the sarcasm.

  “You have changed, Emily.”

  “You aren’t used to seeing me with my hair down.” She waved a hand over her body. “Or dressed like this.”

  “That is not what I’m talking about.”

  She looked at him, her pulse thrumming, her ears growing warm. “Isn’t it?”

  He shook his head slowly. “Not at all.” His eyes narrowed. “I am not quite accustomed to this side of you. The side that—how do you say it?—sasses me.”

  She sniffed. “You wanted a wife, not an employee. A wife would not, I hope, take your pronouncements as law. She would state her opinions, even were they contrary to yours.”

  “And you have done a fine job of this. Even when there were no witnesses and therefore no need.”

  “No need? Kadir, you’d mow a girl down if she didn’t let you know she wasn’t going to take it.”

  One eyebrow lifted imperiously. “Surely I am not so callous as all that.”

  Emily leaned back on the seat and tried to appear casual. Was he really that clueless about his tendencies to overwhelm?

  “You’re intense, Kadir. You take over a room when you walk into it. You pull people to you, and you get what you want from them. I’ve seen it again and again. And the women you seduce? They don’t stand a chance.”

  “Are you certain? You are speaking from observation, not experience.”

  Her mouth went dry. She licked her lips nervously. It was as if he were offering to show her, though he had not said any such thing. “I don’t see how that changes anything.”

  His gaze was hooded and her heart performed a slow thump-thump-thump.

  “Perhaps it does. Perhaps, if I were to seduce you, you would get what you want, Emily. Perhaps it would be a mutually beneficial arrangement instead of the one-sided venture you envision it to be.”

  Heat blossomed in her belly, slid into her bones, turned her into rubber. He wasn’t actually offering, she told herself. He was simply trying to control her. Still, she couldn’t move without wobbling. She didn’t dare to move.

  “And yet we will never know.” She had to force the words out, but she was proud they didn’t quaver. “Because that is not part of our deal.”

  “Yet deals can be amended.”

  Emily swallowed. The air in the car was suddenly thick and hot, and she wanted desperately to bend over and stick her face right in the air-conditioning vent. To pull some cold air into her lungs while she tried to find her equilibrium again.

  She knew how to handle herself with Prince Kadir al-Hassan, her boss. She had no real clue how to deal with Kadir the man. With him, she was completely out of her element. It was as though she’d been riding a pony tied to a lead line and now someone had stuck her on top of a racehorse and told her she was about to ride in the Kentucky Derby.

  The only defense she had was the truth. “If you want me to be at my best, you really need to stop. We aren’t at war, Kadir. There doesn’t need to be a victor.”

  He snorted. “And what I am trying to tell you is that you have a rather warped idea about seduction. It’s not a win-or-lose game.”

  Yet it was for her. At least where he was concerned. Because if she ever crossed that line, if she ever slept with him, then her career at Hassan Construction was over. She couldn’t slip back into her role as his PA if that happened. Not only that, but sleeping with him would make her the sort of woman she was determined not to be. Giving in to the sensual side of her nature with a man like Kadir? Utterly destructive.

  Emily drew in a breath, tried to instill herself with calm energy rather than the chaotic emotions whipping through her. And then she figured out what was happening between them. The answer popped into her head with such clarity that she was surprised she hadn’t realized it before.

  Kadir wasn’t serious. He was prodding her because she’d argued with him. He was taking the conversation as far as he could with the goal of shutting down her protests. She’d seen him do it in negotiations a hundred times. She’d seen him take the most unwilling landowner and turn them into an enthusiastic seller by the end of the day.

  He conquered people. And he was intent on conquering her, simply to prove he could. Not with sex or seduction, but with words.

  Relieved, Emily smiled at him. “Whatever you say.”

  His gray eyes glittered hot as he seemed to go very still. “Is that an invitation, Emily?”

  “Not at all. It’s an admission you’re right. That I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about. I’ve misjudged you, and I apologize. I’m sure the women you seduce are perfectly, ecstatically happy right up until the moment you dump them. So can we please talk about something else now?”

  “But I find this conversation so fascinating.”

  “Of course you do. It’s about you.” She studied her newly manicured nails—that was something she had to get used to, since she kept them neat and trimmed and never wore polish. “You are, of course, fascinating and fabulous. But I give in, you are correct in everything you say, and now we can move on.”

  He leaned toward her then, and it took everything she had not to press herself into the door in an effort to keep distance between them.

  “Sassing me isn’t working, Emily. If anything, it’s having the opposite effect of what you want.”

  Emily tried to laugh. It didn’t come out sounding very much like a laugh, but she decided to pretend it was anyway. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean. I’m not aiming for any particular effect. I just refuse to argue with you another moment.”

  His gaze slid over her until she tingled as if he’d actually touched her. “Do I need to spell it out for you, habibti? Or would you like a demonstration?”

  Emily swallowed. “It’s all fun and games with you, isn’t it?”

  He actually looked offended. “You think this is a game?”

  Her chest was tight. But that’s because Kadir suddenly seemed bigger than life in the small space
of the limo. It was like walking into a closet and finding a tiger on a very loose chain.

  And this tiger was about to break the chain and pounce.

  “What else could it be?” She had to force her voice to work, yet she still sounded wheezy, as if she’d sucked in too much air.

  Dangerous. The word whispered through the air around her, caressed her skin, slipped between her ribs and into her chest to grip her heart. Kadir was very dangerous, and not in that usual impersonal way he was when she’d observed him taking down an opponent. This was deeply personal and very intense.

  And it was all directed at her. Her tongue grew thick and her breath short.

  He reached over and threaded his hand into the hair at her nape, very deliberately, and pulled her gently toward him. “What else indeed?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “WE HAVE A deal!” Her voice came out as a squeak and Kadir stopped, his gray eyes darkening as he stared down at her. They were inches apart now, and she could feel the heat rolling from his body, the whisper of his breath across her lips.

  Her heart slammed against her ribs and she started to see spots.

  But Kadir let her go abruptly and she wilted back against the seat, sucking in a deep breath and trying not to shake. When she glanced over at him, he was looking out the window. Oddly, a wave of regret buffeted her.

  The tension in his shoulders was evident and she found herself wanting to reach out and soothe him. Which was completely contrary to the way she’d just reacted. What was the matter with her? Why was she so damn hot and cold around him?

  Because he was Kadir, that’s why. Because she’d watched him seduce women for the past four years. She knew he was good at it—and she knew she couldn’t be one of those women. She was afraid she would like it too much. She was afraid of losing control.

  “Yes,” he said, not turning around, his voice utterly cool. “We have a deal. And I will honor it.”

  She didn’t know how he managed it, but he suddenly made her feel as if she’d wronged him. Emily put a hand to her head. Everything was wrong. Backward. Upside-down. Why’d Lenore have to be so spectacularly stupid so quickly? If not for that little scene yesterday morning, Emily would be riding along in the other car while Kadir and his new wife sat in this one. It wouldn’t be her playing this role and trying so desperately not to get lost in it, but Lenore Bradford, a woman who’d already been sleeping with Kadir and wouldn’t act like a timid virgin whenever he made the slightest motion toward her.

  And yet the thought of Lenore in Kadir’s arms made Emily’s stomach twist in a way it had not only yesterday. She didn’t like Lenore, certainly. But she didn’t care who Kadir slept with. She never had.

  Really?

  Emily gritted her teeth together. She did not care. Everything was backward and confusing, that’s all. She did not want him, even though he seemed to have the ability to make her heart pump and her body ache in spite of her belief otherwise.

  It was sensual deprivation, nothing more. She hadn’t had sex in so long she’d forgotten what it was like.

  Emily stared out her window for the remainder of the trip. Soon they were boarding Kadir’s jet. It would take roughly six hours to reach Kyr, and Emily did not know what she was going to do with herself for the duration of the journey.

  Always in the past, she had worked on something for Kadir. And then she ate and slept and worked some more, depending on the length of the flight. This time, she followed Kadir up the jet bridge and onto the plane with nothing more than a chic handbag and a magazine she’d picked up on their trip through the airport.

  She felt…useless. Like a decoration instead of a professional career woman. She hated that feeling so much. It was contrary to everything she’d worked so hard for.

  She also felt seriously out of place. Kadir’s flight attendants—two women on this particular trip—stared at her with jaws hanging open when she walked into the cabin. She’d spent time chatting with them on previous trips, and though they’d treated her with a strange deference from Paris to Milan, this time they openly stared.

  Emily felt the heat of a blush as she took her seat beside Kadir. It had been so long since she’d been the center of anyone’s attention that it felt odd to be there now. She buckled herself in and closed her eyes. Beside her, she was acutely aware of Kadir as he settled in. The seats were big and roomy, with plenty of space, but she still felt as if she was too close to him. She could feel his heat, smell his scent—French-milled soap and man, no cologne for Kadir—and nothing she did could make it go away.

  They were soon airborne, and one of the flight attendants came to serve drinks. Emily asked for mineral water, like always, and stared at the pages of the magazine without really seeing them.

  “You haven’t turned a page in twenty minutes.”

  She looked up, found Kadir watching her with those too-knowing eyes. “I’m thinking.”

  “I can imagine.” He didn’t sound especially friendly, but he didn’t sound angry either. A good sign.

  “I don’t know what to expect in Kyr. You haven’t told me anything.”

  “I don’t know that anything I say can prepare you, Emily. I am a prince, and Kyr is my country. It’s not the same as when we travel and I meet with clients. Outside of Kyr, I am a wealthy man with a title. In Kyr, I am royalty, with all the pomp that entails. Does this make sense to you?”

  “I think so. You’re telling me that the deference you receive outside Kyr is nothing like what you will experience once there.”

  A ghost of a smile crossed his mouth. Sensual mouth, kissable mouth. Emily tightened her grip on the water. She was not going to think of Kadir’s mouth.

  “I think you mean we, Emily. You are my princess.”

  “I’m beginning to think you’ve dragged me into something I’m not prepared for.”

  He inclined his head only slightly. “Perhaps I have. But I have no doubt you can handle it, my love.”

  She started to protest, to tell him not to say such things to her, but one of the attendants drifted by and she knew he’d used the endearment for her benefit.

  She waited until the woman was out of earshot. “I think I need a raise. After, I mean.”

  “Maybe you do. But let us get through this first. There is still the chance we will fail, and then I will be the king of Kyr.”

  And she would be out of a job.

  He looked at her hard and her pulse thumped. “We have to sell this, Emily. I need you to exude sexiness, and I need you to be passionate for me.”

  She wanted to fold her arms and glare at him. She settled for lifting her chin. “I’ll do the best I can with what I have.”

  He sighed. “I did not mean to suggest you had to work at being sexy. You clearly do not—which interests me very much, by the way. Why did you hide this side of yourself from me?”

  “I wasn’t hiding anything. You’re just blind unless a woman puts on a tight dress and makeup.”

  His eyes glittered. “Perhaps I am,” he said without apology. “And now that you’ve got sexy down, I need you to be passionate. For me. Can you do that, Emily?”

  Emily felt a rush of heat beneath her skin. “I said I’d try. I assume you don’t want me to crawl beneath the table at dinner and minister to your needs?”

  He looked shocked. And then he looked intense. She’d thrown it out there because she was irritated, but she now realized it had been the wrong thing to say. It put an image in her head—and most certainly in his—that was incredibly arousing.

  “Perhaps you can save that for when we are alone.” His voice was a low growl that stroked over her skin.

  She waved a hand breezily, though her body sizzled with fresh heat. “I doubt that, but thank you for clearing it up. No public sex then.”

  “Another time.”

  He was silent for a long moment but she didn’t dare to look at him. She didn’t want to see what was going on in those eyes.

  “There is something else you nee
d to know,” he said. “There will be those who are not happy I’ve married you, which was of course the goal. But do not be surprised if you are treated less than kindly by some.”

  Her stomach hollowed. “I should have asked for more money.”

  “Perhaps you should have. But it is too late now. We have a deal, remember?”

  *

  It was night when they arrived in Kyr, but two things struck Emily at once. First, when Kadir emerged from the back of the plane, where he’d gone shortly before they landed, he was wearing the white desert robes of his people and the dark headdress with the golden coils holding it in place. His face was all that was visible in the frame of the headdress, but it had a startling effect on her.

  Emily swallowed, her mouth utterly dry. She had never seen Kadir in desert garb. His home base for the last four years had been Chicago, and they’d traveled the globe building his skyscrapers. But they’d never come to Kyr. Indeed, when she thought back on it, the few times he’d come to the Middle East at all had been during her time off. Always a quick trip, never anything he needed her for.

  Oh, she’d seen his picture in native clothing before, certainly. She’d recognized that beautiful, aristocratic face and his piercing eyes scrutinizing her from the headdress.

  But the real thing was a completely different experience. Kadir was tall and commanding and regal—and the desert robes made him seem even more so.

  She felt underdressed and puny next to him. Panic set in. This was not going to work. No one in his or her right mind would believe Kadir had chosen her for his wife—plain Emily Bryant who cleaned up nicely but was nothing compared to the beautiful women he usually dated.

  The second thing that struck her—aside from the heat of the night air—was the delegation waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Men garbed in desert robes, waiting as a group. She was accustomed to walking out of airports, discreetly following Kadir, while cameras flashed and popped into the air.

  There were no cameras here. Only hard desert nomads. Emily chided herself the instant she thought it. Kyr had industry, and people did not live in tents on the edge of the harshest deserts. Some did, certainly, but most people had houses and apartments in the major cities. These were their traditional robes, but that did not make them nomads.