‘If you think you can use this to get out of justice being served, Hajjar, you’re wrong,’ Zach stated menacingly.
‘At least I admit what I did,’ her father spat, as if that completely exonerated him from his crime. ‘You...you take my daughter and dress her up as your...your whore and expect me to say nothing?’
Even though she knew her father hadn’t meant to insult her quite so badly, Farah still felt the sting of his disapproval like a sharp slap. The prince stilled beside her. ‘Retract that insult to your daughter immediately,’ he warned quietly. ‘Or I will do it for you.’
Farah stiffened with shock at his instant and unequivocal defence of her. It felt as if no one had been in her corner since her mother had died and a sweet spear of pain lanced her heart.
‘Do you deny the charge?’ her father demanded.
‘I am not beholden to you or anyone else,’ the prince stated grimly.
‘But you are beholden to the laws of this country and you have wronged my daughter by taking her from her home and then spending the night with her. And something happened between you,’ her father asserted. ‘My daughter is in shock.’
An understatement, Farah thought, her mind reeling at all that had been said, including the ludicrous statement that the prince should marry her. Her father had to be mad to even suggest it.
‘Zach?’ Nadir’s quietly controlled voice broke into the emotion swirling around them and something passed between the two brothers that she couldn’t read.
Prince Zachim growled low in his throat and stabbed a hand through his jet-black hair, the lethal glitter in his amber gaze pinning her to the spot. Power throbbed from every one of his muscles and the sexual chemistry that thrilled her as much as it appalled her ratcheted up a notch. ‘I did not compromise this woman,’ he said with deliberate slowness.
‘Easy enough to say,’ her father snarled.
‘Tell him, Farah,’ the prince ordered roughly, her name husky on his lips.
Tell me you want me, Farah?
‘Tell him that nothing happened between us.’
Nothing?
She blinked up at him. She supposed in his world the way he had touched her and kissed her had meant nothing to him and, no, he hadn’t compromised her in the way her father meant. But he had made her aware of the sensual nature of her body for the first time in her life and it had changed her in a way she couldn’t yet explain. Worse, it had made her want him on a level she had never wanted another man. Was that nothing?
Appalled to find herself close to tears, she stared at the floor to gather her wits but as soon as she heard Amir’s swift intake of breath she realised that the men had interpreted her hesitation as an admission of guilt.
A clock she hadn’t noticed before ticked loudly in the deathly silence right before both her father and Amir erupted, gesticulating wildly. Within seconds the palace guards surrounded them, guns drawn.
Farah saw Prince Zachim stiffen as he stared at her, his expression one of outraged astonishment. Sheikh Nadir swore under his breath.
‘By Allah, you will marry my daughter,’ her father bellowed, ‘or you will bring the wrath of all the mountain tribes down on your head.’
The sheikh swore again.
So did the prince this time.
‘Father, listen, I—’
‘Stay out of this, Farah.’
Stay out of it! Farah nearly choked as her own temper rose to the surface.
Then Amir spoke, further tightening the screws of tension in the elegant room. ‘I will marry Farah.’
Farah groaned. ‘Amir, don’t.’
His brown eyes were fierce as they met hers. ‘I don’t care if you have lain with him. I will have you for my own.’
‘Over my dead body.’ The prince hadn’t moved a muscle but he seemed to dominate the space.
Farah’s head throbbed as her mind scrambled to fix what was happening.
‘Zach. A word.’ Nadir’s commanding tone brooked no argument. Farah glanced away as the prince gave her a loaded stare before following his brother to the other side of the room.
Sighing heavily, she rounded on her father. ‘Father—’
‘Don’t argue.’ He folded his arms across his massive chest. ‘That dog will do the honourable thing by you if it’s the last thing he does.’
‘But I don’t want to get married,’ she asserted.
Her father waved her claim away as if her desires were inconsequential. ‘Every woman wants to get married.’