new light as desire uncoiled and snaked between them, drawing them closer, tangling them together.
Gracie broke their locked gazes first, passing a trembling hand over her face. ‘Don’t do this, Malik.’
‘You feel it, too, Grace. Gracie.’ He allowed himself to say her true name, the name he’d called out in his sleep more than once over the years, to his own savage frustration. ‘I know you do. Back in the bedroom...’
‘Of course I do.’ Her breath came out in a shaky rush. ‘But we can’t complicate things, for Sam’s sake.’
‘This doesn’t have to be complicated.’
She swung her gaze back to his, and now ire flashed in her lovely golden-green eyes. ‘It doesn’t? So what are you suggesting? Another one-night stand? Sorry, but I’ve been there, done that. I’m not interested.’ She pushed away from the table, her lithe body taut.
‘I wasn’t suggesting a one-night stand. Far from it.’
‘What, then?’ she demanded.
Malik was silent, considering his options. He could not play his whole hand now. Gracie would reject it instinctively. There was still too much she didn’t know or understand. ‘All I’m asking,’ he said, his voice low and steady, ‘is that you keep an open mind...to all the possibilities.’
Confusion clouded her eyes. ‘What possibilities? Why do I feel like you’re keeping something from me? Something big?’
‘The future is unknown for all of us, Grace.’
‘Now we’re back to Grace.’ She shook her head, crossing her arms across her body. ‘Don’t lie to me, Malik. Not again.’
‘I didn’t lie before—’
‘As good as. You should have told me you were a sultan.’
‘And you should have told me you were pregnant.’
‘I tried—’
‘And I tried. Can we not do this? Again?’
Her body sagged. ‘I’m so confused, Malik,’ she whispered.
As was he. He’d enjoyed this time with Gracie, talking to her and, yes, most definitely kissing her. That had been exquisitely sweet. But such enjoyment and desire clouded what he knew in his gut had to be a business arrangement, for the sake of Alazar as well as his own.
‘All will become clear eventually,’ he promised. ‘To both of us.’ He brushed her cheek with his fingertips; her skin was impossibly soft. Letting out a shuddering breath, Gracie closed her eyes.
* * *
Gracie felt as if her emotions were in a tumble dryer; she felt a thousand things at once, and it was near impossible to separate the fear from the hope, the excitement from the uncertainty. One moment her blood had been singing with reawakened desire, and the next she was backing away in trepidation. She needed to calm down. She needed to accept this for what it was—two weeks to figure out her and Sam’s next steps in life. And maybe she could enjoy it. Once she’d been determined to suck the marrow out of life and toss away the bones. She’d been so happy and hopeful, back in Rome. She wanted to win a little of her youthful self back.
Taking a deep breath, she smiled. ‘So tell me, what are we going to do in Alazar, exactly?’
‘I want to show you my country. The palaces, the capital city of Teruk and of course the mountains.’
‘Sam mentioned that Alazar has the highest mountain in the Middle East.’
‘Did he?’ The look of pride on Malik’s face made Gracie smile. ‘He is a very intelligent boy.’
‘He’s curious. Always wanting to know more.’ She took a bite of the couscous salad and found it was delicious. As she took another mouthful, she realised how hungry she was. ‘Were you like that, as a boy?’
‘Once.’ Malik was silent for a moment, and Gracie could tell he was considering what to tell her. How much to tell her. ‘Things changed when I was twelve.’
‘Why? What happened then?’
Another silence; Gracie held her breath, sensing the import of what Malik might say. Wanting to know. ‘My older brother, Azim, was kidnapped then,’ he explained quietly. ‘And I became the heir to the throne.’
A soft gasp escaped her. ‘Malik, I’m so sorry. That’s terrible. What...what happened to him?’
Malik spread his hands, his powerful shoulders moving in an elegant shrug. ‘No one knows. There were no ransom notes, no demands, nothing. He just disappeared, right from the palace gardens. No one saw anything.’
‘I’m so sorry.’ Gracie couldn’t imagine that kind of loss. Her five siblings infuriated her at times, but she loved them fiercely. She couldn’t imagine having one taken away so abruptly and terribly. ‘Were you close to him?’
‘Yes.’ The single word held a world of pain. Malik looked down at his hands flat on the table. ‘Yes, I was very close to him.’
‘What about your parents?’ She was realising afresh how little she knew about him. And she wanted to know more, to understand this intriguing and complex man.
‘My mother died when I was four years old, from cancer. It was swift. My father...’ He paused, and Gracie watched as he attempted to rearrange his features into the blank, hard mask she’d become familiar with. He didn’t quite succeed. ‘My father adored my mother. When she died, he...he lost himself. I have very few memories of him. When Azim was kidnapped...it was the final straw for him, I think. He ended up removing himself from the succession at my grandfather’s request and now lives in the Caribbean. I haven’t seen him since I was twelve.’
‘He just abandoned you?’ Gracie exclaimed, horrified by the thought.
‘He was a weak man.’ Malik’s voice sounded hard.
So at twelve years old Malik had lost almost his whole family. Gracie was starting to understand how much he’d endured, how brutally he’d been shaped. And how much family might mean to him. ‘So then it was just you and your grandfather,’ she stated, and he nodded.
‘Yes. He hadn’t paid me much attention before, preferring to focus on Azim as heir. But with Azim and my father gone...’ Malik shrugged. ‘I needed a different education. A different life.’
‘Which was?’
‘The proper training and protection for an heir to the throne.’
‘That’s why you were so sheltered...’
‘I couldn’t be allowed to be kidnapped the way Azim was. I was always surrounded.’
‘Which was why I was your first kiss,’ Gracie whispered, and then flushed. Why had she said that? And why was she remembering the sweet slide of Malik’s lips on hers, the gentle wonder of it as they’d stood by the Trevi Fountain and the whole world had seemed to fall away? And remembering more than that...the feel of his body on hers,
