knew.
The worst that could happen was you laid yourself bare before the people you loved most and they stared blankly back. Offering nothing. Giving nothing.
She couldn’t think about that. Not now. Not when so much was going on around them. Not with members of international press stopping them to try to get Tarek to speak. Not with diplomats, politicians, social-program coordinators and businessmen all jockeying for Tarek’s attention while he grew increasingly tense beneath her fingertips.
This was the physical representation of the paperwork that stacked up on his desk every day. The verbal version of the written requests he had to process constantly while being so unfamiliar with the task.
With the added issue of the media being in attendance, watching his every move.
She wondered if Tarek knew how vicious the press could be. He was very closed off about exactly what had transpired over the past fifteen years. But it was clear he had spent his time away from civilization almost entirely.
He wasn’t familiar with computers, nor any modern conveniences. She wasn’t certain whether or not he could drive a car. She didn’t know if he’d ever faced the media before.
Another army that could be more vicious than one carrying weapons.
Tarek was making the official announcement about their engagement during his speech. And she had felt it would be best for them to open the evening with the speech. That way, people wouldn’t be needling him for information beforehand. At least, that was the idea.
Also, she was afraid that the anticipation would be nothing more than a slow painful death for her. Maybe she was projecting her concern on to him. Especially as he seemed as immovable as ever.
But then, with him it was impossible to tell.
Either he felt less than the average man, really and truly, or he simply buried it deeper beneath the surface.
She imagined it was the latter, but she wasn’t sure even he knew that.
In response to that thought, she let her hands drift over his forearm, and she felt him tense beneath her touch. Still, his expression remained the same.
“Are you ready to give your speech?”
“Yes,” he said. There was no uncertainty in him. It went a long way in calming her riotous nerves.
“Good.”
“What would you have done if I had said I wasn’t ready?” he asked, and if she didn’t know better, she would be certain there was a note of amusement in his voice.
“I would have rushed the front of the room and created a diversion so you could escape,” she said.
“Would you have made the speech for me?”
“If not that, perhaps I would’ve done an interpretive dance.”
The ghost of a smile toyed with the edges of his lips. “I cannot imagine that.”
“Liar. If you weren’t imagining it, you wouldn’t be smiling.”
“Did I smile?”
“Yes,” she said. Warmth bloomed in her chest, spreading down to her stomach.
She had been so excited to have the room filled with people only moments ago, and now she wished they would all go away. All the better to focus on Tarek.
The ache she felt, the intense desire to know him, had only grown over the past week. And unfortunately she had found very little to satisfy it.
“I do not know any of these people,” he said, looking around.
“I recognize a few of them,” she said.
She hadn’t made it public that she would be in attendance. In fact, she had called Anton and requested that he keep any connection between herself and Tarek secret. Things hadn’t been certain, and she didn’t want rumors preceding certainty.
Though tonight he would make the announcement. Tonight there would be certainty. She would have a place again.
“Who?” he asked.
“Well,” she said, “Miranda Holt is a reporter. She covers a lot of society things in the States. I’ve known her for years. She used to attend gatherings my family would throw.” By gatherings she meant grand galas. But details weren’t important. “And over there is the ambassador of Alansund and her husband. Others I know from their attendance at various functions there.”
“Do you suppose they think it odd you’re here with me?”
“I’m sure they are curious.”
“Are you afraid they’ll think you are betraying your husband’s memory?”
His words burned for some reason. “It’s been two years.”
“But people think of you with him. Not with me.”
“That will change.”
“And what about you?” he asked. “Do you still think of yourself as being with him?”
It was a strange question. Tarek never seemed possessive of her. He seemed indifferent to her when he wasn’t working directly with her on a project, so why he would ask something like that of her now she couldn’t fathom.
It was personal, and his interest in her was nothing like personal.
She had to linger over the question. As she did, a strange sensation washed over her. “I don’t,” she said, the words soft. “Marcus and I lived very separate lives. We were...a team in many ways. But I can’t claim a link with him that transcends the grave.”
“You smile when you think of him,” Tarek said, and if she didn’t know better she might imagine that he was jealous.
“He gave me a lot of things to smile about.”
That much was true. But suddenly, standing there, she had to acknowledge the gulf that had stood between herself and her husband. Had to acknowledge it because she felt it so keenly now. They had been two people walking side by side, toward a common goal. But their lives had not been intertwined. Losing him had left her cold, grieving. She had lost a cherished companion. But she had not lost a part of herself.
“A testament to the man,” Tarek said. “I imagine you did not have to teach him how to smile.”
Her heart twisted. “No. Marcus smiled easily. He was smiling when I walked into his life, and I daresay he was smiling when he went out of his own. He enjoyed the things of this world.” He had taught her to enjoy them, as well. Had made her feel not half so lonely. The thought of him would always make her heart warm. “He also prized his independence, and as I very much prize mine, I had no trouble giving it to him.” And if there were questions about what he did in his spare time, and whose bed he might be in when he wasn’t in hers, she had never asked them.
She felt disloyal thinking about it now. Because she had never made an issue of it when he was
