returning to the days when women were chattels to be bartered between men? I thought you objected to that. Or was all that just fine words?’
Sayid reared back, stunned and furious. Lina couldn’t have got it more wrong. He knew the ugly reality of life for women under his uncle’s outdated regime.
At fifteen Sayid had been all that stood between his beautiful widowed mother and rape then a forced marriage to one of his uncle’s cronies. Rape then a quick wedding being an easy way to acquire a widow’s wealth.
Sayid had stood up to the man his mother had rejected, sword in hand, and fought for her right to choose. He’d fought for his own life too, for her disgruntled suitor had no qualms about killing those who got in his way.
The ancient knife slash up Sayid’s arm throbbed with a phantom pain at the memory.
‘You dare to question my morals? This is the thanks I receive after all I’ve done for you?’
Lina’s ingratitude stung. Yet at the same time Sayid felt something more. A quickening of dark excitement as she stood up to him.
Heat bloomed anew in her pale face, dark red flagging her high cheekbones. Yet still she didn’t back down. Either she’d completely forgotten whom she was talking to or she was more recklessly courageous than any adult male in the country. For none would meet him head-on like this.
‘You want my gratitude?’ She almost spat the word at him. ‘You have it. You’ve had it for over four years. Why do you think I worked so hard at that school, even in the beginning when it was pure torment? Why do you think I stuck it out? To prove your faith in me was justified. That I wouldn’t let you down. Day after day I ignored the ridicule and teasing, the fear that maybe I didn’t have it in me to succeed. Because I wanted you to be proud of me.’
Sayid frowned. This was the first he’d heard of ridicule or teasing. Surely he’d have been informed—
‘Not that you were interested. I never heard from you, not once in all that time.’ She hefted a quick breath that did something strange to his internal organs. ‘But that didn’t matter. I kept at it because I was grateful, and because I wanted an education. I’m working with your educators to pay off the debt I owe you, because I’m grateful and—’
‘Enough!’ Sayid put up his hand, horrified at the undercurrent of emotions her words evoked. Emotions he couldn’t, didn’t want to name, but which left him raw and weakened. As if someone had taken a sword to his knees, cutting off the strength in his limbs. ‘There is no debt. You’re free to leave.’
‘With a husband you choose for me?’ She shook her head so violently her ebony hair swung wide, brushing his upraised hand, drawing his body to instant arousal.
Instantly he was back in the courtyard last night, that silky weight caressing his bare skin as he drove his tongue into her mouth, going mad on the taste and feel of her. On the untrammelled hunger he’d never be able to sate.
‘No, thank you.’ She was as proud as an empress, looking down her nose at him, even from her inferior height. ‘I’ll work off my debt as agreed. In the position you created to appease my pride.’ He must have started because she nodded. ‘Even I can see you don’t need me when you’ve got trained professionals to do the job. But I’ll stick at it because I’m grateful and I pay back my debts.’
Fleetingly he thought of telling her those professionals thought she was more effective than the rest of them put together. But that could wait.
Sayid didn’t know if it was the sniping way she said she was grateful, or the thought of her staying in the palace for months, possibly years, till her conscience told her she’d paid off the debt of her education.
Maybe it was the flare of unfamiliar recklessness engendered by her jabs at his conscience.
Or the heady rush of adrenaline from being so close to Lina when she forgot herself and transformed into this magnificent, proud, indomitable, desirable woman.
Suddenly all the leashes, the checks and stays Sayid had placed on his baser impulses snapped. There was a roaring in his ears, a feeling of release as he leaned across the desk so his words feathered her lips.
‘If you’re so determined to pay back your debt to me, Lina, there’s a much better way.’
He saw her eyes widen, a flare of brilliant violet alive with...trepidation or excitement?
There was one way to find out.
‘Come to my bed. Be my lover for a week and the debt is cancelled.’
SILENCE THUNDERED BETWEEN THEM. A bold, heavy silence that throbbed with the beat of his blood and the sound of her indrawn breath.
Sayid waited for shame to engulf him at his outrageous, inexcusable suggestion. But it didn’t come. Instead there was relief at finally conceding his need for her, despite the dictates of honour and obligation.
Of course, she’d be horribly embarrassed by his proposition.
Yet Lina didn’t look away. Nor did she move back, though he’d thrust his head so close to hers he was just about in kissing distance. All he had to do was wrap his hand around the nape of her neck and tug.
Would she resist? Would she curse and spit and claw at his face?
Not this woman, he realised.
Not when her eyes blazed with surprise. And could it be? A hint of curiosity?
Not a smidgen of outrage in sight. No embarrassment or shyness.
Lina stared back at him, lips slightly parted as if she couldn’t pull in enough oxygen, breasts rising and falling with each rapid breath, with her face still upturned to his.
Not like a supplicant or a charity case.
Why had he ever thought her shy? Because in the past she’d ducked her head and called him by his title, deferring to him? But of course she’d do that. He was her ruler. Her whole future depended on him. Hadn’t he been fascinated by the flashes he’d seen of her spirit, like when she’d refused to accept his charity unless she could repay him?
Then there was the way she told you she wanted you to kiss her.
She looked at him with the bright, steady gaze of a woman considering his words, assessing him as an equal.
He liked it, he realised with a blast of exhilaration.
Her tongue slipped out to moisten her lower lip and Sayid’s belly clenched. Yet he’d swear the action wasn’t intentional flirtation, not now her forehead puckered in confusion.
‘Why only a week?’
Of all the things she might have said, Lina chose merely to query his time limit?
What a woman! Sayid admired her forthrightness, her lack of coyness. And, of course, the fact she hadn’t instantly dismissed his proposal.
He’d
