She’d finally left him, but only because he’d sent her away. He’d sent her away.
Cold fear washed over Kadir as he stood in the Kyrian heat. Emily was gone and he was truly alone. She was the only person who knew him. Without her, he would no longer be a man.
He would be a king. A ruler. A potentate.
He would have to close his feelings up and keep them locked away. He would have no one to share a laugh with, no one to tease him about his magic mattress or his giant ego. No one to chide him for his arrogance or gaze at him with disapproval when he needed it.
No one to love him.
Kadir’s chest hurt so much he had to sit down. He dropped onto the cushions and sat there with his head forward, breathing in against the pain that he thought must surely tear him in two.
It was a physical pain, yes, but it was more than that. It stemmed from the chaos in his head, his heart. His skin felt tight, his brain whirled and a wave of anguish formed into a ball in his gut, pressing hard upward. He held it back as long as he could.
And then it erupted from him in a harsh cry that rang through the courtyard and floated into the sky above.
He was a fool! Such a fool. She loved him and he’d sent her away.
Palace guards burst into the courtyard then and Kadir shot up from his seat.
“Your Majesty,” one man said as they all bowed low. “We feared for your safety.”
His safety? Kadir feared for his sanity if he did not act now. He snatched up his mobile phone and prayed he was not too late as he punched in the number that would connect him to his plane.
* * *
Emily was numb. She’d been numb since the moment the man in palace robes had told her that Kadir signed the divorce decree. And then she remained numb as she was ferried to the airport, as she climbed on board Kadir’s private jet and waited to depart. But they didn’t depart.
Instead, they deplaned and she had to spend time in a private lounge while they waited for a sandstorm to pass before the airport could be reopened. Finally, someone came and touched her elbow and she looked up to find one of the flight attendants whom she knew from before she’d married Kadir telling her she could board now. The airport was open and they had clearance to fly.
Emily took her seat and strapped herself in. She shook her head when asked if she wanted a beverage. She slid the window shut so she wouldn’t have to look at the harsh desert beauty of Kyr for another minute. So she wouldn’t have to remember what it was like to spend the night in a tent with Kadir.
But closing the window didn’t do a damn thing to help her forget. She closed her eyes and saw Kadir’s naked body again. She thought that if she just reached out, she could touch all that smooth, beautiful skin.
Oh, she was such a fool. She’d agreed to marry him in order to help him out, in order to get the money to pay for her father’s hospital bills and move him to a warmer climate. She’d thought it would be so easy. Just wear the clothes and play the part and soon it would be over.
It was not over. It would never be over in her heart. She’d fallen in love with him. Emily dragged in a shaky breath. Dammit. How could she ever forget Kadir al-Hassan? She’d spent four years with him, and though he’d made her so angry for much of that time, she’d realized that she wouldn’t have been half so incensed with him if she hadn’t cared about him.