A tiny and no doubt futile glimmer of hope sparked into life. Unless he had done it somehow for her. But no; he didn’t want her.
‘The thing is, dear sister,’ Marina said, taking her hands in hers, ‘what are you going to do now?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, her heart racing, trying to assimilate and understand everything her sister had told her about Zoltan, everything that made no sense, except that it was Zoltan, and in a way it did. Who else had a grudge against Mustafa and felt he had to prove himself at every turn? Who else would delight in humiliating him further? ‘I was going to get in touch anyway.’
‘Well, maybe you’ll get your chance in a few minutes.’
Realisation skittered down her spine in a tingling rush. ‘He’s here?’
‘He said he wanted to freshen up before he saw you. He said he smells of horse.’
‘I like the way he smells,’ she mused out loud.
Her sister smiled. ‘Maybe you could start by telling him that.’
‘My father told me I’d find you here.’
They were in the library, all four of them, freshly showered and looking dangerously dark and sexy. And one of them looked darker and sexier than all the others as he perched on the edge of a desk. He watched her, with those impenetrable dark eyes, his jaw clamped shut, his expression closed.
One by one the other men peeled away, Bahir slapping him on the back, Kadar on the shoulder. Rashid uttered a quick, ‘Later,’ and with a bow of their heads in her direction they were gone.
He stood and bowed his own head. ‘Princess,’ he said. ‘Queen.’
She looked up at him, at this man she had once had and lost, at the dark planes and sharp angles of his face, and wondered how she could ever have thought he wasn’t the most handsome man on the planet. How had she missed such an obvious fact? She wished she could have flung herself into his arms, as she had done with Marina. But if he rejected her, if he pushed her away, she would die.
‘I came to thank you. For rescuing Marina.’
‘Your sister is well?’
She nodded. ‘Very well, and very grateful. We all are.’ She searched for something else to say, something to broach the veritable abyss that seemed to stretch between them. And then, because she needed to know if the tiny spark in her heart would be fanned into life or would quickly be extinguished, she went on. ‘Why did you do it and not leave it to someone else? Why did you risk yourself on such a rescue now that you are king?’
He dragged in a breath. ‘I should never have left Mustafa free to continue to make trouble, after what he had attempted with you. He is the worst kind of opportunist. He saw an opportunity when King Hamra’s entire family was wiped out and he kidnapped you to try to steal the crown.’
She frowned. ‘You don’t think he—?’ She stopped. It was too ugly a thought to entertain, too horrible, even for someone like him.
‘Do I think he was behind the crash from the start?’ He shook his head. ‘No. I wondered that once too, but no. Mustafa is a bully, he always has been. But even he would not be capable of murdering so many of his own family. The early reports from the crash investigators seem to support that it was a tragic accident. So, like I said, he saw the opportunity to seize the throne and he took it by kidnapping you.
‘And then when that went wrong he saw the chance to frustrate the coronation by taking your sister hostage. I promise he won’t try anything again, not where he is now, but how could I do nothing when I felt responsible for what had happened, for letting him go after what he had done to you?’
‘Oh.’ She looked at the floor as the tiny spark of hope fizzled out. ‘I see.’ He felt responsible. But he would. When would she ever learn? When would she stop her silly dreams and hopes getting in the way of reality? ‘Well, thank you.’
‘And, of course, there was the consideration that Marina is your sister.’
She warily lifted her head. ‘Because she is now sister-in-law to the King?’
‘More than that. I knew you would be upset. I know how much your sister means to you.’
She blinked up at him, touched beyond words, the beginnings of a tentative smile forming on her lips, the spike of tears behind her eyes. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and then wondered why she’d said that when she’d been intending to thank him again. And then she realised it didn’t matter if he rejected her apology out of hand and never wanted to see her again—she owed him this apology. ‘I’m so sorry for causing you so much trouble.’
‘It was Mustafa—’
‘No—for being such a spoilt princess. I’m sorry for leaving you the way I did. My father tried to talk sense into me but I wouldn’t listen. I thought you didn’t care that I’d gone, but all that time you were out there finding my sister.’
She squeezed her eyes shut and put her hands over her face, feeling the dampness on her cheeks from the tears that would be contained no longer. ‘I’m such a fool.’
She felt his arms close around her, felt herself pulled against his chest, and the sheer joy of it brought forth a fresh burst of tears.
‘Aisha,’ he said, stroking her hair, pressing his lips to it.
She lifted her tear-streaked face, blinking away the moisture in her eyes, and he swept the hair from her face with his fingers. ‘You’re not still angry with me?’ she asked.
He shook his head, the corners of his mouth turned up the slightest fraction. ‘It’s me who should be asking that. I have treated you appallingly. I was so angry and so resentful with being forced into this position, that I took it out on you. And I understand why you were so hurt the night of the coronation. I’d betrayed your trust once again. And I was going to follow you and tell you that you were right that same night, even though I knew you wouldn’t believe me, and tell you that I cared for you.
‘And then came the news that Marina had been taken. Hamzah was against me going. But I thought, I hoped, that if I could help reunite you with your sister you might understand, just a little, how much you mean to me.’
Her heart swelled in her chest. ‘I still can’t believe you did that, that you risked everything.’
‘But none of it matters, does it?’ he said. ‘If you can’t have what you truly want.’
‘What do you truly want?’
He looked down at her with his dark, potent eyes. ‘I want you. I want all of you. I want you to be my queen. I want your body. I want your soul. I want you for ever.’
She gasped as he pressed his lips to her forehead before pulling back and she hungered for more of his kiss. ‘And I know I fall short of the kind of man you wanted to marry. I know this has all happened the wrong way around and that you have every right to hate me for ever. So I am offering you a choice.’
‘What choice?’
He dipped his mouth, kissed the tip of her nose, and she drank in his air and the very essence of him while her lips searched in vain for his.
‘You can walk away from our marriage and all that it entails, or you can stay and settle for my flaws and imperfections and, ultimately, my love.’
Her swelling heart sang. ‘What did you say?’
‘I said I’m giving you a choice.’
‘No, not that bit. The other bit.’
‘About walking away?’
‘No!’
He smiled and kissed her eyes, first one and then the other, but when she angled her face higher, to give him access to her hungry mouth, he withdrew. ‘The other choice is my love. You see, I have nothing to offer you, Aisha, that you cannot find in a million other more worthy men, nothing but the one thing only I can give you—my love, if you will accept it.’
‘You never told me. I never knew.’
‘I didn’t know it myself. Not really, not until you walked away and left my heart in pieces on the floor. I love you, Aisha. And I know I am so unworthy. I know I am the last person who deserves it. But will you come back and be my wife? Will you let me love you? Will you find it in your heart to love me one day, even just a little?’
‘Oh, Zoltan, yes—a thousand times yes. I love you so much. And now.’
‘Now?’
‘Now will you kiss me at last?’
He laughed, a low, delicious rumble that vibrated through her all the way to her bones. ‘Only a kiss, Aisha, my queen?’
‘Don’t tell me—you are giving me another choice already?’
His hands scooped down her back to cup her behind, bringing her into even closer contact with the evidence of his desire. ‘Only if you want it.’
She smiled up at him, her blood fizzing in anticipation, dizzy with love. ‘Oh, I want it, Zoltan. I want it all.’
As his head dipped and his lips brushed against hers with that first delicious contact, she heard him say, ‘Then you shall have it.’
And she knew, in her heart, mind and soul, that she already did.
* * * * *
Cinderella and the Sheikh
Natasha Oakley
NATASHA OAKLEY told everyone at her primary school that she wanted to be an author when she grew up. Her plan was to stay at home and have her mum bring her coffee at regular intervals—a drink she didn’t like then. The coffee addiction became reality and the love of storytelling stayed with her. A professional actress, Natasha began writing when her fifth child started to sleep through the night. Born in London, she now lives in Bedfordshire with her husband and young family. When not writing, or needed for ‘crowd control’, she loves to escape to antiques fairs and auctions. Find out more about Natasha and her books on her website www.natashaoakley.com.