His Arranged Marriage

“I think I’ll keep you,” Serena said suddenly. “The punishment for your rash behavior should be to deal with your actions.”

“Hey, Princess, I’m not a child or one of your servants to command—”

“No, but you have wronged me. Do not play the injured party when it is me, Prince Kadar.” Serena could tell he didn’t like the tables being turned on him one bit, and that feeling of power provoked her into words. “You find me beautiful. I find you somewhat handsome.”

“Somewhat handsome!”

“Somewhat. Passably,” Serena said, glossing over the feminine fib. “I’m assuming I’d find your twin just as attractive, but he let you steal me away from him and I can’t admire that in a man.”

“Wait! I didn’t mean to steal you.”

“I am not in a mind to have my marriage annulled,” she cut in. “Already there are people who wish to see my father undermined, and such hesitation would definitely factor in weakness.”

“I don’t follow your thinking, Princess.”

“Of course you do not. You have not lived among palace spies and royal intrigue all your life. Quite simply, within moments of this problem getting out, those who wish harm to my father would know. And they would use the time needed to annul this marriage to their advantage. In other words, I can’t risk the danger to my father by playing games. You are married to me, and you will stay so.”

“That sounds dangerously like a command, Princess.”

She heard the steel in his voice and saw the glint in his eyes. This was a man who did not like to be pushed around. He had strength in him.

He would be good for Balahar and Sorajhee.

Allah provided in strange ways, but those ways should not be questioned by a princess who wanted more than anything the best for her people.

“It is not a command, my prince,” she said, her soft voice masking her determination. “It is merely a favor I am asking in return for a situation you brought on me not of my making. I know you to be a man who will take responsibility for your actions, and who would not wish to bring embarrassment upon me or my father.”

He considered her suddenly gentle point in silence. Serena could tell he was thinking over her words, although he wasn’t terribly happy.

“You will have to explain to your brother, of course, that the two of you made a plan between you that did not work out the way you’d hoped.” She gave a delicate shrug. “But if he sent you in his place I think he will not mind too much that I will be yours instead of his.”

That was truth. Kadar never blinked, confirming her suspicions that Prince Makin had not been amenable to the match. She did not want a husband who did not want her. At university in America, she had learned many quaint expressions, and one of them was that the devil one knew was better than a devil one didn’t.

And this devil wasn’t totally hellish. He would be strong for Balahar, and she found him appealing as a man. For an extra moment she examined her motives, to make certain it was not her feminine heart-strings that spoke to her reluctance to give up this man.

The servant entered the room, moving forward with more food and yet a different drink for Prince Kadar, and Serena was decided. “Leave us,” she told the servant.

The servant obeyed readily.

“Don’t drink that,” Serena told Kadar.

“Why not?”

She had expected him to question her. “It is drugged.”

His gaze went to the goblet again before returning to her. “Okay, first, were you going to let me drink the tea he’d given me before, and second, why are you harboring a palace spy?”

“You made no move to drink the tea, so you were safe. My father is trying to make his honored guest feel at home. He is honoring you, and you would drink and eat in recognition of your host’s efforts. The spy is counting on your manners for the best chance at drugging you.”

“Oh. I apologize for not falling in with the plan.”

She shot him a dry glance. “I am harboring, as you put it, a palace spy because it is better to keep the spy that I know. If I get rid of him, Queen Layla will merely find another weak link in the palace to do her dirty work. And I wouldn’t know who that one was for a while, which could be dangerous.”

“The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.” He grinned at her.

“Precisely my thought,” she said mildly. “I am glad that we think so much alike. It bodes well for our marriage.”

He shifted, suddenly on unfamiliar ground. “Why would anyone want to poison me, beyond the expected threat to the throne?”

She laughed softly at how tense his muscles had gone under his dark skin. Clearly this man did not like to be caught out of his element. “I suspect it is a drug to keep you from making love to me.”

Straightening, he pulled slightly farther away from her. “I’m not going to make love to you.”

“You’re not?” Her voice held laughter. “Will you never want me, Prince Kadar?”

“I…I—” He stared at her, uncertain as to how to answer. “Are they going to try to drug me every day so I can’t make love to you?”

“I suspect they know you are leaving Balahar soon. The servant will have immediately let them know any plans you might have mentioned to my father. In the future, you must remember that every wall hides a listening ear and absolutely no one is to be trusted.”

“Hell of a way to exist,” he grumbled.

“You seem to be able to think on your feet. You can survive once you learn some basic skills of royal life.” She smiled at him encouragingly. “To get back to the dilemma we are facing, if you can’t perform your princely duty before you leave,” Serena said with a smile, “the marriage has a chance of being undone. It can be annulled. Queen Layla would have a chance to think of a hundred reasons why this marriage should not be. Maybe a thousand reasons, given the insult she will be feeling for not being invited to the wedding. As I said, it is not in Balahar’s best interests for anything to undo our marriage. Thus, we must make love.”

She saw him take a deep breath, saw his eyes slide over her in a swift, assessing sweep. From the darkening of his pupils, there apparently was nothing he found repulsive about the task ahead of him.

“You think faster on your feet than I do. You’ll have to give me a minute to think this through. I don’t know that I can make love to a woman intended for my brother. My mind still thinks of you that way.”

She leaned close to him, near enough to tease him with her perfume and her femininity. “Prince Kadar, your brother did not want me.”

“He didn’t have a chance to find out.”

“The race goes to the swiftest,” she said, placing her fingers lightly over his hand. “In this case, the crown, with all its benefits and drawbacks, goes to the fastest warrior. That would be you, Prince Kadar.”

“Only because Mac—”

“You are my choice,” she told him sincerely. “His arranged marriage is now yours.”

She admired his consideration for his brother, Serena decided. He put other people’s needs and wishes in front of his own. That was a quality a strong ruler needed. This was the right prince for Balahar.

“Prince Kadar, I promise you will not find me a clinging wife. I am an independent woman. You will not need to keep me entertained, nor treat me like the pampered lapdog you seem to have expected. I am a woman who wishes to put the country she loves first.” She took a deep breath, knowing that Kadar’s answer meant everything to her. “So, my husband, do you find me desirable enough to make love to me?”

Chapter Five

Cade’s throat dried out as he stared at Serena. Was she kidding? Making love to her would be a dream come true; he could feel desire heating through him just by being this close to her.

He’d made love to enough women to know that loving Serena would be soul-claiming pleasure. He also knew that holding her and being one with her would be like nothing he’d known before.

It wasn’t simply because she was his wife. Nor was it because she offered herself to him so sweetly and yet so forthrightly.