Gambling With the Crown by Lynn Raye Harris Page A

him.
    “They bowed to me,” she said. “I didn’t expect that.”
    “You are a princess of Kyr now. Emily al-Hassan, Her Royal Highness and Beloved of the Eagle of Kyr.”
    She blinked. “Eagle?”
    He rubbed his thumb inside her palm. Her skin was soft, warm. And he enjoyed the slight tremors vibrating through her. As a man, he knew it was not a fear response. It was a response to him, to his skin against hers.
    It was a response he understood. A response he could work with. If necessary, he would seduce her into perfect compliance with his plan. A real performance instead of a fake one. A part of him rather liked that idea.
    “I am the Eagle of Kyr.” He shrugged. “My brother is the Lion of Kyr, and my father is the Great Protector. This is tradition. Perhaps you find it silly, like the wedding documents.”
    For the first time, he was aware of how foreign this must all seem to her. How very strange. He could tell her that her culture was just as strange to him sometimes, but he didn’t think that would help matters at all.
    She looked stricken, and he wanted to kick himself. “I don’t think that at all. I really don’t.”
    He squeezed her hand. “I know. This is all a bit overwhelming, I imagine. Yesterday you were my PA. Today you are my wife.”
    Her head dropped, her gaze falling to her lap. “It is somewhat stunning, I have to admit.”
    He tipped her chin up with a finger, forced her to look at him. She seemed younger than her twenty-five years at that moment. A bit lost, maybe. He didn’t like the guilt that pierced him at that look on her face.
    “It will be fine, Emily. We’ll get through these next few days and then everything will go back to normal.”
    “Yes, of course we will. I won’t disappoint you, Your Highness. You can count on me.”
    “I know that. And it’s Kadir, Emily. It’s important you call me by my name from now on.”
    She pulled in a breath. “Kadir.”
    He smiled to reassure her. “That was not so difficult, was it?”
    “It will take some getting used to.”
    He let his fingers glide down the column of her neck, more out of curiosity than anything. Her eyes widened—and then she pushed her chair back, out of his reach.
    “We’re alone.” She sounded almost scandalized.
    There was a stirring deep inside him, a primal urge to capture and claim. He would not act upon it, however. It was simply a reaction to her moving away. Her flight response triggered his male desire to pursue.
    “I am well aware of this, Emily.”
    “Our agreement was no touching in private.”
    Anger flared inside him. “And yet there is the danger you will call me something other than Kadir, or that you will flinch when I dare to caress your cheek. If you do this in Kyr, we will fail.”
    “I won’t, Your—Kadir.” He didn’t miss the way she ground her jaw at her near miss. Determination shone from her pretty eyes as she lifted her chin and met his gaze almost defiantly. “You can count on me. Like always.”
    He stood and ranged toward her, watched the glide of her throat as she swallowed. But she didn’t move again, didn’t try to escape, and he felt a hot burst of admiration for her. There was his fearless PA. That was the woman he could count on, with his very life if necessary.
    She tilted her head back to meet his gaze when he stopped in front of her. Close enough to feel her heat, to smell her perfume. Closer than he would have done had she still been merely his PA.
    She did not flinch as he let his gaze wander over her face, did not speak as she waited. Finally, he met her eyes again. His voice, when he spoke, was soft and contemplative.
    “I hope so, habibti. For both our sakes.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    “A RE YOU READY for this?”
    Emily swung her head toward Kadir. They were in the back of a limousine that had taken them from the airport in Milan to the fashion district in the city’s center. She was still reeling over the short plane ride when, for the first time ever,