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I’d already done the dirty work for him, covering all my tracks each time I went clubbing, escaping the palace unseen.
I’d written my own death note, and the devil sat across from me now, alarmingly unfazed, unwholesomely handsome, and watching every reaction I was helpless to control.
I sipped the vodka.
He grinned.
I lowered my eyes, casting around in what I hoped was an inconspicuous manner for some other exit than the elevator.
“Search all you want, you’re not getting out of here.” Obviously the man observed everything without even appearing to.
Russian mafia.
Aris wasn’t just some expat looking to build his financial portfolio. He was truly dangerous, and Dubai was a haven for people like him.
Still, something else worried away at me, an irritable gnawing inside that wouldn’t be ignored.
“Who is Yasmin to you?” I blurted too quickly.
My face immediately heated with embarrassment, and I struggled to rise from the chair.
Aris was too fast on his feet, and he pushed me back down.
Another annoying grin made him look even more impossibly handsome. “Worried about me and her, are you?”
“No. Never mind. Forget it,” I said sharply.
“Hmm.” He made that noncommittal noise then leaned down over me. “Tell me if what I think is true.”
Pretending I didn’t feel trapped by his powerful presence, I glared at him. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
He stood tall, his simmering blue eyes sweeping over me with utter male possessiveness that made my skin hot and tingly. “You keep a room here. For your less than . . . traditional clothing.”
I narrowed my eyes. He was even more astute than I’d given him credit for.
His smile gleamed, and he was breathtaking. “That’s what I thought.”
“You know what, Aris? You’re absolutely right. I do have a room and I’ll be going to it now.” As I rose, he stepped back, but he didn’t go far.
I finally saw the entryway and spun to walk in that direction.
“Do you know what your father did to me, Roya?” His low, cold voice stopped me dead in my tracks.
Slowly pivoting, I saw him watching me with something close to hate in his eyes.
I froze where I was. “No.”
“Your father is a snake. The slipperiest kind. He gets away with all kinds of shady shit, doesn’t he?”
I gulped, but not because I disagreed.
Aris continued in that low menacing tone, “He stole a great deal of my money, what we’d agreed on for an investment in the oil.” The planes of his face hardened even more. “Then he threatened to ruin everything I’ve made for myself here if I retaliated.” There was a laser-like quality to his eyes as he watched me. “You can probably guess that I don’t do very well when someone attempts to control me.”
I knew Father was unscrupulous, arrogant, a complete and utter bastard to be honest, and it was liberating to finally think that crude word.
“Don’t believe me?” Aris asked.
“Of course I do. And that has nothing whatsoever to do with me.”
Then a calculating gleam entered his divine blue eyes, and he approached with a swagger.
I shook internally when he reached out to brush a fingertip along my cheekbone.
“Perhaps not,” he said. “But now I have you, da? The leverage I need to finally force the deal he burned a year ago.”
My heart dropped down to my stomach.
