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Chapter 93
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MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 94
Lucas stood at the rail, broad shoulders straight as an axe blade and rigid with tension until he relocated Layla again. He noted that she was dancing just at the edge of the floor, and he wondered if she planned to join him again. Or was she expecting him to chase after her? Lucas didn’t chase: he had never had to go to that much effort with a woman. Consequently, he should’ve been irritated by her behaviour, but he was not, and he didn’t understand that.What was it about her? She had extraordinary eyes, he recalled, as pale and translucent green as a piece of sea glass he had once picked up off a beach as a boy. And just as the sea fascinated him, she did as well. He was down the stairs before he even knew he was planning to retrieve her."Can't," he informed her with a wry look when she studied him expectantly. ‘No sense of rhythm’Lucas stood there in front of Layla like a very large statue frozen in place. Her breath hitched in her throat as she looked up into his exotically dar
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 95
Taken aback by that prosaic comment and struck by an outlook that came remarkably close to his own, Lucas elevated an ebony brow. But it was a most enjoyable one.Layla almost hit him with the shocking survey figures on the level of female sexual dysfunction and dissatisfaction in society, but decided to keep wannabe-Dr-Layla firmly under restraint. "I certainly hope so," she said, her face heating at the very thought of what she had already agreed to do with him. She fretted that alcohol could be affecting her judgement, although she had only had two drinks and hadn’t finished the first.But no, she wasn’t drunk, not even tipsy because she always got giggly if she drank too much. Yet in retrospect, her agreement to spend the night with him seemed so cold-blooded that she agonized over it for a nerve-racked few minutes. Yet wasn’t that attitude more sensible than waiting in the nave hope that someone would eventually offer her both romance and commitment? She was almost twenty-five ye
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 96
Layla frowned, surprised by the news. I’ve been cruising the California coastline for the past week. Lucas walked her down the stairs, but not before one of the men seated at the table across the way cleared their path. When she turned her head, she saw the other two falling into step behind them. One of them was talking into one of those security earpieces she had only previously seen worn in films, and the men backed into the dancers to impose a barrier around her and Lucas and ensure their smooth passage across the crowded dance floor."Are those men bouncers?" she asked."My security team.""Why do you need a security team?" Layla inquired nervously.Protection. I’ve had a security presence in my life since childhood, 'Lucas confided evenly, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. My mother and her sister were Greek heiresses. Sadly, my aunt was kidnapped and held for ransom as a teenager.’"Good grief," Layla whispered in the comparative quiet of the club foyer. Was she
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 97
"I’m more tart than sweet," Layla warned him."Sugar cloys," Lucas husked, and he wondered if that was the very basic truth that explained his reaction to her. She was independent and outspoken, and he had never met anyone quite like her before.He stroked a finger across the pulse flickering madly at her collarbone and her breath tripped in her throat. "You keep touching me..."His eyes glowed with potent gold. I can’t keep my hands off of you. Is it a problem?’Layla’s lashes screened her eyes. She wasn’t used to being touched, and he did it with such ease and spontaneity. Her mother had been physically demonstrative when she had been sober, and their brief time at the commune in Wales had been almost happy. But, after her mother’s death, her uncle’s family had been much more reserved, and Layla had received little physical affection from them. She said in a low voice, thinking she had better watch herself with him because somehow he was getting under her skin in a way she had not f
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 98
Layla blinked, bemused, having assumed he would be as eager to be touched as she was. And, ‘not for the first time’? Was that simply his prodigious self-assurance doing the talking for him? Layla, her body all aquiver about even the thought of a single experience and the unlikelihood of her wanting a second, watched him strip off his clothing with something less than the laid-back cool she had come to expect from him.Everything came off at once, ensuring that she had little time to be curious about what her first aroused male looked like. He was larger than she had assumed he would be, but that was only a point of academic interest, she assured herself nervously, surveying the prodding length and breadth of his bold shaft. She knew she would stretch, and she envisaged neither pain nor anything else that might reveal her inexperience. After all, she had gone horse riding from an early age and believed any physical barrier would be long gone. With the same focused intellectual interest
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 99
"It was private," Layla told him succinctly, her lush mouth folding into a compressed line. Now that it’s done, can we just go back to where we were?Do we go back to where we were? In a different mood, Lucas would have laughed at that wording. But he was in the grip of angry astonishment, his every assumption about her wiped out. He didn’t like surprises, but as Layla shifted up to him in a reminder that he was still inside her, he discovered that his body was much less particular. He stared down at her with stunning dark golden eyes. He was her first, and there was something mysteriously satisfying about that discovery. She was so tight and warm and wet. A struggle to control his every move, he sank deeper and a breathy little sigh that certainly wasn’t a complaint escaped her.Layla shut her eyes again, ripples of pleasure reclaiming her, that momentary stab of discomfort forgotten. She could feel his girth stretching her and his hips grounding into hers with every slow, heavy thru
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 100
Lucas swore vehemently beneath his breath and went off to use another shower. Why was she angry with him? Accidents happened, although it was the first time he had found himself in such a situation. Even as a teenager, Lucas had never had unprotected sex because he knew all too well the cost of such carelessness. His half-brother’s birth to his father’s mistress had been a painful lifelong commitment for Logan Jack, his wife and son.Layla emerged from the bathroom wrapped in the white toweling robe she had found hanging there. It was huge on her, but she had rolled up her sleeves and wasn’t sorry to be covered to her ankles. The intimacy she had naively sought suddenly struck her as having come at too high a price, and she was more self-conscious in the aftermath than she had been beforehand."I thought you’d be hungry," Lucas remarked, with a casual movement of his hand, pointing out the catering trolley that had appeared. I don’t know what you like, so I ordered a selection.’"You
MARRYING MY BEST FRIEND'S FIANCEE Chapter 101
‘No, please don’t tell me it’s been great!’ Layla urged Lucas with a rueful laugh as, ever gracious, he saw her into the speedboat that would whisk her back to the real world rather than the fantasy in which she had ordered her own personal perfect breakfast directly from Lucas’ personal chef."Why not?" Lucas demanded, strangely unsettled by her apparent good humour at leaving him.Because you know it’s been a disaster with you from start to finish, but you’re too polite to say it. ‘I was absolutely not what you expected’, Layla pointed out bluntly, taking a seat in the launch.Lucas, rarely put out of countenance, felt the heat sear his cheekbones and thought that she really was extraordinarily unusual for her sex when she said exactly what she thought and felt without chagrin, revealing not an iota of the vanity he had believed that every woman possessed. ‘I will be in touch’‘Not necessary,’ Layla cut in briskly, as if he were a five-year-old imploring a busy teacher.His strong j
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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
