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But first, these seven stolen days To pretend he was a different er for the pretty American with the wide honey eyes he’d ain, over and over, until he was glutted

He’d been selfish enough to drag her into his world He was selfish enough to taste her the way he wanted, to lose himself in her for a time, then return to reality and set the necessary boundaries

But there was obviously some part of him that wondered

“I shouldn’t take the whole week,” he’d muttered to Nasser after yet another conference call with a trio of big oil kingpins frorained dismissiveness had made Khaled feeleach and every one of the anyway “I can hardly spare a day”

“What is that proverb?” Nasser had asked in his ed—those who are on the outside wish to get in—’”

“‘And those who are on the inside wish to get out,’” Khaled had finished for him impatiently “So you see my point”

“I confess, Your Excellency, I was thinking of your long-suffering bride-to-be,” Nasser had replied, wisely keeping that smirk in his voice from his face

Khaled knew he shouldn’t do this He even knew that he was lying to hier for this wo point

If he didn’t have her soon, he thought he ht hurt someone

But one as all he’d allow himself

One week to slake this consuht she’d gone to pieces in his ar hi that terrible need inside hiet his fill of this woman he wanted more than was at all wise, so he couldat him at the most inopportune moments

One week to pretend he could let himself love her, when he knew he couldn’t When he knew there was only duty Only and ever his duty

He’d given all of his Western allies a his wedding the culmination of a thousand romantic fantasies, and his country now see He could get back to work on whatJhurat froe

One week is all I need, he told himself fiercely as they cliht desolation of the desert, leaving the jutting spires of the capital city and the wild cheering fro celebration behind, and I will conquer this thing that claws at me whenever I look at her

It was only sex, he reasoned The sex he’d deliberately withheld, because he’d hoped to control it And her It was only sex, he told hier to them both

Sex and iaze of hers that pricked at hi at hireat desert into the coht, and Khaled assured himself it was the promise of sex alone that made his heart beat faster the closer they caolden, shifting, treacherous hills of sand that were his birthright

It wasn’t her flawless skin, only partially concealed by the fe scarves she wore It wasn’t the henna that marked her as surely as he wanted to mark her, claim her It wasn’t that slender beauty of hers in the dress she wore, which he kneould grace the cover of a hundred azines and still not quite capture what fascinated hiaze That disrespectful scowl Her soft hter The innate grace she’d had all along, hidden beneath her grubby Western clothes and tied-back hair, waiting only to be called forth Celebrated

Made his

He gathered her in his arainst his chest as he e tent that had been prepared for the As if he’d won her in a long, pitched battle She stirred as he strode through the ca up at hinized him

It was as if she thought he was safe Khaled wished that were true