Royal Temptation: Protecting the Desert Princess / Virgin Princess, Tycoon’s Temptation / The Prince's Second Chance
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‘What sort of fun?’ Zahid demanded.
‘Expensive fun,’ Mikael said.
‘And you’ve paid for it for she had no money with her?’ Zahid’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Mikael. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘I had a retainer.’ Mikael opened the safe and displayed the ruby. ‘I’d prefer a wire transfer.’
The room was starting to calm down.
‘Can I see your expenses?’
Mikael buzzed Wendy and asked her to bring in the current bill for Layla.
‘Today hasn’t been added yet,’ Mikael said, and handed the paper to Zahid, who scrutinised it for a few moments. So too did Trinity, who frowned.
‘How can you spend more than five hundred dollars on apples?’ Trinity asked, but that was the least of Zahid’s concerns.
‘These friends of yours…?’ He turned to Mikael. ‘I wish to speak with them.’
‘I doubt that they wish to speak with you,’ Mikael responded coolly. ‘Layla says that you two are expecting a baby of your own. Remind me to dump a problem like Layla in your lap a couple of days after your baby is born.’
‘Zahid…’ Trinity was the voice of reason. ‘She’s safe—that’s all you need to know.’
Mikael watched as Zahid’s jaw gritted and knew that Layla’s brother was struggling to hold back tears of relief.
Layla was right: they loved her.
‘We will go,’ Zahid said, and glanced briefly over to Mikael. ‘Your account will be settled as soon as I return to Ishla. Or now, if you—’
‘When you return to Ishla is fine.’
‘Come,’ Zahid said to Layla. ‘We do not discuss our business in front of strangers.’
Mikael handed over the ruby and glanced at Layla, who looked defiant, angry, happy—a strange combination only she could manage.
She shot him a brief smile.
‘Thank you for your assistance, Mikael.’
‘You’re welcome.’
That was it.
The coolest goodbye ever.
She turned and simply dismissed him, and Mikael stood there as they all walked out and did not flinch. He kept his face impassive.
For her sake.
Only when she was gone did he pull out her note and stare at the pretty curves and dots. He had no idea what she’d written.
Whatever it meant, Mikael felt it too.
For the first time in his life he did not have a solution.
For the first time in his life Mikael cried.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LAYLA RETURNED INTACT.
A little swollen, the doctor commented as she examined her.
‘I know!’ Layla said. ‘There was no one there to bathe me! The hotel refused to send someone, and the baths are high there and not sunken. I slipped getting out. I am still very sore.’
She spoke with the same authority she always did and looked the doctor in the eye as she lied.
‘Does my father have to know about that?’
The doctor hesitated, for perhaps King Fahid should know. Yet she was a kind woman, and she had been the one who had delivered Layla the awful day that her mother had died, and she had also fabricated the story about a seizure just to help Layla.
‘Of course not.’
The King breathed out a long sigh of relief when it was reported that there was not a bruise nor a cut on his daughter’s skin and that it appeared no harm had come to her. He sent for her and Layla stood, resigned, staring above and over his shoulder as her father delivered a very stern lecture and demanded more details as to what had happened in her time in Australia.
‘You lied to me,’ Fahid said. ‘Even now you lie. What was the whole point of running away if all you were going to do was sit with people who have just had a baby? You don’t even like babies.’
Layla breathed out through her nostrils.
‘I want the truth, Layla,’ her father demanded. ‘Did you dance?’
‘Yes, I danced,’ she said.
‘And drink alcohol?’
‘Once.’ She’d admit to once. ‘I had an Irish coffee. I have wanted to try one since Zahid told me you could have whisky in coffee and the cream stays at the top.’
‘What else?’
Layla said nothing.
‘What else?’ the King demanded. ‘What else did you get up to?’
‘I tried to get a joint.’
‘A joint?’
‘Weed,’ Layla said. ‘The same stuff that was found in Zahid’s locker at school! I had always wanted to try it.’
‘And did you?’
‘No one would let me.’
‘What about men?’ the King demanded—for, like her mother, Layla had always dreamed of romance. ‘Did you do anything of which you are ashamed?’
‘No, Father.’
Her answer was the truth.
‘Layla?’
‘No, Father, I did nothing of which I am ashamed.’
‘I’m very disappointed in you, Layla.’
‘I know that you are.’
‘Are you disappointed in yourself?’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I am proud of myself and glad that I did it. I’ve had my rebellion. I am sorry that it had to hurt you.’
‘You are supposed to say yes, you are disappointed in yourself.’
‘But I’m not.’
‘You won’t be teaching,’ he said, and saw her lip tremble. ‘Who knows what you might suggest…?’
‘I would never encourage poor behaviour in my students,’ she said, ‘but I am an adult—’
‘Enough!’
The King went through her punishments.
‘No more teaching…’ He saw her chin jut. ‘No phone.’
‘I never had one in the first place.’
‘No letters.’
Layla was relieved. Otherwise poor Mikael might need to get a wheelbarrow for the thousands of letters in Arabic that might be delivered to him—letters he could never understand. Her heart squeezed as she thought of the small note she had left him and wondered if he would ever work it out.
Perhaps it was better to have their contact severed so brutally.
‘No internet—ever!’ Fahid continued.
‘What about chess?’
‘You can play chess with me,’ Fahid said. ‘And next week you will select a husband.’
Layla said nothing.
‘You don’t argue?’
‘I knew the consequences when I ran away,’ she said. ‘I knew what would happen when I got back.’
‘And was it worth it?’
It was the only time the King had glimpsed a flash of tears.
‘Yes.’
* * *
She was back, and plans had been made for Princess Layla to choose her husband tomorrow.
She was well, she was safe, she had returned.
The palace felt like a funeral parlour though.
The King looked out to the gardens below his study and saw Layla walking when usually she would have run.
She looked cold, even though the evening sun was still blazing before dipping below the horizon.
‘How has she been?’
He turned when Jamila entered; he had asked to speak with her.
‘She is very polite, she is doing everything that has been asked of her and she has given me no cheek—but she is very angry with me. I know that, even if she doesn’t say so.’ Jamila started to cry. ‘I am sorry for interfering…you might never have known.’
‘You were scared for her,’ Fahid said. ‘You were right to call me.’
He looked to the woman who had been like a mother to his child—Layla’s only parent when he had not been able to be one.
‘You were brave to go against Zahid and call me.’
He sat down, for he could not stand to look out of the window and see Layla so unhappy.
Fahid closed his eyes. He wanted this sorted. ‘I have not got long…’
‘Don’t say that, Your Highness.’
‘It is true, though. I just want to know she will be taken care of.’
He looked over, because again Jamila was crying.
‘Jamila…?’
‘I don’t want you to die, Fahid.’
She was no longer speaking with the King but with the man who had come to her at night a year after his wife had died.
The man who had made love to her as Layla slept in her crib beside the bed.
The man who still came to her at times, even now.
Times that must never be discussed, for she was a servant—that was all.
Yet the King and Layla felt like Jamila’s family, and she wanted more time with him—especially now.
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