The Desert Prince's Bride (The Sheiks of Altair Book 2)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  Jaffri stopped, his eyes clearing of the heat as he looked down at her and shook his head. “You don’t trust me.”

  “Not in any way,” she snapped back at him, angry that he would think otherwise. “You have been cheating on your fiancée.”

  He crossed his massive arms over his equally massive chest. The chest on which she’d rested her head last night. The arms that had held her so gently as she slept!

  His belligerent tone pulled her eyes away from his arms and once more she focused on his eyes. “I don’t have a fiancée.”

  She gasped. “What was all that mess about two days ago then? Was the press conference just a sham?”

  He shrugged and her eyes were once again drawn to his deliciously broad shoulders. “Yes. I’m not engaged to Princess Mila. Never have been nor will I ever be engaged to the woman.”

  Giselle didn’t believe him. Automatically, her spine straightened as anger overrode the confusion. “So go announce to the journalists that always hang out in the press briefing room that you’re not engaged.”

  He shook his head, still watching her carefully as he started moving once again. Unfortunately, she kept trying to back away. Giselle thought about turning around so that she could simply run, but she didn’t want to take her eyes off of him. That would be like taking one’s eyes off of an approaching wolf, just not a good thing to do!

  “I can’t do that. Not yet anyway.”

  She huffed a bit, then shook her head. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re engaged and I don’t mess with engaged men.”

  He tilted his head slightly and he stopped his approach. “Is that what you think we’re doing, Giselle? Messing around?”

  She held her breath with that question since she’d just accepted that she was head over heels in love with the man. Trying to keep it casual, she shrugged one shoulder, acting as if it didn’t matter. “How would you define our actions?”

  “Mind blowing,” he replied back quickly but with that same calm confidence and authority with which he always spoke.

  For a few brief moments, his words made her heart sing! Until she realized that he was still just talking about sex. “Of course. So we have mind-blowing sex, in your opinion.” She took a deep breath and looked away, fighting back the tears. “I have to go,” she told him and turned around, hurrying towards the other end of the conference room where another doorway opened up to the opposite hallway.

  “Giselle!” he called out, that deep voice ringing with authority but she ignored it, even sped up. All she knew was that she had to get away from him before she threw herself into his arms and begged him to love her back!

  She couldn’t do that. Any sort of declaration of that magnitude couldn’t be forced. And besides, he was still an engaged man, even if he refused to acknowledge the arrangement. According to both Altair and Sidoon tradition, a blessing was given and received. Their nuptials were imminent even if they weren’t actively being planned.

  “What’s going on?” Stephen asked when she hurried into her office.

  She looked over at him, startled to find him there already. “What happened with your meeting with Sheik Talal?

  Stephen paused, appearing to be just as confused as she felt. “I thought he was going to give his suggestions on wedding plans, but it wasn’t even brought up. Very odd.” Stephen eagerly explained the ruler’s plans for the next month, the various events that the ruler had requested. Giselle nodded her head as she listened. “That’s consistent with the meeting I just had with Queen Katherine, her daughter, and Princess Mila.” She explained what the ladies were planning.

  “This is very strange,” Stephen said, looking at the two agendas, both seemed to be completely different from their normal range of events. Especially after the bombshell announcement that no one, apparently not even the participants, had anticipated.

  She nodded. “I don’t really understand what’s going on,” she mumbled.

  Stephen’s eyes flickered over both plans once more. “I agree. There’s a larger agenda that hasn’t been explained.”

  Both of them sighed and picked up their notes. “It isn’t our place to figure it out,” Stephen declared. “We’ll just have to get things moving and hope that we’ll eventually understand.”

  Giselle agreed. As soon as she was alone, she walked over to her desk and forced herself to start working through the details for the upcoming events. She’d have to coordinate with outside caterers as well as the palace chef, the public relations office, not to mention all of the royal administrative staff, trying to find dates for each of these events. Things were scheduled so far in advance, it will be hard to find time on everyone’s agenda.

  In an odd set of circumstances, most of which Giselle still didn’t understand, by the end of the day, all of the events were scheduled, blocks of time reserved on everyone’s calendar. It had never been this easy before!

  “When are you going to finish up?” a deep voice asked from her doorway.

  Looking up, she tried to hide her startled reaction when Jaffri stepped into her office. “What are you doing here?” she demanded, jumping out of her chair and coming around her desk. She grabbed his arm and tugged him inside, closing the door behind her. “You can’t be seen down here!”

  She quickly moved back to the other side of her desk, thinking that a heavy object might block her from throwing herself into his arms.

  “Why can’t I be here?” he asked, leaning his shoulders against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. She was momentarily distracted by the bulging biceps that strained the fabric of his dress shirt. Goodness, he was a well-put-together man!

  Shaking her head to get her mind back on track, she tried to remember what they’d been discussing. Looking up at him, she gritted her teeth when one of his dark eyebrows lifted in question. Darn it, he knew exactly what she’d been thinking!

  “Why?” he repeated, his tone sending shivers throughout her body.

  Why what? She tried to think fast, but her eyes looked at his lips. His shoulders. Then lower. She followed the line of his dress shirt buttons, knew exactly what was behind that material. A line of hair. A fascinating line of hair that led to…

  He snapped his fingers, pulling her attention away from the growing erection that was now pressing eagerly against his slacks. “Giselle, focus. We’ll get to that in a moment. Right now, I want to know why you think I can’t be here in your office.”

  She blinked and looked up at his eyes. “Why?”

  He chuckled softly, obviously amused with her distraction. “Yes. Why am I not allowed to be here?”

  She licked her lips, trying very hard not to look down again. Was his erection fully grown now? She wondered what he would do if she walked around the desk, reached out and…

  “Giselle!” he growled. “If you don’t focus, we’re going to leave right this moment and I won’t give you a chance to finish up here.”

  It took a monumental effort to focus. Darn it, he was so gorgeous! “Umm...yes.” She looked around at her desk, trying to remember what they’d been discussing.

  He didn’t help when he leaned forward, bracing his arms on her desk, his palms flat as he leaned towards her. “Tell me, Giselle. Why shouldn’t I be here?”

  She stared into those gorgeous sky blue eyes of his, so different from any other man she’d ever met.

  And engaged!

  “Because I work here.”

  “Yes. It is your office. So, why shouldn’t I be here?”

  Why not? That was a good question but she was once again distracted by the smoldering passion in his eyes. Why shouldn’t he be here? He made her office feel smaller but…Oh yeah! “Because you’re the boss and I’m…well, the hired help.” And he was engaged. “You should be with Princess Mila right now.”

  He laughed softly, then pushed away from the wall and moved around her desk. “You’re not going to believe that I didn’t agree to an engagement with Mila, are you?” She pulled back, pressing herself a
gainst the wall behind her. A sadness entered her body with his words. “You know very well how something like that works in your culture! It doesn’t matter whether you entered into the agreement, Jaffri,” she finally blurted out. “You’ve received her father’s blessing. You can’t hurt her feelings by cheating on her. It isn’t right.”

  Jaffri sighed and paused in his approach, leaning a hip against her desk. “Mila doesn’t want to marry me any more than I want to marry her. I suspect that she’s seeing someone else, but I’m not sure who it is.”

  That was startling news. “Why would she…?” Giselle stopped, not really sure what she wanted to ask him. “If she’s engaged to you, then…why…?”

  “I think her father wants a connection with Altair and he sprung this engagement on both of us during the news conference,” he told her. “But the man disappeared almost immediately after he made the announcement and gave his unasked-for blessing. We had no chance to ask him anything.”

  Her mouth fell open with his words. “So…this wasn’t…you didn’t…?”

  He shook his head again. “No, Giselle. I never agreed to marry Mila. And before yesterday morning, she and I had never even met. Even more astounding, she’s kept her privacy over the years, appearing in only a few photographs. So until that moment, I hadn’t even seen the woman’s picture, although I know several of my aides have sung her praises. She’s the one who organized all of the trade agreements between our two countries, Giselle. I certainly admire the woman. But I’m not marrying her.”

  Giselle listened to his words, but she wasn’t quite processing them.

  “Who are you going to marry?” she asked, her voice only a whisper. She wasn’t aware of her wide, scared eyes or the pulse beating frantically at the base of her throat. All she knew was that there was a heat in his eyes, a promise of something…something she couldn’t really define.

  “I’m going to marry a woman who sets my blood on fire,” he told her, his finger sliding down her cheek, ending right at that racing pulse. “I’m going to marry a woman who makes me laugh, drives me wild in bed, and a woman I love to watch walking down the hallways, even when she’s running away from me.”

  Giselle held her breath. But she couldn’t let the words move past her lips. She wanted it so badly, but what if he was talking about someone else? What if he was just talking about an abstract woman that he hadn’t yet met?

  “I’m going to marry a woman with beautiful green eyes and soft curls. A woman that taunts and distracts me. This woman will know who she is, what she wants out of life, and isn’t afraid to travel halfway across the world on an adventure.”

  She couldn’t breathe, her lungs on fire, but she couldn’t breathe. “Who is this woman?” she demanded.

  He chuckled. “I’m going to marry you, Giselle. You have to know that.”

  She shook her head, unaware of her dark curls dancing around her face. “Why would I know that?” she demanded, almost angry. But then his words hit her and she gasped. “You’re going to marry me?”

  He nodded, moving closer, his hand sliding down her arm, wrapping around her waist and pulling her against him. “Yes. I’m going to marry you.” His head dipped, his lips nibbling against her ear and she gripped his shoulders, unaware of the tears streaming down her cheeks.

  “You can’t marry me,” she finally said. “You’re engaged to…ow!” She pulled back, laughing after he bit her earlobe a touch harder than necessary.

  “I’m not marrying Princess Mila,” he told her, pinning her arms up over her head, his hips pinning hers against the wall. “I’m marrying you, Giselle. If you’d just say yes!”

  “Yes?”

  He laughed, lowering his head to torment her neck some more. “You don’t sound very sure of your answer. In fact, that came out more as a question than an answer.”

  She pushed against his shoulders but he wouldn’t stop his nibbling against her neck. “Jaffri, you have to stop. I can’t think when you’re doing that.”

  “Good. Don’t think. When you think, you tend to have this silly misconception that you can order me around,” he teased. A moment later, he pulled away, but only so that he could lift her into his arms. She yelped, but wrapped her arms around his neck. As he carried her from her office, she wasn’t sure what was going on, but she knew that she should shut her computer down and turn off the lights. Why she was thinking about things like that, she wasn’t exactly sure.

  She kinda liked being carried down the hallway like this. It was…romantic.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked, thinking about his feet hanging off the end of her smaller bed when he came to her apartment.

  “Where do you think we’re going?” he asked and turned right, heading in the direction of the royal living quarters.

  That really worried her. She squirmed, trying to get down. “NO! We can’t go to your suite.” He didn’t stop and she increased her efforts to get out of his arms. “Jaffri! Stop! This is crazy! We can’t…!”

  He shouldered his way through one of the doors and she glanced behind them, suddenly aware of his body guards. There were four men surrounding him, all of them walking along with them. “This is crazy!” she growled, feeling painfully self-conscious. “Put me down!”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “I think it’s cute that you still believe you are in control, honey.” He shouldered through yet another doorway, then kicked that door closed. They were alone now, but he didn’t stop. He continued until they were in his bedroom and, only then did he toss her down onto his big bed.

  She stayed right there, too stunned to move. “You did not just throw me down onto this bed, did you?” she growled, glaring up at him with narrowed, challenging eyes. He wasn’t slowing down. In fact, his shirt was already unbuttoned and he tossed it carelessly onto the floor. “Don’t you dare!” she snapped and scooted over to the other side of the bed.

  He was too fast for her though. With one arm, he reached out and grabbed her ankle, bringing her right back. This time, he pinned her there, his hips pressing between her knees, pushing her legs wide to make room for him.

  She groaned, feeling the heat spreading through her body. His hand was underneath her silk blouse, pushing the lace of her bra out of the way. “Don’t!” she cried out, then closed her eyes when his fingers found her nipple. “Jaffri!” she sighed, arching her back, pressing her breast into the rough palm of his hand. As a reward, he squeezed her breast, his thumb flicking the nipple back and forth. It was already a tight peak, but with his rough ministrations, the bud tightened to an almost painful point. “Please!” she whimpered. “We can’t…”

  She couldn’t finish whatever it was that she was going to tell him, mostly because words disappeared as soon as his hot mouth covered her nipple through her silk blouse. Then his teeth nipped the point and she almost screamed out as desire slammed into her.

  “I think you should stop telling me what I can’t do and start telling me what you want me to do,” he told her as his other hand stole up underneath the silk on the other side.

  “Touch me,” she begged, shifting her body so that it fit his searching palm.

  “Where?” he asked, moving the silk out of his way. “Tell me where you want to be touched,” he urged.

  “Here!” she gasped and took his hand, placing it over her breast. “Please!” she sobbed, lifting her body up.

  “I love your body,” he told her as his head lowered, his teeth scraping against her nipple. “I love it when you tell me what you like.”

  “Could you do it faster?’ she asked, then groaned when he slowed down.

  “Not a chance,” he replied, laughing when she tried to grab his hair, but the strands were too short for her to get a grip. Instead, he pulled away slightly and, with one sharp tug, the silk of her blouse was torn to shreds. “Pretty bra,” he commented, but a moment later, it was ripped and tossed to the floor behind him. “But your breasts are prettier.”

  She wanted to berate him about
what he’d just done, but when she opened her mouth to snap at him, he kissed her. A kiss that stole her breath away, his tongue mating with hers, building her desire sky high.

  “Jaffri, stop…”

  Instead of stopping, he rolled onto his back, pulling her so that she was straddling his waist. With a simple shift, he moved her hips lower so that she was straddling his hips. “I messed up. I didn’t anticipate Sheik Sidoon’s move. I didn’t realize what he was going to do and I hurt you by my lack of insight into that man’s damn announcement.” His eyes looked into hers, then back down at her bare breasts, the pink nipples taut and tight, ready for him to torment. “So last night, I wanted to help you, make you feel better.”

  “You did,” she whispered, her voice a bit choked with his admission. “I felt better but…”

  “But this morning, you were still hurting. You didn’t trust me, and…” he pressed a finger against her lips when she started to say something. “And you shouldn’t. I understand why you don’t trust me. But I’m going to make this right, Giselle.” He rolled over again, pinning her under his body and she gasped when his throbbing erection pressed against her core.

  “I’m going to make it right and prove that you can trust me.”

  Her fingers fluttered over his chest. “Okay, so what are you going to do now?”

  He laughed, throwing his head back with delight at her taunt. When he looked down at her, seeing her skirt bunched up around her upper thighs and her breasts heaving, her nipples pink and tight, just begging for him to torment them further, he shook his head. “Honey, you just don’t know what you’re doing to me, do you?”

  She rolled her eyes, shifting slightly, trying to tempt him into doing something more. She loved feeling vulnerable like this, especially since she knew he would never intentionally hurt her. But right now, she wanted to touch him, to feel him and for him to feel her as well. She wanted to revel in his strength and sigh with happiness as he filled her up.

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you show me?” she asked, sliding her leg against his slacks, feeling the roughness of the material against her inner thigh. “Or are you too…”