Free Sheikh's Purchased Princess by Sophia Lynn

straightened, he tugged the two men holding him along, and they restrained him only with difficulty. When he landed on the couch, he seemed content to stay there, his head lolling back. The one who had spoken before shook his head before turning to Emily.
    “He demanded that we bring him here. The medic on site cleared him after patching him up and giving him a painkiller, but at this point, we are very pleased to make him your problem.”
    “ My problem…” said Emily helplessly. “Who are you? For that matter, who is he?”
    The man who had been speaking looked at her with a frown.
    “The men in front of you—some of us are military, some of us are Nahr's secret service. The man who made today's operation a success while also making it about as dangerous as it could be to himself, is Adnan ibn Arif al-Mahsi, sheikh of Nahr.”
    Emily was certain that she looked as appalled as she felt, but the men in question had apparently had as much of Adnan as they wanted to deal with for the moment. With the reassurance that they were leaving two guards outside the door, they left, off to do some apparently well-deserved carousing. Which left her alone with…
    When she turned around in the sudden quiet, Emily realized that Adnan was watching her with a smile on his face.
    “Well then, Sheikh Adnan,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself, “you came back.”
    He grinned at her, gesturing her closer. When she went, he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her hips. Despite the painkiller, he moved almost as quickly as he ever had, with a speed that would have been disconcerting if she felt any threat from him at all.
    “I have returned to you, beautiful little one,” he said, his tone extravagant. “Are you pleased to see me?”
    “I am,” she said, not bothering to hide the relief in her voice. “Will you tell me what you were doing today, finally?”
    He shrugged, and for a moment, she was taken by the breadth and strength of his shoulders. He was a powerful man, it seemed, in every sense of the word.
    “Razorback. A slaver. We knew we could lure him out. After he thought I could be trusted with one girl, he was willing to show me others.”
    Emily's eyes widened as she realized what he meant. She hadn't actually been bought? It had been a trick of some kind?
    “Adnan…”
    “I would have bought you,” he said, gazing up at her, a strange light in his eyes.
    “What do you mean?” she asked, startled.
    “If I had seen you. Like the sheikhs of old. Saw you in a slaver's caravan, I would have seen your hair, and then your eyes, and then…and then you probably would have opened that sweet mouth to bite me…and I would have been lost.”
    Emily started to make a rather tart response to that, but then he leaned back, dragging her down on top of him.
    “I was afraid,” he said quietly. “I was afraid that there was a chance I would never see you again.”
    “I haven't gone anywhere,” she said, slightly nonsensically.
    In that moment, all she could do was look into his eyes. They were so dark that they might as well have been black. Perhaps some time ago, she might have thought that would make a man seem cold, but now it only made her feel as if she were drowning in him, as if she could fall into him and never be seen again.
    The ghost of a smile whisked across his face. “Good,” he whispered.
    She felt his large hand cup the back of her skull, bringing her close. It felt like something important, like a bridge built between two souls who were nothing but different. Willingly, she bent her head down to kiss him. There was a strange solemnity to it, and it made her think of pagan marriage ceremonies, where there was no officiant but silence, no community but each other.
    After a moment, however, she felt the lightest touch of his tongue on her lips, gentle, sweet, and inquisitive. He was ready to hear a no, and that was why it was so easy for her to give him a yes. Of her own will, she deepened the