To Tempt a Sheikh by Olivia Gates Read Free Book Online Page A

in any place of power doesn’t have someone with a beef against them?Ruling a country isn’t all plain sailing. Laws and rulings are contested, whether economic, military or judicial, by others with opposing views or interests. In my own peacekeeping and business capacities, I’m sure my decisions and actions always leave someone disgruntled. That doesn’t mean I’m evil. I’ve certainly done nothing criminal in my life.”
    â€œOh, you’re too clever to do something overt. But you, Mr. Peacekeeping Entrepreneur, manipulate the law, and people. Like you did me. Like you’re still trying to. But I’m on to you. I’m on to your whole family. That you call yourselves a royal family doesn’t make you any less criminal. Many so-called rulers were deposed then brought to justice for crimes against their people. As you one day, and soon I hope, will be.”
    Okay. She’d done it. She’d ensured her place at the top of his blacklist.
    And again, the tenacious man refused to get it over with and validate her fear, release his mask.
    His face remained the very sight of sincerity, his voice the very sound of earnestness. “You can believe what you wish, Talia. But I will also say what I wish, my version of the truth. I would have come to save you, no matter who you were. And whomever I saved would have been safe with me. Whatever your agenda is, you are safer with me than with your own family. You scoff now, but when you weren’t applying your prejudice to me, you, too, believed it was an act of fate for us to share this, to feel this powerfully about each other, to see the other for what we truly are without the help or hindrance of identities and history. I now urge you to look beyond what you think you know, to what you do know. Of me. You’re a doctor, and you’re used to seeing people stripped to their basic nature during emergencies. You’ve seen me as I really am through the best tests ofall—the litmus of mortal danger, and your own valiant efforts at exercising your potent provocation.”
    She gaped at him for a long moment.
    Then she shook her head on a bewildered, belligerent chuckle. “You should have been a diplomat. You’d hog-tie anyone in a net of platitudes and persuasions so thick, they wouldn’t see the way out and would soon stop wanting one. But it’s too late with me, so save it.”
    His gaze lengthened in turn. She could swear he was struggling not to smile again. At last he exhaled, like a man bound on tolerating a nuisance for life, leveled that supernatural gaze on her. “You believe you have reason to hate us. Tell me.”
    â€œI’m telling you nothing. As far as I’m concerned, you’re no better than my kidnappers. You’re actually far worse. My enmity with them was incidental. I was just the source of damaging info to their hereditary enemies. But with your family, my enmity is very specific. And don’t play the ‘I took a bullet saving you’ card. I now realize why you did. You want what they wanted. And my answer to you is the same one I gave them. You can go take a flying leap from one of your capital’s world-record-high skyscrapers.”
    â€œIs that how you always reach your verdicts, Talia? You judge by symptoms that have many differential diagnoses and insist on the first one that occurs to you and explains them?”
    She gritted her teeth against the urge to punch him again. The man made perfect sense every time he opened his mouth. Was there no provoking him into making his first mistake? “Oh, don’t start with the professional similes. You know nothing about me.”
    â€œI may not know the facts about you, but I know a lot about the truth. I’m certain of everything I know, through the proof of your actions in the worst possible conditions.You’re brave and daring and capable and intense. You’re passionate in everything you