A Whisper of Disgrace(27)
Inexplicably, he felt the sudden twist of his heart, for she looked … His gaze drifted over her and he gave a small shake of his head. She looked beautiful. More beautiful than any woman he’d ever seen and he wondered if his senses were inevitably heightened by the significance of the ceremony which was about to take place.
They had been apart ever since his car had dropped her off at the Plaza Athénée Hotel yesterday, after a tense and silent journey from the airport. He had spent the night alone at his own apartment, simmering with a sexual frustration which was completely new to him. Naked, he had tossed and turned in his vast bed while the events of that bizarre flight to Paris had taunted him. Rosa had refused to have sex with him, and had then inexplicably changed her mind, just before coming in to land. He had never met such a capricious woman before!
The wedding had been scheduled—without fanfare—to take place within hours of their arriving in the French capital because he didn’t want the world’s press to get wind of it. Inevitably, word would get out sooner or later and then the palace’s slick PR machine could whirr into action. But someone must have talked—the way they always did—which had meant that he’d been forced to clear a path through the waiting photographers who’d been standing outside the embassy when he had arrived earlier.
But now his bride was here and any lingering misgivings he might have been harbouring were dissolved by that tentative look she was slanting at him from behind the misty cover of her veil. How well she played the part, he thought approvingly. That faux shyness was remarkably convincing and he knew that the embassy officials would approve of her demure appearance.
‘Rosa,’ he said as he stepped forward and raised her hand to his lips.
Rosa could feel his warm breath on her fingertips and the tantalising promise of his touch only added to her general feeling of disorientation. Even discounting the fact that she was standing in an exquisite bridal gown in the middle of the Zahrastanian Embassy, the man she had agreed to marry now looked like a stranger. Today, his playboy reputation and urbane appearance were nothing but distant memories. The immaculately cut suit had been replaced by a flowing garment of white silk and his hair was covered with a headdress of the same colour, held in place by an intricately knotted band of golden thread. He looked dark and indomitable, and the starkness of his robes seemed to emphasise the chiselled contours of his face.
Rosa swallowed down a feeling of nerves. ‘The place is swarming with press,’ she said.
Kulal shrugged. ‘Weddings are news, I’m afraid.’
‘Particularly a wedding involving a sheikh who was recently engaged to someone else and particularly if he’s marrying a woman from a notorious family,’ she answered drily. Rosa stared down at the sparkle of her brand-new ruby-and-diamond ring, which had been hastily despatched to her hotel by motorcycle courier late last night. She supposed there might have been less romantic ways for a man to give a woman an engagement ring, but right now she couldn’t think of one. She looked up into his face and once again she couldn’t help herself from being stirred by his proud, dark beauty. ‘I can’t imagine how my family are going to react when they find out what I’ve done.’
‘They’re going to have to accept it because they’ll have no choice. And you’ll no longer have to fear their influence, Rosa, since from now on you will come under my protection.’
Protection. It was a word which meant different things to different people, but it had particular resonance for someone from Sicily and Rosa gave him an ironic smile. ‘One cage exchanged for another, you mean?’ she questioned lightly, glancing up at the high, moulded ceilings of the exquisite embassy room. ‘Even if this cage is considerably more gilded than the one I knew at home.’
‘You seem to forget that this marriage is nothing but a temporary arrangement,’ he said softly. ‘One which has been manufactured to satisfy our critics. It’s not as if it’s going to be a lifetime commitment.’
Kulal’s words nagged at her conscience throughout the short service which followed and Rosa thought about the woman he’d previously been engaged to. Had she heard about this wedding and was she lying and sobbing her heart out on some faraway pillow, thinking about the man who got away?
And then, rather more selfishly, Rosa thought about herself, knowing that she was here on false pretences, in more ways than one. She held out her hand so that Kulal could slip on the glittering diamond wedding band, knowing that he’d be expecting great things from her in the bedroom and she wondered how he was going to react when he discovered the truth. What was he going to say when he discovered that the only thing she knew about sex was that amazing orgasm she’d had on the plane?