A Christmas Bride - By Susan Mallery Page 0,57
upright. She ducked her head, refusing to look at him. He drew her against him.
“It is not as bad as all that.”
“Of course it is.” Her body shook with the force of her sobs. “I have betrayed everything I believe in. I’m not the person I thought. I gave myself to you without thinking it through. I barely know you. I don’t love you. You’re just some guy. What does that say about me?”
Some guy? He was Prince As’ad of El Deharia. He was royal and a sheik. Women begged him to claim them for just a single night.
“I honored you,” he told her curtly.
“It wasn’t an honor to me.”
What? He pushed away his annoyance. She was emotional, he told himself. She wasn’t thinking clearly.
“Kayleen, we share a connection with the girls. You see me as a friend and someone you can trust. It is natural you would turn to me easily.”
She looked at him, her eyes swollen and red. “It’s not natural to me. I’m supposed to wait until I’m in love and married.”
“Sometimes it is difficult to resist the pull of sensual need.”
She hiccuped. “You’re saying I gave in because I wanted to do it and you just happened to be there? That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
Why was she deliberately misunderstanding him? “Not at all,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m saying that I am an experienced man. I know what to do to awaken that part of a woman.”
“So you tricked me? While I appreciate the effort, it’s not working. I have a responsibility in this. I have to deal with what happened, what I did and what it says about me.”
“I did not trick you.”
She shifted away and stood. “Whatever. You can go now.”
“I am not leaving,” he said as he rose to his feet. “Kayleen, you are missing the point of my visit.”
She wiped her cheeks with her fingers. “What’s the point?”
Not exactly the opening he’d imagined. He cleared his throat. “It occurs to me that you were not in a position to consider the ramifications of what happened to us. You were lost in the moment, not realizing that by giving in to me you were destroying your most precious gift and—”
Fresh tears filled her eyes. “How could you?” she breathed and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
He stared in disbelief. She’d walked away from him?
He followed her to the closed door. “Kayleen, please come out here at once.”
“Go away. I have to figure this out and you’re not helping.”
He opened the door and stepped into the bathroom. “You will listen to me. I am here to make this better. I am here to fix your problem.”
She shook her head. “You can’t fix anything. I’ve lost everything I wanted.”
“You have lost nothing. You are not a woman to be locked away. You deserve more than that and I am going to give it to you. Think of being married, of having a family to fill your day, children of your own.” He paused to give her a chance to brace herself for the honor he would bestow upon her.
“Kayleen, I will marry you.”
He smiled at her, waiting for her tears to dry. Instead more fell. Perhaps she did not understand.
“You will be my wife. You will live here, with me. In the palace. I have taken your virginity, therefore I will return your honor to you by marrying you. You will carry my name.”
He waited, but she said nothing. She didn’t even look at him.
“All right. I see you are having trouble understanding all this. It is unlikely you ever allowed yourself to dream of such a life. In time you will be able to believe this has truly happened. Until then, you can thank me and accept. That is enough.”
She raised her gaze to stare at him. Something hot and bright burned in her eyes, but it wasn’t happiness or gratitude.
“Thank you?” she repeated, her voice high and shrill. “Thank you? I’m not going to thank you. I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man alive.”
He was so stunned that when she shoved him, he took a step back. The bathroom door slammed shut in his face and he heard the bolt shoot home.
CHAPTER NINE
“TAKE ANOTHER DRINK of tea,” Lina said soothingly.
Kayleen wrinkled her nose. The brew was a nasty herbal concoction that tasted like wet carpet smelled, but her friend assured her it would help. At this point, Kayleen was open to any