Bethany pressed against her shoulder and sobbed as if her heart were breaking. Which it probably was, Liana thought grimly. Sometimes being a parent was the hardest job in the world.
“I’m going to pray every night that we get to stay,” Bethany said, her voice still thick with tears. “I’m going to ask God to change your mind and make you want to stay here.” She raised her head and sniffed. “Or maybe you could fall in love with Prince Malik and then you’ll never want to leave.”
And pigs could fly, Liana thought. In love with Malik? Yeah, right. In what lifetime? The man had bullied her from the moment she’d set foot in his country. He’d brought her to the palace against her will, he’d tricked her into marriage and now who knows what more he expected?
Liana swallowed against the sudden tightness in her throat. Bethany stared up at her with such hope that she couldn’t help wishing there was a way to give her daughter everything she wanted. Malik had been good to her daughter, she admitted grudgingly. He’d been consistent and patient. From what Liana could tell he actually liked spending time with her.
He was also incredible in bed, not that his skills there excused anything or made the slightest bit of difference to her. All right, so he was good-looking and intelligent. And maybe their talk on the way to the desert had given her some insight into the stress of his life. After all, where did a Crown Prince go at the end of the day? How did he relax and to whom did he talk? From what she’d been able to tell, Malik was very much alone. So she was the tiniest bit honored that he felt he could trust her enough to share some of his life with her. But that didn’t excuse one thing he’d done and there was no way in this lifetime that she was ever going to do something so incredibly stupid as to fall in love with the man.
Later that afternoon, Malik returned to his father’s office. They’d both had urgent business to take care of, but the conversation about Malik’s marriage to Liana Archer couldn’t be put off forever.
Malik knew the questions his father would have. Questions any sane person might ask. Why had he done it? Malik had asked himself the same question, but he wasn’t sure he was willing to share the answer with anyone. He could barely acknowledge it himself. Except for that one moment when he’d realized that Bilal had prepared for a wedding, not a welcoming, Malik had felt as if he could finally touch all he’d ever wanted. His decision had been impulsive. He might have to pay for it for the rest of his life, but he couldn’t regret it.
He walked into his father’s private office and found the older man waiting there, along with Fatima. He greeted them both, then stood in front of the sofa and braced his feet. An American expression came to mind—the best defense was a good offense. He glared at his father.
“You contacted Bilal and changed the ceremony,” Malik said.
King Givon shrugged. “I might have suggested something of the sort, but I never thought you’d go through with it.”
“Of course you did. Otherwise why bother?”
Fatima leaned forward. Elegant as always, the Queen Mother looked much younger than her nearly eighty years. “Malik, it’s been so long since you’ve showed any interest in a woman. We thought we would plant the seed in your mind that she might be someone worth pursuing.” She waved a slender hand. “If you’d married her and not bedded her, or if you’d at least told her the truth, the marriage could have been annulled.”
Malik drew his eyebrows together. “You meddled in my life and now you’re concerned because you got what you wanted?”
Fatima sighed. “It seems we might have misjudged the situation. Liana is not one to take kindly to being tricked into marriage.”
“I can’t blame her for that,” he said blandly.
“But you’re the one who tricked her,” Givon said forcefully. “Why did you do it?”
Malik shrugged. “I was surprised when I realized what Bilal was doing. I thought about taking Liana and leaving, or even telling her the truth and letting her decide.” He paused. “But she would have said no. There was also the matter of offending Bilal and his people. So I married her without her knowledge because I wanted her for my wife.”
“But she’s not going to simply allow this to happen,” Fatima said. “She’s furious, and I’m not sure I blame her. Our ways are not her ways.” She stared at her grandson. “Why this one? Why do you want this woman?”
He didn’t know how to answer that. “She intrigues me.”
“Heidi intrigued you,” the queen pointed out. “She saw past the title and duties to the man inside. Why is Liana different?”
Malik considered her statement. He’d known Heidi for years. As a teenager, she’d been a frequent visitor to the palace. Somehow his position had never impressed her. Even now she took great pleasure in teasing him unmercifully.
Malik smiled at the memory. “Heidi was always for Jamal,” he said. “Even when we were younger, I knew they belonged together. And even if they hadn’t, she and I would not have been right together. My feelings for her are purely brotherly. Nothing more.”
“You care for her very much,” Fatima reminded him.
“I know.” With Heidi he could feel almost human. It was an immeasurable gift.
“So, you have a month in which to win your new bride,” his grandmother said. “A month in which to make her fall in love with you and a month for you to learn to love her back.”
Malik nodded, agreeing with all but the last. He would do his best to win Liana—to make her fall in love with him. But he would never love her, or anyone. He could not. Love was a weakness he could not allow himself. That was a lesson he’d learned at a young age and one that had never left him.
Knowing he couldn’t put it off any longer, Malik went in search of Liana. They had to talk about all that had happened. By now she knew that she was no longer employed by the American School. She might have even called the American consulate. He wasn’t sure what they would have told her. Perhaps the truth—that in El Bahar, a desert marriage was still valid, and that for the next month she was his wife.
Wife. He turned the word over in his mind. He’d been married before. But Iman had taken that simple word—wife—and had made it into something evil. She had defiled their marriage bed and had humiliated him a thousand times over. Worse, she had weakened him in front of his countrymen. There could be no greater sin.
But Liana was not Iman, he reminded himself. He had seen the truth of Liana’s character reflected in the artless conversation of her charming daughter. A child repeats what it hears and learns, and Bethany spoke of a warm, loving woman with a generous heart. She confessed to times of loneliness and poverty, but only casually. Liana had given her child all she had. She could not be more different from Iman.
He paused outside the guest-room door. After knocking once, he entered and found her alone, standing by the French doors overlooking the Arabian Sea.
Sometime since he’d seen her last she’d changed her clothes, exchanging her traditional blue gown for jeans and a T-shirt. Her long blond hair hung loose about her shoulders and he couldn’t help remembering how it had felt brushing against his thighs the previous night when she’d knelt in front of him and taken him in her—
“What do you want?” she asked, continuing to stare out at the view. She hadn’t turned to face him, nor was there any anger in her voice. She sounded tired and resigned.
“Where’s Bethany?”
“She ran to tell the horses the good news. That she was going to be living in the palace and could see them every day. I’ve informed her that we’re only here until the month is up, but she’s hoping for a miracle.”
Liana slowly turned to face him. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and her skin was pale. Except for the henna staining her hands, she looked like a typical American woman ready for a casual Saturday of housework and errands.
“I’ve been standing here trying to make sense of it all,” she said, raising her gaze to his face. “The truth is, I can’t. Why did you do this, Malik? Why did y
ou trick me into marriage?”
“I didn’t know the ceremony had been changed until we arrived in the camp. Once I realized what they were doing, I went along with them.”
“Why?”
“I needed a wife.”
She stared at him. “As simple as that? No explanations, or excuses?”
“Do you want to hear any?”
“Not really.”
“I thought as much. So why bother? I’ve told you the truth.”
“You needed a wife?” She shook her head in disbelief. “Okay, say I buy that. Why me? There must be hundreds, no, thousands of women more suited to the task. I don’t know the first thing about your world. I don’t have family connections or the training. My idea of high fashion is buying a cotton blouse that’s not on sale. I don’t know how to make political small talk with visiting dignitaries, and I’m sure not beautiful enough to grace a magazine cover.”
Malik studied her critically. Technically, she might not have the classic features of a beauty, but when he looked at her, he saw pure loveliness. The face of the woman with whom he could almost be himself. Someone worth bothering about.
“No man could be dissatisfied with your appearance,” he said.
“There’s a compliment.” She shoved her hands into her back pockets. “I don’t know what to say to you, or even what to think. My entire life is out of control.”
“Your life is very much in control.”
“Oh, yeah, and you’re the one doing the controlling. I hate that. Who gives you the right?”
“Ancient tradition allows—”
“Screw ancient traditions,” she said, interrupting him. She pulled her hands free of her pockets and approached him. “Who gave you the right to mess with my life and why on earth did you pick me?” She stopped a couple of feet in front of him and rubbed her temples. “Is that what the sex was all about? Did you do it just to keep me?”
How was he supposed to answer that? If they hadn’t made love, she would be free to leave him now. But that hadn’t been the reason he’d wanted to be with her. He weighed his options, then decided to speak the truth.
“If we hadn’t made love last night, I knew I would die.” Perhaps not on the outside, but certainly in his soul where the last vestiges of his humanity clung by a thread. Being with Liana had given him new life…if only for a short time.
She glared at him. “Great line. Did you think it up yourself?”
“It’s the truth.”
“Sure. And I’m the queen of…” Her voice trailed off. “Never mind. I might just be queen of something, after all.” She turned toward the window, then spun back to face him. “I don’t want this,” she told him. “I can’t believe I came half-way around the world only to end up with someone exactly like my ex-husband.”
Malik stiffened. “Do not compare me with him. We are nothing alike.”
“Aren’t you? Chuck made all kinds of decisions without consulting me. He took our savings, which we had in theory agreed was for a down payment on a house, and bought a new race car and an engine and tires. He never asked, he just did what he wanted. Frankly, I can’t see that you’re any different.”
“I have taken nothing from you,” Malik reminded her. “You have only gained from knowing me.”
“If we’re talking about the money you had placed in my account, you can forget it. I’ll be giving that all back. While it’s a generous payment for one night of sex, I refuse to be your whore for any price.”
He grabbed her upper arms. “Is that what you think? That I paid you to service me?”
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “What else could it be?”
“Perhaps it was my way of making sure your dreams were not affected by all that has happened. It is not my intention to have you go when the month is up, but if I can’t stop you I don’t want you to leave El Bahar without what you came for. The divorce would have provided you with a generous settlement, but I thought you might be stubborn about that. I thought you would at least take what you expected to have earned from teaching. If you return to your country with that money, then both you and Bethany will be taken care of. You will have your house, and she will have her money for college.”
He shook her slightly, but didn’t give in to the rage boiling inside of him. “How dare you imply I treated you as anything but a precious part of my life? I didn’t take you last night without regard for your feelings. I asked you. I had you choose what you wanted. If you had refused me, I would have walked away. I have honored you by marrying you and yet you accuse me of treating you in such a despicable way.” He thrust her from him. “You know nothing of me.”
“You’re right,” she said, her breathing coming in hard pants. “I don’t know you and I don’t want to. I had my whole life planned. Everything was fine. I do a damn good job taking care of my daughter and myself, and we don’t need you.” A single tear slipped down one cheek. “But we’re stuck with you now. So tell me what’s going to happen? What about Bethany and how this is going to affect her? She’s going to be destroyed.”
“Why? I care for her.”
“Isn’t that nice. Well, guess what? She cares about you, too, and living here is only going to make that worse. She’s going to start to have expectations.”
“I will be a good father to her.”
“Will you visit her when we’re back in California? Do you plan to fly in every other weekend? Don’t you realize that a month is plenty of time for her to get her heart broken?”
“I don’t want it to be just for a month. I want you both to stay.”
“Oh, that’s so nice,” she said sarcastically. “But this may be one of those times when you don’t get what you want.”
He refused to think about that. Liana was here and she was going to stay. Somehow he would convince her.
“You and Bethany will move into my suite today,” he said. “Someone has already been sent to pick up your things. I will give you a few days to settle in, and then I’ll be joining you in our bed.”
She bristled. “I don’t think so, Prince Malik. I might be stuck in El Bahar, but I’m not staying in the palace.”
“You are my wife. Your place is at my side. Besides, you don’t have a choice. The housing at the American School is no longer available to you.”
She blinked. “Because I don’t work there anymore,” she said slowly, as if it was all just sinking in. “Let me guess the rest of it. No one will rent a room to me if you tell them not to.”
“You are my wife,” he repeated stubbornly. “Your place is here.”
“I’ll go to the American consulate,” she said. “They’ll have to help.”
He wasn’t sure if she didn’t see that she had no choice or if she was determined to fight him to the end, regardless of her lack of options. He suspected the latter. Liana could be most stubborn. While that trait made things difficult now, he knew it would be a great help later in their life together. She would fight for what she believed, and when they had sons together her strength would help them to rule El Bahar with wisdom and courage.
Liana continued to stare defiantly. He touched her shoulder. “They will not help you.”
Her whole body stiffened, then she seemed to collapse upon herself. She walked over to the sofa and sank onto a cushion. “It’s not fair,” she whispered.
“Perhaps not, but we must live with the situation as it exists. We are married. Nothing can change that. Would it be so difficult to make the best of things?”
She raised her head. Fire glowed in her eyes. “You haven’t won, Malik. I might be here for the next thirty days, but when the time is up, Bethany and I are leaving.”
“No. You will fall in love with me and you will stay.”
Her lips curved into a smile, but there was no humor in her expression. “Want to bet?”
Now it was his turn to smile. She couldn’t know that he was betting his very life on her staying. She was his last hope. Only with Liana did he have a chance o
f surviving, of being a man rather than a machine. She had the key to his heart and if she walked away from him, it would stay locked forever.
But he didn’t tell her any of that. For one thing, she would never believe him. For another, he couldn’t imagine allowing himself ever to be that vulnerable to another person. He’d been raised to be autonomous. He was Crown Prince Malik and he needed no one.
“You will love me,” he repeated. “And you will stay.”
“You will rue the day you tricked me into marriage,” she retorted.
He met her angry gaze and knew that only one of them was going to be right. But which one?
Chapter Eleven
“Mommy is really mad at you,” Bethany confided the following day as their horses picked their way across the open desert.
Malik glanced at the child riding next to him. “I’m not surprised. She was angry last night when we spoke.” While Liana had conceded that it was necessary to stay in the palace, she’d not given in easily, nor had she moved into his suite. Instead, she and her daughter were back in their original guest quarters.
He tried not to think about the humiliation of being rejected by his wife less than twenty-four hours after their wedding. He knew there was talk in the palace, and soon it would drift out to the city. Still, he would survive this; nothing Liana could do would ever compare to Iman’s transgressions.
“You’re gonna have to do something,” Bethany informed him. “Otherwise she’s gonna stay mad forever.”
Malik stiffened in the saddle. “I’m Prince Malik Khan. I do not compromise.”
The nine-year-old looked at him. She wore her blond hair pulled back in a braid under her riding hat. The combination of light-colored hair and the black cap made her eyes appear even more blue than usual.
“If compromising means you’ve made a mistake, and you have to admit it, I think that’s what Mommy wants.” Bethany flashed him a smile. “She says she wants a lot of other things, too, but I don’t think she really means them. Especially not the part about cutting off your head and leaving it on a stick in the center of town.”
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