Royals Untamed!

CHAPTER FIVE

KAZIM HAD PONDERED Amber’s words as they returned to their suite. Was she really refusing to be his wife in every way? Everything they’d spoken of over the meal had been merely small talk, as if they were strangers passing the time of day. His intention had been to get to know her better, but instead she’d become more distant, more unobtainable.

Was she setting him a challenge? Or pushing him away?

‘You looked very beautiful tonight,’ he said as he closed the door of their suite a short while later. Would she slip further away from him now they were alone? ‘Very much like a princess.’

A little shocked, he admitted to himself that he didn’t want her to slip away, but maybe it was for the best. Because right now he wanted more—much more—just as he had on their wedding night. Instinct told him that to make love to her would be different from any other woman. It was not just the fact that she was his wife. It was the way he wanted her, not only with fiery blood in his veins but with something much deeper, unknown and new.

But what if the temper he’d inherited from his father surfaced as it had threatened to do on their wedding night when he’d thought of those rumours? What if behind closed doors he became the abusive bully his mother had had to put up with? He hated the fact that he looked like his father and he just couldn’t take the risk that he could also be like him in other ways.

Amber turned and looked at him and, despite being only a few strides from him, the distance seemed as endless as the dunes of a desert. ‘I felt like a princess.’ Her voice was hardly above a whisper, but her bronze eyes watched him anxiously and a vice-like grip clutched at his chest as vulnerability showed through her armour.

He moved closer, watching her. She stood and looked at him and he took a deep breath, forcing cooling control into his body. He wanted to reach for her, to kiss her lips, her face, her body. He wanted to claim her as his own and it was that very fact that held him back.

He’d already been far too hard on her. He had no right to claim even a kiss.

‘You are a princess,’ he stated emphatically, focusing his thoughts on other things. Just saying those words made him want to find out what had happened since she’d left the palace. ‘Why did you take a job in that Parisian club, Amber?’

The colour drained from her face in seconds but she remained strong and resolute before him, indignation sparking off her like fireworks. She watched him suspiciously as he moved towards her.

‘I told you, Kazim—nobody knew who I really was, not even Annie.’ Her voice, though just above a whisper, was strong.

Did she really think that such assurances were enough? He needed to know more and intended to get answers. He wasn’t going to be put off. He had to know. He’d been more than generous. Something wasn’t right. Why had she felt the need to work in such a place and live in the terrible excuse for a flat he’d seen?

‘But why there?’ He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, wondering again about that rumour from her time at the English boarding school. Her display on their wedding night had already proved that attending it had corrupted her far more than anyone else knew.

‘When you’re not prepared to use your own identity, it’s difficult to get a job, Kazim. I took whatever I could and am grateful to the women in the hostel for telling me about the job.’ She raised her brows in challenge, standing tall and resolute before him as she waited for her words to sink in.

Then, with a haughty flash of her smile, she walked away from him. He watched the sexy swaying of her hips as she made her way to the bedroom, mesmerised and knocked completely off course. It was almost as if she was taunting him with her body—again. Just as she had on their wedding night, drawing his focus away from what was important with the lure of her body.

One word leapt to life in his mind. Hostel. Shock mingled with hot need, making any kind of reply impossible. What did she mean—hostel? He shook his head, trying to free himself of the thumping desire that rushed through him just from watching her—desire that was distracting his usual rational thoughts.

‘What hostel, Amber?’ Quickly he refocused his attention, not prepared to let the moment slip by. She was hiding things from him, tormenting him, and he didn’t like it one bit. ‘I think you’d better tell me exactly what you’ve done since you left Barazbin—and with whom.’ The doubts he’d had about her on their wedding night surfaced again.

She sighed, but her rigid body told him she was resigned to having this discussion. ‘For a while I lived in a hostel in Paris. I didn’t have help from anyone and I had nowhere to live so, princess or not, it’s what I had to do.’ She’d walked back from the bedroom to stand in front of him once more, apparently abandoning the idea of closing the door on him. ‘Some of the girls there told me I’d easily get work at the club. I had no idea what sort of place it was.’

‘But you still took the job.’ He stated the obvious as he looked down into her face.

‘I needed the money. Besides, I met Annie there, who offered me a place to live.’ Her brown eyes looked beseechingly into his and he swallowed down hard on the guilt that threatened to drown him.

‘So, Annie offered you a place to live?’ He probed further, needing to know all of it. He couldn’t afford to read her story one morning, splashed all over the front of a newspaper. Not now they were about to return to Barazbin.

‘She was struggling, looking after Claude and working, we got on well, so it made sense. Neither of us had anyone; her parents had gone back to England, refusing to have any more to do with her.’ She looked up at him innocently, her explanation as plausible as the sunrise in the morning.

Guilt tore through him. He’d done this to her. If he hadn’t been so wrapped up in his problems he’d have realised sending her away wouldn’t help either of them. He’d been so damned determined not to be like his father. He raked his fingers through his hair, knowing he’d been worse—much worse—than that bully.

He took Amber’s hand in his and looked down at her. ‘I should never have sent you away. I had a duty to you as a husband and I failed.’

‘And now you are forcing me to go back, blackmailing me, using an innocent child.’ Accusation hung in her every word.

‘Not blackmailing, Amber, striking a deal. One which will see us both getting what we want. I thought we’d settled that argument.’

He watched as her teeth sank into her lower lip, indecision sweeping over her face. She looked the picture of innocence and he began to wonder if the rumours he’d heard of her just before they’d married really held any truth. Had they just been malicious palace gossip because of the English blood which flowed in her veins...?

‘Tell me about what happened when you were in England, when you were at the boarding school.’ He watched her face pale, but she lifted her chin and looked him in the eye.

It had been those rumours of her time at the English school which had clouded his judgement on their wedding day, made him doubt his bride’s innocence even before her little dance. Now he wondered if they had forced him to think things that might not have been true, despite the fact that he’d wanted to disregard them, but the way she’d acted had made him question his judgement.

‘There is nothing to tell; not when you have already condemned me.’ Her retort flew at him so fast that the pain of each word hit him hard in the chest.

‘So it is not true?’ He stepped closer, her stance and angry glare asserting that it wasn’t, and he regretted having listened to palace gossip.

‘No, for what it’s worth. I was in the hotel room, not to meet with a man but to save a friend’s reputation. She was the one meeting her lover, not me.’ She maintained her frosty expression.

‘That’s it?’ Her simple words didn’t come anywhere near the scandal that had whispered its way into his palace within hours of their wedding.

‘A friend had taken a lover, a married man, and she’d been meeting him regularly.’ Amber paused to look up at him and he kept his expression impassive, hoping his silence would encourage her to continue. ‘One day her lover asked her to bring a friend, saying we would all go out.’

‘You went, as the friend.’ It was slowly beginning to make sense. She’d been set up, sold to the highest bidder for her story.

She swallowed, lowered her eyes briefly then looked back up at him. ‘This other man was a reporter on the hunt for the scandalous story that would make his career. I didn’t know this and foolishly told him things I shouldn’t have. My friend and I returned to school, the same way we got out, through a back window. The next day I got the letter.’

‘How did you deal with that?’ Kazim couldn’t recall anything in the papers and surely his advisers would have mentioned the scandal during their marriage negotiations.

‘My mother can be very formidable when necessary.’ Amber smiled a light smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and it touched him that she’d shared it with him. If only he hadn’t heard the rumour on their wedding night. His pulse leapt at the thought.

‘Then I believe you.’ He stepped closer, not sure if he really believed she was completely innocent, but right now he wanted to and he needed her to trust him. He needed the world to see a couple reunited and happy about it.

* * *

Amber looked into the increasingly dark depths of Kazim’s eyes and her stomach tightened. ‘What exactly do you want, Kazim?’ she whispered so softly she wondered if she’d actually spoken.

‘What I want? Right at this minute?’ His voice deepened and became husky as he stepped closer to her. ‘I want you.’

She dropped her chin and looked down, not trusting herself. Surely she’d misread the passion that swirled in his eyes. From what he’d said about the rumours, he’d thought she was far from a virgin on their wedding night. Had that been what had made him reject her so harshly?

Should she tell him that she’d made only one mistake? Throwing herself at him. Should she let him know the only man’s lips to have touched hers since their wedding night had been his? She pressed her fingers to her lips, remembering his kiss just a short while ago.

‘You didn’t want me on our wedding night.’ She tried to move past him but he reached out and took hold of her arm, keeping her in front of him, leaving her no option but to look up into his face.

‘I didn’t want to be married. Marriage was a duty. That was all I ever saw it as.’ He kept his voice calm. ‘You weren’t what I was expecting. I was angry—at you and my fate.’

She gazed up at him, all the pain she’d felt that night now drowning her. She swallowed hard then took a deep breath. ‘I made one mistake, Kazim, one moment of madness, and because of that you punished me, sending me away, publicly humiliating me and my family. My father still hasn’t forgiven me for it.’

‘None of that matters now,’ he said as he brushed her hair back from her face, a gesture so full of tenderness that her breath caught in her throat. Could she really believe him? Her heart wanted to, but in her head a voice screamed caution.

She covered his hand with hers, stilled the caress that was almost loving. Just that one touch was enough to set light to her body, to ignite the slumbering heat into a wave of red-hot fire. If she didn’t step away from him, break the contact, she would be engulfed and then she would want more. But wanting more from a man who had rejected her was insane.

‘It matters to me, Kazim.’ She pulled back from him and his hand dropped to her shoulder, preventing her from moving any further away. ‘I can’t go back to Barazbin. I can’t be your wife, your princess, not when that one silly moment will always be between us, always causing you to look at me with disgust.’

‘I don’t want it to be that way, Amber.’ His voice had deepened and become husky once more, raw emotion in every word. ‘The truth is I want you.’

Her heart thumped loudly in her chest, an echoing pulse pumping around her body. He wanted her. It was as if, piece by piece, he was dismantling the wall of protection she’d erected around herself.

She shook her head and moved away from him, away from the temptation of his touch, his smile and his kiss. She wanted him too, so much that she could throw herself into his arms and plead for him to make her his, but such actions had caused all the pain, all the heartache she’d been living with for almost a year.

This time she would be strong, she would resist the powerful urge to be his, to allow his touch to claim her or his kisses to force her to surrender. This time she would be the innocent she was.

‘No, Kazim.’ She forced the words out, firmness injected into them as she tried to buy herself time so that she could gather up her wayward emotions once and for all. ‘I need to know you have kept your side of the deal.’

He undid his tie, pulling it down until it hung loosely, and then opened the top button of his shirt, revealing olive skin, dusted with hair. She knew she shouldn’t look but she couldn’t help herself and when she moved her gaze back to his face it was to see a satisfied smile playing sexily at the corners of his mouth.

‘I’m not sure you are in a position to demand terms, Amber.’ His eyes sparked with mischief, tying her stomach in knots.

She laughed softly, hardly able to believe the throaty sound came from her. ‘You were the one to seek me out, Kazim, so surely that makes you the one who shouldn’t be making demands.’

‘Is it not you who seeks reassurance that you will get what you want?’ He stepped closer to her again and she moved backwards, her legs meeting the sofa, leaving her no option but to sit down.

The softness cushioned her as she sat but instantly she wished she hadn’t. He seemed so much more powerful as he towered over her. She watched, helpless to drag her eyes away, as he took off his jacket, tossing it onto a chair before sitting next to her, his arm along the back of sofa behind her head, bringing him unbearably close. So close she could smell his aftershave, the spicy scent unable to completely cover the essence of pure male.

He came even closer and she knew he wanted to kiss her, just as she knew to allow it would be her undoing. She looked into his eyes, saw the molten bronze swirling in their depths, and knew she was lost.

His hand touched her face, caressed her cheek then pushed her hair behind her ear. The warmth of his touch as he looked down at her melted her reservations. Was it so wrong to want your husband to kiss you?

It was wrong. So very wrong and she couldn’t allow it. As if the very thought provoked the action, he brushed his lips lightly over hers, teasing and tempting her. She tried to resist, tried to move away, but his hand slipped around the back of her head, keeping her lips firmly against his.

‘Kazim...’ She pushed her hands against his chest, shocked by the hardness beneath her palms and the way her heart skittered like a leaf blown about in the wind. ‘Please, I can’t. Not yet.’

Her voice echoed with appeal and as he sat back against the softness of the sofa she let out a breath of relief. The tenderness she’d thought she’d seen in his eyes moments ago was gone, replaced with granite hardness, and his lips that had set light to hers were pressed into a firm line. His mood had changed and the only reason she could see was that she hadn’t responded to him, hadn’t answered the primal call of her body for his.

‘In that case I will leave you. I have preparations to make for tomorrow’s meetings.’ He stood up, towering over her, emphasising the power he had. ‘Be ready to leave by ten.’

‘No,’ she snapped, jumping up, desperate to keep things as balanced as possible. ‘I need to know about Annie and Claude. I won’t go anywhere else with you until I do.’

‘Now who is using blackmail?’ He smiled at her, so full of self-assurance she wanted to scream.

She shook her head quickly. ‘I’m merely responding to your blackmail, Kazim.’

‘You friend’s little boy will have all the help he needs. It is all in hand, exactly as I said it would be.’

‘You disapprove, don’t you? A stripper and a single mother shouldn’t mix with a princess; is that it?’ Her words were as hot as her body.

‘Your words, Amber, not mine, but true.’ His voice was so cool, so calm it was impossible to think this was the same man who’d just minutes ago ignited an inferno inside her.

‘I will not go anywhere unless you keep your side of the deal.’ Indignation made her sound petulant.

He stopped so very close she could almost feel his breath as he lowered his head so that she thought he might kiss her again. ‘I meant every word I said tonight.’

As she moved back she exhaled. At least he was going to keep his side of the bargain, but this meant she’d have to keep hers. She was trapped, being forced to do what he wanted, and she couldn’t do anything about it, not if she wanted Claude to receive the treatment he needed.

He stood and looked at her, authority radiating from every pore in his magnificent body, her own protesting over what she’d denied it. She said nothing, but staying beneath his glacial gaze was as difficult as refusing his kisses.

As if he’d sensed her turmoil, her need for space, he turned and strode to the master bedroom without a backward glance. She closed her eyes in relief, thankful she’d put her things in the second, much smaller bedroom. At least tonight she would sleep alone.

* * *

Kazim shut the door on Amber and ran his fingers through his hair, the heat of desire still thumping around his body, begging for release. The first time they’d spent a night together she’d thrown herself at him and now she was pushing him away. But he knew she wanted him as much as he wanted her. He’d seen it in her eyes.

Whatever else was between them, the attraction that sizzled there wasn’t going to go away and he planned to explore it.

She was his wife and he intended to claim her back—in every way.

CHAPTER SIX

THE SUN SHONE brightly as Amber watched the polo horses pounding up and down the field. This was the kind of glamour she hadn’t experienced before and in her new silk sundress she felt every bit as sophisticated and elegant as the other ladies. She was acutely aware of the interest Kazim’s presence was causing and the curious glances coming her way.

She slipped on her sunglasses, which offered her a place to hide, and feigned interest in the game, anything to try and avoid the tension that sliced through the air whenever Kazim spoke to those around them. His deep voice kept drawing her attention, her body painfully aware of his presence after last night.

This was the informal part of his business meeting, he’d explained as they’d arrived at the country hotel by helicopter a few hours earlier, and she was thankful that soon she could seek sanctuary in the luxury of their suite whilst he met with the other leaders in private. Being constantly near him was proving harder than she’d envisaged. In her heart she still loved him, but was it good for her to yearn after something so impossible? It hurt that he’d only looked for her out of duty and necessity and, if that hadn’t been bad enough, he’d made it clear he hadn’t come to Europe especially for her. She’d been nothing more than an afterthought.

‘Are you not enjoying the polo?’ Kazim’s voice startled her and she looked up, prickles of embarrassment colouring her face and a zip of awareness shooting down her spine.

‘I was thinking of Annie,’ she said tentatively after his admission last night. ‘I’m worried she will think news of Claude’s treatment is a hoax; after all, she has no idea who you are.’

Kazim took two flutes of champagne from a passing waiter and set them on the table before sitting down opposite her, his long legs intimately close to hers, and she trembled, shocked by his nearness. ‘You are correct. Annie had no idea who I was, or indeed who you were,’ he said firmly. ‘But that is all sorted now.’

‘It is?’ she questioned as she picked up her champagne in an effort to appear calm. How had Annie taken that news? Knowing Annie, she wouldn’t have accepted Kazim’s explanation without giving him the third degree and she smiled to herself, wondering how he’d coped with that. Maybe she should have put more in her note, explained who Kazim was, at least? ‘But did you tell her about Claude’s treatment?’

‘I told her, exactly as I promised,’ he said as he looked out at the polo match. ‘Hasim, my cousin, the man I trust above all others will accompany them to America. They leave today.’

She glanced at him. ‘So soon?’

Applause rippled around them and she glanced out as a goal was scored. She looked back at Kazim, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the match.

‘When I want something I will do whatever is necessary to make it happen.’ The hidden innuendo didn’t go unnoticed. He’d as good as told her last night that he wanted her. Was this his way of making it happen?

She watched as he sipped his champagne, loving the way the sun shone in his onyx hair. In fact she loved almost everything about this man. Despite all that had happened, she had done so since she’d first been introduced, the day she’d been told of their engagement by her parents. But she couldn’t let him know that; she couldn’t leave herself open for another rejection from him. She already knew from experience how lethally charming he could be if needed, just as he could be brutal and honest.

‘Thank you.’ She returned her attention to the polo match, not wanting him to see even the smallest trace of confusion on her face, because confused didn’t go halfway to explaining the tumult of emotions within her.

‘I always honour my promises,’ he said as he moved closer to her, keeping his words just for her ears.

She turned quickly, her face suddenly so very close to his and, despite her sunglasses, she was sure he knew exactly the riot of feelings that were racing deep within her; she could see the same unrest mirrored in his eyes.

‘Very commendable,’ she said, adopting a light-hearted tone she was far from feeling, needing to gain control again. She had to distance herself from him, if not physically then certainly emotionally.

He leant forward, putting his empty champagne flute on the table, his gaze holding hers all the time. The simmering sexual tension that rippled between them seemed to suddenly be at the point of exploding.

‘Finish your champagne,’ he said, his voice seductively husky, churning her stomach and sending heat coursing through her veins.

Her breath caught in her throat and she licked her lips, which had suddenly become very dry as the intensity of desire in his eyes surfaced. The molten bronze swirled against midnight blackness and nothing or nobody else existed. It was just the two of them.

Hesitantly, she took another sip; the bubbles fizzed in her mouth and he watched every tiny movement of her lips.

When she took the next sip heat curled around her body as if his strong arms held her against him. Then, in a slow and controlled move, he leant towards her, his lips brushing lightly over hers as if he wanted to taste the champagne on them.

She drew in a ragged breath and clutched tightly onto her almost empty flute as he drew back from her. The air around them throbbed with desire so raw she couldn’t speak. She didn’t want to say anything that might shatter the moment because right now she was desired and wanted by the man she loved.

Slowly and with intent, he took the champagne flute from her hand. Without taking his eyes from hers, he placed it on the table. ‘Come.’ The underlying sensuality in that one word was not lost on her. He took her hand, infusing her with even more heat, and stood, leaving her no option but to grab her bag and phone and go with him.

Amber was vaguely aware of heads turning and curious glances being cast their way as they left the match, but she didn’t care. His hand still held hers tightly, as if he thought at any minute she would turn and run. On one level she had no idea where they were going or why, but with some kind of instinct she’d never known before—she knew.

Once inside the hotel doorway he made straight for the wide sweeping staircase that led to the first floor and the palatial suites on each wing of the grand building. She pulled off her glasses, her breath coming so fast she couldn’t speak. Their bodies were communicating through the seductive waves of awareness darting between them like shooting stars.

They reached the door of their suite and he stopped and looked at her, his eyes so heavy with desire she caught her breath, biting down hard on her lower lip. He opened the door and took her hand, but she knew she would follow; she was well and truly under the spell of attraction that sparked in the air around them.

‘What was that display for?’ Finally she managed to get some words out. Indignation was the best form of defence, she decided, as the door to their suite closed. It was her only defence against what was happening, the only hope she had of clinging to sanity. He turned to face her. She raised her chin defiantly at him, raw desire burning in his eyes as they boldly raked over her.

‘I think you know.’ He swiftly crossed the room and, before she could move or say anything, he’d swept her feet from the floor and taken her in his arms. With intent and purpose he strode into the bedroom.

Her head became light and a dizzying sensation fluttered around her heart and she knew what he wanted. He wanted her. Passion boiled wildly between them and she no longer cared about what had happened in the past, or what might happen in the future. All she cared about was this moment.

He laid her gently on the bed as if she was the most precious thing ever then removed his jacket quickly, tossing it impatiently aside before covering her body with his. Instinctively she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer, and was rewarded with a deep guttural growl as his lips claimed hers in a hard, demanding kiss.

Her whole body sang, as if she’d waited forever for this moment. She had, and one thing was certain—this time it would happen. It was what she wanted. She wanted to be his—completely.

His hand slid down her side to her hip and she moved beneath him, giving into an instinct that rose up and engulfed her as she encouraged him to take more, to make her his.

He deepened the kiss and she spread her hands across his back, relishing the warmth of his skin through his shirt, feeling the power of his strength. Everything about that moment was as wild and untamed as she knew he was.

It was what she’d always dreamed it would be like, passionate and all consuming, not at all like she’d imagined it would have been on their wedding night. Then it would have been nothing more than a signature on a contract. This was so much more. This passion, this heated desire, it was what she wanted and, judging by his response, Kazim did too.

He broke the kiss and propped himself over her, his eyes heavy with desire. His breath came hard and fast and, unable to help herself, she slid the palms of her hands down each of his arms, savouring the strength and power of his muscles.

Her whole body was alive, tingling with desire for him. This was what she wanted but at the same time she knew it would only cause more problems, more heartache.

* * *

Kazim tried hard to rein in the maelstrom of emotions rushing around his body. Never had a woman driven him so crazy with desire that he’d all but dragged her back to his hotel room in the middle of the afternoon. But then never had a woman made him wait so long. He had, he decided, been ensconced in the desert far too long and now he had very little control left.

‘If this isn’t what you want...’ he heard his words come out in a low growl, saw the shocked expression cross her beautiful face, but he couldn’t stop them ‘...then I suggest you say now.’

She moved beneath him, her body pressing against his erection, and he clenched his jaw hard, hanging onto the last thread of control. She was draining the strength from him and when her hands slid down his arms he almost couldn’t bear it.

Slowly she reached her hand up to his face, her palm pressing against his cheek, and he wasn’t sure if she was trembling or if he was shaking with the effort of control.

‘I want this, Kazim,’ she whispered huskily. ‘I want you.’

He pushed aside the doubts that had made him walk out on her on their wedding night. He couldn’t think about them now; the raging throb of desire in his body needed quenching. It needed quenching now. He wanted her—completely.

He looked at her face, the colour creeping over her cheeks as his hand slid down her leg until he reached the hemline of her dress. Slowly, he slid his hand underneath the silk and upwards. The soft brown of her eyes darkened, her breathing deepened and he watched in fascination as her lips parted, a soft sigh escaping them.

‘Kazim,’ she pleaded, her gaze fixed on his, her fingernails digging into his arms.

Just his name on her lips sent him into overdrive, unable to think of anything other than making her his. He touched the lace of her panties at her hip and pulled hard, the satisfying sound of tearing making his pulse race. He lifted himself up on one arm and quickly freed himself from the constraints of his clothes. He was too impatient to remove them all—he wanted her now.

As if in encouragement, she moved her legs either side of his and he pushed her dress up, watching her face all the time.