curtsy or offer her hand. She opted to let the queen make the first move. “I’m Piper McAdams, and it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Your Highness.”
“Welcome to the family,” she said, then drew Piper into a surprising embrace. “And please call me Maysa.”
Piper experienced a fraud alert. “Actually, I’m not really—”
“Accustomed to it yet,” Adan interjected. “Given time she will take to the royal treatment as an electric eel takes to water.”
Leave it to the prince to joke at a time like this. “I’m not in the market to be treated royally, but I have enjoyed my time in the palace so far.”
“I am glad,” Maysa said. “Now, if you will both excuse me, I am starving.”
Adan checked his watch. “Isn’t dinner later than usual?”
Maysa shrugged. “No, but Rafiq is waiting for me in our quarters.”
He winked at Piper before regarding Maysa again. “Oh, you’re referring to a different kind of appetite. Do not let us keep you from our king.”
“You could not if you tried.”
Following a slight wave and a smile, Maysa strode down the hallway and disappeared around the corner, leaving Piper alone with the shifty, oversexed sheikh. And she liked him that way. A lot.
He caught her hand and tugged her against him. “Have I told you how much I enjoyed our time together?”
“At least ten times, but I’ll never grow tired of hearing it. I’m just sad it’s over.”
“It doesn’t have to be, Piper. You can stay with me in my suite.”
She could be entering dangerous emotional territory. “Maybe it should be, Adan. I’ll be leaving in a few weeks.”
“I know,” he said, sounding somewhat disappointed. “All the more reason to spend as much time together before you depart. I am an advocate of taking advantage of pleasure at every opportunity.”
How easy it would be to say yes. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Since we are to give the impression we are married, what better way than to share the same quarters?”
A false impression of holy matrimony. “We could do that without sleeping in the same bed.”
He rimmed the shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue. “I don’t recall mentioning sleep.”
And she wouldn’t get much if she agreed, for several reasons. “You have to consider Sam’s needs over ours.”
He pulled back and frowned. “Exactly as I intend to do, but he doesn’t require all our time during the night.”
“He requires quite a bit.”
Framing her face in his palms, Adan looked as if his world revolved around her decision. “Stay with me, Piper. Stay until you must leave.”
Spending time with this gorgeous Arabian prince, quality time, would be a fantasy come to life. Yet it could never be the real stuff fairy tales were made of. If she took wisdom into account, she’d say no. If she was willing to risk a broken heart, she’d say yes. And she suddenly realized this risk would be well worth undertaking now, even if it meant crying about it later.
“All right, Adan. I’ll stay.”
* * *
In the silence of his private quarters, the room illuminated by the soft glow of a single table lamp, Adan had never experienced such a strong sense of peace. He had the woman curled up next to him to thank for that. Granted, he still wanted Piper in every way imaginable—he’d proved that at his mountain retreat—yet he greatly appreciated the moments they’d spent in comfortable silence after retiring to his quarters.
That lack of conversation would soon end once he told her what he’d learned from his brother upon their arrival a few hours ago. “I have to go to the base tomorrow to oversee training exercises. It will require me to stay in the barracks overnight.”
For a moment he’d thought she’d fallen asleep, until she shifted and rested her cheek above his heart. “Gee, thanks. You invite me to reside in your room and then promptly leave me for a whole night.”
The teasing quality to her voice gave Adan some semblance of relief. “If I had to choose between sleeping in the barracks with twenty snoring men and sleeping with you, I would choose you every time. Unless you begin snoring—then I could possibly reconsider.”
She lightly elbowed him in the rib cage. “If I did happen to snore, which I don’t, you’d have no right to criticize me. I thought a freight train had come through the bedroom last night.”
“Are you bloody serious?”
“I’m kidding, Adan,” she said as she traced a path along his arm with a fingertip. “Your snore actually sounds more like a purr.”
That did not please him in the least. “I prefer a freight train to a common house cat.”
“Don’t worry, Prince Mehdi. Snore or no snore, you’re still as macho and sexy as ever.”
He pressed a kiss against the corner of her smiling, sensual mouth. “You are now forgiven for the affront to my manhood.”
She yawned and briefly stretched her arms over her head. “Have you ever been in live combat before?”
The query took him aback. “Yes, I have.”
“Was it dangerous?”
He smiled at the zeal in her voice. “Does that prospect appeal to your daring side?”
“I’m not sure I actually have much of a daring side. I asked because we’re presumed to be husband and wife, so I believe it might be prudent for me to learn all I can about you, in case someone asks.”
That sounded logical, but not all his military experiences had been favorable. “I’ve been involved in a skirmish or two while protecting our no-fly zone.”
“Bad skirmishes?”
This was the part he didn’t speak of often, yet again he felt the need to bare his soul to her. “One turned out to be extremely bad.”
“What happened?”
“I killed a man.”
He feared the revelation had rendered her speechless, until she said, “I’m assuming it was justified.”
“That is a correct assumption. If I hadn’t shot down his plane, he would have dropped a bomb over the village.”
“How horrible. Was he a citizen of Bajul?”
“No. He was a known insurgent from another country. Because the files are classified, I am not at liberty to say which country.”
She
