Chapter 19
“Tell me about your sister,” Zayed urged, seeing the pain in her pretty, green eyes. He needed to bring back the defiant woman. Right now, he could only see the terrified Tara and he hated it. His gut clenched as he pictured Tara being whipped. And yet, her only thought now was the safety of her older sister.
Slowly, Tara breathed in, then slowly released the breath. Her lovely features shifted from pain at the past memories to a soft smile. “Kaia was amazing! Even from a small age, I admired her. She loved running around the farm, chasing the chickens.” Tara laughed. “We were in charge of collecting the eggs each morning and afternoon. I was always terrified of the hens because they were mean peckers! They didn’t like it when we stole their eggs.”
“I’ve heard that,” he replied, amused.
“I would tentatively reach underneath their feathered bellies, pleading with the chickens not to peck me. But, of course, they did. On the other hand, Kaia would shove her hand under their bellies and take the eggs before the hens realized what was going on.”
“She’s a warrior.”
“Exactly! Kaia, the Chicken Warrior princess!”
They both laughed and Zayed reached over to take her hand, gently guiding her out of her chair.
“Don’t get nervous now,” he cautioned, leading her out of the dining room. “Tell me more about how Kaia defied the rules.”
“Oh, she disobeyed in just about every way. I don’t know how she survived the punishments. Whenever our father took her meals away, I would sneak her food. If Kaia was banished to sleep on the porch, I’d sneak blankets out to her.”
“That only happened in the summer months, right?”
“Nope! The elders ordered my father to discipline Kaia during the winter months too, all year round. Sleeping outside on the porch was a favorite, second only to whippings, for the elders.”
“That’s barbaric, Tara. You know that, right?”
“Of course. Although, it was all we knew when we were kids, but even as kids, we understood that there was something…off…about our father and the other leaders.”
He took a deep breath, leading her through a set of double doors. Zayed watched as Tara looked around. Did she realize that this was his private suite? At the moment, they were in the living area with sofas and chairs. There was a library off to one side, an office, and a theatre area where he could watch any movie that had been released, and some that hadn’t yet been released. There was a private kitchen and dining room, and a pool just for his exclusive use that was surrounded by a lush courtyard.
“Tell me more about your rebellions. What were other ways you rebelled?’
She thought about that for a moment. “Well, Kaia wears jewelry every day now. Even if she is working and not in a place where she’s allowed to wear jewelry, she’ll wear something and hide it from her supervisors.”
“Why weren’t you allowed to wear jewelry?” he asked, leading her to one of the sofas. He sat down, but realized that she was still nervous. So instead of sitting next to her, he walked over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a deck of cards. When he once again sat down across from her, he heard her quiet sigh of relief.
Hopefully, by the end of the evening, she wouldn’t be so nervous.
Shuffling the cards, he watched her.
“First Timothy in the Bible specifically states that women should ‘ adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works’ ,” she quoted from memory. “What are we playing?”
Zayed stared at Tara for a long moment. “The Bible says that women aren’t allowed to adorn themselves with pearls or gold?”
“Yep!” She took the cards he’d dealt her and fanned them out, sorting them by suit and number. “No braided hair, no gold, no pearls, no nuthin’ other than good deeds.” She lifted those lashes, her green eyes flashing at him. “That’s one of the reasons Kaia always wears jewelry. Sometimes it’s just gold earrings. Other times, she’ll deck herself out with gold hoops, a gold necklace, rings, and even a gold chain around her waist.” She moved a five of clubs in her hand so that it was nestled next to the eight of clubs.
“We’re playing ‘gin’ and I’m going to beat you,” he announced. “Eventually, I will teach you chess.” He looked at her over his fanned out cards. “Unless you already know how to play?”
“I’ve played chess before,” she replied, still moving her cards around now that she knew what game they were playing. “But only a few times.” It was the truth, but she didn’t mention that she’d read several books about chess strategy and had played the game in her head multiple times.
“We’ll start that tomorrow night,” he promised, shuffling his cards in his hands like a veteran from Vegas. “Tonight, we’ll play gin and you’ll tell me more about your childhood.”
She glanced at him over the cards, then focused on shifting her hand so that her cards were ready for her strategy. “What do I get if I win?”
He laid the remaining cards down on the table between them, then flipped the top card over before taking his own cards and sorting them. “What do you want?”
Before she could think better of it, she blurted out, “How about a kiss!” she blurted, referencing the movie from that crazy director.
Zayed’s eyes lifted from his cards and he watched her, a startled expression on his face.
Tara suddenly realized what she’d just blurted out and shook her head. “I didn’t mean that! I meant to say that I wanted…!”
“Deal!” he agreed without another moment’s hesitation.
Tara instantly started shaking her head. “No, really, Your Highness. That was just a stupid joke.”
He grinned, leaning back in his chair. “You don’t want to kiss me?” he teased back. “I think I’m insulted.”
Tara’s mouth fell open and she tried to find an appropriate response. “Your Highness, I just…I was…It was just…!”
He shook his head, still smiling. “You offered the terms,” he interrupted her sputtering. “I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since the moment I met you.” He shifted two more cards in his hands. “And it’s all your fault.”
“My fault?”
He nodded slowly, moving another card to the end of his hand. “Yes. I remember the way you sat in the chair during our initial interview.” More shuffling and Tara shifted in the chair. “You did that.”
Tara froze, looking around in confusion. “What did I do?”
He jerked his chin towards her. “You looked so prim and proper, while shifting uncomfortably in the chair. Then you told me how I should run my education department.”
Tara remembered that moment and bit her lip. “That was…outrageous of me. I apologize.”
“Don’t apologize. I can’t remember what you said, but I remember staring at your lips during the entire interview, wondering what it would be like to kiss you.”
Tara stared at him, then her eyes dropped to his lips. There was a long, tense moment while they both absorbed that bit of information.
Thankfully, he broke the silence. “And if I win, I get to ask a question and you have to tell me the truth.”
He watched with increasing pain to his groin as her lips pressed together. “A kiss is just….”
“Necessary,” he replied, appreciating the blush that stole over her features. Finally, he picked up the face card on the table, then discarded one from his hand.
There was a long stretch of silence as they played out the game.
Sooner than he expected, Tara looked up at him. He knew in that moment that she’d won, but didn’t want to say it. “Tara?” he prompted, enjoying the confusion in those beautiful, green eyes.
“Your turn,” she replied in a choked voice, even jerking that cute chin towards the pile of cards between them.
“You won, didn’t you?” he asked.
After another hesitation, Tara laid down her hand and reluctantly announced, “Gin.”
He looked at the set of cards. Sure enough, she had three eight cards, three tens, and four kings splayed out over the table.
He lifted his eyes, noting that she looked nervous again.
“You don’t…!”
He was already leaning over the table, his hands braced on the polished surface. Zayed hesitated for only a moment, recognizing that Tara was holding her breath, their mouths barely an inch apart.
“You win,” he whispered just before his lips brushed over hers. He lingered there for a moment, appreciating the softness of her lips against his, the trembling of her mouth, and the soft exhalation of her breath as she kissed him back.
Zayed drew back, not wanting to scare her with the depths and intensity of his need. Taking up the cards, he tapped them on the table and began shuffling as he said, “Your deal.”
For a long moment, Tara didn’t move. Zayed watched as her fingers gently touched her lips. She looked stunned, then her lashes lifted and…the surprise in her eyes warned him of something. But he wasn’t sure what the message was about.
Suddenly, she jerked out of her contemplation and started dealing the cards for the next game. She handled the cards just a little clumsily, which fascinated Zayed. He’d watched her hands before. When she typed on her laptop, she was fast and furious, without hesitation or backstrokes to correct spelling or a thought.
Had the brief kiss affected her to the point that she was fumbling?
He grinned at the possibility.
“Are you going to look at your cards?” she prompted.
Zayed suddenly realized that she’d dealt the cards while he was lost in his thoughts. Reluctantly, he looked down at the table. Sure enough, ten cards were splayed out in front of him.
He pulled in his cards, then sorted them, all the while, contemplating her reaction to just a simple kiss.
That’s when it hit him. Had that been her first kiss? With her childhood, it was certainly possible! Not just her horrible childhood, but also the constant struggle to move from one hiding place to the next. Tara wouldn’t have been in one place long enough to form a romantic connection with a man.
His body tightened at the thought that Tara, his beautiful, green eyed Tara, was so sweetly innocent that she’d never even kissed another man before.
“Tara, was that…?” He stopped when she lifted her hand in the air, silencing him.
She shifted a card from one place to another, her gaze intent on whatever strategy she was planning. “Our agreement is that you may ask a question only if you win.” She folded her cards and looked at him. “You go first.”
Damn, he wanted her! Right now! He wanted to toss the cards away and haul her into his arms. He wanted to make love to her, touch her, show her every damn thing she’d been missing all these years. Then he wanted to spoil her with rich foods and beautiful clothes. He wanted to take her shopping in Paris and Milan. He wanted to show her the world! And then strip off all of those wonderful clothes and make love to her all over again!
But first, he needed to win this damn game. Mentally, he cursed his idea to play cards. It would have been better if he’d simply encouraged her to talk about her past more so that he knew the battles he’d need to fight in order to win her heart.
And her trust.
Trust. That’s what he needed first. He had to prove to Tara that she was safe. That she didn’t need to bolt out of Pitra to find a new hiding place.