A Christmas Bride for the King by Abby Green

Author:Abby Green [Green, Abby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2017-10-31T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

CHARLOTTE TOOK A deep breath as she looked at herself in the small ornate mirror that hung—swinging precariously now—over the sink in the sectioned off bathing area of the tent. She looked wild. Her hair had been blown everywhere by the wind.

She tried to drum up a sense of horror seeing herself come so undone, but in truth when Salim had told her she’d have to stay there a very illicit sense of liberation had flowed into her blood, making it race. As if nature itself had colluded to take the angst she was feeling out of her belly and replace it with a sense of fatalism.

She couldn’t keep fighting this. No matter how terrifying it was.

Salim hadn’t been crass enough actually to articulate what might happen, but it throbbed in the air even now.

Just then, as if to test her, something soft and light-coloured was flicked over the screen separating her from the rest of the tent and Salim’s voice floated in, far too close for comfort.

‘You can use this after you wash. It’ll be too big but it’s all I have.’

Charlotte was about to open to her mouth to declare she didn’t need to change, because she had no intention of taking off a stitch of her clothing, no matter what was going on in her head and body, but the words stuck in her throat when she found herself wondering if he had worn this tunic.

Weakly, she said nothing and pulled it over the screen into her hands. His scent drifted tantalisingly from the folds of material and something tugged deep in her belly—an ache that had become all too familiar since she’d met Salim.

She looked at herself in the mirror—her expression was one of someone who was hunted. Or haunted, to be more accurate. Haunted by her past.

It struck her then—as much as she’d done her best to move away from it—her past was still nipping at her heels, dictating everything she did. Stopping her from living fully for fear of annihilation. Rejection.

She thought she’d distanced herself from any possibility of pain, but she realised now with a sense of futility that you could never really escape pain. Unless you wanted to live half a life. And she knew now that she wanted more than that—even if it meant taking a risk.

The wind howled outside and the sense of being closed off from everything was very seductive. It whispered at her to let go of her inhibitions. It whispered at her to take a risk.

‘Charlotte? Is everything all right?’

She jumped at Salim’s voice and then answered quickly, ‘Everything is fine. I’ll be out in a minute.’

A reckless excitement filled her in that moment—a sense of seizing something vital and alive. Without really thinking about the invisible line she’d stepped over in her own mind, Charlotte stripped and stepped into the shower area, leaving her own clothes in a neat pile on a chair.

Hot water rained down over her head and body and she tipped her face up.

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