Woman in a Sheikh's World(24)

He looked shell-shocked. 'Avery-'

'And as if it wasn't bad enough, you then had the gall to ask me to  organise the evening party to celebrate your wedding. You had to rub my  face in it.' All the emotion that had been locked inside her for so long  came flowing out, smothering her and choking her. 'And I had to laugh  and smile and say, "Of course I don't mind," to what felt like a million  nosy people who wanted to stop and stare at our massive car crash of a  relationship. It was bad enough that you asked her to marry you so soon  after we broke up, but to ask me to organise the party knowing that I  wouldn't feel able to refuse-' she was sobbing now, tears soaking her  cheeks as she finally lost control. 'How could you do that? How could  you want to hurt me and humiliate me like that? How could you?'                       
       
           



       

Ashen, he muttered something unintelligible and reached for her but she snatched her hand away and dodged him.

'No! There is nothing you can do or say to make this right. I've always  thought that long-term relationships were doomed but with you, just for a  moment, I was happy. And hopeful. And then you did that.' The words  ended on a hiccup. 'And it wasn't an accident. You did it to hurt me.  And you did. You did hurt me, Mal. And I won't let you do it again.'





CHAPTER SEVEN


MAL stood frozen to the spot, staring at the space where only a moment  ago she'd stood. Stunned, he sifted through the words she'd thrown at  him, sorting them in order of importance. And when he'd done that, he  cursed softly.

Mouth tight, he rapped on the door of the bathroom. The door that she'd locked, of course. 'Avery? Open up. Now.'

When there was no answer, he stepped back and contemplated his options.  Examining the lock, he strode across the bedroom and retrieved the bag  he'd taken into the desert. The knife felt heavy in his hand and he  stared at the blade, wondering if it would serve his purpose. Silently  thanking Rafiq who had ensured that he was armed with no end of  practical skills, he manoeuvred the knife and successfully unlocked the  door.

She was huddled on the floor of the bathroom, her arms locked around her  legs, his shirt barely covering the tops of her pale thighs. His entry  earned him a scowl. 'So now you can walk through locked doors? Get out.'

'No.'

'It isn't enough to hurt me once? You have to do it again and again?'  Her gaze dropped to his hands. 'And with a knife? Is this a new blood  sport?'

He'd forgotten about the knife in his hand and instantly he put it down,  thinking that he'd never seen her like this before. Never seen her with  her emotions so clearly on display. 'I did not hurt you intentionally.'  With the same care and caution that he would have approached an injured  animal, Mal squatted down next to her. 'I didn't know, habibti.' He  purposefully kept his voice soft and non-confrontational but that didn't  stop the sudden blaze of fire in her eyes.

'Didn't know what? That you are an insensitive bastard? That just means you have a depressing lack of self-insight.'

He chose to ignore the insult because he recognised it for what it was-a  last frantic defence from someone who was terrified. 'I didn't know  you'd given me your heart. Until today, I didn't think you had. I  thought that was a prize I hadn't won. You didn't say anything and I-'  he let out a breath '-I failed to pick up the signals.'

'And you're such an expert in body language.'

'Apparently not.'

'You didn't have to be an expert.' The derisive glance she sent in his  direction spoke volumes about her view on relationships. 'I was with you  for a year. A whole year. What do you think that says?'

'To me it said that we were having a good time.' Mal saw the shimmer of  an unshed tear stuck to her eyelashes and his heart clenched. He lifted  his hand to brush it away gently with his thumb but she flinched away  from him. The shirt she'd grabbed was too big for her and as she  flattened herself against the wall of the bathroom it slid down,  exposing one pale shoulder. Just a glimpse, and yet it was enough to  force him to shift positions for his own comfort. Enough to remind him  that this woman affected him in a way that no other woman ever had. 'It  didn't tell me that you were in love with me. I didn't presume that and  you didn't tell me that. Not once did you say those words.'

'Neither did you.'

Was it that simple? Was that all it would have taken? 'I was ready to  say them. I was ready to ask you to marry me. I had plans. And then you  told me it was over and walked away.'

'The first I knew of your "plans" was when a creepy guy who could never  keep his hands to himself rang me to make me an offer for my business  because he'd heard I was giving it all up to walk five steps behind you  for the rest of my life.'

Mal reined in the anger, refusing to be sidetracked. 'I didn't know he'd made an offer on your business.'

'He was taunting me because he knew how much my company meant to me. And  I fell for it, of course.' Eyes closed, she let her head fall back  against the wall. 'He understood my weaknesses better than you did.'

'And he understood mine.' His muscles protesting at his cramped  position, Mal stood up and lifted her to her feet, relieved when the  shirt she was wearing slid back into place and covered slightly more of  her.                       
       
           



       

'I thought you were Prince Perfect. You don't have any weaknesses.' Her  hair tumbled over her shoulders, softly tangled after a night in his  bed. Without her make-up she looked impossibly young and Mal felt  something soften inside him. He'd so rarely seen her like this. This was  the real Avery, not the businesswoman.

'You think I don't have a weakness?' He slid his hands into her hair and  tilted her head. 'My weakness is you, habibti. It's always been you.  And Richard knew it. He knew exactly what to say to cause maximum havoc.  And his plan was a spectacular success. I lost my cool.'

Her beautiful eyes were bruised and wary. 'Sorry, but I just can't imagine that.'

'Try. It was bad.' Mal's mouth twisted into a smile of self-mockery.  'Very bad. You want details? Because it wasn't pretty. I lost control,  just as Kalila told you.'

'I didn't believe her. You never lose control.'

'Everyone has a breaking point. He found mine with embarrassing ease.  I'd planned to ask you to marry me. To do it "properly". I knew we were  happy together. I knew you were the woman I wanted to spend my life  with. It was an unfortunate coincidence that Richard confronted me  before I'd had a chance to have time alone with you.'

She stared at a point at the centre of his chest. 'It might have helped if you'd actually included me in your plans.'

'I'm very traditional. I wanted to ask you in a traditional manner.'

She pulled away, her narrow shoulders suddenly tense. 'Yes, you're  traditional. And that brings us full circle. Even if you'd managed to  ask me to marry you in the conventional way, face to face, you still  would have expected me to give up my business.'

It was the elephant in the room. The thing they'd never talked about  because it had seemed insurmountable. Even back then, when he'd been  determined to make it work, he'd seen the difficulties because it was  absolutely true that to run a business like hers would require a time  commitment that the woman who married him would not be able to afford.

Mal hesitated for a beat but even that was a beat too long because he  saw her shoulders sag as she took that fatal hesitation on his part as  confirmation of her fears. 'I would not have expected you to give up  your business.' But he saw from her cynical expression that she didn't  believe him and he sighed. 'You wouldn't have been able to work eighteen  hour days, that's true, but we would have found a way.'

'A way that involved me giving up everything and you giving up nothing.'

'No. We would have talked about it. Come to some mutual agreement, but we didn't communicate as well as we might have done.'

'If that's the case then it's your fault.'

And that made him smile because she sounded so much like herself and it  was a relief. 'I agree. My fault. Except for the part that was your  fault.' Noticing that the shirt was slipping again, he took her hand and  led her out of the bathroom, ignoring her attempts to resist him.  'Sorry, but we need to have this conversation somewhere that doesn't  make me think of you naked in the shower if we're to stand any chance of  actually resolving this. It would help if you could button the shirt to  the neck.'

'You're thinking about sex at a time like this?'

He gave a wry smile. 'Aren't you?'

She dragged her eyes from his shoulders. 'No. You don't turn me on, Your  Highness.' His smile drew a shrug from her. 'All right, maybe I am  thinking about sex, but if anything that makes it worse because good sex  cannot sustain a relationship. Good sex does not change the fact that  our relationship is impossible.'