The Sheikh's Sinful Seduction(71)

                “Do you think I would risk my wife and child if I thought that same danger existed?” Zafir demanded aggressively, but the word love gave him pause. Love had made his father weak enough to take up with a woman that his country had never accepted. It had weakened him in the eyes of the people he governed and had weakened him as a man, prompting him to take ridiculous chances and make bad decisions.

                What was he doing if he took Fern back to Q’Amara? Was it a wise decision? Or a selfish one? Why was he so determined? Lust? Or something else? If you cared about someone, you put their interests, their lives, above your own.

                His mother rose to pull a tissue from a box on a side table. “Was it so horrible to live in two places?” she challenged in a choked voice, keeping her back to them as she dabbed at her eyes.

                Tortured by his inability to grasp his own motivation, Zafir did what any child did under stress. He went to his mother. Taking hold of her shoulders, he set his chin alongside her hair, sorry he’d caused her to cry, but... “If you had thought there was a chance you could have lived together, wouldn’t you have tried?”

                They would have, he knew they would. They had loved each other very deeply, which had formed the trade-off for the difficult decisions they’d had to make. He wasn’t prepared to make those same decisions. He needed Fern with him. Now that he’d seen it as possible, no other option was good enough.

                “Oh, I hate when you sound like him sounding like he knows he’s right,” she said as she brushed his hands off her shoulders and swiped impatiently at her face.

                Disturbed, feeling as though he didn’t quite know himself, Zafir gave her time to compose herself by moving to help his grandfather to his feet. When he offered a hand to Fern, she kept her eyes downcast.

                That shook him. If she refused to come with him, he didn’t know what he would do. Seduce her? Talk her around? Demand?

                Leave her here after all?

                Gently tilting her chin up so she had to show him the reflective silver of her eyes, he said, “I would not take you anywhere that I thought would risk your life, Fern. I hope you trust me in that.”

                “Childbirth notwithstanding?” she said with an ironic quirk of a smile.

                He didn’t laugh. Couldn’t. What had he done to this woman?

                “That was a joke,” she said.

                “It was a rebuke for being careless with you and I deserved it,” he said, dismayed. Furious with himself. He brooded through the entire meal.

                * * *

                Much to Fern’s relief, Zafir ended the meal by stating they would take after-dinner coffee in his suite. The minute the door was closed behind them, she asked, “Did you do that on my behalf? Do I look as exhausted as I feel?”

                “I’m exhausted,” he countered, eyeing her pensively. “Jet lag is catching up to me. But my grandfather tires easily these days and you have had a long day.” His mouth twisted with self-disgust. “I’m sorry to have put you through all that.”

                “I had a nap earlier,” she reminded him. “I’m tired, but it’s more social fatigue. I feel like I was in the longest job interview of my life. Would you mind?” she asked, showing him where the zipper of the lace sheathe closed at the top of her spine.

                “My grandfather liked you,” Zafir said as though trying to offer a comfort.