The Sultan's Reluctant Princess Read online

  Her eyes were still closed, so she didn’t see that his expression briefly softened. “What kind of tasks?”

  “Everything.” She compressed her lips. “The lady downstairs checks on her while I’m at work, but I never leave her for more than an odd night out. I can’t abandon her.”

  He forced himself to ignore her plea. “Isn’t that convenient, Olivia? A sick mother. As though that will get you out of the trouble you’re in.”

  Finally, she opened her eyes. They were unknowingly bleak. “There is nothing convenient about it, believe me.”

  “Believe you? I will never make that mistake again.”

  Her stomach churned. “I thought you were a decent person,” she muttered, spinning away from him. “How stupid am I?”

  “Apparently, exceedingly.”

  She stomped her foot and stared up at the ceiling, willing the tears that were burning at her eyes to disappear.

  “May I at least speak to a lawyer?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  She made a chocking sound and turned to face him. “This is a nightmare.”

  “Yes.” His dark eyes swept over her, his expression impossible to read. “It does not have to be, though.”

  Hope flared inside of her, then disappeared again. “What do you mean?”

  “I am prepared to come to an agreement with my security chief Kalil that might spare your friend from a life in prison.”

  She thought of Jack and shook her head slowly. “Right now, I’m not sure if he deserves that, but what’s your suggestion?” Her mother popped into her mind and she again shut her eyes, perhaps in an attempt to stave off the reality of the disaster she was experiencing.

  Tamir didn’t visibly react, but inside, something seemed to shift. Some kind of desire or need. He couldn’t explain his feelings, but they were definitely sending strange messages throughout his body.

  “I will trade you. For him.”

  She wasn’t sure she’d heard him properly. Or that she even understood. “What?”

  “Come to Talidar, with me. I will… urge my security chief to forget about this incident.” His meaning was clear. She would be going to Talidar as his mistress. She would be completely in his control.

  “Are you kidding me?” She looked around for something to hurl and found a vase. She picked it up, and would have sent it careening towards him, except that Tamir was too quick. He ripped his hand through the air and gripped her wrist, jerking her against his body.

  “Destroying another piece of Talidarian art will not help your case.”

  She bit down on her lip and then properly observed the vase. She cringed. She had been about to destroy a piece of pottery that was hundreds of years old. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “What for? The violence? The lying? The destruction you were about to wreak?”

  She sobbed. “I can’t do what you’re asking. I can’t. I don’t think I can ever look at you again.” She sobbed louder. “When I think of what you believe me capable of, my heart breaks.”

  “Don’t.” He expelled harshly. He removed the vase, but kept hold of her wrist. He marched her backwards, the few steps it took for her body to be pressed against the wall. With her hand behind his back, she was his prisoner. “Do not talk about your heart, as though it plays any part in this. And do not play the innocent victim either.”

  Her cries were soft sounds in the silence of his room. He lowered his mouth to hers, plundering it, ignoring the hot tears that were running down her face and mingling with their lips. He felt her surrender instantly. The moment when she switched from defiant to desperate. When her hand went limp and then began to claw at his back.

  He flicked the robe open, exposing her gorgeous naked body to his touch. He lowered his pants and entered her swiftly, without any preparation, but she parted her legs and welcomed him gratefully, wrapping her arms around his neck as he drove into her and pushed them both to the point of wild release again.

  Afterward, he stepped away from her body. But their union had formed an unshakable plan in his mind. An idea that seemed almost gifted from the heavens, for its perfection. “I will make arrangements. We’ll leave within an hour.”

  “Tamir, please.” She whispered, shaking, and pressing herself against the wall for support. “My mother…”

  “I will arrange for her needs.”

  “I’m her needs,” she rebuffed quickly. “I’m her daughter. I love her. Please.”

  “Something you should have considered more carefully before setting out to steal something of such value from the Sultan of Talidar.”

  She had done no such thing, but she knew Tamir would never believe her.

  “You won’t forgive yourself if you go through with this crazy plan. You’ll come to regret it.”

  “You are wrong,” he said silently, his kernel of an idea strengthening into a fully formed prospect that would not be ignored. “And this is not a crazy plan. It’s your only opportunity to save yourself, and Jack, from the consequences of your crime.”

  Her eyes glowed with hatred.

  “You forget, Olivia, that I know your objections are only for form. I have felt you fall apart in my arms. You will come to Talidar, and you will come to my bed whenever I wish it. And you will enjoy it.”

  She shook her head from side to side. “No.”

  He leaned forward, and flicked his tongue against the sensitive flesh of her neck. “I will be happy to demonstrate your body’s willingness at any time you need a reminder.”

  She trembled as pleasure assailed her. But still, she shook her head.

  “It is this or prison.”

  “Then I choose prison,” she said darkly. Proudly.

  “And what then of your mother?”

  “She’ll… I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”

  He moved away from her, his smile perfunctory. “You will certainly not. Any asset you own will be needed for your defence. You will be without money, and you will still end up in a Talidarian prison for the rest of your days. Jack likewise, and that’s only if I intervene to save him from the firing squad.”

  She swore, revulsion and despair making her body sag.

  “We’ll leave within an hour,” he repeated. And finally, Olivia felt the fight deflate her body. She stared at him moodily, her eyes enormous in her face.

  “Fine. But I want to see Jack first.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “What the hell were you thinking, Jack?”

  Jack looked around the staid white room with a grimace. His hands were bound on the tabletop, a cable tie forcing his wrists together. “I wasn’t thinking, obviously.”

  “You’re an idiot,” she muttered, scraping back the chair across from him and sitting down. She reached out and captured his hands in hers. “Seriously, Jack. A big one.”

  His smile was haunted. “I just wanted to see if I could do it. Eleni wasn’t watching. I thought I’d got away with it.”

  Olivia reclined with a sigh, and stared across at her friend. “In the Talidarian Embassy? Come on, Jack. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to realise there are cameras everywhere.”

  “Yeah, I guess in the heat of the moment I didn’t think it through.”

  Olivia compressed her lips. “This isn’t a joke.”

  “I know. But sometimes you just have to see the funny side.”

  “What funny side?” She demanded fiercely. “You’re subject to their laws. Your crime is enormous. Don’t you understand what you’ve done?”

  His face was pale, but his features were set like stone. “I guess I do now. I’m sorry, Liv. I didn’t mean to embarrass you like this.”

  “Embarrass me?” She hissed. “I don’t care about being embarrassed. This is way worse than that.”

  “Yeah, that mean security guy looked like he wanted to kill me right here and now.”

  She winced, hating the thought of her friend Jack feeling fear or worry. “Listen, Tamir is prepared to be reasonable,”
she said, finally. What choice did she have? Seeing her friend bound and scared for his life got through to her as nothing else could. “It’s going to be okay.” She blinked back her own tears. “It’s really going to be fine.”

  “What?” He jerked his head up, his eyes instantly brightening.

  The door opened inwards without a knock. Tamir had changed into a dark suit, and he breezed into the small space, instantly charging it with a kind of electricity. His eyes fell to Jack, and his look was unmistakably loaded with derision. Then, he turned to Olivia. “We must go now.”

  “Go?” Jack stood, his hands still bound before him. “Where are you going?”

  “Olivia has agreed to accompany me to Liya, for a period.” Tamir said simply, putting a hand in the small of her back and propelling her towards the door.

  “Liv, no,” Jack said harshly, skirting around the table and standing before her. “What have you done? What have you agreed to?”

  Tamir moved between them. He stared down his nose at the would-be thief. “She has agreed only to what she wants. And in exchange for her honesty, you are free to go. Try not to make a mistake such as this again.”

  * * *

  “But I don’t know what he’s saying,” she murmured to Tamir. Miles above the earth, somewhere between London and Liya, the capital of Talidar, she stared blankly at the black suited security chief Tamir had brought to her. The man had a terrifying authority, and a cruel anger in his expression. His eyes seemed to regard her as though she were little more than a germ. And yet his loyalty and deference to Tamir were unmistakable.

  More than just cruelty though, there was recognition in his expression when he looked at her. He was staring at Olivia with a mix of contempt and shock. As though he’d seen a ghost.

  “He is formalising our arrangement. You simply repeat his words.”

  She shook her head from side to side, darting her tongue out to moisten her lip. The security chief’s small, rounded eyes followed the betraying gesture. “Is this really necessary?”

  “Yes.”

  “She is trouble for you, your highness,” Kalil remarked quietly to his master, using their language.

  Tamir fixed his long-serving chief with a stony look of disapproval, then returned his attention to Olivia. Kalil was most likely right, but it was not his place to say so.

  “Do everything I say, or our deal is off.”

  “Fine.” She looked back towards the security chief, who sent shivers of terror running down her spine. “Would you mind saying that again?”

  Kalil made a sound of frustration and then spoke the six or seven word sentence once more. Olivia repeated it, as best she could.

  “Good.” Kalil spoke again, his shady eyes now fixed upon Tamir. Tamir repeated the sentence, his eyes heavy on Olivia’s face.

  “Is that it?” Olivia asked, staring out of the window at the blanket of black sky that stretched all around the private jet of the Sultan of Talidar.

  “For now. He will have papers for you to sign before we land.”

  “Papers?”

  “Protecting your interests as well as mine,” he said, waving a hand in the air. “As well as your mother’s.”

  Olivia didn’t flinch. Her mother’s situation required her to cooperate completely with Tamir. When James Anderson had died suddenly, two years earlier, it had plunged Tabitha into a complete and total well of depression. She’d drunk and taken drugs to self-medicate, and it had been months before Olivia had even realised what was going on. In that time, Tabitha had lost her job, lost her home, and also her health.

  With Olivia’s help, and constant attention, Tabitha was slowly rejoining the world, but she still had a long way to go in her recovery. “You organised a nurse for my mother?”

  “I will, when you give me more information about her requirements.”

  Olivia lifted her gaze, to stare at him heavily. “She needs someone to be with her.”

  “Yes,” he ground out through gritted teeth. “You said as much. But why? What is the nature of her illness?”

  Olivia’s stare was loaded with anger. “That’s none of your damned business.”

  He admired her fighting spirit, despite the situation she found herself in. “Is it a secret illness?” He chided softly, leaning forward in the plush leather seat, so that his eyes were only inches from hers.

  “No. Don’t be absurd. But you don’t need to know the ins and outs of my mother’s life to arrange a suitable carer for her.”

  “I will determine what I do and do not need to know.”

  Olivia pressed her lips together. “So this is part of our agreement, too? I don’t get any secrets?”

  He didn’t react, but his stare was scathing. He thought her childish, and to some extents, he was right.

  Olivia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “She’s been through a tough time, that’s all. She’s getting better, but I still have to keep an eye on her.”

  Tamir’s expressive dark eyes narrowed. “Are you being intentionally vague?”

  “No,” she grunted, crossing her arms. She could no longer meet his eyes, and instead, focussed on the elaborate chandelier that hung in the middle of the plane. “My mum is depressed. It happened just after dad died. She hit rock bottom.”

  A tingle ran down Tamir’s spine. He understood depression better than most. He’d had a front row seat to the insidious beast it could be. “Meaning?”

  “She self-medicated with whatever she could find, to make the pain less profound. I didn’t know.”

  Again, that sense of comprehension filled him. “You were doing your own grieving, I imagine.”

  “It’s no excuse. I should have realised.”

  He didn’t say anything about that. It wasn’t his place. And sympathy for this woman was not something he was prepared to feel, even though he could appreciate the worry she’d been experiencing. “And now?”

  “She’s doing better, as I said. But I always worry that she’s only one bad day away from all that again.”

  “I see.”

  He looked at her for a few moments, then reached across and picked up a newspaper. Olivia turned and watched as he flapped open the cover and casually began to regard the inside text. And that was it.

  No sympathy.

  No reassurances.

  Nothing. It was like opening up to a brick wall.

  She sank further down into her seat and did her best impersonation of a belligerent teenager. Her scowl was particularly impressive. The bleak darkness beyond the jet perfectly echoed her feelings. She was tired, suddenly. Tired of worrying and stressing and working so hard.

  Working!

  She sat bolt upright in the seat.

  “Tamir,” she murmured. “I have to let my boss know that I’m away.”

  He shrugged. “Be my guest.” He nodded towards the phone mounted beside his seat.

  “Now?”

  “If it’s worrying you.”

  She checked her watch. It was not yet nine o’clock in England. She reached across for the phone, ignoring the way her body seemed to spark when her arm brushed against his leg. The phone was substantial in her hand.

  “Do I need a dialling code or anything?”

  Tamir made an impatient sound and put his newspaper aside. “What is the number you are calling?”

  Olivia fished her phone from her pocket and found her boss’s mobile, then handed the phone to Tamir. He looked at the number and then deftly dialled into the aeroplane receiver. He passed it to Olivia without a sound, but his silence spoke volumes. Feeling stupid and technologically illiterate, not to mention unsophisticated as hell, she leaned back in her own chair and twisted the phone cable around her pointer finger.

  It made a high pitched beeping noise then began to ring. Elise picked up on the third ring.

  “Darling, it’s me.”

  “Olivia? Where are you calling from? It sounds crackly.”

  Olivia’s cheeks infused with colour. Tamir was studying h
er without bothering to hide his fascination. Who was she referring to as ‘darling’?

  “Um, yes, must be a bad connection. Listen, I have to take some time off. I have a … family situation.”

  “I hope it’s nothing serious?”

  The sound of her friend’s concern brought tears to Olivia’s eyes. She blinked them away furiously. “I’ll be fine. I just need some time.”

  “Of course. You have months of leave owing in any event. I’ll let HR know.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Olivia? Keep me posted. Let me know you’re okay when you can.”

  “I will. I’ll call you soon. Thanks, honey.” She handed the phone back to Tamir without meeting his eyes.

  He pressed the hang up button but didn’t replace the phone. “Do you need to call your mother?”

  “Yes.” She swallowed. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “You seem to lie deftly. I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

  Olivia could no longer keep the tears in check. One slid down her cheek and she wiped it away with her palm.

  “What is her number?”

  Olivia recited it by heart, and then took the receiver, careful not to touch Tamir’s fingers. Her mother was surprisingly easy to explain things to. Though she had spent the last few years slavishly devoted to Tabitha, from time to time, she’d had work requirements that had necessitated time away from the apartment. She made up a collection that needed her attention and disconnected the call.

  Though Tabitha had taken the information well, Olivia felt uneasy.

  One look at Tamir’s face though and she knew she couldn’t speak to him about her feelings. He was her captor, not her ally. He had been her lover, and would be again, but he would never be her friend. He was capable of giving her pleasure, but not kindness. Never kindness.

  She returned to her vigil of the everlasting darkness beyond the aeroplane and tried not to think about what awaited her in Talidar.

  Ironically, her time in Liya formed some of her most pleasant memories. Exploring the ancient and beautiful city, with its wide boulevards, expensive shopping precincts and historically rich culture, had provided endless hours of amusement. Though the values were conservative, she hadn’t been bothered by that at all. She hardly drank, didn’t smoke, had no interest in the night lift. And the city was safe. The police presence was strong, yet apparently unnecessary. She’d walked alone much of the time, stopping as she wished to take photographs and write down descriptions or thoughts.