Free Gambling With the Crown by Lynn Raye Harris

you’d stop thinking so.”
    He suddenly wanted to laugh. And tug her into his arms so he could feel that bright fire radiating from her as it sizzled into his pores. It was a shock to realize that he wanted her. That he actually wanted to see what her mouth felt like beneath his. To peel away her staid suit and bare her lithe body for his eyes only. He wanted to run his fingers over her skin, wanted to see if she was as soft as he thought. As responsive.
    He stood there in the hot sunshine and stared down at his former PA, now his wife, and felt the shift of his axis.
    In the space of a few hours, he’d become utterly intrigued. For four years, he’d never noticed her as a woman—well, not often, anyway—but now he couldn’t seem to shove her back into the box she belonged in. It didn’t matter that she was wearing her conservative suit and ugly shoes, that her hair was pulled back or that tiny black rivulets stained her cheeks.
    There was a commotion in the crowd and Kadir turned. His bodyguards were making their way toward him. Irritation flashed into him, not because they were doing their jobs, but because they were drawing attention to him and Emily.
    People stopped to look—and then someone whipped out a cell phone and began to snap photos.
    “We need to go,” he told Emily. “We are being noticed.”
    She started to turn, but he grabbed her hand and tugged her into the curve of his body. She didn’t pull away when he put his arm around her and started down the sidewalk in the direction they had come. She was so small in his grip, so warm. It was a shock to feel so much of her against him. Heat surged into him.
    And confusion.
    He hurried her toward a shop as his bodyguards took care of crowd control. Another moment and they were inside the couture house he’d been bringing her to in the first place.
    “Your Highness,” a man said as he came forward. “We are so glad you have come to us. Everything is ready.”
    “She must be glamorous and insanely beautiful,” Kadir said, dragging his attention back to the matter at hand. He could not afford to feel softness for her right now. “Make her clothing tasteful but sexy.”
    Emily gasped. “I will not—”
    “It is not up for discussion, Emily. You have agreed to it.”
    Her jaw worked and her eyes flashed cold fury. “You have no idea how much I’m beginning to regret that.”
    He only stared at her. “Too late, habibti. You are mine now.”
    He whirled and stalked out of the shop before she could say another word. And before he could drag her into his arms and silence her rebellious mouth with his own.
    * * *
    Emily could have chewed nails and spit fire. She was horribly, incredibly angry. With Kadir. With herself. But she had agreed to this insane scheme and now she had no choice but to endure the transformation currently taking place.
    She looked at herself in the mirror, at her sleek hair, cut and styled and looking like mahogany silk. Her eyes were rimmed in dark eyeliner and there was a smudge of shadow in the crease. Her lashes had been curled and lengthened with mascara, her lips were a sultry red pout, and her dress was the most gorgeous shade of purple jersey that clung to all her curves. On her feet were tall snakeskin Louboutins with the signature red heel.
    She’d endured endless fittings, the mechanical snick-snick-snick of sewing machines as seamstresses worked frantically to tailor the clothing and the ministrations of a makeup artist and hairstylist until finally Guido stood back and pronounced her fit for public viewing.
    “His Most Exalted Highness is waiting in the outer room,” Guido said.
    “Wonderful.” Emily gritted her teeth. She was going to have to practice being happy with her arrogant boss-turned-temporary-husband. No better time than the present.
    Just thinking of Kadir caused her insides to clench. He made her so angry. He also made her itch to slide her palms over his chest while arching her body into his. That