“But I have no idea how to pretend to be a duchess. I can’t pretend to be anything other than a thief.”
“I’ll teach you. If he thinks you’re titled, Julian will be interested. Anytime a woman with any sort of station comes to town, Julian puts forth a lot of effort to court her. He’s well known for it.”
I quickened my pace to match Zafir’s. “What if you’re found out for lying? You could lose your job.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Then I’d tell them you falsely informed me and I was merely repeating what you told me. After all, I’m just your humble servant.”
I glowered. “I can’t stand you.”
One of his eyebrows rose. “The feeling is mutual.”
“For being the only chance in your entire life for finding a genie, you aren’t treating me well.”
A vein throbbed in his neck, barely visible in the dark alleyway. “We’ll start duchess lessons in the morning. I hope you’re a fast learner.”
“As long as you’re better at teaching than you are at being friendly, I’m sure I’ll manage just fine.”
Within a few minutes, we reached his suite and wentthrough his study. “I hope I don’t regret this plan,” he grumbled.
“I intend to make you regret it very much,” I shot back, then looked around. “Where am I supposed to sleep?”
Zafir pushed open the door to his bedroom, where I hadn’t paid attention to anything other than the wardrobe before. There was only one bed.
“Looks like you get the floor,” Zafir told me, much too smugly. “You’re the one who insisted on being chained to me, and I don’t share well.”
“Youcould take the floor.”
“I could also throw myself out the window.”
“I’d like to watch that,” I answered sweetly.
He rolled his eyes. “Enjoy the floor.”
“I will. I wouldn’t want to sleep next to you anyway. I’ll bet you snore.”
“I’ll bet you kick in your sleep.”
I crossed my arms. “You probably pass horrific amounts of gas.”
“I’ll bet I do!” Zafir shot back. “And you’ll be the one who has to deal with it. Still want to keep this on?” Zafir jangled the chain. “You can still go if you don’t want to be here with me and pretend to be a duchess.”
“Ah, so that’s your plan, is it? You think that you can make it too difficult for me to want to stay? Guess again. Because as terrible as you are, I’m evenworse. I’m not locked up with you; you’re locked in here with me. Maybe I’ll go for a midnight stroll and force you to come along.”
Zafir let out a long, controlled breath and closed his eyes. “And Julian wonders why I have no interest in courtship or marriage,” he said under his breath. “I’m not surprised your husband tried to kill you.”
I lifted my chin. “And you can’t kill me, soha. You’re stuck with me.”
“Here, take this.” He shoved a pillow and blanket into my arms. “I don’t want to hear you complain about being cold tonight.”
“It’s impossible for anything to get cold here,” I said, but accepted the bedding anyway and found a comfortable spot on the plush rug on his bedroom floor to settle down.
Even with all my experience sleeping on the streets, I couldn’t get comfortable sleeping on the floor. Anytime I would start to settle down, Rahil’s face would flash into my mind and I’d have a spasm of fear again. Sleep felt impossible, and it seemed that I wasn’t the only one struggling.
Zafir continued to toss and turn long after he should’ve fallen asleep. Candles still burned in dishes suspended all around his sleeping quarters, bathing everything in a warm, dim light.
Zafir kicked aside some of his blankets and rolled around again, releasing an irritated huff as he did so.
I sat up. “What’s wrong?” I asked grumpily.
