“Harmless?” Tamir laughed, but it was without humour. “The tiara he placed into his jacket is worth over two million pounds. It is five hundred years old, and an item of great cultural significance. Do you really think his attempt to remove it from the embassy will be seen as harmless by anyone in my government?”
Olivia shook her head. “You have to let me explain. He isn’t a thief. He really isn’t.”
“The facts seem to state otherwise.”
“Yes, I know, but you have to believe me, Tamir. Please. I promise he would have returned it.”
“Do you know what the punishment for such theft is in my country?”
“No,” she whispered, her eyes wide. She realised that he was still inside of her, and she shoved his shoulders, hard. His chest was a wall of stone, impenetrable. He looked at her derisively for a moment, then eased himself away from her. Stark naked, he crossed the room and collected her clothes. He threw them onto the bed, beside Olivia’s naked form.
“Get dressed. You will find out soon enough.”
“Tamir,” she cried, her anguish obvious. “Please stop being so angry and talk to me!”
“Angry?” He shook his head. “I’m not angry. I’m furious, but sadly, I’m not surprised. I’ve never known a woman who hasn’t seen me as an opportunity for financial gain. Most of my lovers have just enjoyed royal gifts. You’re the first to brazenly steal. And such a big prize, too. What was the plan, Olivia? To sell the tiara on the black market? And then what would you have done with the money?”
Olivia was shivering all over. Not from pleasure now, but from shock.
“And this is why you were so keen to climb into my bed? To distract me so that your friend could attempt to make off with a priceless piece of Talidarian history?”
“No!” She shouted, jumping off the bed and stalking across to him. She grabbed his elbow and turned him to face her. “You’re so wrong, Tamir.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I had no idea what Jack was planning. I came here because I wanted to be with you.”
He raked his eyes down her body, from her crumpled face to her splendidly naked figure. He subjected her to a slow, insolent inspection, then turned away from her.
“You’re the one who invited Jack,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around her body.
“Yes. I stupidly thought it would make you feel more at ease. I didn’t, for a second, think you might use my invitation to steal from me.” He turned back to her, his dark eyes accusing. “At least you were good in bed. That’s some small compensation for the fact that you’re a lying bitch.”
It hurt. It wounded her deeply. To the core of her being, she felt sad and sore. “I swear, Tamir, I never planned this. I would never…”
He held a hand up to silence her. And she was shocked enough to obey. “Enough. It is done. All that remains is to consider a suitable punishment.”
She swallowed and looked, unseeing, towards the window. Towards freedom. “And that is?”
“Such a brazen attempted theft is punishable by life imprisonment. If you’re lucky. There will be some in my government who will push for this to be seen as a capital crime.”
“A capital crime?” She whispered, reaching out to the wall for support. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m deadly serious,” he commented scathingly. “If you will forgive the pun.”
“No!” She was shaking from shock. “I won’t forgive you anything!”
“I do not believe you have much right to act like a wounded victim here, Olivia. For though Jack took the jewel, you are far more culpable in my eyes. You were willing to have sex with a man simply to give your friend the cover to steal. That is far worse. Have you no pride? No self-respect?”
Olivia was shaking so violently she thought she might pass out. “How dare you?” She demanded fiercely, but her heart was withering and shrivelling into a little mound of dust in her chest. Dead and buried, she might as well be likewise.
“How dare I what? Tell you what I think of you?”
“You were the one who made this about sex. You’re the one who approached me. I would never even have even known you if you hadn’t stalked me at the show.”
His grin was ironic. “And I wish that were the case, believe me. However, you took your opportunity and attempted to steal from me. So, I have no choice now but to turn you over to my security chief.”
His words were like tiny little bullets, hitting her again and again. The information he’d poured on her swarmed into a tangled mess, combining with the insults to make her feel utterly lost. “How did you find this out?”
“The phone call.”
She groaned. “That phone call? And you still… we still… you still finished what we were doing.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t see the point in wasting the opportunity.”
“You’re disgusting,” she shouted. But her anger with him was morphing into something else. She looked around, saw a white painted door and sprinted to it. She pushed it inwards, opening to a bathroom. She only just made it to the toilet before she was sick. She heaved over it, curling her hair around her palm while her body physically repelled everything she’d just heard, and what they’d just done. She purged as though it could wipe the slate clean.
It couldn’t of course.
And when she was finished, her body completely emptied, she lifted her pale face to find Tamir leaning against the doorjamb watching her. His expression was unmoved. He held a towel to her, which she snatched angrily.
“Get dressed. My security chief is waiting.”
Olivia splashed water on her face. Ice cold water. She hoped it would bring sensation back to her, but she still felt numb through. She grabbed for a towel on the back of the door, only it turned out to be a robe. She shrugged it on, hating the way her stomach clenched with desire when the faint scent of Tamir assailed her nostrils.
She stormed back into his room and saw that he had dressed. He was wearing a suit, and his hands were thrust deep into his pockets as he stared out of one of the windows. He was so breathtakingly handsome that she almost forgot her rage. Almost, but not quite.
“What did you mean? About what I would wear in Talidar?”
He turned slowly, and in that brief moment, she saw emotion in his expression. It was gone again almost instantly. “That you will have to face consequences for these crimes.”
She nodded. “I understand that. I expect I’ll also get a chance to state my case.”
His laugh was a harsh bark. “State your case? There is no justification for what you and your friend attempted to do today.”
Bloody Jack, she thought angrily. What was he thinking? “Where’s Jack now?”
Tamir’s eyes flashed. “He’s with my security chief. Waiting for you.”
“Tamir,” she walked to him slowly, and put a hand on his arm. He looked down at it as though she were diseased. She tried not to care. She had to get through to him. “Tamir, please. Let me try to explain.”
“No.”
“I can’t go to Talidar.” Her voice cracked. “I have people who need me here. I have a job.”
“All things you should have considered before launching into a life of crime.”
“But I’m not! I didn’t!” She shook his arm, trying to get him to look at her. “I have to stay in London.”
“Why, Olivia? Why must you?”
She closed her eyes and swallowed. Her face was pale, and she had no idea how Tamir was staring at her. How he looked at her fine features and marvelled at her beauty, despite the way he despised her actions.
“My mother needs me,” she whispered. “I can’t leave her.”
“Your mother?” He demanded, his disbelief obvious in the scathing tone of his voice.
She nodded, without opening her eyes. She had to be honest with this man, even though he didn’t deserve to know anything about her private life. If she lied she might lose everything. “Yes. She’s sick, Tamir. And I help her. I help her with her medi
cation and her daily tasks.”
Her eyes were still closed, so she didn’t see that his expression briefly softened. “What kind of tasks?”
“Everything.” She compressed her lips. “The lady downstairs checks on her while I’m at work, but I never leave her for more than an odd night out. I can’t abandon her.”
He forced himself to ignore her plea. “Isn’t that convenient, Olivia? A sick mother. As though that will get you out of the trouble you’re in.”
Finally, she opened her eyes. They were unknowingly bleak. “There is nothing convenient about it, believe me.”
“Believe you? I will never make that mistake again.”
Her stomach churned. “I thought you were a decent person,” she muttered, spinning away from him. “How stupid am I?”
“Apparently, exceedingly.”
She stomped her foot and stared up at the ceiling, willing the tears that were burning at her eyes to disappear.
“May I at least speak to a lawyer?”
“I’ll think about it.”
She made a chocking sound and turned to face him. “This is a nightmare.”
“Yes.” His dark eyes swept over her, his expression impossible to read. “It does not have to be, though.”
Hope flared inside of her, then disappeared again. “What do you mean?”
“I am prepared to come to an agreement with my security chief Kalil that might spare your friend from a life in prison.”
She thought of Jack and shook her head slowly. “Right now, I’m not sure if he deserves that, but what’s your suggestion?” Her mother popped into her mind and she again shut her eyes, perhaps in an attempt to stave off the reality of the disaster she was experiencing.
Tamir didn’t visibly react, but inside, something seemed to shift. Some kind of desire or need. He couldn’t explain his feelings, but they were definitely sending strange messages throughout his body.
“I will trade you. For him.”
She wasn’t sure she’d heard him properly. Or that she even understood. “What?”
“Come to Talidar, with me. I will… urge my security chief to forget about this incident.” His meaning was clear. She would be going to Talidar as his mistress. She would be completely in his control.
“Are you kidding me?” She looked around for something to hurl and found a vase. She picked it up, and would have sent it careening towards him, except that Tamir was too quick. He ripped his hand through the air and gripped her wrist, jerking her against his body.
“Destroying another piece of Talidarian art will not help your case.”
She bit down on her lip and then properly observed the vase. She cringed. She had been about to destroy a piece of pottery that was hundreds of years old. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“What for? The violence? The lying? The destruction you were about to wreak?”
She sobbed. “I can’t do what you’re asking. I can’t. I don’t think I can ever look at you again.” She sobbed louder. “When I think of what you believe me capable of, my heart breaks.”
“Don’t.” He expelled harshly. He removed the vase, but kept hold of her wrist. He marched her backwards, the few steps it took for her body to be pressed against the wall. With her hand behind his back, she was his prisoner. “Do not talk about your heart, as though it plays any part in this. And do not play the innocent victim either.”
Her cries were soft sounds in the silence of his room. He lowered his mouth to hers, plundering it, ignoring the hot tears that were running down her face and mingling with their lips. He felt her surrender instantly. The moment when she switched from defiant to desperate. When her hand went limp and then began to claw at his back.
He flicked the robe open, exposing her gorgeous naked body to his touch. He lowered his pants and entered her swiftly, without any preparation, but she parted her legs and welcomed him gratefully, wrapping her arms around his neck as he drove into her and pushed them both to the point of wild release again.
Afterward, he stepped away from her body. But their union had formed an unshakable plan in his mind. An idea that seemed almost gifted from the heavens, for its perfection. “I will make arrangements. We’ll leave within an hour.”
“Tamir, please.” She whispered, shaking, and pressing herself against the wall for support. “My mother…”
“I will arrange for her needs.”
“I’m her needs,” she rebuffed quickly. “I’m her daughter. I love her. Please.”
“Something you should have considered more carefully before setting out to steal something of such value from the Sultan of Talidar.”
She had done no such thing, but she knew Tamir would never believe her.
“You won’t forgive yourself if you go through with this crazy plan. You’ll come to regret it.”
“You are wrong,” he said silently, his kernel of an idea strengthening into a fully formed prospect that would not be ignored. “And this is not a crazy plan. It’s your only opportunity to save yourself, and Jack, from the consequences of your crime.”
Her eyes glowed with hatred.
“You forget, Olivia, that I know your objections are only for form. I have felt you fall apart in my arms. You will come to Talidar, and you will come to my bed whenever I wish it. And you will enjoy it.”
She shook her head from side to side. “No.”
He leaned forward, and flicked his tongue against the sensitive flesh of her neck. “I will be happy to demonstrate your body’s willingness at any time you need a reminder.”
She trembled as pleasure assailed her. But still, she shook her head.
“It is this or prison.”
“Then I choose prison,” she said darkly. Proudly.
“And what then of your mother?”
“She’ll… I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
He moved away from her, his smile perfunctory. “You will certainly not. Any asset you own will be needed for your defence. You will be without money, and you will still end up in a Talidarian prison for the rest of your days. Jack likewise, and that’s only if I intervene to save him from the firing squad.”
She swore, revulsion and despair making her body sag.
“We’ll leave within an hour,” he repeated. And finally, Olivia felt the fight deflate her body. She stared at him moodily, her eyes enormous in her face.
“Fine. But I want to see Jack first.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“What the hell were you thinking, Jack?”
Jack looked around the staid white room with a grimace. His hands were bound on the tabletop, a cable tie forcing his wrists together. “I wasn’t thinking, obviously.”
“You’re an idiot,” she muttered, scraping back the chair across from him and sitting down. She reached out and captured his hands in hers. “Seriously, Jack. A big one.”
His smile was haunted. “I just wanted to see if I could do it. Eleni wasn’t watching. I thought I’d got away with it.”
Olivia reclined with a sigh, and stared across at her friend. “In the Talidarian Embassy? Come on, Jack. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to realise there are cameras everywhere.”
“Yeah, I guess in the heat of the moment I didn’t think it through.”
Olivia compressed her lips. “This isn’t a joke.”
“I know. But sometimes you just have to see the funny side.”
“What funny side?” She demanded fiercely. “You’re subject to their laws. Your crime is enormous. Don’t you understand what you’ve done?”
His face was pale, but his features were set like stone. “I guess I do now. I’m sorry, Liv. I didn’t mean to embarrass you like this.”
“Embarrass me?” She hissed. “I don’t care about being embarrassed. This is way worse than that.”
“Yeah, that mean security guy looked like he wanted to kill me right here and now.”
She winced, hating the thought of her friend Jack feeling fear or worry. “Listen, Tamir is
prepared to be reasonable,” she said, finally. What choice did she have? Seeing her friend bound and scared for his life got through to her as nothing else could. “It’s going to be okay.” She blinked back her own tears. “It’s really going to be fine.”
“What?” He jerked his head up, his eyes instantly brightening.
The door opened inwards without a knock. Tamir had changed into a dark suit, and he breezed into the small space, instantly charging it with a kind of electricity. His eyes fell to Jack, and his look was unmistakably loaded with derision. Then, he turned to Olivia. “We must go now.”
“Go?” Jack stood, his hands still bound before him. “Where are you going?”
“Olivia has agreed to accompany me to Liya, for a period.” Tamir said simply, putting a hand in the small of her back and propelling her towards the door.
“Liv, no,” Jack said harshly, skirting around the table and standing before her. “What have you done? What have you agreed to?”
Tamir moved between them. He stared down his nose at the would-be thief. “She has agreed only to what she wants. And in exchange for her honesty, you are free to go. Try not to make a mistake such as this again.”
* * *
“But I don’t know what he’s saying,” she murmured to Tamir. Miles above the earth, somewhere between London and Liya, the capital of Talidar, she stared blankly at the black suited security chief Tamir had brought to her. The man had a terrifying authority, and a cruel anger in his expression. His eyes seemed to regard her as though she were little more than a germ. And yet his loyalty and deference to Tamir were unmistakable.
More than just cruelty though, there was recognition in his expression when he looked at her. He was staring at Olivia with a mix of contempt and shock. As though he’d seen a ghost.
“He is formalising our arrangement. You simply repeat his words.”
She shook her head from side to side, darting her tongue out to moisten her lip. The security chief’s small, rounded eyes followed the betraying gesture. “Is this really necessary?”
“Yes.”
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