CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Olivia stared at the presidential suite’s double black lacquered doors. She used the small interval to gather her bearings and run her “I-love-you-and-need-you-in-my-life” speech through her head. She’d never professed her love to anyone outside her family in her entire life. What if he laughed in her face? Even worse, what if he simply wanted to possess her like before?
Groaning, she leaned her forehead against the door frame. Had she fallen so far she’d accept any kind of arrangement just as long as she could be with him? What kind of example would she set for her daughter? Not a very good one and a far cry from how she was raised to be a strong, independent woman. Too bad standing on her own two feet made her completely miserable.
Since she was here, she would lay her heart on the line. If the terms weren’t agreeable, she could always walk away, and maintain a friendly relationship with him co-parenting Karin.
“Here goes,” she whispered while pressing the suite’s doorbell. On the second ring, one of the doors opened.
“Good evening, Miss Bryant.”
Startled, Olivia’s mouth dropped open. This was the first time she’d faced Khalid’s man since her abduction.
“I hope all is well.” The man’s man gaze drifted past her to the empty hallway, his cerulean blue eyes filled with trepidation.
“I came by myself.” Recovering from her earlier shock, Olivia stepped forward. “Is Khalid here?”
“He is; would you please remain here while I confirm if he’d like to see you,” he said, blunting his words with a smile.
Brimming with anxiety, Olivia nodded but as soon as the man disappeared around a corner, she slipped inside. Whether Khalid wanted to see her or not she would have her say. She walked down a short hallway then stepped down into a sunken living room with a panoramic view of Central Park and hesitated. To her right, the room opened into a formal dining room complete with a dazzling chandelier. To her left, two sets of double doors remained closed to the main living area. Assuming they were bedrooms, her gaze focused on the door to her far left where she picked up the sound of a muffled conversation.
The door suddenly opened and Olivia threw back her shoulders, affecting a brave front.
“I’ll send her on her way, sir, and then get back to packing for the journey.” Khalid’s man stopped. He glanced over his shoulder and then back at her. “What are you doing in here?” he hissed, hustling toward her. “I thought I told you to remain in the hall.”
He grabbed her upper arm and tugged her toward the door.
“Let her go, Eugene.”
His man swung around with her in tow. Still attired in the tailored charcoal suit he’d worn earlier, Khalid stood just inside the bedroom door. Gaze guarded, he stuffed his hands in his trouser pockets.
“But, I thought you said you didn’t want to see her.” The revelation and outright rejection made Olivia’s heart plummet to her stomach.
Khalid’s gaze slowly raked over her. Her body responded on cue, with her blood pounding violently through her veins and a telling moisture between her legs.
Khalid stepped into the room and left the bedroom door open behind him. Unable to help herself, her gaze stole past him and into the room. Noting the empty king-size bed, she smiled.
“If she stole in here then she must have something important to say.”
“Very well then, I’ll leave you alone with your guest,” Eugene acquiesced. He turned on his heel and walked back down the short hall to the entrance. Olivia followed Khalid’s lead and remained silent until Eugene disappeared down the hallway on the other side of the dining room.
“So why are you here?” Khalid asked once they were alone.
“Harry and I went to the police station looking for you.”
With a heavy sigh, he sat down on a gray velvet sofa running parallel to the bank of windows facing Central Park. “And you were told I jumped ship.”
Olivia nodded. “And given curbside service to the Walcott Hotel. Considering you have deep pockets, I correctly assumed you would be in the penthouse suite.”
“So you and the cavalry showed up at the jail and found me gone.” Khalid chuckled as he stroked the beginnings of a five o’clock shadow. “I would’ve loved to have seen you and Harry’s faces when you discovered I wasn’t there.”
“You pulled a fast one on us,” she mumbled.
“By the way, where is Harry?”
“I sent him home and came alone.”
His black eyebrows shot heavenward. “Come to face the big, bad wolf all by yourself?”
“I have nothing to fear from you.” His smile put her at ease. So much so, she perched herself on the opposite end of the couch. “Where are you going?”
“Per the terms of my release, I have to leave the country for a while. That should please you.”
“It doesn’t.” The thought of him leaving brought tears to her eyes. As she tried to hold her emotions in check, Olivia turned to him. “If you must leave, take me and Karin with you.”
His eyes narrowed. “What did you say?”
“Khalid, I had nothing to do with you going to jail. In fact, when Meredith told me, I went to the police station and explained it was all a big misunderstanding between lovers.”
Khalid edged closer. He reached up and cupped her face, so she had no other choice but to look into his beautiful green eyes. Christ! She could lose herself in them. Khalid squatted down in front of her. His eyes locked with hers. “Why did you leave me?”
“I left because I was in love with you. And I was afraid you would view me like all those other women and throw me aside when you grew tired of me.”
“That Khalid was a chauvinistic bastard who used women to only sate his lust. You changed me. You made me into a man who can enjoy a woman’s company outside of bed. You opened my eyes to a woman’s worth and to respect her individuality, her dreams.” He leaned forward and placed his forehead against hers. His body heat made her shiver with a need she thought lost forever.
“You have no idea how much I love you.”
“I have a pretty good idea.” Sniffling, she pulled back slightly. “I feel the same way.”
“So abducting you and holding you captive in the desert worked?” Chuckling, he leaned forward and kissed the side of her mouth. An electric jolt shot through her body.
“Before that.”
He pulled back with a frown. “Really?”
“I fell in love at first sight.”
A crooked grin curled his lips. “I tend to do that to women.”
Olivia punched him in his shoulder. “You conceited, arrogant bas—”
Before she could finish, he pulled her to him by the nape of the neck and kissed her. Starving for him and driven by a hunger only he could satisfy, Olivia fastened her mouth over his, feverishly returning his kiss, needing to convey all the aching loneliness of being apart for so many months.
“Marry me,” she implored against his lips.
“Yes,” he said and then kissed the corner of her mouth. “And you don’t have to ask me once, twice, or even three times.” He wrapped his hand around her waist and pulled her closer. Olivia was thankful for the support. She felt like she was floating. Head swimming, she tried sorting the day’s events. This just couldn’t be happening. Yesterday, she was engaged to a man she didn’t love, and now she was going to spend the rest of her life with the one she did.
“Are you sure?” His gaze bored into her as if searching her soul. “Once you marry me, I’m never letting you go.”
“You’d better not. I’m in this for the long haul.”
He slid his hand over the rise of her buttocks and pressed her into his cock, and it took sheer will not to suggest they use the sofa to become reacquainted.
“I guess we’re staying on a few more days?” Iz?l asked from the open doorway of the adjacent bedroom. Dressed in a black silk robe he was just as handsome as his older brother, but not quite.
“I’m not leaving until she bears my name.” Khalid rose to his feet, bringing her with him, “right now I think we need to become properly reunited.” Olivia yelped when he lifted her in his arms. “Good night, baby brother.”
“Thank God you have your own room.” Iz?l turned around and slammed the door behind him.
“Separate rooms won’t do him any good.” Khalid leaned in and nipped her earlobe. “I plan on making you scream all night long.”
That was one promise Olivia believed he would keep.