And she couldn’t let him go on laughing viciously at her expense, knowing he’d made her his grateful, worshipping fool.
She channeled his female counterpart, heard herself murmuring coldly, “You did what everyone before you failed to do. You’re the only one I had a liaison with who Bill knew was a real threat. But then you’re the first crown prince I’ve ever been with. Of course, I knew. I went along because you wanted to play it that way, and I wanted to play, too. But it really made him panic. He called me back to offer marriage at last.”
Before Shehab doubled over in shock, he realized.
Farah had found out who he was, was teaching him a lesson.
Now she’d slap him for keeping his identity from her, rant and rave, then end up laughing at his deserved horror. And he’d sweep her in his arms and let her have whatever revenge she saw fit. Then much, much later, he’d show her how he’d take anything from her, but there were certain things she should never joke about, or use in his chastisement. One thing. Her love for him.
But she didn’t slap him, didn’t rant, didn’t laugh, just looked at him with those unfamiliar eyes, spoke again in that unfeeling tone. “It’s been fun while it lasted. You’re a great host and an OK lover. I’m sure you didn’t mean your marriage offer, but even if you did, Bill is by far the better proposition. You’re too…demanding, you understand.”
He couldn’t breathe. He wouldn’t until she yelled at him, or until she made a face and stuck out her tongue, as he loved to see her do. But she did neither.
She passed him, opened the door. “Bill is very sensitive about you right now, and I have to humor him until he writes up those prenups. Maybe after everything is settled I can see you again. If I don’t hook up with someone else meanwhile, that is.”
Everything he’d heard about her. The rumors as she’d called them. She was admitting to them all. And she wasn’t joking.
“Of course, if we do hook up again, you’ll have to excuse me when I drop the wide-eyed, adoring idiot act. I strained to keep it going and won’t be trying it again any time soon.”
Stop. Stop. The roar bloodied his throat, even when it went unbellowed. But she didn’t stop.
“I would have invited you in for goodbye sex, but Bill’s joining me in an hour, and you don’t do quickies, so…” She made a dismissive gesture, showing him the door.
He couldn’t have moved if his life depended on it. An avalanche had buried him, made up of all the moments since they’d met. Every one twisted around, grinning hideously, showing him its true macabre face. He’d deceived her about his intentions for the best of reasons. She’d deceived him about her nature, seamlessly, for the basest ones.
The woman he worshipped didn’t even exist.
But he couldn’t stagger to his knees and bleed to death now. It didn’t matter if she was a perverted soul who thrived on entrapping men only to destroy them. It didn’t matter that she’d pulverized his heart and soul. Those were the man’s. The crown prince of Judar didn’t need them to fulfill his role as future king. And he’d make her fulfill hers-as future queen.
He took the door from her, closed it with a calm that only losing everything can bestow. “So you think you can just send me on my way. Interesting. More interesting is that you seem to think any of the last six weeks was actually for you. A woman’s ego is boundless, especially when enough flimsy men give her the impression she is irresistible. I would have preferred to do this my way, the painless way, but since you think I’ll let you merrily go on to your petty agendas, I will have to apply pressure. It’s up to you how much I do apply. You can come with me now, without further persuasion on my part, and spare yourself the unpleasantness, or I can make you, and your senile lover, live to regret it. Then you’ll do what I want, anyway.”
Farah almost smiled. How easy it had been to make him take off the mask. Bare his true face. The soulless sheikh who used and abused people to his ends.
With the morbid fascination of someone mortally wounded and wondering how her murderer would release her from the pain, what the killing blow would be, she cocked her head at him.
“You’re drunk on your power, aren’t you? How would you do any of that? We’re in America now, not your island, or in your kingdom.”
The smile he gave her would have been scary, if she could feel a thing. “Can I give you a list? How about starting with grinding Hanson into the ground, until he’s filing for bankruptcy? If I show him how I’ll do it, and how he could stop it, he’ll throw you aside in a blink. Then I won’t leave you anywhere else to turn and you’ll come crawling to me. And I’ll take you, marry you, a repulsive duty for my kingdom’s sake. I only endured your so-called inexperience and your odious character to obtain my end. The highest end. Retaining the throne of Judar, and with it the whole region’s peace.”
And it came. The confirmation. The end of hope that maybe anything, one hour, one time with her, had been for her, had been real. It was Dan all over again. He’d even used his words.
But Dan she hadn’t loved beyond self-preservation, beyond sanity. His animosity and disgust hadn’t mattered to her. Shehab’s finished her.
And she was pushing past him. Running and running.
She didn’t get far. In a minute he had her cornered between his men and his approach. And like prey that knew there was no point in struggling, she stood there, let him catch her.
He took her to his limo, his eyes those of the stranger he was, his real emotions fueling his gaze, pitilessness, aversion. She sat huddled against her door all the way back to his jet.
As soon as they were in the air, she turned lifeless eyes on him. “So you’re kidnapping me for real this time.”
He made a disgusted sound. “I’m taking you to your father. Fate has it that you’re the daughter of a great king, and the salvation of two kingdoms. I have to look beyond your shortcomings and at what good you’ll do by simply existing.”
“What’s this stuff you keep talking about? Retaining the throne, the whole region’s peace, the salvation of two kingdoms?”
“King Atef told you all about it. Spare me the pretense.”
“I’m not pretending. I’ve talked to King Atef maybe a dozen times. The first few times I was still reeling after my Mom dropped the bomb that he was my father. I-I really liked him, but I was afraid I might be desperate for another father figure.