Marriage Behind the Fa?ade by Lynn Raye Harris

away and no longer seemed to frighten Sydney. She was watching him with eyes that were full of emotion. The air crackled with electricity, but he wasn’t sure if it was the storm or the tension between them.
    He wanted to pull her into his arms again, wanted to find out. He could lose himself for a few hours.
    An impossible wish, however. She hated him. And he probably deserved it.
    He let go of her hand, stroked along the skin of her throat with a finger. She swallowed convulsively, but made no move to stop him.
    “Ah, but now you see the trap you have set for yourself, yes? In exonerating me of the crime of Dimah’s death, you must also hold me blameless for your flight. For our estrangement. And that you cannot do.”
    Her eyes flashed. “Stop putting words in my mouth, Malik.”
    He would love to put something else there. He was not so bold as to say so.
    “I only speak the truth.”
    She blew out a breath, tightened the belt of her robe. The outline of her breasts made his mouth water. “Neither of us is blameless,” she said. “Neither is perfect.” She rubbed a hand over her eyes. “I could have done things differently. I probably should have. I should have been more direct with you. Instead, I allowed you to control everything.”
    His head came up. “I was not aware of this. I remember you challenging me on more than one occasion.”
    She snorted. “For little things, Malik. Nothing big. Nothing important. And I should have.”
    “Yes, you should. I would have welcomed it.”
    Her laugh was soft, surprising. “Would you now? I hardly think so, oh, mighty prince of the desert.”
    “You mock me,” he said, and yet he wasn’t bothered by it. On the contrary, he found it amusing. Refreshing.
    “No, I’m merely pointing out the truth.”
    He clasped her shoulders. His blood rushed from the simple contact. “The thing I liked about you from the beginning was your lack of pretense. You did not pretend to be overwhelmed by me.”
    She laughed. “God, no. I think I did everything but insult you to your face. I was a bit, um, hostile.”
    “Because you did your homework,” he said, remembering what she’d told him once they’d started to see each other.
    She looked down, clasped her hands together in front of her. “You didn’t need yet another woman falling at your feet. Though it didn’t take long for you to make me do just that, did it?”
    Something sharp stabbed him in the chest. He remembered her surrender, remembered the sweetness of it. He’d never once believed it to be because she was weak. “I took your indifference as a challenge.”
    “Some challenge,” she said bitterly. “It took you less than a week to succeed in making me forget my resolve.”
    “You are angry with yourself for this, yes?” Pain throbbed inside him. Filled him.
    She regretted her capitulation. Regretted him.
    A burning need to possess her, to make her forget every moment of hurt feelings between them, rose up inside him like a wave.
    Why now? Why here? She did not want him any longer, as she’d been only too happy to tell him more than once since her arrival. He should have pursued her when she’d left Paris, should have refused to allow more than a day to go by where they did not speak about her reasons for leaving.
    He’d been a fool.
    “It would have been better for us both had I shown more restraint. We would not have to endure this time together now.”
    Her words stung. Endure. He did not like to think too deeply about that word, or the impact it’d had on his life thus far. There were many things in this life to be endured. It was not altogether pleasant to be one of them.
    “And yet we shall.” Sudden weariness washed over him. The evening had been a strain, in more ways than one, and Sydney was still looking at him with a kind of wariness that gutted him. He had no more patience for it. If he did not leave her now, he would scoop her up and take her to bed, prove that she could still be