man-eater. Which made her an even more dangerous one for being impossible to categorize, to predict, to despise.
He huffed his disgust with himself. âAnything? And youâre supposedly a phenomenal political and financial law consultant. I thought when your father stopped making the dimwitted state and financial decisions he was famous for and started making choices far above his minuscule IQ, that you were behind it.Now I have to revise that belief, if you, too, go around giving carte blanche to conditions you havenât heard yet.â
âAnything for you, â she amended indulgently, not bothering to counter his assessment, as only someone secure in her abilities wouldnât. âI know you wonât make it anything bad.â
âAnd you know that because Iâm the Gandhi of the region? Are you already suffering from sunstroke? Your judgment is evidently impaired.â
She made a hurry-up gesture with those elegant, trim-nailed hands. âSpit out your condition, and letâs be on our way.â
He sighed again. âNo complaints. If I hear one, youâre back here.â
She fluttered those thick-enough-to-sleep-on lashes, gave him a mock salute. âYes, sir.â
He almost groaned. She was making kidnapping her too easy. Anything that started out that way invariably ended in catastrophe. What would that entail in this situation?
He had no choice but to find out.
He looked down at her, exhaled, nodded. To himself. To committing to this path. Wherever it took him.
He only hoped that when catastrophe struck, heâd at least have accomplished his mission.
Â
Maram looked down into those eyes Amjad had damned earlier.
And damn summed them up all right.
Sheâd had a good-to-great life on the whole. But it was only when she looked into his eyes that she felt aware of every spark of her being, every iota of her potential.
And that was before heâd taken her riding on his horse.
Sheâd expected him to ride a black stallion. Or a white one. Sheâd been delighted to find his favorite was a glorious light chestnut mare. Dahabeyah, literally âgolden,â would be her twin if she were a horse. Sheâd held her ponytail next to the mareâs and exclaimed how they were almost the same color. Sheâd asked ifheâd chosen the mare for the animalâs similarity to her, knowing heâd never admit it even at gunpoint.
His answer had been a mere snort before he turned to tacking up the mare, then donned a billowy white abaya and traditional head cover.
Then heâd mounted the mare in a demonstration of power and grace and all she could think of was him mounting her, riding herâ¦
Sheâd been combusting even before heâd pulled her up behind him. Sheâd declined to ride a horse of her own, wasnât such an assured horsewoman that sheâd risk it in this terrain. His eyes had said she just wanted to be as close to him as possible. She hadnât denied the accusation. The truth consisted of both his version and hers.
Theyâd ridden uphill for twenty minutes at a trot. Every second brought a new level of awareness of the hot, living rock she enveloped, the powerful heart that boomed beneath her ear, the scent that induced a hormonal surge with each inhalation.
By the time theyâd reached their destination, she thought sheâd melted around him, could never be extricated from his flesh again.
He swung down, leaving her jangling from the loss of him. She wondered if heâd help her downâbut heâd already given her too many concessions. He wasnât about to act the gallant knight.
She didnât want him to. Not out of, gasp, gentlemanliness. In time, sheâd make him wish to offer those gestures out of the consideration heâd come to feel for her.
She was getting down from the horse when she saw his eyes flood with a somberness sheâd never seen there before.
It shook her to