“Yes.” His eyes clouded over. He hadn’t spoken about Maddie to anyone in such a long time and he found it felt unexpectedly cathartic. “She was a grade school teacher. She worked at one of the worst schools in Washington. You know, the kind of place you have to walk through two metal detectors to get in the gates.” He shook his head. “If anything was going to happen to her, I would have put money on it being there.”
“Did they catch the gunman?”
“Two days later,” he nodded. “They found him hiding out in some guy’s garage. He shot himself, and a cop for good measure.”
“I hope he is burning in hell,” she condemned angrily.
“He was mentally ill.”
“Aren’t all men who commit some atrocities?”
Will’s expression was reflective. “No. Some are Kings.”
Lilah dipped her head forward and had another spoonful of soup. “Harry must have been devastated.”
“That’s an understatement. He had adored his wife, and never so much as looked at another woman after she died. Maddie was his angel. He was a wonderful and devoted father.”
“I can imagine.” She rested her hands in her lap and gave Will the full force of her attention. “He is lucky to have a friend like you.”
“I owe Harry a lot,” Will said simply.
“I’m sure he’s grateful.” Lilah shifted a little in her seat. “Was Maddie married? Did she have children?”
Will felt the familiar stone of grief in his chest. “Yeah.” His voice was crackly with emotion. “She was married. As for children … our baby would have been due a month from when she was shot.”
CHAPTER SIX
“Did you just say … she was your wife?” Lilah reached across the bench and put a hand on his in an instinctive gesture of sympathy.
She watched, fascinated, as Will swallowed and his Adam’s Apple ricocheted in his throat. “Yeah.”
“I’m so sorry.” She shook her head sadly. “I had no idea.”
“How could you? We just met.”
That was true, and yet something about their surroundings made her feel intimately connected to this man. “Eight years ago.” She pulled together the various breadcrumbs of information he had dropped during their time together. “You began to work as a foreign correspondent shortly afterwards.”
He nodded. “I had to finish out my contract in DC first, and to pack up our house and our life.”
“What kind of coward murders a pregnant woman?”
“The worst kind,” he assured her.
“I bet she was a wonderful person,” Lilah murmured soothingly, pushing the conversation onto what she hoped would be pleasanter ground.
“She was the sweetest woman on earth. I loved her to bits.” He grinned. “Harry took a while to warm to the idea but eventually he came on board.”
Lilah wondered at the strange pain in her chest as he spoke so freely of his love for this woman. Was it because she would be unlikely to ever know such a feeling? Because her duties would require her to one day marry someone sensible and suitable, and love would have little place in the equation? What would it be like to feel attracted to someone and to simply act on it?
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “To have lost her at all, but particularly in such a pointless way …”
“Yes.” He finished his soup and put the bowl in the sink. “Now, princess, what do you say to some fishing?”
She stared at him with a quizzical expression. Surely she’d misheard, or misunderstood. Though her English was excellent, there were some colloquialisms that occasionally passed her by. “What is this?” She said slowly, after a minute, her eyes enormous in her face.
A spark ignited in his gut. One he hadn’t felt in an incredibly long time. He quelled it. Talking about Maddie had stirred everything up for him, that was all.
“Fish-ing,” he said slowly. “The act of submerging a line into water to try to hook dinner.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I heard you. I just thought I must have misunderstood.”
“Because Princesses don’t fish?” He said, his teasing tone making her cheeks flush.
“Well, generally not.”
“Come on, we’ve already addressed this. You’re an all-new princess. You jump out of buildings and sit on dusty floors.”
She laughed. “I guess you have a point there. I, er, thought we were going to walk.”
“We’ll walk to the lake.” He nodded towards her soup. “Finish that, your highness.”
She arched a brow. “You’re giving me orders?”
“Out here, I’m in charge.”
She nodded, but the throbbing pulse of attraction was spreading through her like a current. She felt it bombarding her nervous system and it was such a foreign and new sensation that it startled her completely. “Okay.” She dipped her head forward and concentrated on the soup. At least, she appeared to give the breakfast her full concentration, but her mind was absolutely zipping.
It was simply the strangeness of their circumstances, she thought reassuringly. She was now in closer proximity with a man than ever before. Without the presence of her guards and the palace, without the need for caution and protocol, she was allowing herself to relax completely for almost the first time in her life. That was all it was.
It wasn’t Will Wright, per se.
The theory lasted just as long as it took her to finish the bowl and place it in the sink as he’d done. When she spun around, Will was right behind her. She almost collided with his body and had to lift her hands to his muscular chest to stop herself from stumbling. She lifted her eyes to his, the apology she’d been about to say lost completely.
His eyes were a stunning shade of brown. They almost seemed flecked with amber and gold. They were rimmed by thick black lashes that spiked out confidently.
He smelled so good.
His chest was warm beneath her fingers.
She wanted him to kiss her.
The thoughts kept dropping into her mind like money into a piggy bank. She wanted him to press his lips to hers.
The knowledge sparked her like an arrow to the heart.
It was completely inappropriate for her to feel like that! Will was taking care of her because Kiral had asked him to. And he’d only just confided in her that he’d been married; that his wife had died tragically. How could she lurch from that conversation to this sense of desperate, aching need?
And yet, beneath her hands, she could feel his chest thumping hard and fast, just like hers. He hadn’t been running. And no one’s heart raced like that as a matter of course.
Was it possible that he was affected by her closeness as she was his?
“Lilah …” He murmured her name almost as a plea. She studied his face absentmindedly, noting the muscle that jerked in his cheek as though he was keeping a rein on his emotions with effort.
Her breath hitched in her throat. Vulnerability scored marks across her heart. The wind whistled outside the cabin but neither of them heard it. Only the rushing of their blood and the pounding of their hearts was palpable.
He lifted a hand and placed it over one of hers. She was so fine-boned and soft. He felt everything in his body tighten. How long had it been since he’d wanted a woman like this?
He couldn’t remember. His chest heaved with the effort of not kissing her. He knew he should put some distance between them, but standing like this, so close to her, he felt a spark of life that he had presumed permanently erased.
Her skin was flawless. As though it had been painted on by angels in heaven. He wanted to lift his hand to her cheek and to grip her gently. He wanted to plunder her mouth, not gently, he realised, but passionately and desperately.
A soft sigh escaped her parted lips. She was so close. All he had to do was lower his head a little and they’d be kissing.
But it wouldn’t be just a kiss. He recognised the strength of desire humming between them and he knew a single kiss would never appease it.
And there was no way he could sleep with Lilah, no matter how desperate he was.
“You’ll freeze out there in that dress,” he said, his words thick.
“Then let’s stay here,” she responded so quietly he had to lean forward to catch the words. Just far enough to feel them breathe across his cheek like tempting little husks.
“No,” he shook his head, smiling despite the fact he was aching deep in his soul. “That would be … dangerous.”
“You see danger everywhere,” she observed, pushing up a little onto her toes so that they were only perhaps an inch apart.
He made a sound of frustration. “There is danger here, honey.”
Honey. The word was just like that! Like warm, sweet liquid oozing down her spine. Never before had anyone called her something so lovely. She could become addicted to the sound of the word. “Show me.”
How he wanted to! To kiss her and taste her would have been perfect. But a single kiss would have led to way too many complications.
“You can feel it,” he said instead, forcing himself to step backwards from her. It was no good. Though he’d put space between them, it only served to stretch the tension tighter.
“So can you.” She followed, closing the distance again, and putting her hand back on his chest. “I heard your heart. It is telling me the truth, even if you are denying it.”
“I’m not denying it,” he said carefully. “But we both know how wrong it would be for me to do what I want to right now.”
She blinked her eyes thoughtfully. “Is there something so terribly wrong with a single kiss?” She lowered her hand, curving her palm around his hip. Lilah! What are you doing? The objections were crowding her mind but she wouldn’t heed common sense. Not when her body was simmering all over.
“You think we’d stop at a kiss?”
She nodded, pressing her body forward, so that she felt his hard planes. It brought about an instant jolt of desire. Muscles she hadn’t known she possessed clenched in expectation. “We’d have to,” she lifted her other hand so that she could rub the pad of her thumb over his lips. He closed his eyes and breathed out unevenly.
“I’ve never been kissed before,” she said simply. “And right now, I want you to be the one who kisses me first.”
He jolted his eyes open, something like possessive lust kicking him hard in the gut.
“How is that possible?”
She ran her thumb over his mouth again, her eyes drawn to the gesture. “Think about it, Will,” she said slowly. “I can’t exactly date like a normal girl.”
“You’ve never dated?” He studied her face, his body hurting with the pain of not folding around her and wrapping her up in his strength.
“Oh, I’ve dated. Suitable men, with chaperones on hand to ensure nothing more than hand-holding takes place.”
“Hand-holding. You’re twenty four years old.”
“I’m a princess of a conservative country.”
He was going to step away again. She could feel it in the tiny little shifts in his body. She couldn’t bear it if he did.
“Kiss me.”
He shook his head. “Don’t, Lilah. You don’t know what you’re asking of me.”
“A kiss.”
She stood fully on the tips of her toes now, and brought her lips so close to his that they were almost touching.
“Off the record,” she promised, leaning closer. She felt his arousal against her belly and groaned as the primal lust fired her blood.
“It’s so wrong.”
“Let’s see.” And now she pressed her lips to his, waiting for the instincts to kick in, waiting to feel what she should do next.
With a guttural sound, Will wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her to him like glue, and deepened the kiss hungrily. His tongue thrashed punishingly against hers. His mouth possessed hers completely. His kiss was hard and demanding and Lilah felt an awakening blossoming in her soul, and it was all because of this man.
“Will,” she said the word into his mouth, running her hands down his back. His kiss was fire in her gut. Her touch was flame on his flesh. He touched her as though she held some mysterious miracle in her being – one that he couldn’t wait to possess. He pressed against her; she moved at his touch. Her back was against the timber of the bench. He was lifting her, holding her, guiding her to sit on the bench. But he didn’t take his mouth from hers. He wasn’t prepared to relinquish the kiss. He needed her. He needed this.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her ankles behind his back. He dropped his mouth, kissing her décolletage now, tasting her and smelling her and wanting her more fiercely than he’d known possible.
The realisation was ice-water to his desire. It was scissors to the tension and a flood of reality on their desire.
He straightened and stared at Lilah.
It didn’t go away. The pulse of attraction. She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and he felt a need that was insatiable barrel through him, demanding attention.
But he was too stricken to obey it.
He hadn’t even wanted Maddie with this ferocity of need. He felt as though, if he didn’t make love to Lilah instantly, he would combust: that he might burn into a million tiny pieces of devastation. What a betrayal to his beautiful, lost wife.
Lilah was panting, her cheeks flushed and her hair messy. Her lips were swollen. He shook his head and cupped her cheeks. “That was a mistake.”
It surprised him that she nodded. It wounded him, too.
“It can’t happen again,” he added for good measure. Again, pain lanced him when she seemed to affirm the statement with a small lift of her chin.
“There is danger here,” she agreed after a long moment.
“Yeah?”
She lifted trembling fingers to her lips. “My soul for a kiss.”
“Huh?” God, the contact had turned him into some kind of illiterate cave man.
“Another kiss like that and you would own my soul.” She caught the need for more and packaged it away, deep into her heart. He had been right. One single kiss was a slippery slope to feelings and wants that couldn’t be indulged. She was a princess. A descendant of The First Sheikh. And she could conquer these feelings because she had to. “Let’s go fishing.”
* * *
Her face was freezing but thanks to the incredibly ugly snowsuits Will had found for them the rest of her was surprisingly warm. “Who taught you to fish?” Lilah asked, breaking the silence that had scratched around them uncomfortably for the past hour.
He tugged on his line a little, feeling for another fish. “My father. We used to spend family holidays at our cabin. The only food we got was what we could forage for ourselves.”
“That seems a little barbaric,” she said, imitating his action and pulling on the line. As it had been for the last hour, it was empty. Will, on the other hand, had caught six slimy looking grey fish.
“That’s what my mom used to say. But that’s just the way my father is. His father was like it with him, and so on.” He sent her a look that made her tummy contract. Memories of the kiss were still firing through her body. “But actually, it was a great education. You don’t know how many times I’ve found myself in situations where I’ve been grateful for the knowledge he imparted. Though his methods were … as you say, barbaric … it’s probably because of him that I survived …”
“Survived what?” She prompted, curiosity gnawing at her gut.
“Oh, you know.” The smile hid a multitude of facts. “Life.”
Lilah nodded thoughtfully. “Did you choose such a dangerous profession because of what happened to Maddie?”
He turned to face her sharply. The worry in her eyes was not new. Most people looked at him like that when they heard about his wife. Even Harry had looked at him as if searching for cracks. “No.” He turned his attention back to the water. “I put it off because of her.” He sighed. “In spite of Harry, I would have enlisted. But I met Maddie. And between the tw
o of them … well, I couldn’t face losing her. She told me she’d leave me if I signed up.”
“Did she?” Lilah could understand that. The thought of loving someone who was in such a dangerous profession would be hard to bear. She felt a searing urge of appreciation for the woman she would never meet.
“Yeah. I figured I’d talk her ‘round while I was at school. But by the time I graduated, I had a great job offer and we were engaged. Life just barreled along. Much to my father’s fury.”
“He didn’t approve?”
“No. I broke six generations of tradition. I’m the only Wright in two hundred years who hasn’t enlisted.”
“But your accomplishments are vast.”
His expression clearly showed surprise and she coloured.
“I was given a dossier about you before we met.” Her tone was defensive. “It isn’t as though I looked you up on the internet.”
“Obviously,” he drawled, his eyes doing funny things to her equilibrium. “He thinks journalism is a cop-out. That I was afraid to fight.”
She digested the words carefully. “I don’t think you’re afraid of anything.”
His expression was inscrutable as he studied her face. “Why do you say that?”
“You hurtled out of a highrise, remember?”
“I hurtled you out of a highrise too.”
She laughed. “One day I will find it impossible to believe I did that.” She tugged on her line once more; it moved as freely as ever.
“But you did. You were so brave.” Damn it, he sounded like a love-sick teenager. He cleared his throat.
“Abdim … what will happen to him?”
“I imagine he’ll be taken back to Delani and charged.”
“For what? He didn’t do anything …”
“Sure he did.” Will pulled on his line and reeled it all the way in. A fish flipped on the end. Will lifted him off then threw him back into the lake. “We have more than enough, now.” Lilah frowned in confusion at the change in conversation. “We just need yours and we can go.”
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