Read Online Gambling With the Crown by Lynn Raye Harris - Free Book Online
Authors: Lynn Raye Harris
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muttered something in Arabic that she thought might be a curse.
“What?” she demanded. “Am I wrong?”
There was a wild, hot current swimming in her veins. A feeling that made her bold, made her fling herself against the forbidden gates of Kadir’s life in utter fury. She realized with a start that it must be four long years of pent-up frustration with this man finally gaining a voice. Four years in which she’d done her job, kept her mouth shut and watched him be a complete ass to the women who rotated through his life.
Well, he’d freed her now, and she wasn’t going to waste a moment of it.
Which, a small part of her tried to say, was career suicide. How would they ever go back to the way things were before? They’d been married for less than six hours, and already she was forgetting how to behave like his PA.
“You are not wrong.”
The air between them grew thick, so thick she wanted to roll down the window and gulp in the Milanese air. But she was frozen in place while he speared her with those intense eyes. The Eagle of Kyr. My God.
Something was happening, something she couldn’t quite figure out. But then he took a deep breath and shifted in his seat, his hot gaze facing front again, his jaw set in a hard line.
“Your opinion of me is showing, habibti. Make sure it doesn’t happen in public.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m simply pointing out the truth.”
His eyes were bright as he swung around to look at her. “That I am shallow? That I date women for, what was it, their bra sizes?”
“I didn’t say that.” She closed her eyes briefly. “This time, I mean. I was only pointing out what you already know to be true. Lenore would have been a perfectly unsuitable wife, but she wouldn’t have given up the position so easily. Not when it made her a princess and gave her something she could lord over everyone else in her life.”
“But what you really want to know is what I saw in her in the first place. What I saw in any of them.” His voice was low and intense.
“That is none of my business.” She knew she sounded prim, and her cheeks flamed. Because he was right, she did want to know. The women he dated were beautiful, but most of them were schemers and, well, groupies of one sort or another. None of them had wanted to see beneath his masks. They’d wanted the prince, the billionaire, the sheikh. They had not wanted the man. Didn’t that bother him? At least a little?
“Mostly, it was sex.” He went on as if she’d not spoken. “Sometimes, it was companionship. I am not a robot, Emily. I like the warmth of another person next to me. I get lonely, like anyone.”
Her heart was beating hard now, throbbing in her throat. She’d never thought of him as lonely. Never. He always had people around him. He had friends in every city they visited, and he had women he took to his bed. How could he be lonely?
But she knew how. She knew because she’d been lonely, too. The loneliest she’d ever felt was in a crowded room. Emptiness was not filled by crowds of people. She was pretty sure it wasn’t filled by sex either, though it had been a long time since she’d experimented with that.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was paper-thin. How had this conversation taken a turn like this? It had started out being one thing and ended up as something else entirely. Something that made her heart ache and tears press hard against the backs of her eyes.
How did he do this to her? How did he take her from murderously angry to aching in the space of only a few moments?
“And what about you, Emily? Do you get lonely? You cannot have much of a personal life working for me.”
Her blood felt thick in her veins. Like syrup on a winter’s day. Except she was hot with embarrassment as well. Why had she not seen this coming? Had she really thought she could snap and push him and come away unscathed?
“My life is fine.”
He leaned back in the seat then, draped an arm on the
“What?” she demanded. “Am I wrong?”
There was a wild, hot current swimming in her veins. A feeling that made her bold, made her fling herself against the forbidden gates of Kadir’s life in utter fury. She realized with a start that it must be four long years of pent-up frustration with this man finally gaining a voice. Four years in which she’d done her job, kept her mouth shut and watched him be a complete ass to the women who rotated through his life.
Well, he’d freed her now, and she wasn’t going to waste a moment of it.
Which, a small part of her tried to say, was career suicide. How would they ever go back to the way things were before? They’d been married for less than six hours, and already she was forgetting how to behave like his PA.
“You are not wrong.”
The air between them grew thick, so thick she wanted to roll down the window and gulp in the Milanese air. But she was frozen in place while he speared her with those intense eyes. The Eagle of Kyr. My God.
Something was happening, something she couldn’t quite figure out. But then he took a deep breath and shifted in his seat, his hot gaze facing front again, his jaw set in a hard line.
“Your opinion of me is showing, habibti. Make sure it doesn’t happen in public.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m simply pointing out the truth.”
His eyes were bright as he swung around to look at her. “That I am shallow? That I date women for, what was it, their bra sizes?”
“I didn’t say that.” She closed her eyes briefly. “This time, I mean. I was only pointing out what you already know to be true. Lenore would have been a perfectly unsuitable wife, but she wouldn’t have given up the position so easily. Not when it made her a princess and gave her something she could lord over everyone else in her life.”
“But what you really want to know is what I saw in her in the first place. What I saw in any of them.” His voice was low and intense.
“That is none of my business.” She knew she sounded prim, and her cheeks flamed. Because he was right, she did want to know. The women he dated were beautiful, but most of them were schemers and, well, groupies of one sort or another. None of them had wanted to see beneath his masks. They’d wanted the prince, the billionaire, the sheikh. They had not wanted the man. Didn’t that bother him? At least a little?
“Mostly, it was sex.” He went on as if she’d not spoken. “Sometimes, it was companionship. I am not a robot, Emily. I like the warmth of another person next to me. I get lonely, like anyone.”
Her heart was beating hard now, throbbing in her throat. She’d never thought of him as lonely. Never. He always had people around him. He had friends in every city they visited, and he had women he took to his bed. How could he be lonely?
But she knew how. She knew because she’d been lonely, too. The loneliest she’d ever felt was in a crowded room. Emptiness was not filled by crowds of people. She was pretty sure it wasn’t filled by sex either, though it had been a long time since she’d experimented with that.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was paper-thin. How had this conversation taken a turn like this? It had started out being one thing and ended up as something else entirely. Something that made her heart ache and tears press hard against the backs of her eyes.
How did he do this to her? How did he take her from murderously angry to aching in the space of only a few moments?
“And what about you, Emily? Do you get lonely? You cannot have much of a personal life working for me.”
Her blood felt thick in her veins. Like syrup on a winter’s day. Except she was hot with embarrassment as well. Why had she not seen this coming? Had she really thought she could snap and push him and come away unscathed?
“My life is fine.”
He leaned back in the seat then, draped an arm on the
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