No way.
He'd go back to his life-what there was of it without her in it-and breathe through each day until she came to her senses and claimed him. That was the only reason he'd been able to leave. He knew it was a test. It was easy to fail, very hard to pass.
And who knew how long the test would last?
He'd ached to wrap his arms around her and draw her into his embrace. His skin had crawled when Laura kept touching him earlier, but he'd never needed a strategy for keeping a woman at arm's length so he'd never developed one. From now on he'd wear invisible armor-projected in his bearing-that kept anyone but Dani from even touching him.
He wouldn't text her. He wouldn't call her. He wouldn't show up at her usual haunts, or hover outside her window like a ghost.
But he would win her back.
* * *
"You've taken leave of your senses," Salim growled. He rose to his feet and towered over his desk. "You've lost all perspective on reality."
"I love her."
Light blasted through the window of Salim's austere, white-walled office with its view out over the glittering ocean. Quasar had come to tackle an important hurdle on the road to winning Dani over.
"You love her so much that I need to take a piece of land worth millions-billions in future revenue-and simply give it away to a man I detest who's wasted untold hours of my time and thousands of rials with his meritless lawsuits."
"I'll buy the land from you at market value."
"The market value is in no way commensurate with the value that land has to me as the site of my future flagship hotel."
"Then I'll pay whatever value you set."
"Even if it's fifty million dollars?" Salim arched a brow. "That, in fact, is an approximate figure for my construction costs alone. I have big plans for this property."
"I won't be able to simply write a check for that amount. I'll have to free up some assets, but I can have the money for you by the end of next week. Tell me which account you'd like it transferred into." He pulled out his phone to type in the information.
"You really have taken leave of your senses."
"Quite the opposite, brother. I've finally come to my senses." He smiled.
"But she hasn't even agreed to marry you."
"I haven't asked."
"Why not?"
"Because she'd say no."
"If she doesn't want you, why would you risk fifty million dollars trying to win her favor?"
"She does want me." He cocked his head. "She's afraid of herself, though. She's afraid of making a poor choice. I have to prove to her than I'm an excellent choice, and I won't stop until I've done that."
Salim sighed, and sat back in his big leather chair. "I know how you feel, brother. I've been there myself. There's no pain more acute than the loss of a woman your happiness depends on."
"Elan told me that Sara would only come live with him if he agreed not to marry her. She didn't want to be trapped or tied down by convention. It seems that sometimes we Al Mansur men have to learn to let our women fly free before we can convince them to come nest with us."
Salim laughed. "And Celia made me sign a contract promising that she and Kira could leave whenever they wanted. But neither myself nor Elan had to pay fifty million dollars for the privilege of being with our wives."
"Daniyah Hassan is a very special woman. I've never felt the kind of peace and happiness I know in her arms. I had no idea it was even possible."
"That's sweet and romantic, brother, but I'm extremely attached to that piece of land. Why don't you give your princely sum to her father in exchange for it? I'm sure one million would buy him off with a smile, never mind fifty."
"Dani says her father won't take money for the land. The whole affair has dragged on so long that it's personal. He won't stop until he gets the land back."
"The courts would never side with him."
"Are you willing to wait twenty years for that outcome? Surely you can buy another piece of property. Maybe one of those big houses along the shore? Or perhaps Hassan will gladly sell it back to you for money once he's had the satisfaction of walking on it. I doubt he has any plans for it other than a quick sale."
"True. You can buy it from me for fifty million and give it to Hassan for nothing, then I'll buy it back from him for five. I'm suddenly seeing this as a very profitable venture." Salim grinned. "If you're really madly in love enough to go through with this, then may your sweetheart come running to you before you come back to your senses and realize how nuts this all is."
"Great." Quasar grinned back. "I'll need the SWIFT and IBAN numbers for the transfer."
"No need for all that fuss." Salim reached across the table and shook Quasar's hand firmly. "I'll take a check."
* * *
Dani returned from a trip to the local American school in an upbeat mood. She'd applied for an advertised position as a teacher's aide, and been told that she had a good shot at getting it. While assisting in a classroom wasn't the position she'd studied and trained for, it was a job and would provide income and independence to get her back on her feet. She was almost whistling with joy as the taxi dropped her off at the house.
"Dani!" Her heart sank when she saw her father in the doorway with an anxious expression on his face. Uh-oh. He'd be angry that she'd gone out, yet again, without a male family member to escort her. She couldn't possibly expect to find a job, let alone keep one, if she had to wait until he or one of her brothers had the free time to take her somewhere.
"Something extraordinary has happened." His eyebrows were jumping all over the place. He didn't look angry, though. If anything he looked stunned.
"What is it?"
He waved a big brown envelope in the air. "A courier just delivered this package. It contains a deed to the property on Beach Road. And a contract that conveys the title back to me. All that I have to do is sign it and send a token ten rials to seal the deal."
"Ten rials? Is this a joke?"
"The token amount makes it legal. Quasar Al Mansur says he wants to gift the property to me outright and return it to our family."
Her mouth hung open. That property was worth millions. And she'd seen how passionate his brother Salim was about it. Had he persuaded his brother to part with it just because of her?
It didn't seem possible. "Let me see."
Her father handed her the envelope and she pulled out an old deed typed on yellowed paper. There was also a contract for the change of ownership, signed by Quasar and requiring her father's signature. The part that made her heart thud, however, was a letter from Quasar insisting that he wanted to return the land as a gesture of goodwill between their families.
He'd been true to his word and not contacted her since she sent him back out through her window three days earlier. She was impressed that he'd managed to obey her wishes, when he was clearly a man used to demanding-and taking-what he wanted.
She was even more impressed that she'd managed to stay strong enough not to call him herself. Her mind and body ached with missing him. At night she craved the feel of his arms around her-even though she'd never felt them around her at night, only during snatched sojourns in the heat of the day.
Taking time apart from him allowed her to breathe. To think. Now that she had time to ponder, she was glad she hadn't run away with him. They barely knew each other and what she knew about him was alarming. If she'd accepted his "grant," she would have basically been an expensive mistress, which wasn't how she wanted to start out her new life. She thought he'd soon get over their whirlwind affair and move on. She'd be just another in a long line of women he'd earnestly adored and left behind.
But discovering that he wanted to give her father a piece of land worth millions put an entirely different spin on the situation. It proved he was serious. Even if money was virtually no object for him personally, he'd had to persuade his brother to shelve his hotel plans-which couldn't have been easy-and he'd gone to the trouble of having the legal paperwork drawn up.
She looked up at her father. "Are you going to sign it?"
"Do you think it's a trick?"
"I don't know." She tried to focus but all the small print on the contract blurred in front of her eyes. "It certainly seems real. You should have a lawyer look over it."
"I don't trust those Al Mansurs. It could be some kind of trap. If I sign this paper allowing them to transfer the land to me, it will be like admitting that I never owned it in the first place. I'd be giving up my claim that I currently own the land."