The Sheikh's Stolen Bride(24)

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Ashad was furious. The interruption of their breakfast had come at just the right time. It had saved him from unleashing an invective against Charlotte – and he didn’t want to do that. He never wanted to express disappointment or anger to her. Not Charlotte.

He wrenched the door inwards, his temper spiking, but he stared back at someone who looked, to all the world, even angrier.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Ash snapped, stepping back in surprise as Syed strode into the room, his face pale, his eyes darkened by emotion.

Syed swore in their native tongue. “You were supposed to seduce her, Ashad! Not advertise a damned relationship to the whole Falinese palace.”

Ashad, always so quick to catch on, couldn’t fathom what was happening. He moved towards the bedroom door, because Charlotte was through there, and he didn’t want her to hear who had arrived.

But Syed stayed where he was, and made no effort to lower his voice. “I told you to come here and be discreet! To find a reason to cancel the wedding! You said you’d sleep with her and I thought you’d manage that without tipping our hand to the whole damned palace.”

“Wait a moment,” Ashad lifted his palm, his eyes meeting his cousin’s. “What in the world is going on?”

“Eloise called Adin and told him that you and Charlotte were close to forming a relationship. That I needed to come to Falina and marry her today, before it was too late. I’m not marrying her. I will abdicate any claim to our line of succession if father insists upon it. Did you sleep with her yet?”

Ashad’s jaw clenched. “That is not your concern.”

“How can you say that when you have slept with her at my suggestion?”

The door cracking open behind Ashad was every single one of his worst fears come to being.

Charlotte stood, staring at them both, her skin pale but otherwise a study in regal detachment.

“Is this true?” She asked Ashad, her eyes meeting his for a brief moment before shifting to rest on a point beyond his shoulder.

“No,” he sent Syed a fulminating glare.

“He didn’t tell you to seduce me?”

Ash froze. “He did,” he said finally. “But that’s not what this is.”

Charlotte forced herself to meet his eyes. Her hopes were there, her dreams, too. And her heart, crumpled inside of him, begging her to be strong.

“You don’t want to marry me?” She said, dragging her gaze to Syed. He looked utterly shocked.

“Your highness,” he said with a voice so like Ashad’s that her gut clenched. “I apologise. I had not realised you were in the apartment.”

She didn’t visibly react. “You don’t want to marry me?” She repeated.

Syed moved towards her, and she watched him almost as if from above. He lifted her hands into his. He was handsome. But he was not Ashad.

“I do not believe in arranged marriages,” he said thickly. “I mean you no offense. I have argued at length for this contract to be set aside, without success. Faced with no other options I asked that my cousin intervene on my behalf.”

Ashad was beside them, looking from one to the other. “Something I was reluctant to do,” he said urgently.

“To intervene how?” She blinked from one to the other. “Was your plan always to come here and sleep with me?” She pulled her hands free of Syed and paced across the room, her mind ticking over the circumstances. “No, not just to sleep with me.” She thought back to their conversation on the balcony and lifted her hands to her mouth. “My God. To get me pregnant too?”

“No,” Ashad swore. He moved towards Charlotte but she lifted a hand, silently insisting he stop. “And I did not sleep with you for any reason other than that I wanted to. You know me. You know me. You know what we are.”

“Just like I knew Marook,” she murmured, her throat thick with emotion.

Ash blanched visibly. The comparison made him sick to his stomach. He shook his head, his eyes locked to hers, imploring her not to think that of him. “Not like Marook,” he promised.

Syed interrupted. “Your mother is insisting our marriage happens today. I am on my way to the palace now.”

Charlotte stared at him. “No, you’re not. Not without answering all of my questions.” And she spoke with an imperiousness that had rarely been used to either of the men before. Charlotte was effortlessly taking control of the situation despite her emotional turmoil and Syed couldn’t help but admire the woman’s strength and leadership.

“What questions, azeezi?” Ash murmured. He saw her pain and ached to comfort it. To make everything better for her.

“You don’t want to marry me,” she said, nodding.

“Which is no reflection on you,” Syed spoke kindly, and Charlotte laughed.

A brittle sound that set Ash on edge because he heard the panic beneath the noise. “You do not need to worry that you are insulting me, Syed Al’Eba, as though I have been pining away for you all these years.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder and she was magnificent. “I understand your objection to this sort of marriage. I am not offended. What was Ashad to do here? To sleep with me and then report this back to your father? To tell King Adin that Charlotte fell into his bed and is not a suitable bride?”

Syed, so used to being right, discovered he didn’t enjoy the sense of being utterly, completely, in the wrong. “It was a thoughtless suggestion,” he said angrily – all directed at himself.

“Yes,” she nodded. “But a suggestion is just that. The deed is what I care about.” Her eyes moved to Ashad and jerked away again, back to Syed. “You are released from your obligation. I will have the marriage contracts destroyed. You need not see my parents, Syed. And I would appreciate your discretion with regards to this … circumstance.” She blinked, clearing the heat from her eyes. She looked around them. Her shoes. Where were her shoes?

“Charlotte,” Ashad spoke urgently. “Do not even think about leaving.”

She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Her expression spoke on her behalf. Her face rang with devastation. A devastation Ashad knew he alone was responsible for.

“Listen to me.” He moved towards her but again, she froze, as though terrified he might touch her. Forcing himself to be gentle, he murmured, “I came here to see how you felt. Syed asked me to discover a reason for the wedding not to go ahead. Perhaps you were not as perfect as you were reputed to be,” Ash added. “Charlotte? What you have told me about Marook? This would have been enough. I could have spun that, and your parents’ failure to disclose it, into a reason to void this marriage.”

Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared as she expelled a hot, disbelieving voice. “But why stop with one failing when there can be two? One mistake is bad, but two is a pattern, and now you have what you needed. I am a slut, see? How nice for you to have rendered your cousin this service.” She spat the words angrily. “Where are my shoes?”

“Stop,” he was imperious, but when he looked to Syed there was fear in his expression. He turned back to Charlotte. She had found her ballet slippers and was sliding her feet into them. He couldn’t let her leave. He strode to her with purpose.

“You know that I love you,” he said, standing right in front of her, looking down into her eyes. “I am in love with you. That’s what this is.”

And for a second he thought he’d actually said something that she needed to hear. She looked at him for a long moment, reading his face, and then she lifted her hand and slapped him, hard, across his cheek.

“This is not love,” she said sharply. “It is sex and it is lies.”

She straightened and moved towards the door. She paused. “Consider our business concluded. Neither of you is welcome at the palace of Falina; please do not attempt to continue this conversation.”

“Charlotte,” Ash’s voice held a warning.

“No.” She glared at him. “No. It is done.” And now tears sparkled on her lashes, tears that had been cloying at her throat since she’d heard Syed’s first words thrown into the room and realised what a fool she’d been.

She looked at Ashad – allowing herself one last opportunity to memorise his face, because she would not see him again.

She could not.





CHAPTER TWELVE





One month later.



“I shouldn’t have come,” Charlotte said under her breath, so that only Mika caught the quiet utterance.

“Not something you could easily avoid,” she pointed out with a wink. “It is your father’s birthday party.”

Charlotte grimaced. How selfish she was being! Even a month after Ashad and Syed had left Falina, she was still capable of thinking only of her own heartbreak and hurt.

The party was in full swing, and there must have been almost a thousand guests. The ballroom where Ashad’s welcome party had been held had been transformed. It was just as beautiful, but now the Shareef family crests had been rolled down the walls. Gold thread against black fabric gave the banners a sense of serious formality. Charlotte moved along the edge, her eyes scanning the crowd.

There was an art form in looking at people without giving them a chance to stop you. A quick glance, a firm smile, and then an immediate removal of eye contact to discourage conversation. And Charlotte didn’t want to make conversation with anyone, with the exception of Mika who knew the entire saga.