The Sheik’s Captured Princess (The Samara Royal Family Series Book 4) by Elizabeth Lennox Page B

brother’s office and listen to the conversation or you can stay here and find out what transpired after the fact, which is what I would prefer.”
    She faced him defiantly, hands on her hips as she glared right back at him, still intimidated by him but not willing to back down either.  This was her future he was trying to control and she wasn’t going to take that.
    Jurar loved the way she was standing up to him.  It boded well for their future that she wasn’t afraid of him.  Well, he could sense her trembling even though he wasn’t holding her any longer, so he knew shew was still nervous.  But she was strong and standing up for what she believed in. 
    She wasn’t going to win though.  No, this was a matter of honor and he would be the victor in their private battle.  But he’d make it up to her.  Not that he could assure her of that right at this moment, not with her brother breathing down his neck. 
    Ramzi disagreed with her presence during this discussion.  “This is between men, Ciala.  Go find Shantra or Mia.”
    Ciala swung around, furious that her brother would dare to tell her that her future was none of her business.  And worse, that she should go hang out with the ladies until things were settled. 
    “Don’t you dare use that tone with me, big brother!  I am not cattle to be herded where one thinks I should go.  And if you think that Mia isn’t going to hear that you insinuated that I should simply join the ladies while you did the manly thing and discussed what’s to be done about my future, then think again!  You know she hates that kind of chauvinism just as much as I do.”
    Ramzi obviously wasn’t worried.  He stood there arrogantly staring down at her with his arms crossed over his massive chest.  She looked at Jurar and realized that he looked exactly the same way.  But she knew about all of those bulging muscles in those arms, all of the ridges in that stomach and all of the….oh my, she thought and tried to calm her racing libido down. 
    Glancing up once again, she realized that Jurar knew exactly what was going on inside her head.  And one look at her brother’s furious face…he knew it too.
    “Come on,” she sighed.  “Let’s get this conversation over with.”  She marched into her brother’s office and waited for them to join her, unware of her foot tapping out her impatience. 
    When the door slammed shut, she jerked but tried to remain composed.  “I’m not getting married,” she announced.  “What I do in my own time is my business.” 
    She faced both men and it seemed that the tides had definitely shifted.  Previously, Ramzi had been furious with Jurar.  Unfortunately, her defiance, her absolute belief that she was going to fly against thousands of years of tradition and everything she’d been brought up to believe in, had formed an unyielding alliance between her brother and the man she’d slept with the previous night. 
    “You will,” Jurar told her unequivocally.  She ignored her older brother’s arrogant nod of agreement. 
    She walked forward, arms crossed over her chest as she mimicked their stance.  “No.  I’m not the first woman you’ve had sex with and I most likely won’t be the last.  Since you never thought that those women needed to be rushed into marriage after one of your nights with them, I refuse to be singled out.”
    “You’re different,” Jurar told her with absolute conviction.
    She pulled back.  “How?  Do I have different body parts than the other women you’ve had sex with?  Do I walk differently?  Did I do something last night that other women didn’t do?”  She heard a growl to her left where her older brother was standing with his hands on his hips but she ignored him, focusing all of her attention on Jurar.  Possibly a mistake, but at this point, she just wanted him to back down on his insistence that they marry.  One battle at a time, she thought.  Fighting a two front war wasn’t a