Sheikh's Stand In (10 page)

"You think that this is going to be all about me?" he whispered. "You think that I'm just going to let you do this?"

"I sort of thought you would," she murmured, but then he barked a short, sharp laugh.

"No. Never …"

He flipped up her skirt, skimming her panties down her legs and tossing them to the side. When she was bare in front of him, he spread her legs, and started nipping and kissing at her inner thighs, working his way up her legs to her most secret flesh.

"Oh! Oh, Mikal, I can't …"

"I know that you can …"

His mouth was on her slick flesh, making her groan with need as she thrashed on the sheets. She was already aroused from what she had been doing before, but this took it beyond that. It pressed her higher and higher until she was fighting her own climax, struggling with the pleasure because it was all coming so very fast.

Right when Viviana was trembling on the brink of her climax, just when she thought that she was going to explode, he pulled back. She cried out in protest, but he was only turning to the drawer nearby, where he found a condom. In a matter of seconds, he had sheathed himself, and then he was back, looming over her.

"You have no idea how much I want you," he said, glancing at her briefly. "You have no idea how crazy you make me."

She started to say that perhaps she had some idea, but then he was surging into her, giving her no time to doubt or to hesitate. He filled her up, and for a moment, they only watched each other, eyes wide and wondering. Then he started to move, and all of the pleasure that she had felt before came back with a vengeance, spiraling upwards so quickly that it took her breath away.

Her climax was a vicious sharp thing, tearing through her, taking no prisoners. She covered her face with her hands as she cried out, sobbing with need and pleasure. Above her, Mikal's thrusts grew more erratic, more wild, and then with a savage shout, he came, pushing as deep inside her as he could.

For a long moment, they were simply frozen, locked together, and then he pulled away to lie beside her.

"Well, I guess we proved that you're breakable," he said wryly.

Viviana laughed, but deep inside, she wondered if that was true. Sometimes, when she was with Mikal, she felt as if she could take on the world, as if there was no enemy that she couldn't defeat. Then other times, it felt as if everything about her world was fragile, like it could break at any moment.

I can't live like this for long,
she thought, and though she didn't quite know what it meant, she knew with a shiver that, beyond a doubt, it was very, very true.

CHAPTER SEVEN

When they returned to Khutal, they found that Charlotte, Aladdin, and Annika had returned. Almost as soon as they landed, Charlotte hustled Viviana to her favorite spa in the city while Aladdin made off with Mikal with startling haste.

"It's almost as if you two planned this," Viviana said flatly, because it was too obvious that they had.

"Are you irritated with us?" Charlotte asked, an impish look on her face.

Viviana sighed. "Not at all. I think I could use a little bit of sisterly advice."

"Good, all the better to get it while we're steaming."

Charlotte's favorite spa was actually an ancient structure with some very modern amenities. The space was carved directly into the rock of the mountains, and the steam room was fed by a hot spring that came directly up from the ground. There was a ledge for them to perch on, and the two sisters found themselves quite alone.

"So you've been busy since I've been gone," Charlotte said, eying Viviana speculatively.

"I have been," Viviana said with a shrug. "I imagine you are talking about Mikal?"

"Yes, imagine my surprise when I turned on my tablet that morning. Viviana, don't you think this is a little fast?"

A part of Viviana, the part that was ruled by sense, agreed with Charlotte. It was all fast, far too fast. Things were happening so rapidly that her emotions could barely keep up with it. One moment, she was thrilled by everything that was happening between her and Mikal. The next, she was sunk into doubt and uncertainty.

"I don't know," she hedged. "I know that I've never felt what I do for him for any other man before. Ever."

Charlotte sighed, and Viviana remembered with a smile that her sister was still very much a woman on her honeymoon. She had a suspicion that no matter what happened or how long it had been, she always would be.

"I'm glad you feel that way," Charlotte said. "But I just don't want you to make a bad decision. I don't want you to think that you're trapped just because you made an agreement."

Viviana wished she could tell her sister that the agreement was only going to last until after the legislation had passed. It was very limited after all, and after that, she could go on with her life exactly as she pleased. The thought of going back to that week in Paris, however, was looking more dull by the moment, and she had no idea how to deal with that.

"Are you worried about me?" A thought struck her. "Is Aladdin having this exact same talk with Mikal?"

Charlotte laughed, fanning some of the steam away from her face. "Oh, maybe. When we got the news, Aladdin nearly cheered. He likes you a lot, you know, and I know that he thinks that you'll be good for Mikal."

The thought of her actually being good for Mikal caught her attention. Viviana raised her eyebrow. "Do you know … that sounds a little unlikely to me?"

"How do you mean?"

Viviana shrugged helplessly. "He just looks so self-sufficient, like he doesn't need anyone at all. If I think back, he was like that at school as well. He never needed anyone, never needed any help. It was always him against the world, and he would be damned if he called for assistance, in any way, shape or form."

But that wasn't right, was it? He had asked for her help. He had found his way to her, saw what she could do better than almost anyone else in the world and asked her to do it.

Charlotte only looked thoughtful. "I think that we all need a lot more help than we're willing to admit to," she said slowly. "When I was working in New York, I never thought that I would want to be as committed as I am now. I never thought that I needed someone. Then I meet Aladdin, and I came here, and I have Annika, and slowly, I realize that I've needed them all along. My whole life, I've wanted this, and I just never knew. Or more appropriately, I guess that I never allowed myself to know. I have a feeling that Mikal might be the same way."

Viviana realized with a shock that while those words might or might not be true about Mikal, they were definitely true for her. She had never thought before that she could find the peace that she felt now. She hadn't even known that it was something that she needed or wanted. Now, though, she realized that she had been craving it all her life.

And now …

And now she knew that it was coming to an end. When the vote went through, the point of the subterfuge would be over. She and Mikal would likely have a cheerful goodbye, she would be put back on that amazing jet, and she would be sent back to her real life.

"Oh! Oh, Viviana, are you all right?"

Charlotte's arm over her shoulders made her feel a little more steady, and she knuckled the tears from her eyes. She smiled a little at her sister, determined to keep up her facade of being a happy bride-to-be.

"I think the heat is getting to me, that's all," she said with a shrug. "Maybe we should get out?"

Walking into the antechamber was like plunging into a tub of ice cold water. It was shocking, but refreshing, and it helped her clear her head a little for what was coming next.

You've let your control go,
she thought to herself grimly.
You need to make sure that you take control again, and you need to do it soon.

As she showered under a cool spray, she started her plan for what would come next. She made herself face it, she committed herself to the next step, and she refused to look back. She knew that in the months and years to come, looking back would only be painful, and so she should learn to avoid it now.

***

She and Charlotte made their way back to the palace, and later that night, all four of them got together to share dinner. Viviana put on her brightest face, teasing Aladdin and Charlotte, and flirting with Mikal. For his part, his eyes were wide and besotted. He played the part of the loving fiancé perfectly, and for some reason, that gave her a pang as well. It made her wonder how much of what he had been doing over the past few weeks had been fake.

He hadn't faked the passion he had shown her in bed, she knew that, but there were dozens of other moments, his arm around her shoulder, a gentle peck on her cheek, handing her out of the car, that was suspect. Would he do those things for her, or were those things done for his glamorous fiancée? Right now, she felt the divide very clearly.

"You two really need to set a date," Charlotte said with a frown. "You have no idea how hard it is to plan without a date."

"Oh, I don't know, I thought we would just run off and elope," Viviana said with a grin. "We can jet over Las Vegas, get ourselves hitched by an Elvis impersonator and be back inside of a day."

"No, that is not something we're doing," Mikal said. "After all, how would it look on your Instagram?"

Viviana felt a spark of temperature where she wanted to tell him exactly what he could do with her Instagram, but instead she shrugged. "It would turn the world on its head, wouldn't it?" she asked flippantly. "Video personality throws away thousand dollar ceremony, gets married in Vegas in a muumuu …"

Charlotte and Aladdin were laughing, but Mikal never looked more serious as he took her hand.

"No," he said firmly. "We'll get married here. You are a Princess of Khutal, and you will be given all due honors. There will be the traditional dances, there will be the guests who will be honored to be here for such a historic occasion. I insist that you will be given the respect that you are due."

My god, he's an amazing actor,
she thought numbly.

As Charlotte nodded knowingly and Aladdin clapped his brother on the back, Viviana knew that she had to do something about all of this. If she allowed this to continue, if she continued to let even a part of her brain be swayed in this way, she was going to leave Khutal without a piece of herself. She might leave it behind or it might be destroyed outright, but it would happen.

She sat through the rest of dinner in a haze, joking and talking, but every time she wasn't engaged in the convesation, she felt as if she were drifting in a fog. She didn't miss the significant look that Charlotte gave Mikal after dinner, the one telling him to take care of her sister. She didn't miss the calm nod he gave Charlotte in agreement either.

He walked her to her room, and to her relief he was quiet. That was a rare gift in a man, she had come to understand. So many men talked to hear good about themselves. When they were quiet, that meant that they knew others would speak of their goodness for them.

The reprieve couldn't last forever, however, and it came to a head when they got to her bedroom door. Usually, she would open it and he would follow her in, but this time, she turned around to face him instead.

"I think I need to sleep by myself tonight," she said. She had tried to come up with other ways to say it, but in the end, she had to believe that being blunt was simply best. She tried to miss the hurt look in his eyes.

"You were tense at dinner," he said. "I think you've been tense since Paris. Can I ask you why?"

Viviana shook her head, because if she said what she was thinking, it would all spill out. Then her humiliation would be all over the space between them, poisoning them, creating what should have been a fun engagement into something bitter and stupid. When she had her breath back, she could speak, and more importantly, she could lie.

"Well, honestly, I think it's best if we keep things just business for the rest of the time we're doing this," she forced herself to say. "I've looked at the calendar, and I've seen that we're drawing to the end of our little game …"

"Our little game?" he asked, a note of amazement in his voice.

"Yes, I still remember that it is one. The thing is, being in Paris did remind me that I have a career that I need to get back to, and going up and down like this is pretty hard. I need some space for myself, Mikal."

He stared at her. She thought he looked like someone who had been punched, hurt, winded, and shocked. "I …"

"Can you give me that?" she asked, an edge in her voice. "Because that's what I need now."

He stiffened, and she braced herself for something cutting. Mikal had a wit that was as sharp as hers was, and for a moment, she was afraid that she had awakened the scorpion’s sting.

Instead, he only nodded stiffly. "I always want to give you what you need," he said quietly, and somehow, that stung worse than any cutting remark he could have made. "Do you … that is, does anything else need to change? Do we need to call off this charade immediately?"

Hearing him call it a charade made her flinch, but all she did was shake her head. "No, I want to see the legislation go through as much as you do," she said. "Let's keep going. It won't be long before we get to the vote. No reason not to stick with the plan."

Mikal looked relieved and she could have slapped him.

"Thank you," he said. "This is … you've done more than I ever could have hoped for, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart."

He took her hand gently in his, and he brushed his lips over the points of her knuckles gently. There was something beautifully courtly about that gesture, something that felt as much like a goodbye as it did a romance.

She couldn't speak, and after a moment, he walked off towards his own rooms.

Viviana shut the door behind her quietly, and then with shaking legs, she went to sit on the bed. Everything felt unreal, as if she had become detached from reality. The place on her hand where he had kissed her burned as if he had branded her.