he should be treated. I will make certain he has all that he desires.”
Too bad he couldn’t promise her the same. “Within reason, I hope. I’d hate to think you’d buy him his first plane on his first birthday.”
He favored her with a dimpled grin. The same grin she’d noticed the first time she’d laid eyes on him. “Rest assured I will withhold that gesture until his second birthday.”
“Good idea. We wouldn’t want him to be too spoiled.”
A lengthy span of silence passed as they remained quiet, as if neither knew what to say next. Piper had already said what she’d needed to say when she’d told him she loved him, even if he hadn’t done the same. Now all that remained was the final goodbye. “Well, I guess I need to get my things and take to the friendly skies. I’d like to say give me a call if you’re ever in need of ending your celibacy, but that wouldn’t be wise.”
He streaked a palm over the nape of his neck. “I suppose it wouldn’t be, at that.”
“And just so you know, I don’t regret the time we’ve spent together. I only regret this little fake fairy tale didn’t have a happy ending. But that’s life. Goodbye, Adan.”
When she tried to make a hasty exit, Adan caught her arm and pulled her into an embrace that didn’t last nearly long enough. “You are a remarkable woman, Piper McAdams. I wish for you only the brightest future with a deserving man.”
She was convinced he could be that man, if only he believed it, which he didn’t.
Piper began backing away, determined to leave him with a smile. “I’m going to forgo the whole man-hunting thing for a while, but I’ve decided I am going to further pursue a career in art.”
“I am pleased to hear that,” he said sincerely. “Perhaps you can send me some of your work in the future. I will pay top price.”
How badly she wanted to run back into his arms, but her pride had already suffered too many hits as it was. “I’ll certainly give that some serious consideration. In the meantime, take care, Adan.”
“I wish the same to you, Piper.”
She chose not to afford Adan another look for fear she might do something foolish, like give him another kiss. But after she climbed into the black limousine a half hour later, she glanced back at the red-stone castle and caught a glimpse of someone standing at the second-floor-terrace railing—the someone who had changed her life.
The sheikh of her dreams. A prince of a guy. The one who got away...with her heart.
“This arrived for you a little while ago.”
Adan turned from the nursery window to find Elena holding a large rectangular box. “More gifts from some sultan attempting to insert themselves in the government with bribes for the baby?”
She crossed the room and handed him the brown-paper-wrapped package. “This one is from the United States. South Carolina, to be exact.”
He immediately knew what it contained, though he never believed she would actually honor his request. Not after the way he had regretfully treated her.
While Elena looked on, Adan tore through the wrapping and opened the box to find what appeared to be a painting, exactly as he’d expected. Yet when he pulled it from the box, he didn’t expect that the painting would depict a slumbering father holding his sleeping son in remarkable detail, right down to the cleft in his chin and Samuel’s prominent left dimple.
“Oh, Adan,” Elena began in a reverent voice, “this is such a bella gift.”
He would wholeheartedly agree, if he could dislodge the annoying lump in his throat. The baby began kicking his legs in rapid-fire succession against the mattress as if he appreciated the gesture.
After resting the painting against the crib, Adan picked up Samuel and held him above his head. “You are quite the noisy character these days.”
His son rewarded him with a toothless smile, something he’d begun doing the past month. A milestone that had given him great joy. Bittersweet joy, because Piper had not been around to share in it.
“You should call her and thank her, Adan.”
He lowered Samuel to his chest and faced Elena with a frown. “I will send her a handwritten note.”
She took the baby from his arms without invitation. “You will do no such thing. She deserves to hear from you personally. She also deserves to know that you have been mourning your loss of her since she departed.”
“I have not been mourning,” he said, sounding too defensive. “I have been busy raising my son and seeing to my royal duty.”
Elena patted his cheek. “You can deceive yourself, but you cannot deceive me. You are so sick with love you could wilt every flower in the palace courtyard with your anxiety.”
He avoided her scrutiny by picking up the painting and studying the empty wall above the crib. “I believe this is the perfect spot, right above Samuel’s bed so he will go to sleep knowing I am watching over him throughout the night.”
“Since it is obvious you are not getting any sleep, why not watch over him in person?”
He returned the painting to the floor at his feet. “I am sleeping fine.”
“Ah, yes, and I am entering the marathon in Dubai two weeks from now.”
That forced Adan around. “Would you please stop assuming you know everything about me?”
She kissed Samuel’s cheek before placing him back in the crib, where he began kicking again at the sight of the colorful mobile above him. “I do know you, cara, better than most. When you were Samuel’s age, I stayed up many nights while you were teething. When you were a toddler, I put you to bed every night with a book, the reason why you were always such a grand reader. When you were six, and you broke your right arm trying to jump the hedges, I was the one who fed you until you learned to eat with your left hand. And when you were twelve, I discovered those horrid magazines beneath your bed and did not tell your father.”
He’d forgotten that incident, with good reason. “I realize you’ve been there for me through thick and thin, but that does not give you carte blanche to lord over me now that I am an adult.”
“I agree, you are an adult.”
“I am pleased to know you finally acknowledge that.”
“An adult who has absolutely no common sense when it counts most.”
He should have expected this as soon as he opened the box. “If you’re going to say I made the wrong decision by allowing Piper to leave, I would have to disagree.”
“And you would be wrong.” Elena leaned back against the crib’s railing and donned her stern face. “As I have told both your brothers, you all have a great capacity to love, but it would take a special woman to bring that out in you. Zain and Rafiq learned
