Shaheen gave a vicious snort. “Save your venom, Amjad, even if you have an unlimited supply of it. You must be far less shrewd and insightful than I gave you credit for if you believe for a second I’m buying this farce you staged.”
Amjad gave him a pitying glance. “Is that what you’re hoping this is? Something I staged? How would I have staged her arms around me when you walked in?”
“Knowing you, you bulldozed her into it. Knowing her, she was too considerate of who you are—to me, and to her in the past—to blast you off the face of the earth as you deserve.” Shaheen suddenly seemed to think Amjad deserved no more attention, swung to her, his face transforming in a heartbeat from intolerant and unforgiving to the very sight of tenderness and concern. “I’m so sorry, ya joharet galbi, that I exposed you to this indignity.”
Overwhelmed, she whispered, “You didn’t do anything…”
“It is on my account that Amjad has insulted you, in an effort to plant doubt in my mind about your feelings and intentions toward me.”
“You realized what he… You know that I…” She choked, unable to go on. That he trusted her, didn’t even pause to question…
All thought of giving him up for his own good forgotten, she threw herself into his arms, breath gone, her heart fracturing at his feet from too much love. He soothed her with gentle caresses, his words of love and apology unceasing. “I’ll always know what’s in your heart. You are my heart.”
“My, Shaheen…” Amjad’s sarcasm fractured their moment of communion. “This has to set a new world record for patheticness. Think, little brother. Why is she back now of all times? Contrary to you, she knows you’re not as clever as you think you are, that we were bound to find out about your ‘secret’ arrangement.”
Shaheen turned to Amjad, never loosening his hold on her. “We? You mean Father knows, too?”
Amjad gave a denigrating huff. “With the hoops you’re making him hop through and the condition he’s been in since Aliyah and Anna returned? Nah. But if I put his and hers together when I saw her coming back to the palace all flushed and flustered yesterday while you were pointedly away, I’m sure others of lesser insight will catch on and connect the dots.”
Shaheen shook his head in amazement. “So enlighten me, Amjad. What is Johara’s plan, in your opinion?”
Amjad sighed as if he had to explain that things fell down or water was wet to a moron. “She’s after a ransom. Yours. I was pretending to offer her myself in return for unhooking you from her claws when you interrupted.”
Shaheen massaged her waist, as if to erase Amjad’s accusations and disdain. “But I didn’t interrupt. You dragged me away on a wild-goose chase, waited for Johara, timed your performance so I’d walk in to see her presumably in your arms. And you thought I’d charge in and accuse her of betraying me.”
Amjad looked the image of uncaring boredom. “Would have been less…traumatic for you lovebirds if you had. Pity. I gave ‘nice’ a shot. I should have stuck with my forte—nasty. Now I will.”
“First, you’ll do nothing, Amjad. Second, if Johara wanted to be bribed to leave gullible me alone, why do you think she insisted on all this secrecy?”
Amjad gave him a ridiculing look. “Because letting you loose when you believe she walks on water will fetch a far higher price. And it worked. I was willing to pay top dollar.”
Shaheen only laughed at that, looked down at her, no longer seething with affront, but highly entertained. “What would it cost for you to let go of me, ya joharti?”
A smile twisted with a wince on her lips. “You know.”
Shaheen stilled them in a fierce kiss before he looked back at Amjad. “Only I can make her let go of me, Amjad. And I’m never letting her go. So why don’t you get down on your knees and beg Johara’s forgiveness, then get out of here?”
Amjad huffed in disgust. “She really has you clinging around her pinky with your face smashed against it, doesn’t she? Fine. Every man has a right to choose his poison. But risking war for her? Tsk.”
“If you’re so concerned about war, why don’t you do something about it? Break your pathetic vow never to marry again and take one of those brides they want to shove down my throat.”
“Oh, I did break it, when I saw you kicking and screaming. I thought as crown prince they’d jump at my offer. But father came back to me with the consensus within an hour. No bride will have me. They believe I’ll go all Shahrayar or Othello on them. Even if their families are willing to sacrifice their daughters at the altar of my madness, the families think I’ll turn on the next of kin. Comes from being viewed as a force that can’t be approached let alone harnessed and profited from, I guess.”
Shaheen guffawed. “Aw, thanks for trying to spare me that at least. But I’m so glad you’re not shocked that you were turned down. You have been tearing through the kingdom—and the world—with borderline sane actions and insane gambles.”
Amjad’s gaze grew more ridiculing. “Really? Then how has each one paid off big-time? Maybe I’m not as irrational as you all like to think I am. Digest this and gain new insight into your mad brother’s actions and convictions. You’ll find I’m right about other things, too.” He flicked Johara a just-wait-until-I’m-through-with-you look. “Her, for instance. Even if you can’t think so now, being caught in her love spell.”
Johara saw Shaheen’s eyes soften. “It’s you who are under a spell—of hatred. You knew and loved Johara once, too. Yet you can’t access that knowledge or that love because of the paranoia you’ve been trapped in since Salmah. You will never understand that I’d mistrust myself before I would Johara. I trust her with my life, and far more.”
Amjad pretended to dust himself off. “Yuck. All that sticky nonsense will take some heavy-duty sense to wash off. Well, you go ahead and smother yourself in her honey trap for now, while I—”
He stopped, turned his head. Then she, too, heard what had caught his attention. A faraway drone. It was getting louder, nearer by the second. In moments, it was unmistakable.
A helicopter.
Amjad turned back, derision turning his beauty into that of an unrepentant devil. “Uh-oh. Sounds like the cavalry have realized what you’re up to and are charging here to save you from your mushy heart and malfunctioning mind.”