Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Christ, Jordan thought, his stomach sinking. This was bad.
But Aiden didn’t stop talking.
“Zain’s house is huge, much bigger than this one, and it looked like something from a fairytale, all illuminated at night. So beautiful.” Aiden’s gaze was distant, as if he were seeing it instead of their parents’ house. “On Christmas evening, we dined on the patio. We could even watch the fireworks in Dubai, and I talked Zain into spending the night in the hammock there. It’s actually pretty chilly at night in December, but we had a blanket, and he held me—” His voice cracked, and Aiden stopped talking, staring blankly at the house.
Jordan didn’t know what to say.
“It’s so stupid…” Aiden whispered. “I know that life—that existence in a golden cage, with him being my whole world—I know it wasn’t healthy, but…” Aiden blinked rapidly, his eyes glistening. “I’d trade my very healthy life here for that life in a heartbeat. That makes me crazy, doesn’t it?”
Jordan looked away, his heart heavy.
He still felt like shit when he returned to his bedroom.
“Caro?” Damiano said, his voice hoarse from sleep, reaching for him as Jordan climbed into the bed.
Jordan looked into his beautiful gray eyes and suddenly felt so damn grateful for everything he had. He kissed Damiano hard, unable to get enough.
Damiano chuckled, pulling back a little. “Not that I mind your enthusiasm, but what brought this on?”
Laying his head on his lover’s shoulder, Jordan wrapped his arm around his middle. “I just… I feel lucky to be with the person I love,” he said, kissing Damiano’s shoulder. “It just hit me suddenly.”
Damiano knew him too well to let go of the issue that easily. His intelligent eyes studied him for a long moment before Damiano laid his hand on Jordan’s and said, “Tell me what you need me to do, caro.”
Jordan thought for a moment and then told him.
Damiano listened to his request without a hint of surprise.
“I wouldn’t even need to look into it,” he said with a rueful smile. “I’ve been keeping tabs on the man for months. Just in case.”
Jordan rolled his eyes with a laugh. “Of course you did. Okay, I guess your paranoid overprotectiveness can be useful. Spill.”
Damiano hummed, playing with Jordan’s fingers absentmindedly. “Rahim is a highly intelligent man. He’s a shark when it comes to business, and it’s rumored that he isn’t any different in his personal life. Not that he has much of a personal life these days. He lives separately from his wife—he recently sent her to the UK, enrolling her in Cambridge. Apparently his father-in-law wasn’t pleased about it, but in the UAE the husband’s decision is law. Rahim has also been meeting with his lawyers a lot, and from the snatches of conversation my men overheard, they’re working on a divorce. Rahim intends to financially support his soon-to-be ex-wife, so that she wouldn’t need to return to her father upon the divorce, but otherwise he isn’t willing to give an inch to his father-in-law.” Damiano shook his head. “The man has balls of steel; I’ll give him that.”
Jordan frowned. “Do you think there might be a chance that he hasn’t forgotten Aiden?”
Damiano shrugged, stroking Jordan’s knuckles. “Who knows. As far as my men could tell, the man has been living like a monk.”
That didn’t necessarily mean anything, especially for a Muslim.
Jordan sighed. “Even if he gets divorced, my dad’s threat to expose him as a sodomite to the UAE authorities is still very much real. The most Aiden can hope for is to be his dirty little secret again.” Jordan grimaced. From his experience, he knew being a secret just made you miserable long-term. But unlike him, Aiden couldn’t take his happiness into his own hands. Zain Rahim wasn’t Damiano. The power imbalance between Rahim and Aiden was so vast their relationship would have been side-eyed even if there hadn’t been the sex slave issue—or the issue of the UAE government not allowing them to ever be openly together.
Some relationships just weren’t meant to be.
Maybe it was one of them.
Chapter Twenty-Four
They were about to sit down for dinner when the doorbell rang.
Aiden didn’t pay it much mind, his gaze on his phone. Although his mother had said it would just be close family tonight, it was probably one of his numerous aunts. He could only hope it wasn’t one of his parents’ friends with single daughters his age.
He cringed at the thought. One awkward date trying to make small talk was more than enough. And Aiden had tried. He had. He’d done his best to like Jenny and be fun and engaging, but he had felt absolutely nothing when he looked at her. No, not nothing—he had felt discomfort, as if he were doing something wrong.
“How dare you come here? Get out.”
Aiden frowned, lifting his head. From his place on the floor, all he could see was his father’s very stiff back. His dad was normally a nice, friendly guy who was never rude to people. The only person he’d ever been rude to was…