His Arranged Marriage

by Tina Leonard

  Rose watched as the princess ascended the stairs. “Take my credit card, which is in my purse, with you, Jessica, and please make certain that the princess is outfitted with the proper undergarments my son wishes she wear. Daytime trousseau she most certainly needs, nothing practical at all, and for night, be certain to pick up something that can be seen through as easily as glass and yet will tantalize a young prince who needs a little encouragement to tend his wife. I’m pretty certain King Zak would approve of my methods,” she said with a satisfied smile.

  “This is going to be fun,” Jessica said with glee. “I can’t wait to see the expression on Cade’s face when Serena shows him her souvenirs from Victoria’s Secret!”

  Chapter Nine

  A relaxing meal after the invigorating afternoon swim with his princess was what he needed, Cade decided, surveying the table with satisfaction. His vixen of a wife had given him a good run for his money with her wild chase on horseback. Then she had followed up that stunt by watching him stand in an ant bed, necessitating his jumping into the cold stream.

  He refused to even think about what the cold water had done to his vow of restraint. Who would have thought his pampered princess would have been lacking proper undergarments? Hours later, he still felt need for her burning inside him.

  “Maybe I will have wine tonight,” he told the cook as she moved past his place with the wine pitcher, knowing that he didn’t drink it.

  “You don’t drink wine,” she commented with a roll of her eyes, ignoring him.

  Soothing his raging mind was paramount; wine might help dull the panic his wife seemed to visit upon his desire. “Wine would go well with the steak I smell grilling,” he prevaricated. But that made him think about a wife determined to inflame his senses past anything he’d ever experienced. He needed a clear head to deal with her. “Never mind,” he said curtly. “Maybe wine is a bad idea.”

  The cook snorted, disregarding him as she continued filling the goblets.

  He drummed the table with his fingers, waiting for the rest of his family to enter the dining room. They weren’t usually this late. Footsteps sounded on the stairs and he relaxed a little. At last! If they’d hurry up, he could get to the chow, and after today’s activities, he was starved.

  But the only person who walked into the room was Serena, and his appetite for food went right out the window.

  A strapless ice-teal evening gown hugged her waist and fell in a straight satiny shimmer to her ankles. Matching sandals with rhinestone-encrusted thin heels peeped from beneath the dress as she walked toward the table. Her chestnut hair was pulled into a tousled upsweep, which gave him a clear view of beautiful shoulders and carried his gaze along the natural slope of her body to her bust-line.

  As far as he could tell, Serena had decided against borrowing a brassiere from either of the ladies in the house—and further, planned to flaunt her lack of one.

  Did she think he was made of stone?

  Before he could voice the question aloud, he saw two smiling faces peeking around the corner of the dining room—his mother, and Jessica.

  A setup. They’d dolled up his wife on purpose, and he was no match for their seductive staging. He was outgunned—and none too happy about it.

  “Serena,” he said, his voice low. “Would you mind joining me upstairs in my room for a moment?”

  She stared at him in surprise before a pleased smile dawned on her face. “It would be my earnest pleasure, husband.”

  He rose and held out a hand, indicating that she should precede him from the room. As they passed into the hall, he nodded at his mother and cousin. “Good evening, Mother,” he said smoothly. “You’re looking well. Jessica,” he said politely, with another nod, before following his wife’s swaying, shimmering backside up the stairs.

  “I think it’s safe to say we’ll be eating with only Mac tonight,” Rose said happily. “We’ll have to remember to send the honeymooners up a tray!”

  “Honeymooners,” Jessica repeated thoughtfully. “Do you realize Cade and Serena haven’t had a honeymoon?”

  A worried frown settled on Rose’s face. “I hadn’t thought about it, but it’s something to consider if—”

  Upstairs, a door closed with a decided thud. The sound reverberated in the hall downstairs.

  With dismay, Rose and Jessica stared at each other. The sound hadn’t been one of two lovers sneaking off for a rendezvous.

  “We may have to consider rigging some type of honeymoon if those two can’t work out the kinks in the next two weeks,” Rose said authoritatively. “I promised the king they’d be cooing like lovebirds if we gave them enough time, and his version of enough is fourteen days!”

  CADE STARED at the lovely woman in front of him, her hands locked together at her hips as if she feared he might devour her whole. He reminded himself that this princess talked a good game, but she was a virgin—and no doubt thought that his family’s machinations had finally brought him to heel.

  They had done nothing but push him further from their apparent goal. “Serena,” he said softly, “you look lovely tonight.”

  She visibly relaxed. “Thank you. I do want to please you, my prince.”

  “You do. Although I have to admit, I’m somewhat uneasy about you walking around without…”

  “Without, Prince Kadar?”

  He swallowed. “Without that which we discussed this afternoon!”

  “Oh…” she said, her tone dawning with realization. “You need not worry about your wife walking around the ranch without proper clothing anymore.”

  She reached to her side and undid a side zipper, allowing the sheath of ice-teal to fall to the floor in a fast sigh that seared Cade’s nerves like a razor stroke. “That is not a bra,” he said hoarsely, staring at the white, sequined garment that hugged her full breasts, lined her sleek waist and all but bared her femininity to his starved gaze. Satiny garters held up sheer white stockings on legs that were slim and fit. Her feet tucked into the delicate teal sandals with rhinestone heels topped off a vision of delicate innocence—and sensual promise. “That is not a bra,” he repeated dumbly, feeling somehow as if he’d been tricked.

  “It is. I am covered where you want me covered,” she said, touching her chest area for emphasis. “This is called a merry widow, although I must say I would much rather call it a merry bride. Or a merry wife. I like the sound of that better.” She smiled at him. “Would you like to examine the fabric, my prince?”

  His mouth dried out. “I—”

  “I wonder if they have anything called a merry husband,” she said, slowly walking toward him.

  “I’m not feeling very merry at this moment,” Cade said. “Serena, I would like to examine every inch of that…that, but I cannot,” he said on a rush, backing up slightly so that she halted in her tracks. “We need to get to know each other better.”

  “I am trying!”

  He shook his head. “There’s more to marriage than sex. We haven’t talked over any of the points of what we’re going to do with our lives.”

  She frowned at him. “Your cousin says you are much more for talking than Mac. Perhaps you are all talk and no action.”

  “I most certainly—” He stopped, sniffing out the trap in her words. “Be that as it may,” he continued, ignoring the barb, “that’s a perfect example of why we need to get to know each other better before we make love.”

  “You’re afraid I’m not going to like you,” Serena said. “And then I’ll be stuck with you because I can’t go home dishonored.”

  “Yes,” Cade said with enthusiasm. “That’s exactly it. And it’s not just me, it’s the ranch. Life in Texas is very different from what you’ve been used to.”

  “I’ve heard all these arguments,” Serena said, her chin lifting. “I am ready for my husband to favor me. After all, how will I know if I truly like you unless you make love to me?”

  His jaw dropped, her angle one he hadn’t anticipated.

  She paced t
he room, her backside gleaming and round underneath a shadow of lace as she did, shattering his concentration. He direly wished she would put her evening gown back on!

  “How many women have you favored?” she demanded, turning to face him.

  “What?”

  “How…many…women…have you favored?” she asked slowly and loudly, as if he were near-deaf. “Can you recall them?”

  “Of course I can!” he said, wondering where his princess’s devious mind was heading. “If I understand your terminology correctly to mean how many women have I made love to.”

  “Yes. That is what I want to know.”

  “Some.”

  She raised her brows. “Some?”

  He nodded. “A few.”

  “A few.”

  He nodded again.

  “And where are they now, these women that you favored?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “So you knew, once you had made love with them, that you really did not like them. Otherwise they would be somewhere around The Desert Rose. I have not seen any of your women.”

  “I have no harem here.”

  “So you did not really like them for very long.”

  “I suppose not.”

  “Then how do you expect me to know whether I like you if we do not make love? How does a woman know whether she likes a man or not unless she has experienced the ultimate pleasure with him?”

  “Trust me, you would experience the ultimate pleasure with me, Princess.”

  She crossed her arms, which sent her breasts mounding up over the top of the merry widow, filling him with a desire to investigate and conquer that undiscovered territory. “Yes, so you say, but we have already determined that you are a man who boasts but not necessarily acts upon his word.”

  He kept his mouth shut now, his gaze simmering on her full lips before locking on to the determined expression in her eyes.

  “This does not bode well for you,” she assured him. “I am thinking now that perhaps you are right. Maybe I won’t want to be married to you once we have made love.”

  “That isn’t what concerns me!”

  She held up a hand, showing a light plane of underarm that he found surprisingly sexy. So far, he couldn’t see a centimeter of his wife he didn’t find charming.

  “All the women vie for the privilege of Prince Sharif’s bed,” she said, holding her pose, one hand gesturing to emphasize all the women.

  “I am not interested in hearing about Prince Sharif,” Cade growled.

  She ignored him. “There is not a woman who does not pray to Allah for an invitation to his bed. To be thusly invited shows most favored status, and improves one’s position in the harem.” Her gaze held his. “I have not been so favored by my own husband. It is humiliating.”

  Cade’s jaw dropped for a second, before he reached out to grab his wife and pull her down onto his lap as he sat on the bed. “Serena, this is not a harem. You have no worry about position here. As my wife, you are special. You are not losing face in any way, and besides which, no one can know that we’re not up here right now, uh, having favors with each other.”

  She laughed shyly at his bungling of the term. “You do not understand. A woman who cannot please her husband might as well pack her small bag and get back on a plane.”

  “I do not want you to go, unless you want to go. More than anything, I want you to be happy at The Desert Rose, and be my wife.” With one finger, he traced the soft skin revealed above the merry widow. “Trust me, Serena, if we decide to stay married, I would need only you. I would stay in your bed the way a faithful soldier stays in your palace’s army.”

  She smiled hesitantly. “Even the most obedient soldier falters from time to time.”

  He kissed the white skin of her shoulder. “Are you saying my weapon would be laid down? I assure you that would not be the case. It’s not, even now.”

  She started, her eyes wide as she realized she was sitting very near the subject of their discussion. “You do want to favor me, then?”

  He pressed his face between her breasts and traced her bottom with his hands. “I want to make love with you, yes. And I promise you that you won’t have to worry about not liking me after we’ve made love.”

  She snuggled against his neck. “I was truly teasing you, my prince. I was trying to be very American and progressive.”

  “You could give a guy a complex like that,” he said, nipping at the curve of her collarbone. “I’ve never had a woman mention that she didn’t like me after the fact. I may have to call and ask them.”

  She tugged at the hair on his nape. “I will cut off your finger if it so much as dials the number of one girlfriend.”

  He chuckled. “That doesn’t sound very much like a woman who’s grown up around harems and understands a man’s needs.”

  “Women can be spiteful in the harem, although they don’t cut off anyone’s hands, usually,” she said, nipping at his earlobe. “However, in America I have decided to do as the Americans do. You may not have a harem.”

  “You’re kind of bossy for a princess,” he said, standing her back on her feet so that he could slide the satin gown back over her head.

  “You’re rather more like a mule than a stallion, my prince,” she shot back. “I will be a merry wife one day.”

  “That reminds me,” he said, kissing her forehead. “Are you going to wear that merry thing every day?”

  She stepped back from him and went to the mirror, sending him a saucy smile in the image. “I promised to obey my prince about the brassiere thing, didn’t I? Your cousin took me to Victoria’s Secret today, and I now own enough undergarments to make certain that for as long as I stay here, my husband’s wishes are done. Every day, in a different style, and a different color.”

  “Remind me to send Jessica back to college,” he said on a groan. “Maybe she should take up some advanced studies to keep her from influencing my wife.”

  He followed her from the room, and down the stairs to join the family in the dining room. However, at the doorway, Serena stopped, causing him to bump into her delicious backside.

  “Whoa,” he said, reaching out to steady her. “What’s wrong?”

  “I have to call my father,” Serena said suddenly. “Please make my excuses to your family for missing the evening meal with them.”

  And then she tore back up the stairs, her teal skirt held in her hands so that she could hurry. Cade stared after her. “Missing the meal with them was their intention,” he said to no one.

  What had made his princess vanish like day before night?

  “ONE MOMENT, Princess Serena, I will get Prince Sharif for you,” her father’s chief adviser said. “Your father is at a meeting in the city, or I am certain he would want to speak with you as well.”

  “That’s all right. Prince Sharif is fine for now. Thank you.” Her mission of seduction could best be answered by the man who had a many women vying for his favors. She needed to know how long it took before a man could consider that he knew a woman well enough to make love to her; this was not a question she could ask of any females in the palace harem. The gossip would be enormous and scathing that she could not lure her prince into bed.

  No, Prince Sharif was the appropriate person to give her the man’s perspective on love.

  “Hello, my sister,” he greeted as he came on the line.

  Familiar feelings of love and closeness rushed into her at the sound of Sharif’s voice. “How good it is to hear you, Sharif!”

  “And you, as well. The palace is not the same without you.”

  “Perhaps I am not the same without the palace,” Serena said quietly.

  “You are not happy with Prince Kadar?” Sharif asked quickly. “He is not kind to you? I will come at once and cut his—”

  “No, no, no!” Serena exclaimed. “I mean that maybe I am not all my prince thought I would be once he brought me to his home.”

  Sharif hesitated. “My sister, you are all he though
t you were and more, I am sure. What makes you have these worries? It is his job to make you feel secure in a land where you are unfamiliar, and secure among his people.”

  Serena laughed. “His people are kind and generous. They have included me as one of their own. His land is different, but I like it. No, Sharif,” she said, her voice lowered, “my problem is a delicate one.”

  “I will help you if I can, but perhaps you should call the harem and speak to—”

  “No. I cannot do that. I need to know how a man thinks, not how a woman thinks who is trying to please a man. My prince seems immune to that.”

  “Ah. I understand.”

  Serena’s eyebrows flew up. “You do?”

  “Absolutely. He is bored.”

  “Bored?” She didn’t like the sound of that at all.

  “Yes. He has had many women who tried to possess him. They have all tried their tricks on him. He is weary of women’s wiles. So you must forget whatever you learned in the harem.”

  “Well, it wasn’t much,” Serena muttered. “The women were careful around my ears.”

  “All the better then. Anyway, American people are very different about this marriage thing. This one-man, one-woman situation is very trying. You must be all the more captivating, without actually seeming to be trying to captivate him, of course.”

  “But how? He won’t even…even—” Serena broke off, blushing. “Our marriage could be annulled at any moment,” she finished on a dismayed whisper.

  “Has he said that is what he wants?”

  “No. He says he wants to wait until I know my own mind.”

  “Allah be praised for bringing such a man to my sister,” Sharif said joyfully, “even if I cannot fully comprehend such restraint.”

  “You would not show such restraint with your bride, then?”

  “Certainly not. However, I do not expect to love my wife. I will make a political alliance with no expectation of love. Harems are for pleasure—marriage is for duty. Yet it is clear that your prince has fallen in love with you.”