Olivia Gates – Pregnant by the Sheikh (страница 7)
“Father wouldn’t have thought of asking me to do this for anything less.”
He raised his hand, his jaw muscles bunching. “Nothing is worth imposing on you in any way, let alone sacrificing you. He should have sacrificed himself.”
“He would have if it would have solved the problem.”
“He should have considered any measures but bartering you to that old goat.”
She burst out laughing. At his grim frown, she spluttered, “That’s exactly what I called him earlier this evening to Zeena.” At the growing thundercloud that gripped his face, she sobered. “What would you have done?”
“You don’t want to know.”
She gasped, for those five words painted a clear picture. This man was as deadly as she’d thought earlier, and not figuratively. He was no stranger to eliminating enemies. Even with his own hands.
Before she could process what kind of disaster she might have instigated by seeking his intervention, he demanded, “I need the specifics of those debts.”
She latched on to the relatively innocuous subject. “Of course. You need to know everything before deciding whether you can help, or even if you’d want to.”
He shot her one of those authoritatively reprimanding glances. “Those specifics have no bearing on my decision. That was final since the moment I gave you my word. They are only for devising the most effective attack.”
She shot up straight. “Attack?”
His eyes became icy emeralds. “There will be extreme measures employed in releasing Zafrana from Saraya’s shackles.”
Her heart hammered in dismay. “Define
“Eliminating the problem at the source.”
“And how would you do that?”
“That’s my business.”
“Actually, it’s mine, too. Mine, mainly. I’m the one who asked for this, and if you’re going to do anything to...to hurt Hassan, I’d have to withdraw my request.”
“You care what happens to him?”
“No, but I don’t want him to meet with an unnatural end, either. For Saraya. For Najeeb. For peace’s sake.”
She thought his eyes flared at Najeeb’s mention, but he only said, “Peace is always achieved after a war. A war always comes with heavy losses.”
“I don’t want freedom that comes at such a price.”
“You think I’d kill him, don’t you?”
“You sure made it sound like that.”
“His demise
She held his gaze until she decided he was telling the truth, then collapsed back in relief. “For a moment there I thought I’d just signed Hassan’s death warrant.”
“It
“You still make it sound as if you’ll end up offing him!” When he only shrugged, she sat up again and threw her hands up in the air. “
“To off him or not to off him, that is the question.”
That, and his bedeviling expression, made her burst out laughing. “You fiend! You had me going there.” Melting back again, she grinned. “So what do you intend to do, for real?”
“Which part of
“Beggars can’t be choosers, huh?”
“You’d never be anything but what you are, a princess whose demands must always be met.”
His over-the-top statements kept leaving her breathless, her lips tingling with the need to taste them at the origin.
But she still had to make sure of one thing. “If my requests are that important to you, promise you won’t go overboard. Just do enough to set me free, and hopefully set Zafrana back on the road to economic independence. I don’t want any fallout to hit my father or Zafrana. Or Saraya.”
He inclined his magnificent head, making her again wish he’d release his raven’s-wing silk from its imprisoning band. “I promise I will be surgical. My excisions will leave the whole region healthier. Just for you.”
Breath left her on a choppy exhalation. “You’re really going to do this.” She shook her head dazedly. “Wow...just give me a second to get my head around all of this.”
“Take all the time you need.” He did this heart-melting gesture again, reaching for a lock of her hair and rubbing it in utmost enjoyment between his fingers. “But you can start celebrating your restored freedom right now.”
Moved to the brink of tears, she squeezed her eyes shut. When she finally opened them, they’d filled her eyes, soaked her voice. “I need to apologize.”
He frowned. “Never apologize, not to me. But what do you think you should apologize for?”
“For what I thought when I first thought of asking you for this.”
“What did you think?”
“That you’d never do anything out of the goodness of your heart. That you don’t have one.”
A mirthless huff escaped him. “You were right. I don’t have one. Not in any humanly accepted sense.”
“From where I’m sitting, you have something better. I thought you’d never do anything for anyone without something of equal or more value in it for you, and I was wrong.”
“Maybe you should withdraw your apology. Since you weren’t wrong. I do want something.”
Her heart forgot to beat. “You do?”
“Yes.” He held her gaze in the snare of his. “An heir.”
“An heir.”
Jen heard her voice as if coming from someone else. Reaching her ears from the end of a vortex of incomprehension.
The hypnosis in Numair’s gaze only intensified, as if he was compelling her to say what he wanted her to say.
Good luck with that. It was a miracle she’d been able to produce sound at all, to parrot him. After the agitated excitement of meeting him, the soaring hope that he’d restore her freedom, the release of all tension when she’d made sure he would, it hadn’t shocked her when he’d said that he had a price. What had flabbergasted her was the price itself. She couldn’t even process it.
He couldn’t have
At her croaking question, without any change in his expression, he inclined his head. “Yes. An heir you’ll give me.”
The expansive room started spinning, and the sick sensations that earlier had her in their grip crashed back on her. She pressed her head into the headrest, as if to stop the churning. “You’re not joking.”
“I’ve never been more serious.”
Feeling as if she’d fallen into a trap, nausea almost blinded her. “Why are you doing this?”
In response, he covered the space between them. Before she could think of scooting away, she found herself half draped over his great body, stunned by his sheer strength.
“Doing what?” His whisper fanned her face, and the fragrant, virile scent of his breath and flesh only made the room spin harder. She tried to fidget out of his embrace, but he had her head cradled in the nook of his arm, supported by his muscle-laden shoulder, and her face tilted to look up at him. “Being truthful about what I want? I thought you appreciated total honesty.”
“When did you decide you wanted it?” she whispered. “You can’t have come up with it when I asked you to help me.” She tried to shake her head and only felt the world spin again. He secured her tighter and her queasiness quieted. She moaned, in relief this time. “I thought you would have a price, but I never thought it could be something like that.”
“What did you think it would be? Yourself?”
Now that he’d said it out loud, it felt presumptuous for the idea to have crossed her mind. But given his apparent interest in her, it had been the only thing she could think of.
She’d thought the most he’d want would be a short affair, maybe only while he passed through New York this time. But she wouldn’t have considered that a price. It would have been a reward to be with the first and only man she’d wanted breathlessly on sight. In any other circumstances, she would have given anything to be with him, no matter how fleetingly. To have both him and her freedom would have been the most incredible opportunity of her life.
But it was clear she’d read the situation all wrong. No, she couldn’t read it at all.