Sheikh's Purchased Princess (3 page)

Emily had been surprised to see the simple white sundress they had given her to wear, along with the ballet flats. With her blonde hair damp and slightly curly and the eyeliner that made her eyes look huge, there was something surprisingly innocent and sweet about her.

To Emily's surprise, Oma gave her a hug. “This is not the life that you dreamed of,” she said, “but it is one that you can survive. Be brave, all right?”

“Thank you, Oma,” she said, hugging her back. “I…I will do my best.”

When a skinny man with a sour face came to take her away, her spirit nearly failed. Then she remembered Oma's stories of girls being beaten until they complied, and she went with him meekly enough.

The man who was escorting her to the location seemed, to her, to be a bitter thing. He snapped at the driver and at the man who was along ostensibly as a bodyguard but really to keep Emily from escaping. When she didn't move fast enough, the escort pinched the flesh under her arm, making her yelp a little. She could already feel a bruise starting to form, one that would be hidden as long as she kept her arm down.

“That is what happens when you do not obey fast enough,” he sneered, pushing her through the side door of a luxury hotel. “Now move!”

She did as he said, seething silently. If she had a way to get out of this situation, she thought that it would be here with him. Emily's spirits fell a little when she realized the bodyguard was going in with them. She looked up when her escort sent the bodyguard to the room they were assigned.

“Not you,” he said to her with an unpleasant sneer. “You're going right to the client, and you should pray to Allah that he finds you acceptable.”

Emily bided her time as they rode up in an elevator to the “client’s” floor. When they stepped out, she saw an exit sign at the far end of the hallway. The stairs. Emily allowed them to progress a little farther down the hallway before she stumbled.

“Ow!”

“What is it?” he snarled.

“I don't know,” she said fretfully. “Only I think there is something wrong with my shoe. I can feel it stabbing my foot somehow…”

“You American girls, so spoiled,” he said snorting. “Wait until you meet this sheikh; he'll give you more to cry about than a shoe.”

“Seriously, it's very bad, I think I am bleeding,” she said, her voice tremulous and afraid.

Frowning, he stepped closer and leaned down to look at it. Without making a sound, Emily drew her foot back and kicked him as hard as she could. She couldn't kick him in the head, as she planned, but she landed a solid kick in his chest. She heard the satisfying whuff of breath as she kicked the air out of him, and then she vaulted over him and ran towards the exit at the end of the hall. If she could just get to the stairway, if she could just get down to the street level, if she could just get to a place where people would help her…

Emily's thoughts raced, going so hard that she didn't notice the door opening in front of her or the tall man stepping out. She saw him just in time to crash into him, her full weight not even making him take a step back.

“No!” she cried, but he only caught her arm and shook her as if she were a doll, looking over her head at the skinny man recovering on the ground.

“I take it this is what you were bringing to me,” the man holding her drawled.

The skinny man got up, wheezing hard and stumbling towards them. Despite her earlier bravado, she shrank away from him. He had murder in his eyes.

“She is, great lord—”

“Then both of you get in here.”

The man had an iron-hard grasp on her wrist, and though she tried to pull back, he didn't even notice as he tugged her into the luxurious hotel room. The skinny man followed, still glaring at her as if he could snap her neck and not feel the least bit sorry.

“No…” she whispered, but then the door closed behind her with a snap.

Chapter Four

Adnan's mind was working furiously, and in between trying to figure out what to do, he cursed to himself. There had been a plan. It was a good plan, one that he had had thrashed out with Roja earlier that day.

“When he comes up, I pretend to be displeased with the girl. I tell him that she's not bad, but that I need to see more. After that, we can go to their base, and we can take them out then.”

Roja frowned.

“It is not ideal,” he said, “but it is certainly the best we have. If you refuse the girl, they may think that you are not serious, but far better to refuse her than to keep a potential spy.”

That was how the plan was supposed to go, but then a single crash and shout disrupted everything. He had stepped out into the hallway to be slammed into by a beautiful blond girl in a white dress. When she looked up at him, her eyes furious and desperate, Adnan had felt something in his chest squeeze tight.

Whatever it was, he had no time to consider it right this moment as he dragged the girl into the room, the skinny man following her.

“Apologies, great lord,” the man said, so irate that even the normal snivel was out of his voice. “She is ill-trained, new to all of this, but a guaranteed virgin…”

“I cannot say I am impressed,” Adnan drawled, letting her go.

The girl shot him a furious look, her eyes blacker than the fires of hell, but she didn't try to run. Instead she simply stood mutinously, rubbing her wrist and glaring around her.

“My apologies again. She was trained, but it appears to have been forgotten. I can remind her.”

Before Adnan could stop him, the man stepped over and struck the girl across the face, making her gasp.

“Show the proper respect for men,” he hissed, and Adnan's heart twisted as the girl sank to the floor in a kneeling position. He knew that it was not an accident that her knees were spread wide apart, or that her face was turned up to his in a beseeching manner. No matter what her posture was like, however, there was a glowering fury about her that promised mayhem as soon as she could find the opportunity. While it was not necessarily wise, a part of him could not prevent himself from admiring her spirit.

“Great apologies again, my lord,” the skinny man said with a deep bow. “This is how you should have seen her.”

“I'll admit straight off, her looks are to my taste, but her behavior is not,” he said casually. “What kind of operation are you running when the merchandise thinks that it’s a deer and can flee when it likes?”

“It was a momentary lapse, and I am sure that under the hand of a man like you, she will learn quickly—”

“And if I am uninterested in teaching?” Adnan demanded. “If I wanted something that would please me immediately?”

The skinny man flinched noticeably, shooting a narrow glare at the girl on the floor. Despite the severity of her situation, Adnan noticed that she did not flinch. She refused to look down, and the defiant gleam in her eye made his heart ache. What kind of pain would she endure for tonight's events? Were they things she had endured before?

“Then of course you will not need to take her on,” the skinny man said soothingly. “We would never insist that you take on someone so very unsuitable…”

“You are entirely right with that,” Adnan said, striving to sound bored. “So far I am not impressed with what you have to offer…”

The skinny man nodded. “Perhaps, then, the great lord would like to examine our other goods,” the skinny man said hopefully. “Perhaps two nights from now…”

“At the location where they are being held,” Adnan insisted. “I wish to see all of what you have, and also to see if it is something about your…husbandry that is allowing this flagrant defiance.”

Outwardly, Adnan looked like any other bored customer. Inwardly, he was holding his breath. This was where the scheme would move forward or fail. This was where Roja would have his vengeance or be forced to let it go…

“Of course, great lord,” the man said with a sigh. “I will text your man with the location, and two nights from now, I am certain you will find something you like better. In the meantime, I will remove this from your sight.”

Adnan watched, his face stone, as the man grabbed the girl by her arm. He could see that the man's grip was painful, but the girl made no sound, only staring up at him with unconcealed hate. No, it wasn't just hate…a new despair had appeared now.

“Disgraceful,” the man hissed, quietly enough that he must have thought that Adnan couldn't hear. “Nothing but a disgrace for all we have done for you. Well, you'll learn your lesson tonight. We have men who know how to hurt without scarring…”

Whatever he said next, Adnan couldn't hear it, but the girl's face went white.

You can't help her,
he tried to tell himself.
If things go well, you will save her in less than three days anyway…

But that didn't mean that she didn't have to deal with tonight. It didn't mean that she wouldn’t be dropped into hell, and even if her body was not going to be damaged, that her mind and brave spirit wouldn't be shattered.

“I'll take her,” Adnan said, his voice begrudging. “If you have brought her all this way, and if you tell me you have better, I will take her. As a gesture of good faith.”

The skinny man frowned at him.

“Neither the Razorback nor I wish to offer a great lord such as yourself anything but the best…”

“It is for me to decide, isn't it?” Adnan said sharply. “Surely you are not telling me what to do?”

“Of course not, my lord,” said the skinny man, but there was still some doubt.

“Of course, I will not be paying your full rate,” Adnan said loftily, and it was this human greed that convinced the skinny man that he was back on solid ground.

“Ah, yes, well, she is still a valuable commodity…”

“Half,” Adnan said, and as he and the man bargained for the life and soul of the girl between them, he thought he had never been quite so disgusted with the world. Roja was right. The sooner they could destroy the Razorback and his operation, the better.

Finally, they agreed on a price, and his bodyguard gave the man the cash. The girl's eyes widened, but he could see a simmering fury there.

Good,
he thought.
Hate me all you like. Sooner rather than later, we will get you out of this.

After her escape attempt failed, Emily thought that she would be numb for hours, if not days. She had seen other girls punished, but the slave master who had come through the holding area had said that she was to be treated gently if possible.

“Her skin is too perfect to mar…at least, unless she cannot be trained any other way.”

Now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, she had proved herself recalcitrant, and Emily knew that when they came back to the compound, she would be the one tied over the box, the one with her clothes pulled up and her soft flesh whipped…

Then they started bargaining over her as if she were a bolt of fabric or a barrel of honey, and her rage had reached a boiling point.

The man whose room they stood in, the “great lord” who made her captor whinge and coax, was a tall man dressed in clothes worth more than everything she owned. Two enormous bodyguards stood at attention in the background, but at this point, she wasn't sure why he needed them. She had felt the sheer strength of him when she had crashed into him. This was a man who could easily overwhelm most of the people who might defy him, and the thought made her shiver.

Because she couldn't stand to listen to them talk over her head, she let her thoughts turn to wondering who he was, what gave him the idea that he could buy and sell another human being—worse, that he could discuss her worth as if she were some kind of animal.

He was, she was startled to see, exceedingly handsome. He was dark in a way that made her think of a Hollywood movie star, and underneath those fine clothes, she could tell his frame was lean and muscular. His features were perhaps a touch sterner than conventional good looks would allow, but it gave him a sharpened aspect, lending him more authority and dignity. If he weren't bargaining for her like some kind of animal, she would think he was more than handsome.

Not so handsome that he doesn't need to buy women,
she thought bitterly, but she was worldly enough to know that that didn't matter. Monsters could be very handsome, and she would survive a little longer if she remembered it.

No, she would have been left entirely cold if there wasn't something oddly familiar about him. Something about his face, the way he stood, the cadence of his voice tried to drag her mind back to a different time, but that was foolishness, wasn't it? There was no way she would have run into a man like this in her life before.

Emily made herself give up the idea that she knew this man; she had more important things to worry about. She needed to work on surviving and then escaping. She told herself that she needed to forget the things that weren't vital to those goals.

When she refocused on the conversation literally over her head, she found that the men were wrapping up their bargain. The skinny man looked elated, the lord looked, as he had for most of the time she had seen him, bored. A part of her was oddly stung by that, but she let it go.

The skinny man turned to her with a cruel look.

“You are going to pay for what you did to me,” he hissed. “And this man does not need to preserve that fine skin of yours at all.”

With nothing more than that, he was gone.. With a gesture, the lord dismissed his men, because it wasn't as if he needed them. She was alone with him.

She tensed, ready to fight and claw, to scream, the moment he touched her. It was in the back of her mind that that was exactly what she was supposed to do, but she pushed it away.

“So,” he said, his voice cool. “Do you think you are really worth all of that?”

The men that she had been with over the last few days had barely spoken to her at all, and when they had, it had been to threaten her. At this point, another threat, no matter how grotesque or terrible, would have simply rolled right off her. A question, however, was another thing, and for a moment, she simply stared at him.

“I'm a human being,” she said, standing and lifting her chin up. “I am beyond price. It is wrong for you to keep me.”