Her Improper Desire, page 11
Prue looked at Khadem hesitantly. Wasn't he going to ask her to stay? Time passed, and hope dwindled, and Prue suddenly felt like she was forcing herself on him.
"I think I'd like to go home."
A part of her hoped that he was going to stop her from leaving after that, but all Khadem did was nod. Moments later, he was walking her out of the hotel and a shiny, black limousine was rolling up the hotel's driveway.
Prue automatically shook her head. "I can go home on my own—-"
"How?" Khadem asked pleasantly. "Your cousin made sure to take your wallet and phone with her, did she not?"
"Then—-" She was already squirming uncomfortably at what she had to ask, but she eventually managed to say what she needed. "Can you lend me some cab money?"
Khadem's expression cooled. "You do not want people to see me taking you home?"
"My parents will ask too many questions if they see me with you."
Khadem told himself this was not déjà vu at work. Alanna had also made such excuses about not wanting him to meet her parents, and it was only in the end that he realized she had been ashamed to be seen with a bastard like him.
Prue didn't know what to feel when she saw Khadem take his wallet out, and she only realized just how much he had given her when the bill was already in her hand.
"This is too much—-"
Khadem placed his calling card on top of the hundred-dollar bill. "Call me when you need me, angel."
I'm no angel. I never was, and I can never be one.
Those were what she wanted to say, but she couldn't, since he was already walking away, and as she watched him with eyes made blurry by tears, she felt as if he was taking a piece of her heart with him.
Prue closed her eyes. This was the end then. This would be the last time she would see him—-
"You're crying."
Prue's eyes flew open, and she was stunned to see Khadem standing right in front of her again, and she could only cry harder as she felt him wipe her tears away with his thumb.
"I tried to let you go," Khadem said tersely, "because I thought that was what you wanted. I thought you were scared of me—-"
Prue was already shaking her head before he even finished speaking. "You took care of me last night."
His lips twisted in a humorless smile. "Do you really think that?"
"Yes," she said fiercely. "Other men would've t-taken my virginity, but you didn't!"
"If you choose to stay with me now," Khadem warned tightly, "I will never be able to let you go."
Prue was having a hard time keeping herself from reading too much in his words. "W-What exactly are you saying?"
"Wherever I go, you go. I will always keep you by my side, and the whole world will know that you are my woman and mine alone."
"Oh, Khadem..."
Prue's voice shook, and Khadem cursed under his breath when her big, brown eyes welled up with tears. "If the thought of marrying me is making you cry," he gritted out, "then forget I said anything. Just say what you damn want—-"
"It's you," Prue choked out.
Khadem stiffened, and a moment later, Prue had thrown herself in his arms, and Khadem's heart slammed against his chest.
"I'm scared, Khadem."
"Don't be."
"Things are happening too fast."
"Things are happening exactly as they're meant to be."
Prue pulled back to smile up at him tearily. "Because I'm destined to be yours?"
"Yes."
"A-And you?"
He took her hand and placed it on his chest, and Prue felt the hard pounding of his heart.
"Is that answer enough, my angel?"
Chapter Ten
Khadem: Have you broken up yet?
Prue wanted to smile, but the thought of doing so made her feel guilty, and so she ended up biting her lip instead while texting her reply.
Prue: I haven't even gotten home!
Khadem: You should just send him a fucking text.
Prue: You know I can't.
Khadem: Just don't forget who you belong to. And in the event that you do, my men are following your every move, and I've instructed them to do whatever is necessary to take you back to me.
Prue: You're kidding, right?
Prue: Khadem?
She tried ringing his phone, but all of her calls remained unanswered by the time her cab arrived at her place. Hmph! He had probably known she would have made him promise not to do anything drastic, and since Khadem wasn't the type to break his word, he had decided to avoid her calls instead.
One of the live-in servants opened the front door for Prue, and she was relieved to find out that her parents had yet to return from their weekend trip in Tahoe.
She tried to rehearse what she wanted to say to Klaus as she took a shower, but with Khadem no longer around, what had seemed an easy choice earlier was now weighing heavily on Prue.
Am I really going to do this?
Prue tried to keep herself calm, but by the time she stepped out of the shower and changed into a fresh pair of jeans and her favorite shirt, Prue was hyperventilating so badly she had to sit herself down on her bed.
Relax, Prue, relax.
She had always been the type to look this way and that a hundred times before crossing the street, and she had never been the once-burned, twice-shy type because she had always been careful with her decisions.
Choosing Khadem over Klaus was easily the biggest decision she had made in her life, and while she knew her parents would likely up in arms about it—-
Prue only had to imagine what life would be like with and without Khadem, and she knew right away there was only one choice for her to make.
I'm sorry, Klaus.
Prue's fingers shook as she sent a text to Klaus, and her stomach turned queasy with nerves when he replied in moments.
Klaus: I can be there in half an hour. Is that okay?
Prue had just texted 'yes' to Klaus when her phone suddenly rang, and she quickly answered the call when she saw Mom pop up on her screen.
"Hello?"
"Where are you?" Celine demanded right away.
Prue couldn't help feeling nervous. Did Celine know she hadn't come home last night?
"Are you home?"
"Yes—-"
Celine breathed a sigh of relief. "Your aunt told me that you went out clubbing last night, but I told her that was impossible. And thank God for that!"
Prue's heart was racing. "Did something...did something happen to Alta?"
"I'm not sure of the specifics, but according to the investigator handling her case—-"
"Investigator?" Prue asked in confusion. "And what case are you talking about?"
"Your cousin was abducted from a club last night. And she was apparently drugged, and..."
Prue tried not to feel impatient at the way Celine's voice trailed off. "Mom?"
"She enjoyed being with ten men, Prue! Ten! That's why she's in the hospital. She requires treatment after...oh, you know what I'm talking about!"
Prue couldn't speak.
"Anyway..." Celine's tone became brisk. "Your father and I won't be home until evening, and I'd rather you not leave the house until we're back. You can never be too safe these days..."
Prue's mind was reeling as she descended the stairs and waited in the living room for Klaus. There was too much coincidence between what happened to her and Alta, but...it had to be just that. A coincidence. Couldn't it?
Khadem couldn't be involved. Just couldn't. Because if he was...then didn't that mean he had deliberately ordered to have Alta kidnapped, drugged, and later on sexually taken advantage of by ten men?
Prue forced all such thoughts out of her mind when Klaus finally arrived. She knew she should focus on finding the right words to break up with him, and to let him know that this was all her fault and not his—-
"Did you hear what happened to Chip and his friends?"
Prue could feel herself start to pale. Chip. Now that Klaus had mentioned it, she remembered too late that Oily Jerk's name was Chip.
"There seems to be a hundred versions of what happened, but man..."
"What happened to them?" Prue asked unevenly.
Klaus looked uncomfortable. "I don't know how to say this without sounding vulgar—-"
"Just tell me."
"They had their, um, things chopped off."
Prue ran to the toilet and threw up.
God.
Oh God.
Why?
She heard Klaus outside the door, and he sounded worried as he asked her if she was alright.
Which she wasn't.
How could she be alright when she now knew—-
God.
Why?
How?
Prue couldn't make herself stand as she took her phone out of her pocket with shaking fingers. She remained seated on the floor as she made the call, and she could barely breathe when Khadem answered after the first few rings.
"Are you done?"
His voice was low and sexy. Beautiful. But now the sound of it made her want to cry.
"Did you do it, Khadem? Alta? And those guys? Did you do it?"
There was only silence on the other end, and her fingers tightened around her phone.
"I need to hear you say you didn't do it, Khadem."
"And if I can't?"
Prue could no longer speak, and as her whole world went dark, the last thing she heard was Khadem saying her name.
SAVE ME, SOMEONE SAVE me, please!
Prue cried the words out over and over, but no one came, and the men circled around her just laughed and stared at her like she was a piece of meat rather than an actual human being. Terror seized her by the throat, and just as she opened her mouth to scream—-
She woke up.
A nightmare.
Her eyes flew open.
It was just a nightmare, oh thank God.
But when she realized where she was, and who it was seated next to her bed, Prue felt as if she had escaped one nightmare only to find herself trapped in another another.
Khadem couldn't help flinching when he saw the way Prue reared back upon seeing him. "I'm not going to hurt you."
Prue's heart broke at the sound of his voice. How could a voice so lovely...belong to a man capable of such violence?
A commotion outside her room yanked Prue out of her thoughts, and she felt her face drain of color when she realized it was Klaus. That was Klaus' voice, and he was calling for security.
Prue's distressed gaze flew back to Khadem, and his jaw clenched at the fear in her eyes. "You don't have to worry about him," he said curtly. "I know he's been good to you, and as long as he doesn't hurt you, he has nothing to worry about."
"H-How did I get here?"
"The boy. 911."
"And you..."
"I had people watching your house," he reminded her.
"And now? Are your people the reason Klaus can't come in here?"
Khadem's gaze narrowed. "Do you want him to come in?"
"Yes!"
Khadem felt like punching someone. "Are you scared of being alone with me now?"
She wished she could say yes, but she couldn't.
"I told you I would never hurt you, and I meant it."
She knew that, too, but it didn't matter.
"I did what I had to do to protect you—-"
A choked cry escaped her. "What you did isn't being protective. Can't you see that? What you did...oh God, Khadem." Prue couldn't even bear to say the words out loud. "How could you have Alta...and those guys..."
"They had to pay for what they did to you."
"Then sue them! Have me sue them! But what you did isn't normal—-"
"Maybe to you it isn't," Khadem bit out, "but that's what normal has always been for me. For my people and the entire fucking kingdom of Huzna."
"It's too much—-"
"No, goddammit. It's not too much at all," Khadem snapped, "and it's because of people like you that people like them are able to get away with hurting more people. Alta will never change, Prue. Women like her are incessantly jealous and will blame you and everyone else for never feeling content or happy. Your cousin would never stop trying to harm you until she was taught a lesson."
"What you did wasn't a lesson—-"
But Khadem raged past her words like he couldn't hear a single thing she was saying.
"And those men who tried to rape you - do you really think you were the first girl they tried to rape?" Khadem snarled. "I have their files with me, and you would have been the fucking tenth! The tenth girl whose innocence they had stolen and whose life they had ruined. I did what should have done to them in the first place, so that they could never hurt another girl again!"
Prue no longer knew what to think. She understood what he was saying and where he was coming from. She got that he had saved other girls from being raped, and saved Prue herself from being harmed by Alta, but...
He had her cousin raped, and other guys had their members cut off because of him!
How could she just forget that?
Was she really supposed to act like his eye-for-an-eye method of serving justice was okay?
"Say something, Prue."
The hoarseness of his voice made her want to cry. It was so unlike Khadem to sound like this, and when she made herself look at him, she realized that she had actually hurt Khadem without even knowing it.
"I'm sorry. I know you did it for me. But it's just too much."
Desperation ignited inside of Khadem at Prue's words. "Tell me what you want me to change," he said fiercely, "and I'll change it."
"I think I just need some time."
Khadem felt himself grow numb. Time. That was what Alanna had asked of him. And he had given it to her like a fool, thinking that she meant she needed time to think...but instead she had ended up using that time to destroy him.
"Prudence? Prudence!"
Prue whitened when she heard her parents' voices outside the room.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Mom.
"Who the hell are you to keep us from entering our daughter's room?"
Dad.
"These jerks suddenly showed up to block the doors," she heard Klaus say angrily, "and this goddamm hospital won't do a thing about it."
Prue turned to Khadem, asking shakily, "Does that mean Klaus didn't see you come in?"
"He didn't."
She saw him hesitate. "What is it?"
"I can also leave without being seen—-"
Prue was already nodding before he even finished speaking. "Please."
Khadem's fists clenched. "You don't want your parents to see me?"
"Oh God, no." She could just imagine how her parents would react, and then there was also Klaus. Having them meet Khadem under these circumstances would be a disaster—-
"I see."
The sudden hollowness of Khadem's voice penetrated her panic. "Khadem?"
But he had already turned away, and Prue was left staring in shock as Khadem opened the door, and with his security immediately forming a wall around him, he was able to walk past her parents and Klaus without being seen, just like he had promised.
"Oh God, Prudence, honey." Celine came running into the room, her usual poise gone. "Who was that man? Are you alright? Did he do something to you?"
Her father and Klaus entered the room and asked similar questions, their expressions uneasy and worried.
She wished she could make herself answer them, but right now, all Prue could think about was Khadem.
Why did it feel like she had made the biggest mistake of her life?
Chapter Eleven
Prue stayed for a night at the hospital before being discharged, and she wasn't sure what her parents and the doctors had talked about, but when they came to drive her home, they had ceased to question her about the "stranger" who had "hijacked" her room.
Her parents advised her to stay home for a few days before going back to university, and when Klaus came to visit her after his soccer practice, Prue knew she could no longer delay the inevitable.
She told him what had happened to her without naming names, but Klaus had somehow still guessed Alta, Chip and the others were involved, and it had hurt to see him break down while she was recounting her ordeal.
Klaus tried to convince her they didn't need to break up because of what happened, but Prue knew it was over for them, and there was no changing that...even if she was never to see Khadem again.
A week passed, and Prue could no longer stand it. She had been the one to push Khadem away. She knew that. She should've been glad that he was no longer around. But she wasn't.
With her parents still understandably paranoid, Prue was forced to act like everything was normal as she went back to university...only to ditch her classes for the day so she could jump into the backseat of a cab and give the driver the address of Khadem's hotel.
As the cab driver did his best to weave his car in and out of heavy traffic, Prue was left alone with her thoughts, and she gradually realized how unfair she had been to Khadem.
Look before you leap.
That had always been her motto, but instead of giving herself time to think things through, she had let her knee-jerk reaction overrule her common sense, and she had ended up acting like this awfully sanctimonious person who could do no wrong and thus judge people like she was God.
That wasn't her at all, and the more Prue thought about it, the more terrible she felt. It was only now that she realized she had been so scared she was being impulsive with Khadem...that when the first opportunity to doubt him had come up, she had immediately used it to convince herself that she was better off without him.
Prue was relieved when Martin readily came out to meet her, and when she asked if she could see Khadem, the older man directed her inside the club and asked her to wait.
"Ms. Prue Galloway, isn't it?"
The voice had a slight accent, and when Prue glanced up in surprise, it was to see a tall, dark, and handsome stranger standing next to her table, and one who bore an extraordinary resemblance to Khadem.
