Unexpectedly Expecting the Sheik's Baby - Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,33
She closed her eyes, fighting the fear. “If it weren’t for a teacher coming out of one of the classrooms, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“They didn’t hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No physically. Psychologically, I was terrified. Plus all of the insults and innuendos…” she sighed and shrugged as if trying to dismiss the problem. “It got to be so bad, that my father enrolled me in an all-girls, boarding school. It was his way of protecting me from the boys and their aggressive advances, as well as the horrible comments. But…there was a boys’ boarding school that…” she stopped and blinked back tears.
It took her a moment, but eventually, she was able to continue. “My friends and I didn’t even attend the first dance of the season. We were on the yearbook team. We were the poor students in the school. The scholarship students.” Cassy shook her head, laughing harshly. “We couldn’t afford the designer dresses and expensive shoes that the other girls had for the event. So instead of embarrassing ourselves with cast-off outfits, we ignored the dance and worked on the yearbook layout instead.”
She sniffed and looked away. “I found out the next day…” she took a deep breath, needing to explain. Cassy needed him to understand. “A group of boys made a bet. They each had a month to have sex with me. If they didn’t ‘score’, the boy would be on bathroom duty for the next month.” After all these years, the humiliation was still an open wound.
“I had friends at the boarding school who believed me when I claimed not to have had sex with any of them. But the boys were insistent and the other girls believed them, one in particular who was a vicious, elitist brat. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t even gone to the dance during which one boy claimed to have had sex with me. Or that my friends had been with me all night, eating pizza and working on the yearbook layout. The boys all claimed to have had sex with the ‘big busted girl’. Apparently, they didn’t even bother to find out my name.”
Nasir listened, disgusted and furious. “You didn’t.”
She shook her head, relieved and somewhat mollified by his fervent insistence. “No. I didn’t.” She turned away and shivered. “I focused on studying. I have two amazing friends and we got through those years together.”
He pushed away from the wall. “And this is why you think we shouldn’t have any sort of physical relationship?” He understood now and it made perfect sense. She’d been humiliated because of her pronounced figure so she’d decided to ignore any sort of physical connection.
“Yes. I would rather just focus on work issues.” Her eyes moved over his broad, muscular shoulders and chest, ignoring the way her heart stuttered slightly at the sight. “Thank you for understanding.”
Cassy started to move away, intending to go upstairs, finish the contract, and then get on a plane so that she could go home and forget that this day had ever happened.
“I understand.” He took her hand and led her out of the shooting range. There was a guard just outside of the room and Nasir called out an order to the man who immediately nodded, moving in to put the weapons and ammunition back in the locked case. Nasir pulled her along behind him up the first flight of stairs, then over to the elaborate stairs she’d descended so many hours ago. She suspected there were bedrooms up those stairs and she pulled away.
“Your Highness…” she began.
His foot was on the first stair as he paused and looked down at her. “No Cassandra. This is important. Come with me.”
She shook her head and tried to pull her hand away, but he didn’t release her hand. In fact, he didn’t even bring her back into the bedroom she’d woken up in this morning. Oh no, this room was much larger, much more elaborate. And the colors were darker. No lemony yellow color scheme or filmy curtains. The colors here were red and black with splashes of cream.
“Please, don’t do this!” she begged, although he didn’t drag her to the bed as she’d thought he would. If he had, she would have fought him with everything in her. But instead, he pulled her over to the full-length mirror. Standing behind her, he held her in front of him, his head watching her over her shoulder.