LOGINShare
Chapter 31
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 32
Well, the cruelly perceptive bitch, Charley thought breathlessly. "My style team managed to get it just right, don’t you think?" She smiled through gritted white teeth.She hadn’t been around Adelina for years without learning how to respond to such a woman. And even if the floppy brim of her cute pink hat hadn’t been blocking him off from the shoulders upward, nothing on earth would have made her look up at him as she felt Dami’s fingers bite into her again."And with so little notice." Elena slid her eyes down to Charley’s stomach, the suggestion being that she was shocking Charley into releasing a gasp."Gosh," she rallied. "It never entered my head that people would think poor Dami had been forced into marrying me!"‘They don’t.’ Surprisingly, it was Fabio Romano who pulled himself out of his boredom to put a stop to this. Elena is fishing for information. She is always fishing for information—it is the staple diet for a professional bitch.Well, he said it; Charley’s eyes told th
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 33
"I believe Nina said so," he returned evenly."But you don’t?" She was staring up at the face of a breathtakingly beautiful creature who could have come straight out of a Titian painting."Your hair is darker, and your eyes are grey, not blue."But the shape of her mouth, the small pointed chin, and the hourglass shape of her slender figure inside a gentian-blue gown that could only have been fashioned by the finest haute couture looked like Charley."How old is she here?" she asked with a reverent murmur."Forty-nine," he replied, dragging another gasp from Charley’s shocked lips because she looked barely eighteen. "My grandfather commissioned the painting as a gift for her fiftieth birthday." He claimed that her beauty was the only thing about her that kept them together. She claimed they stayed together because she allowed it, despite the countless affairs he enjoyed during their long marriage."She loved him, you mean.""I like to think so, though I don’t believe he deserved such
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 34
"Yes, please," she breathed.He took that step back towards her, so impossibly beautiful, arrogant, and powerful that he made her heart pump deliriously."Enjoy," he invited, and she couldn’t believe how quickly she moved towards him; she couldn’t believe it was she who was so eagerly touching him with her fingers, tasting him with her tongue, and grazing his flesh with her teeth, while he stood there, passively allowing her with his hands grasping the bedpost so she was trapped in the circle of his arms.Though he wasn’t really passive—he flinched and flexed and breathed tautly to every move she made on him. When she stretched up for his mouth, he gave it; when she bravely dared to run her fingers down through the mat of hair and explore the length of his erection, the velvet-smooth length jerked and pulsed.And he was breathing as unevenly as she was; the tension in him was clenching his muscles tight. When she flung her arms around his neck and just clung, he seemed to see it as so
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 35
She didn’t even know if Adelina and Charles had reappeared. She hadn’t spoken to her father at all—she hadn't wanted to, and Dami hadn’t encouraged her to call him. And after their altercation about their wedding picture on their first day here, she hadn’t bothered to bring up the subject again because—well, she’d discovered that she preferred to pretend that all of this was the true reality and out there was the fantasy.He turned to look at her then, and she felt her heart squeeze to an aching standstill. He’d been in an unusually sober mood all day, and that mood still reflected in the golden eyes he lowered to the half-drunk glass in her hand, then lifted back to her too expressive eyes.I love you, she was thinking, and she just hoped to goodness he couldn’t read that as he walked towards her, the farmer having been distracted by his mobile phone."Would you mind if I finished that for you?" He took the glass from her without waiting for an answer and downed what was left of the
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 36
Later,’ he muttered, climbing on the bed and catching hold of her to lift her up, then bringing her down again so she straddled his thighs in a warm blending of soft womanliness and strong, hard masculinity.Her arms went around his shoulders again, her mouth already searching out his, and she moved her hips against him until she caught the thrust of his erection just where she wanted it, her quiver of pleasure making him gasp, the firm clasp of his hands on her slender ribcage there to support her so she could set her own sensual pace.And she rode the road of pleasure without a single care that she groaned, gasped, and even laughed; it was so glorious. She strung out the sweet agony for so long that it almost hurt when she finally fell over the edge."If you ever drink rum in the company of others, I will shoot you," Dami muttered into her hair as he held her limp body against him.But all Charley could do was whimper because "I want you again already."Passion was everything in par
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 37
Ten minutes to get ready to leave was nothing compared to the nine long hours it took to fly back to Milan. Dami wasn’t talking. He’d withdrawn behind a wall of icy courtesy, and Charley couldn’t blame him. His pride had been hit, as had his integrity. Charley didn’t think he was ever going to forgive any of them for it.And the only slither of comfort she could glean from it all was that Charles’s arrest had not leaked out into the public arena. Dami spent most of the flight on the telephone, working to ensure that it remained that way.They arrived at Linate Airport early in the morning to dark clouds and heavy rain. A limousine with blackened windows picked them up and transported them to Milan.Dami remained on the phone throughout that journey too, the monotone flow of his voice never tiring, though Charley had switched it off hours ago.Half an hour later, they were in his Milan apartment. Dami was checking his mail. Charley moved off, looking around her, aware that he was watch
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 38
He smiled for the first time in hours and hours, one of those sensually amused, very intimate smiles that softened the harshness out of his face, and it swam through her blood as potent as Martha’s home-made rum."Amore, having you by my side will be too much of a distraction—as will coming over there and kissing you for suggesting it."Charley moved; she just had to do it. "Then I’m coming to you," she said, and she covered the space between them, lifting her slender arms around his neck so she could give him the distracting kiss whether he wanted it or not.He tasted warm like the man of the Caribbean and smelled expensive like the man of Milan. When he didn’t pull away and even slid his hands beneath her jacket to mold her against him, the silly uncertainties she’d brought with her into this apartment melted away."Don’t let them bully you," she murmured as their lips reluctantly separated."You see this happening, with me?"No, she was just delaying the moment when he walked away
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 39
Why else, indeed? Charley thought bleakly. Desire? Anger? Wounded pride? a determination not to look the fool Adelina had turned him into, no matter what it cost him?She could have made the list grow and grow if he’d let her, but "Now all I want is you, so badly I ache," he roughed out, and the warm crush of his hungry mouth took away her ability to think.For the first time since their wedding night, they made love with a grim, silent intensity that pounded her wounded emotions and left her satiated but with tears on her cheeks.He gently licked them away and said nothing. He continued to hold her close and said nothing. And when she woke up the next morning, he had gone from their bed, leaving her with an ache that dragged on her insides.It was an ache that was not going to go away any time soon, and indeed, it was about to become a whole lot worse.though Charley didn’t know that when she crawled out of bed that morning. In truth, she would have preferred to remain in it, with he
Latest chapter
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 440
He moved suddenly, turned to her, and gripped her arms; she glimpsed the desperation in his eyes as he dragged her against his chest. "I will do whatever it takes to win you back, Kalila." "You are my wife, the love of my life, and I won’t let you go." His warm breath fanning the curls that framed her face, he pressed his lips to her temple, his eyes briefly closing as if in pain."I have told my father to name his brother Sulim as the interim ruler of Qubbah in the event of his dying before Hazem comes of age." Kate stared at him, shocked beyond words. "But... but why?" she finally stumbled.I thought that you were to rule until Hazem was older. "You are the King’s only son, and it is your duty." Ahsan shook his head. "My first duty is to my wife, and my father agrees." Even if he did not, I would still be here for you."Don't you understand, Kalila?" he asked urgently. "You are more important to me than Qubbah, my father, everything." You, me, and Hazem are a family, and the only thin
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 439
The still silence in the garden that followed his astounding statement was broken by the piercingly sweet song of a blackbird. Kate licked her suddenly dry lips, her heart beating so fast she was sure it would explode. "I don’t understand.""It’s quite simple." He sounded impatient and stared at her haughtily. But to her amazement, streaks of dull color highlighted his cheekbones, and his eyes veered from hers as if he were afraid to meet her gaze. "I love you, Kate."Her rebuttal was fierce and immediate. "No, you don’t.""I should have known you would want to argue about it, Kalila." A little of his tension left him, and his smile stole her breath."You don’t love me," she said again. It was probably some cruel trick, and she had more sense than to be fooled. "You married me for Hazem." You love Farrah. Malika said so.Malika said a lot of things, most of them untrue. Ahsan’s voice was suddenly harsh."But not the things she said about me," Kate said thickly. "My mother was a prosti
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 438
The blue sky was dotted with cotton wool clouds, and the warm breeze carried a scent of lavender and old-fashioned roses. There was no place on earth more beautiful than Ingledean on a spring day, Kate mused—except an oasis in the middle of the desert, where palm trees provided shade from the scorching sun and an azure pool glinted beneath a cloudless sky.She had been home for a month—although Ingledean no longer felt like home without Hazem. The image of his huge brown eyes and impish smile caused the familiar agonizing pain in her chest, and she bit down hard on her lip, tasted blood, and cursed the tears that slid unchecked down her face. She couldn’t cry forever. Somehow she was going to have to find the strength to move on, pick up the threads of her life, or maybe make a new one, far away from Ingledean and all its memories. But since she had left Qubbah, a terrible lassitude had settled on her, and she could not plan anything when the only two people she loved were far away on
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 437
In less than an hour, she was expected to attend the lavish dinner organized in honor of King Kabir’s recovery and his return as supreme ruler of Qubbah. And somehow she was going to have to do so without revealing that she was breaking up inside, which Kate acknowledged despairingly as she stared in the mirror at her paper-white face and red-rimmed eyes.When she first returned to the palace after her explosive confrontation with Malika, she locked herself in her dressing room and recalled, in stunned disbelief, everything the young Arab woman had told her. Could it be true? Had Ahsan always intended to divorce her once he’d gained custody of Hazem and marry his beautiful advisor?She did not know how long she’d sat there, but eventually her maid had knocked on the door and reminded her that it was time to prepare for the banquet. She should have made the excuse that she was ill—no one who saw her pallor would fail to believe her. But the steely backbone of pride that had seen her th
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 436
Despite the warmth of the early-evening sunshine, Kate shivered. "You’re talking nonsense," she said firmly, striving to sound confident despite the sudden lurch of her heart. She was perfectly aware of why Ahsan had married her, but he had given no hint that he wanted a divorce. Ahsan told me he was never engaged to you. She lifted her chin and glared at Malika, trying to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach."He wasn’t," Malika agreed, looking surprised. "I was engaged to Farhan; Ahsan was engaged to Farrah."The world seemed to tilt alarmingly for a few seconds, and Kate actually gripped the edge of the wall for support. Ahsan and Farrah! It couldn’t possibly be true, could it? "Jamila told me that Ahsan was in love with his fiancée," she said faintly. "She doesn’t know why the marriage didn’t take place."Malika gave a careless shrug. ‘Jamila knows. Everyone at the palace knows that Ahsan adored Farrah and that she eloped with his brother on the eve of their wedding.
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 435
He was suddenly aware that the children had finished their dance and everyone was waiting for his response. Kate had turned her head to him, frowning at his inattention, and he quickly clapped his hands in applause. Once the dancers had filed out of the marquee, his personal assistant Zaid appeared at his side and informed him that a group of local potters had brought their best work for his gracious inspection. Stifling a sigh, he led the royal party out into the blazing sunshine.The garden party continued all afternoon, and Ahsan was not in the best of moods when he strode back to the palace. He suddenly realized that he was too far ahead and slowed his pace, waiting for Kate to catch up with him. He frowned when he noted how pale she looked beneath her wide-brimmed hat. She made no attempt to speed up, and the dejected droop of her shoulders fueled his impatience."I appreciate that an afternoon spent admiring traditional crafts and customs is not likely to top your list of exciti
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 434
Her feet briefly touched the floor, and he spun her around, tugged her zip down her spine, and removed her dress before she had time to catch her breath. Her bra went the same way before he lifted her again and threw her onto the bed as if she were a rag doll, his eyes glittering with a mixture of anger and sexual hunger that made Kate’s stomach dip."At night, I’m happy to give you all the attention you could possibly want," he growled, his shoes, trousers, and shirt hitting the floor with barely controlled savagery until he stood in his silk boxers. "This is the only bed you’ll ever sleep in." The boxers joined the rest of his clothes, revealing his powerful, unashamedly aroused body in all its glory. "But I wouldn’t bank on sleeping for many hours yet."Kate stared up at him, her breath coming in shallow gasps as she struggled to control the wild excitement that was pounding through her veins. She was conscious that she was wearing nothing but a pair of tiny lace pants and the pric
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 433
Clearly embarrassed, Aaliyah determinedly changed the subject to Hazem and how fast he was growing. But although Kate smiled and made token conversation, her mind was whirling. If Malika’s family had expected her to marry Ahsan, was she the woman he had been engaged to years ago—the woman Jamila had said he had loved? But, if so, why had they not married? It didn’t make sense, and she brooded miserably as she stared at Ahsan. He was smiling at Malika and clearly enjoying her company. Perhaps they had argued and broken off their engagement. Was he now regretting his lost chance to marry a beautiful, clever Arab girl who would have made him the perfect wife?From that moment on, the party became a blur of faces and stilted conversation with people she had never met before. She was sure they viewed her as an oddity, with her pale skin and vivid hair—and her glaring lack of sophistication. But until his father had recovered, Ahsan was king, and one of her wifely duties outside of the bedr
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 432
As Ahsan had predicted, his team of advisors was waiting for him when they arrived back at the palace. Even on the journey across the desert, he’d had his mobile phone clamped to his ear, and Kate had sat silently beside him, lost in her thoughts. The honeymoon was over, and he had made it abundantly clear that he now saw her role as his wife as a walk-on part—or perhaps a lie-down part, she thought bitterly. But what had she expected? She had married him for Hazem, and he had married her for sex, and they had each gotten what they wanted.At least she had Hazem, she told herself later that evening, when she tucked the toddler into bed. She had missed him desperately, and his evident delight that she was back was a comforting balm to her raw emotions. She was Ahsan’s wife, a member of the Royal Family of Qubbah, and no one could ever take him away from her now.But as she prepared for the state banquet, her insecurities returned, and she felt sick with nerves. She had been horrified w
