Free Sheikh With Benefits by Teresa Morgan Page B

thrilled. "You were the most important woman in the world to me from the moment you saw my pain and sought to relieve it. I will never again let anyone treat you the way your family has. We will be together from now on. We will speak and do as we please and pick up leaves from the ground if we wish to."
    "Uhm, what?" she said. "You lost me on that last one."
    "If I know my brother, he will exile me." She must have startled, since he raised a hand in reassurance. "Not officially. Not permanently. I will have to leave Ulai for a time."
    Ferocity rose in her. "I don't care. You know I don't care, so why are you telling me this? I'm going with you."
    "You going with me was not quite what I had in mind."
    His words made her go still with fear. For a second, he wore his old face, the mask she couldn't read.
    "I believe," he continued, "he will also appoint a new ambassador to Canada. I thought I would go with her instead."
    Why would the new ambassador be a woman? she asked herself. Why would Javad go with her when he clearly wanted to be with... A thought struck her, like a physical blow.
    "Me?" she barely squeaked out.
    "It solves the problem neatly," Javad pointed out. "It offers your father recompense for the insult to his family he received tonight, and gets me out of the way. "If he does not think of it himself, I will suggest it to him. It is the only way, really."
    "I'm way too young. Also, a woman."
    "Quite a woman," Javad said, in a wolfish new way that made her blush to her ankles. "And no one is more qualified. Besides, it is a perfect opportunity to show the world how very modern Ulai is. Yet the old guard will assume that I am the ambassador in all but name. They will be wrong, of course. Yes, it is a very tidy solution."
    The responsibility seemed overwhelming. She was just shy Arya, after all.
    She was about to explain why she couldn't accept the position. Couldn't be in the spotlight all the time. Then she looked at Javad and saw herself the way he saw her. She'd watched and learned from her father for two decades. She'd won herself the man she loved through a twisty kind of truth mixed with deceit.
    She could, she realized, do the job. And do it well.
    "I can't do it—"
    When he attempted to interrupt, she raised her hand to silence him. Like a miracle, it worked. "I can't do it without your help ."
    He nodded. And she knew that he would support her as she needed, not interfering when she did things her way, but assisting when she asked for his help.
    "Daliya is coming with us," she told him.
    "I thought you did not care for each other," he said.
    She shrugged. "Things can change between two people. Sometimes in a single night."
    "Yes," he agreed. "They can. I look forward to hearing the story another time. But tonight is for us, and you will finally dance with me."
    Even though she knew he loved her, a pang of the old fear moved through her, apprehension that he'd see her crush written all over her face. But she forgot that fear as Javad put his hand to her waist and drew her against him. Together, they moved to the soft music that filtered over the balcony from the ballroom.
    He held her much, much closer than Darius had. They probably presented a very indecent silhouette to the party guests. She didn't care. More importantly, Javad didn't care.
    He gazed into her eyes. She didn't turn away, though she knew what he'd see there. Her months of longing, her shyness and frustration, and her unspoken acknowledgement that she loved him. That her love for him had been planted when he'd visited Ottawa as a teen, but hadn't blossomed until she'd returned to Ulai from Ottawa and had seen what an amazing man he'd become. She refused to hide her feelings behind shyness and ugly dresses anymore.
    "Arya," he said, and that one word told her he'd seen it all.
    She snuggled against his chest, and for a long time, just savored the feeling of moving as one with the man who'd declared himself hers in front of everyone.
    After a