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Slowly, she shook her head.

The sheikh tipped her chin up. “But you’re hurt.”

Harper didn’t say a word.

There was a moment of silence, and then the sheikh said roughly, “Everyone thinks I’m being hard on you.”

Her eyes widened. “I don’t think—-”

“It’s true.” His voice was flat.

Oh.

“But I’m doing it because I know you can do more—-”

Harper didn’t know whether to be hurt or pleased by the sheikh’s words, and she cut him off, saying stiffly, “I’m already doing what I can—-”

“But not for the right reasons.”

Here we go again,Harper thought. Frustration seethed inside of her, and she burst out in a low voice, “Why can’t you just tell it to me straight? And what do you mean I’m not doing it for the right reasons? I want to make you proud and—-mmph.”

The sheikh had covered her mouth with his, and she stiffened even more when she felt his tongue slip between her lips.

They were in public!

Her hands automatically moved up his chest to push him away, but the sheikh retaliated by kissing her harder.

Oh. My. God.

Her fingers unclenched against his chest.

The sheikh started sucking on her tongue.

And she ended up clutching histhobe.

The moment she started kissing him back, the sheikh pulled away, and Harper whimpered in protest.Unfair!

The sheikh stared down at her for one moment, his gorgeous face inscrutable. The circle his vassals formed around them broke away, revealing the couple once again to their audience, and the noise in the reception hall increased tenfold.

Harper crashed back to reality, and she turned red in an instant. Ah, damn.God knew what their guests must be thinking, Harper thought with a cringe. She managed to tug her hand out of the sheikh’s hold but just as she turned away, the sheikh wrapped his arm around her waist from behind.

What the—-

He bit her ear, and a whimper escaped her.

“Don’t do it for me.”

The whispered words landed so softly on her ear that she could almost believe she had imagined them. She whirled around to demand what the hell he meant by that, but the sheikh and his vassals had already walked away—-

The world’s most arrogant warrior squad,Harper couldn’t help thinking.Ever.

A moment later, she heard a sudden rush of fingers tapping on their keyboards, and Harper realized in a flash that those damn sheikhs had left her to deal singlehandedly with the aftermath.

She turned around to face the crowd of guests and their faces said it all –

Despite them being members of royal families, the most powerful politicians, and the most influential celebrities – none of them were immune to the temptation of sharing a photo that had the potential to go viral.

And it should go viral, Harper realized in horror, since—-