Royal Temptation: Protecting the Desert Princess / Virgin Princess, Tycoon’s Temptation / The Prince's Second Chance. Carol Marinelli

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      ‘Have a bath and wash your hair, and then I suggest you get some sleep.’

      ‘Can you send someone in to wash me?’

      ‘Wash you?’

      She had no idea how to do it herself.

      ‘I’ll tell you this much…’ He was breathing very hard as he massaged shampoo with rather angry fingers into her hair. He’d insisted she keep her underwear on—as if that would go down well with the defence! ‘You’re completely—’

      He’d been about to say spoilt but he halted and thought about it as he rinsed the shampoo out of her hair.

      She might be pampered, and way too used to getting her own way, yet Layla was the most unspoiled person he had ever met.

      ‘There,’ Mikael said. ‘Your hair’s clean.’

      ‘Jamila oils it now.’

      ‘There,’ Mikael said again, a little while later. ‘Your hair is washed and conditioned and now…’ he moved in to pull the plug and met her lovely feet again ‘…I’ll help you out of the bath. Then you’re to dry yourself and put on a robe.’

      ‘Okay.’ For once she agreed.

      He helped her out and she made sure that Mikael too was soaking as she toppled against him.

      ‘I still feel a bit…’ She didn’t know how to describe it as he handed her a towel. ‘I think I like you,’ Layla said, and Mikael’s jaw gritted as she continued. ‘Not just like you…it feels a bit different to that…’ She turned as he walked out. ‘Where are you going?’

      ‘To do some work,’ he said. ‘Work that pays in dollars instead of stones.’

      He was cross, Layla realised as he stalked out.

      But lovely.

      He didn’t even look up as she came out of the bathroom.

      ‘I know that I behaved badly tonight…it was just too enticing…’ She looked out at the lights that still beckoned.

      ‘You need to sleep,’ Mikael said, ‘and I need to work out what the hell I’m going to do with you.’

      He didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her—but not in a bad way.

      Mikael went to the couch and took out his laptop and got to work as Layla made her way to the bedroom.

      ‘The maids didn’t put out a nightdress.’

      Mikael closed his eyes for a second before answering. She was the most exhausting person he had ever met. ‘Just sleep in your robe.’

      ‘But it’s damp.’ She came out from the bedroom. ‘If I sleep in damp clothes I’ll catch a cold.’

      ‘That’s an old wives’ tale.’

      ‘I don’t understand.’

      Neither did Mikael, because a few minutes later he was naked from the waist up and trying not to notice just how long her legs were as she walked from the bathroom wearing his shirt and was finally safe in bed for the night.

      ‘Mikael!’ she called from the bedroom. ‘Will you still take me out tomorrow night?’

      Mikael didn’t answer.

      ‘Mikael…’

      ‘Layla,’ Mikael called back, ‘could you really see checkmate?’

      Silence.

      ‘I want the truth—yes or no?’

      ‘No.’

      She started laughing and Mikael gave a wry smile. He’d add the extra twenty bloody minutes he’d spent staring at the board to her bill.

      ‘Go to sleep, Layla.’

      Finally she did as she was told and Mikael got on with his work, only pausing occasionally.

      The sound of her soft snoring was actually quite relaxing…