He turned toward Haidar. He was blocking the door of Rashid’s suite in Azmahar’s royal palace where he’d be staying while the wedding preparations were being made.

His careless glance answered Haidar’s black scowl as he passed him on his way out of the room. “Schedule a duel with Ahmad on your way out, Haidar.”

His arm was snagged in Haidar’s grip. “Is marrying Laylah part of your war on us?”

Rashid swung around to face Haidar, snarling. “She has nothing to do with any of that.”

“So what will you have me believe?” Haidar hissed. “That you fell in love with her and that’s why you’re marrying her?”

He shook off Haidar’s hand. “I care nothing about what you believe. Will you see yourself out, or do you need help?”

Haidar blocked his way again, furious, urgent, entreating. “Whatever it is you think you have against me and Jalal, do whatever you want to us. We can take it. But Laylah has always loved you, and if you’re using her, it will destroy her.”

“You think I need to use anyone to trounce you?”

“Then is this about the throne? If you’re trying to complete the last corner in your campaign through her, I’ll save you the trouble. I’ll make the battle unnecessary. I’ll withdraw from the race. I can make Jalal do the same. Just don’t do this to her.”

Something snapped inside him. He hefted Haidar off the floor, slammed him into the wall, a beast’s snarl issuing from his depths. “I will say this once, Haidar. I have always wanted Laylah, but now I find no reason and no way to exist without her. I would rather die, or worse, than hurt her. So if you dare insinuate otherwise, I won’t fight you anymore, I’ll finish you.”

Haidar’s fingers dug into his hands hard enough to penetrate his red haze of aggression, extricating himself from his rabid grasp, his eyes narrowing, as if to gauge Rashid’s sincerity.

Seeming convinced, Haidar exhaled. “With you turning all Comte De Monte Cristo on us, I feared there might be no line you wouldn’t cross. I also thought you’d never fall in love. B’Ellahi, the only girlfriend we ever heard about turned out to be fictional. For years you misled us into thinking you picked that inferior college to be near said girlfriend, not because it was what you could afford. And then, Laylah kept trying to get you to notice her, and you never showed any indication you even saw her.”

“Just as I couldn’t afford a better college, I couldn’t afford to look at her.” His heart convulsed. “I still can’t believe I have her now.”

Exasperation filled Haidar’s face. “This pride of yours—this pathologically huge sense of honor—it stopped you from taking everything that was yours. Our support, Laylah’s love. And it made you saddle yourself with your bastard of a guardian’s debts, so that you derailed your whole life to pay them off, without help from anyone.”

“But when I really needed help, and it clashed with your best interests, you didn’t care if I lived or died.” At Haidar’s bewildered glance, he plowed on. “So don’t think I will spare you now because you’re Laylah’s cousin.”

Still looking confused, Haidar smirked. “Not even if she asks you to? If you love her as much as you claim, you’ll do whatever she wants. Like I would, for Roxanne.”

“I am bound to obey her, even if it means my honor and my life. But if she does ask, I might tell her the truth about you. She would withdraw her intervention if she knew what you did.”

Haidar exploded. “And what the hell did I do, damn you?”

“You damned me.”

At his bellow, Haidar’s stupefaction felt real.

Was it possible Haidar didn’t know what Rashid was referring to?

No. No time to dwell on the possibility of anything this disturbing, this huge. He had to get to Laylah. Only she mattered.

He pushed past Haidar, making it clear there would be no detaining him this time. “Now my salvation is waiting for me, and you’re keeping me from her. I’d decimate you for that alone.”

The moment he cleared the door, his heart stopped.

Laylah. A dozen feet from his door.

After the first drench of unreasoning horror that she might have heard anything, he ran to sweep her into his arms.

“Habibati...” he groaned against her temple, her cheeks, her lips. “How are you here already?”

“We landed earlier.”

“And Zaaher didn’t tell me!”

“At my insistence, so don’t you dare take this up with him.”

His heartstrings vibrated with the delight of having her in his arms again. “To’moreeni—as you command.”

“It’s creepy how you have Rashid doing your bidding, Laylah.” Haidar stopped by their side, dropped a kiss on her head and met Rashid’s incensed gaze with a calm glance. Rashid’s fury rose as Laylah returned Haidar’s smile and kiss. “It’s like seeing a shark doing tricks in a swimming pool. Who knew you had it in you? But keep up the good work, ya bent al amm. Holding the reins of such an unstoppable force can come in handy. For us.”

Rashid bit back something demolishing. He’d never expose her to tension. Which might mean sparing Haidar and Jalal, after all.

He’d think about that later. All he could think of now was that he had her back.

Uncaring anymore that the palace dwellers would see him taking her to his quarters, the moment she said goodbye to Haidar, he rushed back there with her in his arms. He told himself he’d never let her go again.

* * *

Laylah clung to Rashid as if she’d never let him go, feeling reclaimed from the hell of doubts and dread.

Before she could say anything, he opened his mouth on her neck, suckled her as if assimilating her into himself, growling those extravagant endearments he’d been deluging her in of late.

Fireworks exploded in her blood as he put her down, ground the steel of his erection into her belly, showing her she only had to wrap herself around him and he’d fill her emptiness.

She forgot everything but this, him, them, like that.

“Rashid, take me...”

At her urgency, he snatched her dress up, spreading her thighs around his hips. He pressed her against something that rattled as he freed himself, tore her panties out of the way then slid her up to scale his length. She felt the hot hardness of him at her entrance, keened, disintegrating with the firebomb of hunger he’d detonated inside her. Obeying her plea for hard and fast, he let her crash down on him as he thrust up, impaling her.




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