by Leslie North
“Iman’s father’s dead? I thought he had cancer. I didn’t realize that his prognosis was so advanced.”
“Prince Iman,” Tahira reminded her gently. “When his father heard of the plane crash, he feared that Prince Iman had not survived. He suffered a heart attack. When Sheikh Salah heard that the prince was alive, he rushed to bring him home, but the king did not survive.”
“Iman…” Natalie grimaced. “Sorry. Prince Iman’s uncle didn’t say anything about the king during the flight here. Poor Iman. He had no idea.”
“It is a sad night,” Tahira said. “But I have my duties. You are a guest of the palace, and I am to entertain you. Do you wish to eat? Or perhaps I could draw you a bath?”
“Please don’t. It’s a little creepy to think of someone running a bath for me,” Natalie said with a forced laugh.
Tahira’s eyes widened. “I did not mean to be creepy.”
“No, you’re not.” Truthfully, what Natalie wanted most was to check on Iman and see how he was dealing with everything, but she knew how out of place that would seem. She was a one-night stand and obviously not welcome here.
Plus, news of Iman’s father’s sudden passing shook Natalie more than she wanted to admit. She’d always assumed that the cancer would take her mother, but what if something else did? Natalie flew all over the world on a weekly basis. What if her mother passed away while she was in a hotel in Russia?
There was a sudden knock on the door. “Let me,” Tahira said as she hurried to open it.
Sheikh Salah stood on the other side, and his eyes were ice-cold. He spoke quietly to Tahira before stepping away.
The girl looked troubled as she returned to Natalie. “Sheikh Salah would like to speak to you.” Tahira hesitated. “I wish you could have stayed longer. It’s not often that we get female visitors, and certainly none as exciting as you.”
“I’m not going anywhere yet,” Natalie chuckled, but the doubtful look on Tahira’s face drew her up short.
Apparently she was.
Clutching at her head covering, Natalie walked slowly out into the hall to meet Sheikh Salah. The man raked his eyes over her in obvious disapproval. “Our men have recovered everything from the wreckage. They’ve found your luggage. It will be returned to Kaylana Private Flights. A car is waiting to take you to the airport. You’ve been booked with a first class ticket on a flight back to America. Allow me to escort you to the car.”
“Sheikh Salah, I appreciate you recovering my luggage and making arrangements for me, but I’d like to pay my respects and say goodbye to Prince Iman before I leave,” Natalie said, bowing her head. She wanted to be respectful, but she wasn’t leaving without seeing Iman, making sure that he was okay.
“That will not be necessary,” Salah said coldly. “Come with me.”
“No disrespect,” Natalie said as she lifted her chin. “But I’m not leaving without seeing Iman. After what he did for me, it would be rude if I skipped out without a word. Especially after he just lost his father.”
“Actually, the soon-to-be Crowned Sheikh would love nothing more than if you skipped out,” Salah mocked. “This is a tenuous time for the family and the kingdom, and having an American whore in the palace would not look good. If you leave now, without a fuss, you’ll be paid handsomely for your cooperation and your silence.” His gaze bored into her. “You were never here. After the plane crashed, Prince Iman was whisked away, and you were treated at a hospital in Egypt. You never learned of his father’s passing. You never spent that night with him. Do we have an understanding?”
Natalie’s stomach dropped. “What?” she whispered. “How dare you call me a whore!”
He smiled thinly. “I have called women like you much worse. Whether it’s for money or prestige, you women all want to worm your way into the royal family. I have no doubt that he would have enjoyed you for a couple more nights before throwing you out, but the circumstances have changed. He wants you gone now.”
Pressing a hand to her mouth, Natalie stifled a moan. How could she have been so naive? She knew she couldn’t expect to have a future with Iman, but for a moment, she had let herself get swept away in the idea of the fairy tale.
Romance. Adventure.
She had not expected it all to end in abject humiliation.
He might have saved her, but she’d been nothing more than a willing body to keep him warm and entertained.
Salah reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “For your cooperation and your silence. If word gets back to us that you have not held up your end of the bargain, we will bury you. We might be a small country, but I have enough power to make sure your life is ruined.” He paused and raised an eyebrow. “Have I made myself clear?”
“I won’t talk to anyone, but I’m not taking that check.” Just looking at it made her feel dirty. If she took it, she really would feel like a whore.
“Are you certain?” He smiled smugly. “I’m sure it’s more than adequate to pay off your mother’s medical bills.”
Her whole body froze. In her moment of defiance, she’d forgotten that she was responsible for her mother. Even though she wanted to hurl, she slowly reached up and took the check. After reading the dollar amount he’d written, she briefly closed her eyes.
Her mother. She could bring her mother home and hire private care for her.
“That’s what I thought.” He gave her one last look of disgust before he turned on his heel and walked away, down the hall.
Natalie had no choice but to follow him.
An hour later, as she boarded the plane, she promised herself that she wasn’t ever going to think of this place again. She would pretend that it had never happened, and she wouldn’t tell a single soul. Not because the sheikh had forbidden it but because she owed it to herself to move on.
If only she had known that she was never, ever going to forget that night.
5
Present Day
“Georgia, I can’t go out this weekend,” Natalie laughed as she cradled the phone between her ear and shoulder. The little white fluffy devil that had shown up on her doorstep a year ago yapped and wound his way around her feet as she tried to get to the refrigerator, and Natalie stumbled. “Damn it, Beetle, would you get out of the way?”
On the other end of the line, her friend sighed. “Girl, you need a night out! When was the last time that you got all dolled up and had a good time?”
“Two months ago, when you told me that I’d be a horrible friend if I didn’t go out for your birthday. And then six months ago, when we were in Paris, you dragged me from my lovely bed to supervise you while you got so drunk that you thought the taxi driver was your butler.”
The dog yipped and followed closely as Natalie bent down and inspected the contents of her fridge. She really needed to go to the grocery store, especially before her flight out tomorrow night.
Grabbing the package of hot dogs, she pulled them out and turned, only to trip over the dog again. This time, he howled with indignation as if it was her fault that she’d stepped on him.
“Hang on, Georgia.” Natalie pulled the phone away. “Iris! Will you please keep Beetle in your room while I make dinner!”
“Beetle!” Iris’s bellowed across the apartment, and Natalie sighed. It was a wonder their neighbors didn’t hate them.
Beetle perked up and went scrambling after his beloved owner.
“Besides,” Natalie said as she returned to her phone call. “I’ve got a million things I need to do before Monday. If you really wanted to do me a solid, you’d come over and help. Last time Gordon was here, he complained for a month that I was trying to starve him to death.”
“Gordon would complain about anything. That’s what he does,” Georgia said dismissively.
Natalie put her friend on speaker and set the phone on the counter. Filling a pot with water, she set it on the stove over high heat and pulled down a box of noodles. Hot dogs and spaghetti. The dinner of champions.
&nb
sp; “Yes, well, asking a private chef to make grilled cheese for dinner probably wasn’t the smartest idea. I even tried to tell him that grilled cheese is totally chic and gourmet now. That set him off even more.” Natalie chopped up the hot dogs and speared the chunks with the uncooked spaghetti before dropping them in the water and setting the timer. “If you want to hang out with me this weekend, you’re going grocery shopping and doing laundry with me. If you want to go out and have a good time, you’re going to have to do it without me.”
“Can I go shopping with Iris?” Georgia asked.
Natalie smiled. “I could probably swing that.”
“Awesome. I’m in. I’ll bring a bottle of wine, and we’ll have a girls’ night tomorrow night.” Georgia’s voice went up an octave, and Natalie sighed. So much for having a relaxing weekend before her trip.
The water had started to boil and was now spilling over the sides of the pot. “All right. I’ve got to go before I burn the kitchen down,” Natalie said hastily as she reached across and turned the burner down. Without waiting for her friend to say goodbye, Natalie disconnected the call.
Iris preferred spray-can cheese, but there was no way that Natalie was serving that. Instead, she grabbed a can of cheddar soup from the cabinet and winced.
Gordon would flip out if he knew.
Finally, she had dinner on the table. “Iris! Time to eat,” she called out as she poured a cup of milk and a glass of water. “Spaghetti and hot dogs.”
Less than a minute later, Beetle was excitedly dancing around her feet, and Iris bounced into the room. Her blonde ponytail was askew, and her cheeks were flushed. “You were reading, right?” Natalie asked with narrowed eyes.
“Yes, Mommy,” Iris said, putting on an innocent smile.
“Uh-huh. So why does it look like you were wrestling with Beetle?”
“I was wrestling and reading.” The girl climbed up into the chair and flashed those familiar dark eyes at her, and instantly, Natalie’s heart melted. There was no one in the world that she loved more, and nothing that she wouldn’t do to protect her daughter.
“I find that very difficult to believe,” she laughed as she set her daughter’s cup of milk on the table. “No feeding Beetle scraps under the table.”
“Well, I was reading to Beetle, and we got to the part where the princess was about to save the dragon from the evil knight, and Beetle got a little too excited, so I had to calm him down,” Iris said solemnly. “We’re going to finish the book after dinner. Can I read to you tonight?”
“Absolutely!” Natalie had a million things to do, but story time before bed was sacred. The only time mother and daughter missed it was when Natalie was on a plane, and it always broke her heart. She told herself that she needed to find something more grounded, but until she finished paying off the last of her mother’s medical bills, they would have to keep living paycheck-to-paycheck. It was a struggle to afford the small apartment, and switching from one job to another would be a nightmare.
“Georgia is coming over this weekend,” Natalie said, watching her daughter stick out her tongue in concentration as the little girl wound pasta around her fork. “She’s going to take you shopping on Saturday. I’m thinking a new pair of shoes are in order.”
Iris’s eyes lit up with delight. “Purple ones with dragons!”
“That does sound interesting but maybe hard to find,” Natalie laughed. “I’m sure you two can find something you’ll like. You’ll need some for your field trip to the zoo next week.”
Iris went to public school during the year, but in the summer, Natalie somehow scrounged up enough money to enroll her daughter in summer school. Every week, the class went on special trips to amusement parks, zoos, or museums. Last week, they had gone camping overnight, and the week before that, they’d put on a play. It was the play that had Iris fascinated with dragons.
Her daughter was smart as a whip, and so the little girl had immediately demanded all the books and movies on dragons that could be found, and Natalie did her best to oblige her. She didn’t go overboard, of course. In a few weeks, Iris would abandon her love for dragons and fixate on something else.
Gordon was her savior. He and Georgia had dated briefly four years ago but determined that they were better as friends, and he had stepped in one month when Natalie’s regular nanny couldn’t watch Iris while she was on a trip. The cranky chef fell in love with Iris, and the feeling was mutual. Even though he and Georgia didn’t last as a couple, he continued to stick around, and when Natalie was forced to fire the nanny, Gordon stepped in. He and Georgia, if she was available, watched Iris for her while Natalie was working.
Life was difficult as a single mother, but friends like Gordon and Georgia made things so much easier.
“Are they going to have dragons at the zoo?”
Natalie twirled her noodles around as she mulled over the question. “They might have Komodo dragons, but I think you’re going to be disappointed when you see them. They don’t fly, and they don’t breathe fire. They flick out their tongues and crawl around like lizards.” She decided not to tell her daughter that the creature’s bite was poisonous.
“Do you have to be a princess to see a dragon?”
“Being a princess might be fun in the books,” Natalie said sharply. “But in real life, the only thing that you have to be is you.”
Poor Iris looked distraught, and Natalie shook her head. “You know what? I bet we could make Beetle look like a dragon,” she said brightly to bring back her daughter’s smile. “Would you like that? And you can write a story about that while I’m gone and share it with me when I get back.”
“Yeah!” Iris clapped her hands. “I want to get started right now!”
“Finish your dinner first,” Natalie laughed. “I’ll be gone for a week, so you’ll have plenty of time.”
Iris was the most amazing girl, and Natalie wished she could give her daughter a better life. No father was listed on Iris’s birth certificate since, thanks to the threat by Sheikh Salah, Natalie supposedly had never spent a night with Iman. Only her mother knew the truth, and her mother had passed away nearly a year after Iris’s birth.
When Iris had learned about fathers from her friends in preschool, she’d started asking about her own. Natalie simply told her that her father was gone, and Iris didn’t ask any more questions. Part of her longed to tell Iris that she really was a princess and she deserved all the royal treatment, but she didn’t want to have to tell Iris that her father was also cold-hearted and cruel.
After dinner, she bathed Iris and Beetle, much to the little dog’s horror, and tucked them both into bed. Lying down next to her daughter, she cuddled with them while Iris slowly and painstakingly read the rest of her princess and the dragon book. In the end, the princess was victorious over the evil knight, and the princess and the dragon had many adventures together.
“I want to go on an adventure,” Iris announced as she closed the book. “Am I old enough to go on adventures?”
“Absolutely,” Natalie said as she kissed her daughter’s head. “We’ll have an adventure as soon as I return. What do you think? A hike through the woods?”
“No, Momma. A real adventure. Like you. I want to go to faraway places.”
Natalie didn’t have the heart to tell her daughter that adventures in faraway places didn’t always end in happily-ever-after.
Iris was the center of her world, and she wouldn’t change anything, not if it meant that she wouldn’t have her daughter, but her heart had been torn in two that day. Iman might have fathered her child, but she had no love for him after the way he’d treated her.
“One day, I’ll make sure that you have a grand adventure,” Natalie promised, but her daughter was already drifting off to sleep. Easing herself from the bed, she tucked Iris in and scratched Beetle’s ears.
The sleepy pup yawned and thumped his tail on the bed.
Turning off the light, she watched her daughter’s face, bathed in the soft glow
from the nightlight. So precious. So innocent.
There was a time when she’d been that innocent. When she’d believed in faraway adventures but not anymore.
She hoped that her daughter never lost that spark.
6
Iman was exhausted and unhappy. Two days ago, he’d attended his uncle’s funeral, and instead of grieving with his brothers, he’d had to fly to France for a ceremonial ball, and now, instead of getting on his flight to go home, he was listening to his guards argue with the pilot.
Now there was something wrong with the plane.
“Your Excellency, I apologize,” Nabih said breathlessly. “It appears that there is an issue with this plane. They are diverting another plane immediately, and once it’s fueled and ready to go, we’ll be back in the air. You should be home sometime late this evening.”
Iman closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples. This whole week had been an absolute nightmare. Salah had shouldered some of the burden of the responsibilities, and now that he was gone, Iman felt like he was floundering. Six years of rule, and he still felt like an imposter. He feared that every time his kingdom turned to him, they were wishing that he was his father.
A month ago, his council of advisors had offered a solution. Marry. Provide the kingdom with a queen they’d be proud to serve, and morale would no doubt rise again. Iman knew that he would one day have to marry—a political match—but he kept putting it off. Now it seemed that the time had come.
The list of candidates he’d been given was absurd. Half the women on the list were far too young. Two of the young women had already had illicit affairs with one or even both of his brothers, something the younger men were all too eager to point out. There were several daughters of European diplomats who were suitable, but they would want to be wooed and courted.
He wanted something simple.
