Chapter Thirteen
All of his cousins were already in Tarif’s private office by the time he strolled in, and the four men shared a look of disgust at the way satisfaction practically oozed from the other sheikh. To say that Tarif Al-Atassi was in a good mood would be an understatement, and when one considered the reason behind it ---
The king, seated on one of the armchairs, attempted to draw first blood as he commented with mocking disappointment, “Second base in two months, Tarif? That’s not like you at all.”
The other men snickered, but Tarif’s broad shoulders only moved in a nonchalant shrug as he claimed his seat behind his desk. “The result is all that matters, my brothers. And as she is irrefutably mine now…” Tarif’s tone was one of lazy complacence, the sound of which had his cousins almost gagging.
Malik decided to take the second shot at his older cousin, pointing out, “You may be happy about staking a claim, but does Anisah feel the same? Last time I spoke to her, you were still the sheikh she hated the most.”
“That is true,” Tarif acknowledged with indestructible good humor. “But I also seem to recall your wife once feeling that way about you as well. Did she not?” The sheikh turned to the king. “And the same goes for you, too, Your Majesty.”
Malik and Khalil grimaced, both unable to retort since Tarif had spoken the complete truth. Kyria and Malik had a major falling out that had caused them to avoid each other for two years while Harper hadn’t exactly been the king’s greatest fan before their whirlwind romance.
Rayyan shook his head, feeling inexplicably irritated at the air of contentment surrounding Tarif. “Don’t you think you were being a little too hasty in announcing a fake engagement?”
“It would seem so…if my pretend fiancée didn’t happen to be Anisah Kahveci. But as she is, regardless of the outcome, I don’t see her as the type who’d cause the kingdom any problems.” Tarif paused. “And even if she did, I honestly don’t give a fuck. I want my woman safe and happy, and if it comes at the expense of a little scandal that’s no more than a storm in a teacup…” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Then again, that’s how I prefer to handle things. You’re probably different, considering how you treat your women.”
Color flushed Rayyan’s cheeks at the suggestive way the other sheikh’s tone trailed off, and he said coldly, “If that is a dig about the way I treat Hyacinth---” Khalil, Malik, and Altair turned to him in surprise, and too late Rayyan realized he had neatly fallen for Tarif’s trap and exposed his secret in the process. “Fuck you, Tarif.”
“What are you angry for?” The other sheikh dealt Rayyan a picture-perfect look of injured innocence. “I didn’t mention any names. You did.”
The normally calm Rayyan flipped him the bird in answer, and Tarif grinned. “I love you too, brother.”
And because he knew everyone had planned to gang up on him about Anisah, he raised a brow at the kingdom’s military commander, who was seated on one of the bar stools by the counter. “I’m guessing it’s your turn now, sheikh?”
The doors to Tarif’s office were thrown open before Altair could answer, and a moment later, a frantic-looking Anisah came rushing in. “Your Highness, I really don’t think---” She stopped dead in her tracks and turned red when she saw five handsome men swing around to face her.
Oh, curse it, what were all the Al-Atassi sheikhs doing here?
Recalling her manners, Anisah quickly bowed, murmuring, “Your Majesty, Your Highness.” When Anisah straightened, she saw that the sheikhs – with the exception of a smirking Tarif – did not look happy at all to see her.
Since she was certain the sheikh would’ve informed his cousins about their engagement serving merely as a convenient cover-up, it only meant they still considered her unworthy even as a short-term fiancée. The thought hurt, but she told herself the king and his vassals had every right to feel that way.
Lifting her chin, she said stiffly, “I am deeply sorry---”
“As you should be,” the king said heavily as he rose to his feet, with his vassals following suit.
Anisah forced herself to stay still as Khalil, Malik, Rayyan, and Altair walked towards her. Whatever they say or do, she told herself doggedly, you must accept with honor and grace.
“Lady Anisah?”
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“There’s time yet to put an end to this farce,” Khalil said seriously. “Prove to us that you have better sense and taste.”
Anisah gaped. Did that mean…
“It is not too late to change your mind, anisdi. Say you will dump our bastard of a cousin, nem?”
Oh. Sheer relief had her bursting into laughter, but this only made the other sheikhs’ handsome faces crease with feigned scowls.
“Tarif is a bad influence on you,” Malik grumbled. “You never laughed like that before.”
Tarif simply sat back and listened in unthreatened silence as the others started to badger Anisah into breaking up with him.
“In light of your sudden and inexplicable change of opinion about our cousin,” Tarif heard Altair say in his deep voice, “I feel duty-bound to inform you of certain truths about Tarif that you may not be aware of.”
So that was how the army general was going to play it, Tarif thought with a smirk. Too bad for Altair, this was Anisah they were talking about here. She had practically grown up with them, and so there was nothing that Altair could say to have her turn away from Tarif. She knew his every sin---
“There was this one night we spent in Kyrillos Gazis’s yacht…”
Except that.
“Shut up, Altair.” The sheikhs snickered at the speed in which Tarif launched himself out of his seat and shoved past them in his haste to get to Anisah.
His puritan was peering up at Altair curiously. “I don’t believe I know---aah!” Anisah glowered down at the sheikh at finding herself suddenly lifted up in his arms like she was naught but a sack of potatoes. “Let me down, Your Highness!”
“I will, anisdi,” he assured her readily, “when we make it to my bed.” Letting out an outraged gasp, Anisah started struggling against his embrace, but this only made the sheikh tighten his hold. Turning back to face his cousins, he shot Altair a dirty look, saying testily, “That was a low blow.”
But the other sheikh only smiled, asking mildly, “Are you saying a single incident in the past is enough to cause you trouble? Are you not confident enough in her desire for your presence?”
“Airafi, Altair.” Fuck you, Altair.
The other sheikhs laughed, their good mood fully restored now that they had managed to bait Tarif into losing his temper.
“Why would you not tell me about that night?” his lovely harpy demanded.
That night, he had two women come on to him while he had been in a private office the Greek billionaire had loaned for the sheikhs’ use, and in the aftermath of one of the most torrid sexual encounters of his life, Tarif had found himself lying on the Ramilian flag, with his cum and those of the women splattered on the fabric.
That was what happened, and for the all-too-proper and patriotic Anisah to know about it…
A shudder racked the sheikh’s powerful form.
Never.
Anisah had now stopped struggling long enough to stare at him with growing suspicion. “What did happen that night?”
“Nothing you should concern yourself with,” Tarif answered evasively while shooting another glare at his cousins. Damn all of you.
The king grinned. That was more like it. And as he had now attained his objective, Khalil motioned for his remaining vassals to follow him as he bid the couple good night. “And Lady Anisah, if you require any help in terminating the engagement---”
“Get the fuck out of here, Your Majesty.”
The king and the other sheikhs laughed their way out of Tarif’s office.
“May you please put me down now?” Anisah asked the moment they were alone.
“I don’t want to.”
“This is highly improper---” She broke off when she realized they seemed to be heading straight to a wall. “What are you doing?”
“Hold on to me, my sweet.”
It was the only warning Anisah got before the sheikh adjusted his hold on her to free one of his hands, and she would have tumbled down to the floor if she had not managed to throw her arms around his neck while her legs wrapped around his waist.
Opening her mouth to tell him off, sheikh or no sheikh, Anisah found herself gaping instead when the sheikh placed his palm on the blank wall and a screen immediately lit up under it. A moment later, one panel of the wall automatically slid open to reveal a secret, well-lit passageway.
Tarif grinned down at her. “Surprised?”
She made a face. “Who wouldn’t be?” The secret door slid shut silently behind them as soon as the sheikh stepped inside the passageway, and for a few moments, she could only look about her in quiet amazement.
Like most Ramilians, she had heard about the palace’s legendary maze of secret passageways, and when she had been young, she had imagined the excitement of stumbling upon one of them. She had always imagined them to be as eerie as the underground catacombs of Paris, but the reality couldn’t be more different.
Although the sheer number of intersecting passageways was as extensive as the network of tombs below the City of Lights, the palace’s hidden pathways were more hauntingly romantic than spine-chilling, with its wall-mounted scones casting an incandescent glow that made the ground appear like a floor of gold.
The sheikh grinned when he caught sight of Anisah’s starry-eyed look as she looked about her. For a history buff like his harpy, this newfound knowledge about the palace’s secret passageways was probably more exciting than taking her to Europe.
“If you have any questions---” But Tarif didn’t even get to finish his sentence.
“Were you required to master these passageways as part of your royal training? Who else knows about them? Are there any emergency protocols for using them in the event that the palace is under attack? What if---”
“Slow down,” Tarif interrupted with a laugh. “The passageways are here to stay, anisdi.”
Anisah’s cheeks heated up. “Maehdina, alshaykh.” And she was sorry, but it wasn’t only because she hadn’t allowed the sheikh to say a word edgewise in her excitement. What she was even sorrier to realize right now was how she had been in the sheikh’s arms all this time, clinging to him like some cursed monkey, and it had felt all too natural!
“Sheikh, I think I really should---” She stopped mid-sentence when the sheikh suddenly halted at the end of a long hallway and reached out to pull down a lever. Another section of the wall slowly swung open, its other side made of the same gleaming white marble the palace was famous for.
Tarif smiled when he felt Anisah’s body jerk in shock against him.
“Is t-this what I think it is?” she choked out. A room ten times as big as the apartment she shared with Hyacinth, decorated in a palette that reminded her of the sheikh’s favored hues, and so luxurious that every square foot must be worth a thousand dollars.
“Nem, anisdi.” The sheikh’s tone was silky and his touch excruciatingly tender as he slowly lowered Anisah to the floor.
She expected him to release her the moment she was on her feet, but instead his hands tightened around her waist, and she sucked in her breath at the way his touch turned from tender to hot and possessive in an instant. All thoughts of secret passageways and fake engagements vanished completely from her mind, and suddenly all she could think about was the fact they were in the sheikh’s room…and they were alone.
“I think I should go, Your Highness.” Anisah’s voice was a faint croak.
“I think you should stay, anisdi.” The sheikh’s, however, was a seductive rasp.
Oh, dear heavens.
Anisah squeezed her eyes shut, fervently hoping that not seeing the sheikh in all his alluring beauty would help her resist him.
She was wrong.
As soon as her lips parted and she started to speak, she was doomed and made defenseless by her unseeing eyes. “I really think I should – mph!” The sheikh’s mouth closed over hers, his hot, soft lips moving hungrily over hers just as his tongue thrust inside her mouth.
AAAAAAH.
She tried. Oh, the stars in heaven knew how hard she truly tried to resist him. But then the sheikh’s tongue drove deeper just as his hands moved down to curve around the cheeks of her bottom. He squeezed the soft flesh – hard enough to make her cry out. But it was not out of pain – and they both knew it.
The sheikh hauled her closer, and she cried out as her already erect nipples scraped against the muscular wall of his chest. Her arms moved seemingly on its own volition, curving over the slopes of his shoulders, and when the sheikh started sucking on her tongue, her hands moved further up, driving through the thick, silky strands of his hair---
He sucked harder on her tongue, and her fingers tightened its grip on his hair even as she cried out.
Oh heavens, it was like he was about to eat her up. But instead of terrifying Anisah, this only made her body arch against his in innocent yearning. She wanted more. Oh stars above, she wanted everything this man could offer her!
“Tory, God…” Tarif groaned as a sensual shudder wracked his powerful body, and he groaned again when his beautiful puritan gradually shed her inhibitions as she started to kiss him back. It began with tentative strokes of her tongue that drove him wild, and by the time she started sucking on his tongue, the demands of his arousal were beyond his control.
Tarif swept her up in his arms without breaking their kiss, and in several strides, he reached his bedroom. By the time her eyes fluttered open, he was laying her down on his bed.
A quick, dazed sweep of her surroundings showed Anisah an elegant mix of slate gray and white marble, but then the sheikh moved, his handsome face filling her vision, and just like that she forgot how to make her mind work again.
For one long moment they stared at each other, the silence in his vast bedroom broken only by her hitched breathing. This close, he looked too beautiful to be real; he was larger than life in a way only fairytale princes could be, as invincible as heroes of the old myths, and his sexuality so raw and earthly it was almost animalistic.
This man was perfect, the kind of lover that women would sell their souls to have – and in his midnight-black eyes, she saw the most unbelievable thing: this man wanted her…and only her.
Tarif inhaled sharply when Anisah hesitantly reached up to place one soft hand on his cheek. He held his body stiff, lest the slightest movement from him would ruin the moment. It was one of the few times that she had touched him first – and it felt so damn good he hoped she never took her hand away.
“Did you r-really not have sex for so long because of me?”
A hoarse laugh escaped him at the uncertain look her violet eyes directed at him. “How can you seriously ask that? I’ve made a fool of myself in front the entire palace in my quest to have you.”
“Is that all I am to you still?” she managed to tease, albeit in a breathless voice. “A quest?”
His hot, ravenous gaze roamed her body as he answered her without an ounce of hesitation. “Fuck yes.”
The utter shamelessness of it was too much for her. “Oh, sheikh!” She started to laugh, but the sound swiftly turned into a moan when the sheikh brought her hand to his lips and ran his tongue against the sensitive skin.
AAAAAH.
“Don’t you think I’ve waited long enough for you, anisdi?” The sheikh’s possessive gaze captured hers as he spoke, and she couldn’t help but arch against his at the dark promise she saw in it. Oh dear heavens, the things those eyes promised…they were so, so, so very dirty.
Lust slowly snaked its way down her body, and she could only cry out when the sheikh started to suck on her fingers one at a time. Her head tossed and turned against the pillows restlessly – stars above, how could this man make her feel so much?
“Tell me I can fuck you now,” Tarif rasped as he released her fingers. “Say you’ll be mine.”
His hand slid between their bodies, and when she felt him reach for the hem of her robe, she lifted passion-clouded eyes to the sheikh as she moaned out the only answer she could think of. “Yes.”