“Go ahead,” she told Alexis bravely. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Alexis squinted. “It’s too, too…” She lifted the wide sleeves, fingering the fabric of the full skirt. “Too much.”
“Too long?” Kalila guessed. Though she’d seen a few other women in the Istanbul airport in full-length dresses, most had worn slacks or shorter skirts.
“Too voluminous. I can barely find you in there. Do you have anything shorter?”
Kalila shook her head. “Nobody wears short skirts in Rayas.”
“What about pants?”
“I don’t wear slacks.”
In the international areas of the capital city, split skirts had given way in recent years to wider legged slacks for some of the young Rayas women. But the royal family was much slower to change.
Alexis pondered. “You could borrow something of mine. We’re pretty close in size.”
Kalila’s mouth dropped open and went dry at the thought of wearing a pink, sleeveless minidress with no bra.
Her fear must have shown, because Alexis laughed.
“Nothing too radical, I promise.” Alexis lifted and plunked the larger suitcase on the bed and unzipped the top.
She rummaged around for a few minutes, then held up a royal-blue satin dress. The fabric was puckered and crinkled, so it shone from all angles. “How about this? It’s not too clingy.”
Kalila stepped back warily. “It’s way too short.” And it didn’t have any sleeves, just wide, blocky straps that would barely cover her shoulders.
“I’ve got leggings,” Alexis announced, producing what looked like a pair of thin, black slacks. “Those’ll cover your legs, and we can use a shawl to cover your arms. I’ve got some blue-suede ankle boots— What size are your feet?”
Kalila’s shoes had always been custom-made. “I never thought to ask,” she admitted.
Alexis raised her brows. “You’ve never been to a shoe store, have you?”
“Shoemakers come to the palace,” Kalila admitted.
Alexis laughed as she peered at Kalila’s feet. “I love it. Okay, I’m going to guess a seven. My boots should fit you.”
Kalila started to protest that she couldn’t possibly wear Alexis’s clothes or her shoes. But Alexis was determined. And before Kalila knew what was happening, she was standing in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the room’s bathroom door, staring in awe. She looked like she’d stepped out of a fashion magazine.
“You have fantastic legs,” Alexis enthused.
“I can’t go out like this.”
“Why not? Everything’s covered. But we need to do something with all that hair.”
Everything was not covered, at least not securely. If Kalila made a wrong move, her arms would be bare. And the leggings delineated every curve of her calves and thighs. The king would fall over dead if he saw her like this. Even her cousin Raif would have a heart attack.
“I can’t walk in these boots,” she protested.
Though she had to admit, she liked them. They felt fun and exotic on her feet.
“Practice before we go,” Alexis suggested. She moved behind Kalila, gathering her hair into a bunch and twirling it into a knot.
“Do you have any jewelry?” she asked.
“I have plenty of jewelry,” Kalila affirmed. Royal Rayasian women might not be the height of Western fashion, but they knew how to accessorize.
“Well, pull it out,” said Alexis.
Kalila felt strangely delighted at being about to contribute to the dress-up session.
She retrieved her traveling jewelry box, opening it five ways to display the gems she’d chosen for the trip.
Alexis stared in silence.
“What do you think?” Kalila prompted a little nervously.
“Is this all real?” Alexis reached out to tentatively touch an emerald necklace.
“It’s real. Do you like it?”
“I love it.”
Kalila warmed to the task, happy to have something to contribute in return. “Then pick something. You can borrow it.” She eyed the bright pink dress and Alexis’s blond hair. Then she reached in to open a smaller compartment in the box, extracting a sapphire and diamond choker. “Try this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Go ahead. It’ll go great with the dress.”
Alexis giggled. “Okay, but then I’m doing your makeup.”
“I don’t wear makeup.”
“I’ll be subtle. Nobody will know but us. Oh, my Lord, this is stunning.”
Kalila helped her with the clasp. Sure enough, the choker was perfect.
Alexis dashed to the mirror, fingering the gems as she gazed at her reflection. “We are going to have so much fun.”
* * *
Kalila’s hair was swept up in a messy knot. Alexis had applied a subtle layer of makeup that highlighted her dark eyes and accentuated her lips and cheekbones. She was still self-conscious about the leggings, and was being careful to keep the shawl over her arms. But as she walked into the dark club, its colored lights flashing, techno music throbbing as dancers thumped on the floor, she realized nobody was paying the slightest bit of attention to her.
“This way,” Alexis shouted in her ear above the noise, pointing. “It’ll be quieter in the back.”
Alexis started her way through the dense crowd, and Kalila ducked in behind, walking carefully in the high-heeled boots. After what seemed like an eternity, they passed into a quieter hallway, where couples and groups lounged against the walls, sipping brightly colored drinks, talking and laughing.
At the end of the hall, a burly security guard stood in front of a velvet rope, his meaty arms crossed over his deep chest. He frowned as they grew closer.
“Ma’am?” he said to Alexis in a deep voice.
Instead of answering, she focused on a point past him. “Hey, Niles,” she called, giving a wave.
A man looked up from where he sat in a furniture grouping. He was maybe twenty, incredibly handsome, with a square chin, straight nose, a thick shock of ginger hair and a pair of startlingly deep blue eyes that flashed when he caught sight of Alexis. As he stood, his three friends followed his gaze.
“Lexi,” he called.
He gave a subtle nod to the doorman, and the man unclipped the rope to let them in.
“How was the flight?” he asked, pulling her into a quick hug.
“Boring,” Alexis replied, stepping back. “This is my new roommate, Kalila,” she introduced. Then she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial level. “She’s a princess.”
Niles looked at Kalila with obvious curiosity.
She wished Alexis hadn’t said anything about her royal status. She hoped the man wasn’t intimidated by it.
She tried to compensate. “It’s not…” Her brain stumbled for a moment. “I mean, you don’t have to…”
But Niles’s lips curved into a grin.
Alexis elbowed her playfully. “Relax. Niles is a marquess. He’ll be a duke someday. He’s not bothered by a princess.”
Kalila felt her face heat. They were laughing at her. Why hadn’t she kept her mouth shut?
He held out his hand. “Your Royal Highness—”
“You’re mocking me.”
“Not at all. Simply observing protocol. Niles Hammond Walden-Garv, Marquess of Vendich, at your service.”
“Kalila Khouri.” She shook his hand.
He r
aised his brow and waited, obviously wanting her to finish the title.
Fine. She’d play along. “Princess Kalila Dhelal Rashidah Khouri, House of Bajal, Rayas.”
Niles kept his blue eyes focused on her, and something about his regard made her body warm. “Lila,” he said softly. “Lila and Lexi. Nice.”
Then the tone of his voice changed, but he didn’t break eye contact with Kalila. “Lexi? You still hot for Anton?”
“I was never hot for Anton,” Alexis retorted.
“Hey, Anton,” Niles called, his blue eyes continuing to sparkle into Kalila’s. She felt like she was falling under some sort of spell.
“Yeah?” one of the young men at the table responded, coming to his feet.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“Don’t you dare,” Alexis hissed.
But Niles just laughed. “You’ll thank me later.”
“I absolutely will not—”
Anton arrived and glanced expectantly around the group. “Where’re we going?”
“Down the coast,” said Niles, slipping his hand into Kalila’s.
She tried to pull away, but he held her fast, and she had no choice but to start walking as he tugged her toward the exit. Alexis and Anton fell in behind. Kalila wasn’t so sure they should be leaving with the two men. Then again, she definitely wasn’t staying at the party without Alexis.
“The car’s out front,” Niles told Kalila.
Okay. That was better. It was a relief to hear his driver was waiting.
“First time in Istanbul?” he asked her.
Just then, they entered the dance room, with its throbbing music and stomping feet, so she merely nodded in response.
He said something else, but she couldn’t for the life of her make out what it was. And, anyway, she was occupied with keeping her shawl in place, using only one hand.
Niles’s hand was square and broad, warm and slightly callused against hers. It occurred to her this was the first time she’d ever touched a male who wasn’t a relative. It should have felt strange, but it didn’t.
At the other end of the room they squeezed their way past a line on the staircase, then out into the cool evening. Traffic moved up and down the street. Lights shone from storefronts and apartment buildings, and the sea stood black against a moon-bright nighttime sky.
“The yellow one,” said Niles, pointing to a low-slung sports car, top down, snug up against the curb.
“Where’s your driver?” she asked.
He used their joined hands to move her in an arc toward the passenger door, deftly opening it with the other.
“London,” he answered. “Hop in.”
She stopped, bracing her hand on the top of the open door. “We can’t go alone.”
“We’re not going alone. Lexi and Anton are coming with us.”
“There are only two seats.”
He cocked his head. “That’s Anton’s ride behind us. They’ll meet us there.”
“Meet us where?”
But Alexis was already getting into the other car, and Niles snagged Kalila’s elbow, propelling her into the vehicle.
“You’ll love it. I promise,” he vowed, closing the door tight.
He gave Anton and Alexis a jaunty wave, then rounded the back of the car and hopped in.
Kalila was even less sure now of what she was doing.
She glanced behind to Alexis, who was gesticulating at Anton, clearly making an argument of some kind. Kalila reached for the door handle to escape.
“They do that all the time,” Niles drawled, pulling out into traffic. “Lexi fusses and fumes, but she truly does have the hots for him.”
“The hots?” Kalila found herself asking.
“It’s a colloquialism for her wanting to make out with him.”
“Oh.” Kalila didn’t want any more details. If it was true, it was completely Alexis’s business. She was British, and they did things differently there.
“I’m assuming Rayasian princesses don’t make out.”
“We do not,” Kalila confirmed.
“Ever kissed anyone?”
“No,” she answered with a lift of her chin. She would not let his impertinence unsettle her.
“You don’t date?”
“I don’t date.” That wasn’t the way things worked in Rayas, at least in royal circles.
“Even in England, there’s a double standard.”
“Double standard?”
“It’s okay for guys to…uh, make out with girls, but girls have to worry about their reputations.”
“Well, it’s not okay for anyone to kiss me.”
Niles chuckled. “Do they get thrown in the dungeon?”
“They’d get arrested.”
He gazed at her for a long moment. Her chest tightened, and a buzzing sensation radiated out from the pit of her stomach.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said softly.
“I’m getting married,” she found herself blurting out.
“Good for you,” said Niles, refocusing his attention on the road and gearing down for a curve.
They passed ancient, towering mosques and stone churches interspersed with modern buildings. Crowds of people moved along the sidewalks, while the sea breeze pushed the scents of jasmine and salt water over the smell of exhaust.
“Who and when?” he asked.
She turned to look at him. “Who and when, what?”
“Who are you marrying, and when are you doing it?”
“Oh. Ari Alber. Next year sometime.”
“You don’t sound very excited.”
She wasn’t. “He’s older than me. The son of an important sheikh. Quite conservative.” She couldn’t help a reflexive glance at her clothing. She couldn’t even imagine what Ari Alber would say if he saw her in this outfit.
She realized that her arms had come free of the shawl, and she struggled to cover them up.
“It doesn’t sound as if you like him much,” Niles observed.
Kalila gave a shrug. “It could be worse.”
Niles glanced from his driving to her, an odd expression on his handsome face. “That’s what you say about your fiancé? It could be worse?”
“We’re not engaged yet.”
“Well, when he asks, maybe you should say no.” Niles negotiated around a stone garden, deftly avoiding a group of pedestrians who’d strayed from the sidewalk.
“There’s an understanding,” she explained.
Niles went silent as the buildings turned to palm trees, and they entered a strip of parkland. “Between you and him, or between your families?”
She couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Rayas is not Britain.”
Niles glanced at her with that funny expression again. “How old are you, Kalila?”
“Nineteen.”
“And you’ve never been kissed.”
“I have not.” As she said the words, she felt a funny shimmer cross her lips, as if they were itchy and wanted to be soothed. She couldn’t help thinking of kissing Niles.
She blinked hard and gave her head a little shake.
Suddenly, he braked, taking an abrupt left turn into a beachfront parking lot. The lot was big, and poorly lit, and he swung the sports car into a corner spot, facing the ocean.
When he killed the engine, the sound of the waves took up the silence. She quickly realized that Alexis and Anton hadn’t followed.
Niles turned in his seat. “You’
re going to marry a man you don’t like, having never kissed another.”
She swallowed against the sultry atmosphere pressing in from the sea. “That’s not unusual.”
Unexpectedly, he exited the vehicle, coming around to her side and opening the door.
Was he kicking her out? Had she said something wrong?
He stood back and waited.
She wasn’t confident enough to stand her ground, so she tightened the shawl and gingerly climbed out of the seat, rising in front of him.
He gazed down at her, silhouetted by a faraway streetlamp, his features obscured. His tone was husky. “You’re a beautiful woman, Lila.”
“That’s not my name,” she managed.
“Maybe not.” He shifted closer. “But I’ve got an entire school year to help you get used to it.”
He brushed a stray lock of hair from her cheek. She knew she should protest, that she must protest, but the words froze in her throat. His fingertips felt incredibly good against her skin. His voice was deep and compelling. Her gaze moved involuntarily to his lips.
“By the end of the year,” he promised in a night whisper. “You’ll love it.”
She feared she might love it already.
“I want to kiss you, Lila.”
“My uncle will throw you in jail.”
“Your uncle’s not here.”
“He’ll find out.”
“And if he wouldn’t find out?” Niles inched ever closer, tipping his head, fingertips moving to cup her chin. “If we knew for certain he’d never find out? If no one but me and you would ever know, would you let me kiss you?”
It was a fascinating question.
“You’re not saying no,” he pointed out, easing inexorably closer.
He was right. She wasn’t saying no. Why wasn’t she saying no?
Then his lips touched hers, softly, gently. It was a mere whisper, but the warmth sizzled all the way through her body.
His palm cupped her face, his lips pressing more firmly, and the sensations intensified, zipping through her bloodstream, weakening her bones.
His arm went around her waist, tugging her close, as his lips urged hers apart. She opened to him, bracing her hands on his shoulders, gripping tight to steady the world.
A Silken Seduction Page 17
