Mohab knew that. He’d followed her work closely, with the utmost interest and admiration. And more than a little humility and self-deprecation. For she’d been able, with far fewer resources and powers, to peacefully do what he’d thought could only be resolved through his extreme measures. And while he’d discreetly helped her wherever he could, he’d been honing his methods on her example.
But why was Kamal telling him all this now? Or was he the one who couldn’t make sense of anything anymore?
Kamal, who’d taken him back to his quarters, was going on as they entered. “Then she leaves, and I think the next time I want to see her I’ll have to chase after her on one of her jaunts around the world. But I should have known better than to predict Jala the Unpredictable. She left the palace only to go stay in a three-star hotel.”
“I know that.”
Kamal’s fond expression deepened. “She was never one for luxury, but her work seems to have made her allergic to it. Not to mention her chronic independence issues. The eyes around here must have had her climbing walls. Ya Ullah!” His exclamation made Mohab blink. “I was told you brought cats, but I thought they mistook some other containers for carriers.”
His cats were scurrying to welcome him back, slowing down to a curious, cautious prowl when they found he had company.
Grinning widely, Kamal bent to offer them his hands to sniff. “Four cats! There’s no end to your surprises, Mohab, is there? Wait till my kids find out you have these beauties. You’ll be their favorite uncle.”
The word uncle stabbed him. He was destined not to be anyone’s uncle. Anyone’s anything. Seemed Kamal was still under the misapprehension that he might marry Jala.
Gritting his teeth, he watched his cats show Kamal the same level of instant trust and acceptance they’d shown Jala. Kamal probably felt the same as her to them, too.
Which was another reason he couldn’t be around her brother any longer. “Listen, Kamal...”
Kamal straightened with Mizar in his arms, grinning. “I do want to listen—to just how you did it. I knew you were effective, but this borders on magic.”
And Mohab had enough of all the ambiguity. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Jala, of course. She just called me and told me to start the wedding preparations.”
* * *
For the first time in his life, Mohab was totally in the dark.
Jala had told Kamal she would marry him.
Then, after Kamal had left, she’d called, making him certain he hadn’t been hallucinating. She’d informed him that their “engagement” would be celebrated tomorrow over a family dinner.
He’d demanded to see her before said dinner, but she’d hung up without even a goodbye. He still wondered if he’d only listened to a prerecorded announcement.
Yet he couldn’t care. This was his third, and probably final, chance—and he was not going to squander it this time.
To that end, he’d better get that wild-eyed look under control. Though the tuxedo-clad man who was reflected back at him in the ornate full-length mirror looked suave and polished, his expression was that of a starving wolf.
“I see why you didn’t hear me knock. You’re lost in admiring your own grandeur.”
The soft mockery lashed him, had him swinging around.
Jala.
She’d always been his ideal of femininity, the sum total of his fantasies, but tonight, she’d taken her sorcery to a new level. In an old-gold dress made of ethereal materials that wrapped her every curve to distressing advantage, she was overpowering...even otherworldly.
She headed for the open French doors and stopped with her back to him, contemplating the gardens at night. He approached her as if afraid she’d disappear if he made any sudden moves, and she looked at him over her shoulder with eyes as mysterious as Judar’s night. Her hair sifted in the jasmine-laden night breeze with swishes that strummed his every nerve.
“You said you wanted to talk.”
“Since you hung up on me, I didn’t think you registered my request, or thought it not worth consideration.”
“I reconsidered. We need to touch base before we face the combined forces of our families for the first time together.”
He slid his arms around her, crisscrossed them beneath her breasts and pulled her back against his body. This was probably a damaging move right now. But he was beyond holding back. These past three days had been three days beyond the limits of his endurance.
Even though he felt her tense as he bent to breathe her in, she didn’t resist. He went dizzy as the feel and scent and heat of her vitality and femininity eddied in his arteries.
“I thought I’d never see you again. Jala, habibati...”
He turned her in his arms and captured her lips with all his pent-up hunger and frustration.
Feeling her luscious mouth open beneath his, having his lungs fill with intoxication as she gasped a scorching gust of passion, tore aside any semblance of moderation. Bypassing all preliminaries, he plunged into her depths, his tongue dueling with hers as he squeezed her against him, his hands kneading down her body to bunch up the chiffon layers of her skirt and seek the sizzling velvet of her flesh. He dipped beneath the lace, cupping the perfection of her buttocks.
She tore her lips from his. “This isn’t why I’m here...”
Gritting his teeth, he reluctantly let her go. If their engagement dinner wasn’t less than half an hour away, he would have convinced her otherwise.
It was still with utmost satisfaction that he watched her hands tremble as she smoothed out the disarray created by his passion. “I’m here to explain why I’m doing this.”
“As long as you’ve reconsidered, I don’t care why.”
“You should, because I think you miscalculated.”
Hah. Tell him about it. But she was probably referring to some other miscalculation he was as yet unaware of.
“You think you can curb your uncle and dictate your terms, resolving the crisis without my...participation. And though I commend you for deciding to be forthright at last, even when it was counterproductive to your other purposes, I believe you’re wrong in thinking I’m not necessary to achieve your goal. You’d be right if we were talking about someone other than your uncle. But with his track record of paranoia and volatile pride he could still escalate the situation if Saraya’s percentage doesn’t appeal to him, or if he feels slighted, even if it means going to war against you, too.”