‘Yet like you, I have principles,’ she countered, ‘so I guess we both have to learn to trust.’
‘You’re asking me to trust you not to write about me?’
‘As I have to trust you not to hurt me.’
That shocked him more than anything else she might have said. He would never hurt her, but he had to put his country and its people first, which meant he must be sure that his choice of bride was as good as he’d first thought it. ‘We’ll have to come to an accommodation.’
‘Meaning what?’ she demanded suspiciously. ‘I won’t sleep with you to seal the deal, if that’s what you think.’ And when his brow shot up, she added, ‘Sex means a lot more to me than that.’
‘Fear and loathing?’ She blushed as he said it. ‘I’ve read your file.’
‘You had my personal life investigated?’
‘Of course,’ he admitted. ‘This is not just about my personal safety, but the well-being of a country and its people. Our original deal was for you to come on board theBlack Diamondin search of a job. At no point do I remember inviting you to interview for the post of mistress.’ As she visibly swallowed, he knew Samia must be wondering if she had left one bad situation only to walk straight into another. ‘It’s never been my intention to intimidate you, or force you to remain here with me. My plan has always been to fashion a deal we’re both happy to subscribe to.’
‘I don’t understand what thisdealis. What do you expect of me? You haven’t specified a job yet.’
‘For now I ask only one thing, and that is not to tar me with the same brush as your ex.’
About whom he knew everything.
‘My lawyers will ensure that—’that the self-important, pasty-faced barrel of lard my people have described to me would never beat up a woman again‘—he will never hurt you again.’ His guts twisted at the thought of Samia trapped in a loveless marriage with such a brute.
‘What have you done?’
She looked genuinely frightened, which for Samia was a rare loss of composure. The fiend she’d married had clearly done some serious damage to a woman who deserved so much more.
‘Don’t look so worried. I’m not a thug and I don’t employ criminals so let’s just say I have contacts in all the right places, and can promise you that, from this moment on, you will be safe from him.’
She let this sink in for a moment and then asked the obvious question. ‘And what do you expect from me in exchange for your protection?’
He let the waters settle before explaining. ‘This is not about protection. The word alone makes it sound as if you’re a bird trapped in a cage, dependent on me for everything that keeps you alive, when I know you’re a tiger that can care for itself perfectly well.’
It took Samia a few moments to realise he was serious, and then she thanked him with a perplexed frown. ‘And you?’ she said at last. ‘How will you deal with having an investigative journalist alongside you on this voyage?’
Their association would last a lot longer than that, if he had his way. But she did have a point. For a stranger, let alone a journalist, to get this close to the Pirate Prince had been thought impossible, and anything Samia could find out would be beyond value to the press. She only had to use him as a headline for her credibility to be restored. She could name her price, choose any newspaper she liked, and have its top people begging her to put her byline on a column.
‘I think you’re ambitious,’ he agreed thoughtfully, ‘but not to snare a wealthy husband, or you’d have stayed where you were, and not just for a one-week wonder in the press. I think you’re looking for a lot more than that.’
‘Of course I am,’ she agreed hotly.
‘Self-fulfilment and independence,’ he mused out loud.
‘If you mean I don’t look to anyone to support me or to validate me, and that I take pride in working and achieving, and loving and caring, you’re right, but to do that I have to be free to be my own person, free of all influence.’
‘And intimidation,’ he added significantly.
Clouds invaded her eyes, as she no doubt thought back. ‘Of course,’ she whispered, but she quickly rallied. ‘I can’t live in a cage, however lush, and I won’teverlive in fear again.’
There was quite a pause before he felt it was right to intrude on her memories, but then he asked the question uppermost in his mind. ‘Could you be a princess?’
Samia gazed at him askance. ‘I’msorry?’
‘What better way to restore your credibility than with your first-hand story of life with the Pirate Prince?’
‘As your wife?’ She gasped, incredulous as his meaning sank in. ‘You really imagine I’d write about you, if I were your wife?’
An ironic smile crept onto his lips. ‘Exactly.’
