She swallowed, mentally backpedalling, evading the truth, but devastated because he’d just admitted he was as attracted to him. That couldn’t be true.

“Can we please talk about something more vital?” she said. “My release from this barbaric confinement you are determined to impose. I’ve had enough of your gracious hospitality.”

“Allah help me, but you are an ungrateful woman.”

“I should be grateful to someone who endangered my life?”

“I save your life, at the risk of my own. You were to have been shot from the sky because the Iraqis thought my father was escaping their plot. The Iraqi orders were to kill the emir, every member of his family and the political hierarchy of Kuwait.”

“And that means make a target of every little private jet buzzing around the airport on August 2^nd. Right?”

Leeteuk’s hand caught hold of her shoulders and he shook her rather fiercely. “Do not twist the facts now. Two rockets were fired at your plane. You know I speak the truth. Hussein personally ordered the executions.”

“How can you expect me to believe that? That a president of a civilized country orders assassinations?” we practically impeached Nixon for a petty burglary scheme. No one could get away with a crime like that.”

“Hussein has, Sora Kang, and you are in the thick of it. Were, I foolish enough to allow you to streak north ward in your smart little jet, you would be one more hostage to be bartered for Kuwait’s gold.”

“Where is your proof? You hide behind your old man’s name and tell me what you want me to believe. Well, I don’t believe you. For all I know, you’re a maniac. You certainly act like one. You’re unethical, you take, outrageous risks. You’re a reckless pilot.”

“Insult me all you like but you would not call Sheik Wali Haj Haaris an ‘old man’ to his face. He would cut your tongue out. My cousin and I stop the Iraqis from firing on an unarmed plane. They would not risk shooting down a Saudi fighter to bring Kuwait’s banks to heel.”

“You think that excuses your caveman tactics?”

“What is it that you are angry at? That you have not the skills to fly a plane better than I?” Leeteuk raised her head, touching her hair for the first time. She batted his hands away.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Stand before me without flinching like someone who is being whipped,” he ordered harsly. “You have not been harmed. My hands has not struck you.”

“What stinking, colossal nerve.” Sora twisted away from the fingers that returned to touch her hair.

Leeyeuk grasped a handful of buttons and fabric on her shirt with his left hand and yanked her before him. Sora gasped and grabbed his left wrist with both hands to dislodge the hold. His right hand dug into her hair, pulling out the pins and throwing them away.

“You are a woman who has not learned what a woman is. Stand still! I am not hurting you.”