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‘So this is what you want, Kalila?’ His blunt question brought colour pouring into Kalila’s cheeks.
‘Yes. I’m in love with Karim. I just want to live with him quietly.’ She gave her shrinking beau a trembling smile. ‘For ever. Happily ever after. I feel so happy.’
‘I feel so sick,’ Avery muttered but Mal ignored her.
‘Fine. If you’re sure that’s what you want, then I’ll make that happen. If your father won’t approve the match then you can live in Zubran under my protection. You can have your happy ever after, Kalila, with my compliments.’
‘“You can have your happy ever after”! What sort of romantic claptrap is that? Have you gone totally mad?’ Exasperated and upset for him, Avery followed Mal as he strode from the tent towards the desert. Her head was in a spin. ‘You didn’t even bother trying to talk her out of it. If anything you made it easy for her by offering her sanctuary. Why didn’t you just offer to conduct the ceremony while you were at it?’
Not only did she not understand it, but Mal seemed in no hurry to explain himself.
‘Drop it, Avery.’
‘Drop it?’ She virtually had to run to keep pace with him. ‘Sorry, but did we or did we not just spend two days roughing it in the desert in order to find Kalila and persuade her not to run away?’
‘Certainly the intention was to find her. And we did that. Thank you for your assistance.’
Avery gave a murmur of frustration. She opened her mouth to ask him if the sun had gone to his head but he was already several strides ahead of her and she could see that he was angry.
Well, of course he was angry.
He’d found Kalila with another man.
Perhaps that explained his reaction, or lack of it. He was too gutted to respond. And too hurt to discuss it with her now.
She tried to imagine how he must feel, but as someone who had never seen marriage as an attractive option she honestly didn’t have a clue. In his position she would have been rejoicing at the narrow escape, but of course he wasn’t going to feel that way. He’d wanted this marriage. And as for the business with Richard—
And everything Kalila had said about Mal being in love with her—
Avery stared after him, Kalila’s words in her head.
He hadn’t been in love with her. She’d presented him with a challenge, that was all. They’d had fun together.
How could he have been in love? The moment they’d broken up he’d become engaged to another woman. He’d started planning his wedding. Those weren’t the actions of a man in love.
She glanced towards the car and then back towards his rapidly vanishing figure.
‘Damn and blast.’ How could she leave him on his own? When he hurt, she hurt. It was like being physically connected and it was a bond she’d been trying to break for longer than she cared to remember.
Muttering under her breath, Avery strode after him, tugging the brim of her hat down over her eyes to shield herself from the blaze of the desert sun and the scrutiny of curious tourists. Relationships, she thought. Why did anyone bother? Her mother was right. They were nothing but trouble.
As she approached him, she tried to work out what to say.
Better now than in ten years’ time …
Lucky escape, my friend …
One in three marriages end in divorce and that’s without counting the number that carry on in faithless misery …
Truthfully, she wasn’t good at broken relationship counselling.
When friends’ relationships broke down her standard support offering was a girls’ night in. Or out. Either evening featured copious volumes of good wine combined with a boosting talk about the benefits of being single. By the time the evening was over they were generally talking about lucky escapes and exciting futures. If the malaise continued she dragged them shoe shopping, used her connections to get them a discount on a dreamy hotel in an exotic location and pointed out all the things they could do single that they couldn’t do as a couple. Unfortunately she had nothing in her armoury to prepare her for consoling a Prince who had lost his bride.
Normally she considered herself a competent person but right now she felt anything but competent. As she strolled up to his side, his shoulders stiffened but he didn’t turn.
Avery stood awkwardly, trying to imagine what he was thinkin
g so that she could say the right thing. She knew how important this marriage had been to him. And now he had to unravel what could only be described as a mess. Despite that, he’d treated Kalila with patience and kindness—probably more kindness than she’d been shown in her life before.
