heard splashing as he entered the enclosed harem where his mother had once resided. It had been empty for decades, and it brought a faint smile to his face to hear the sounds of fun and laughter, as well as a pang for the distant days he barely remembered, when his mother had been alive. When he’d felt part of a family.
Sam was swimming in the pool, with Gracie sitting on the side, her bare feet dangling in the water, her long golden-brown hair falling in tumbled waves about her shoulders. She’d taken off the headscarf and Malik couldn’t say he missed it. He loved her hair.
She glanced up as Malik entered, the smile sliding off her face.
‘Hello.’ She sounded cool, reserved. Malik hesitated, discomfited by the sudden change in her expression.
‘You have been comfortable?’
‘Fine, thank you.’
Why so cold? he wondered. What had happened? ‘And your quarters are pleasing?’
‘How could they not be?’
Malik came closer, trying to untangle what was going on as well as to suppress the spike of irritation he felt at her inexplicable distance. ‘Then everything is well?’ he asked after a moment.
‘Fine,’ Gracie answered, her voice brittle. ‘Except...’ She took a shuddering breath, her golden-green gaze now full of hurt and accusation. ‘I just wondered when you were going to tell me about your fiancée.’
AS SOON AS Gracie asked the question, she wished she hadn’t. It made her sound needy, when she wasn’t. She was just...confused. Yesterday Malik had kissed her and then asked her to be open to all the possibilities. Maybe she’d misread the situation entirely, which she’d done before. The thought made her feel both humiliated and hurt.
Malik’s mouth compressed and his gaze flicked to Sam splashing in the water. ‘This is not the time for that particular discussion.’
‘When, then?’ Gracie demanded. ‘I mean...’ she lowered her voice to an accusatory hiss ‘...it doesn’t matter to me. But you have no business kissing me the way you did when you’re getting married in a couple of months!’
Malik’s nostrils flared. ‘I am not getting married in a couple of months.’
‘What... You’re not?’ Now she felt completely wrong-footed. ‘But you are engaged.’
‘I was.’
‘Hey, are you going to swim with us?’ Sam called.
‘I would like that very much,’ Malik answered. He gave Gracie a quelling look. ‘We will have this discussion at another, more appropriate time.’
Feeling both chastised and frustrated, Gracie nodded and went to find her swimsuit. A few minutes later all three of them were in the pool, swimming and splashing around. The sight of Malik in a pair of navy-blue swim trunks was enough to steal Gracie’s breath; she’d forgotten how magnificent his body was, all bronzed, lean, tapered muscle.
As he roughhoused with Sam, she noticed marks she didn’t think had been there when she’d last seen him shirtless—a scar on the side of his torso and another by his knee. They looked as if they had been serious injuries, and she wondered what on earth could have caused them.
What kind of life had Malik been living these last ten years or, really, his whole life? He’d shared intriguing details, hints at a lonely childhood and an adulthood devoted to duty that gave Gracie a sorrowful twist even as she wondered if Sam—if she and Sam—could bring a new joy into Malik’s life.
Not if he’s engaged.
The reality, Gracie knew, was she’d been half imagining some ridiculous happily-ever-after among Malik’s possibilities. She hadn’t articulated it to herself until she’d heard Malik was engaged and realised what a fantasyland she’d been subconsciously living in.
Of course Malik was going to marry someone else. Some modest, traditional woman who’d most likely been brought up to be a sultan’s bride since she was a baby. Of course he would have other children with that oh-so suitable wife. Of course Sam would only ever be on the periphery of his life, and she even more so. The realisation should not have brought the tearing sense of grief and loss that she so shamingly felt. Malik had been back in her life for only a few days.
But he never left your heart.
‘So what’s it like to be Sultan?’ Sam asked when they were sprawled on loungers after swimming. Another staff member had brought fresh pomegranate juice and a plate of sticky, delicious pastries made with honey and studded with nuts.
‘Hmm, that is an interesting and difficult question.’ Malik leaned back in his lounger and Gracie tried not to stare at the perfect musculature of his chest beaded with sparkling droplets of water. She remembered how hot and hard and satiny his skin had felt against her palm. ‘It’s busy, I suppose, and sometimes it feels pressured. But it is also very rewarding to serve my people, and to help to improve their living conditions.’
Sam nodded seriously. ‘And you get to live in this palace.’
Malik’s eyes glinted with humour as he nodded back. ‘Yes, there is that.’
‘Do you mind?’ Sam asked. ‘The pressure? Everyone looking up to you and stuff?’
‘Sometimes. But I have found ways to deal with it.’
‘How?’
Gracie leaned forward, curious to hear Malik’s answer.
‘Well,’ Malik answered slowly, ‘if I’m feeling worried about something, I try to find a way to relax. I walk or swim or sometimes I read.’
‘And here I thought you didn’t have any hobbies,’ Gracie teased. Malik inclined his head in acknowledgement.
‘I believe you had suggested needlepoint.’
‘Read? I like to read,’ Sam said. ‘What kinds of things do you read?’
Gracie was intrigued to see a faint blush appear on Malik’s cheeks. ‘To relax, light mysteries.’ He gave Gracie a wry and almost embarrassed look. ‘I find whodunits are a pleasant escape from reality.’
A gurgle of surprised laughter escaped her. ‘Nothing beats a good Agatha Christie.’
‘Exactly.’
She eyed him appraisingly for a few seconds. ‘I didn’t know that about you.’
‘I suspect there are many things you don’t know about me,’ Malik said quietly.
A few minutes later Sam went to investigate the suite’s selection of DVDs and Gracie and Malik were left alone.
Nerves fluttered like trapped birds in her chest and she took a sip of juice to steel herself to ask the question that she needed to, even if she’d rather chat about books or banter about hobbies.
