He turned her towards him and he came half over her, his mouth seeking hers, his erection nudging against her thigh, and the weight of him was blissful. She ached for his kiss, yet she refused it; she would not give all of herself to him. Leila moved her head so that when she spoke it was to his cheek.
‘Just do it.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You don’t have to kiss me, you don’t have to caress me, you don’t have to tell me you care—just do it...’
‘Can you feel that?’ James asked, and didn’t wait for her answer. ‘I doubt it, because it isn’t there any more.’
She got then that he was talking about his erection, or what had been one.
He cussed and then turned on his back and they lay in tense silence until Leila broke it.
‘Is it me you want?’ Leila checked. ‘Or is it just that I am here.’
James rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, it’s you.’ He looked over. ‘You’d be a pretty hard fantasy to top.’
She turned her back to him.
‘Look what happened when I wasn’t here.’
‘Yes, I do get what you’re saying,’ James conceded. ‘We’re forced together, but that doesn’t mean...’
‘You forced us together, James,’ Leila interrupted. ‘You pushed for this just because you want to be close to the baby, so that I couldn’t take him or her with me. So please don’t rewrite history and don’t try to pretend that you gave me a choice.’
‘Why don’t we rewrite our history?’ James nudged. ‘Why don’t we start being nice to each other and try dating—holding hands...’ He yawned. ‘Conversation. All the stuff that I’ve spent my life avoiding.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m hot for you, Leila,’ James said, and he made her cheeks pink. ‘Because I remember how good we were and it’s going to be a bloody long seven years otherwise.’
‘James...’ She turned and looked at him, at her very honest playboy, and she offered a suggestion. ‘It isn’t a turn-on when you keep pointing out we have a limited time frame.’
‘Noted.’ James smiled at the progress they made. ‘I’m going to date you, Leila.’ He watched as she tried to hold on to a very reluctant smile. ‘And given I can’t wine you, I’m going to have to dine you. A lot. After tomorrow though.’
‘After tomorrow?’ Leila checked.
He let out a sigh. ‘We’re having dinner with my parents, remember?’
CHAPTER NINE
LEILA WAS MEASURED for her new robes and slippers. It went on for the entire afternoon. She chose from swatches of heavy silks in light colours and made her selection of beads and threads. It was so different from home where her clothes simply arrived and Leila was expected to wear them without comment.
‘They’re going to be beautiful,’ Leila said as she told James about them when he came out of the shower to dress for dinner with his parents. ‘I have chosen soft colours—back at home it was all silver and gold...’ She could sense his distraction and her voice trailed off. ‘What should I wear to meet your parents?’
‘Whatever you feel most comfortable in,’ came James’s less than helpful response.
She could feel his tension and she recognised it, for it was how Leila had felt every day when she had lived at the palace.
Leila selected her gold robe and she did up the little buttons at the back that her maid had usually done. James tried not to watch the small struggle it took for her to do that. He tried not to remember the night she had unzipped her dress for him while, at the same time, Leila sulked that he did not help her.
‘Did you get buttons at the front for your new robes?’ James asked once Leila had finally done them up.
‘A woman of standing has buttons at the back and doesn’t do up her own. It is common to have them at the front.’
She noticed him, too, though.
There were beads of water on his back that he had missed while drying. As he went to get out his shirt, Leila wanted to take up the towel and dry his back. She wanted to kiss his tense shoulders, but instead she watched as he slipped his shirt on and selected a tie.
‘You didn’t shave,’ Leila commented because he had said that he was going to.
‘And I didn’t cut my hair,’ James clipped, and then he saw her frown. ‘You’ll see.’
They were driven to his parents and Leila attempted conversation. ‘I am thinking that maybe I should try and ring my parents,’ Leila said. ‘Though no doubt I have been disowned.’
‘I dream of the day my parents disown me...’ James stared moodily out of the car window and then stopped. ‘That was insensitive.’