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Sensing that the way was blocked, he shifted his approach. ‘I once considered you the most open-minded, educated, impressive woman in my acquaintance but on the subject of marriage you are blinkered and deeply prejudiced. How did I not realise that sooner?’
‘If this is an elaborate way of shifting blame for the fact that you were cruel enough to force me to plan the celebrations for your wedding to another woman, then you’ll need to work harder. I am not to blame for your shortcomings.’
‘You didn’t even afford me the courtesy of a face to face conversation. You just told me it was over. You refused to speak to me until that final phone call, the details of which are welded in my brain.’ He had the satisfaction of seeing her shift slightly. ‘That’s right. The one when you told me that the only way I was going to be able to speak
to you again was if I booked you in a professional capacity. So that’s what I did. I booked you.’ He watched as the truth settled home. Watched as she acknowledged her part in what had happened.
‘I didn’t mean it literally.’
‘Well, I took it literally.’
‘You chose to marry another woman,’ she snapped, ‘and you expect me to believe that you were broken-hearted? Sorry, but look at the evidence from my point of view. I hear from someone else that we are getting married and that I’m giving up my job, and your response when I say “no” to that less than appealing prospect is to immediately propose to someone else. That merely confirmed everything I already knew about the transitory nature of relationships.’
It all came back to that, he thought and realised that this was the moment he should tell her the truth about his engagement to Kalila. But if he told her, it would be over and he wasn’t ready to let her go without a fight. ‘I believed our relationship was at an end.’ He dragged his hand over the back of his neck, forcing himself to relive those horrible months. ‘I thought that was it.’
‘And it didn’t take you long to recover, did it? If you cared about me that much, why did you ask Kalila to marry you?’
‘I didn’t ask her. Our marriage was arranged by the Council. That was the deal I made with my father.’ That much, at least, was true. All that was missing was the detail.
‘The deal?’
‘I told him I wanted to marry you—’ he sat down on the sofa next to her and took it as a positive sign that she didn’t immediately leap out of her seat ‘—and he predicted that you would refuse.’
She studied her fingernails. ‘Your father is a wise man, I always said so, but I fail to see how even he would know that without consulting me.’
‘He met you. You’d charmed him as you charm everyone you meet, but he also saw the problems. Perhaps he saw things I was not prepared to confront. He warned me that the sacrifice required would be too great for a woman like you. And it turned out he was right. Because I couldn’t marry you, it didn’t matter to me who I married. So I let them make the arrangements they wanted to make.’
Silence spread across the room. She lifted her gaze to his.
‘You could have said no.’
No, he couldn’t have said no.
Mal felt tension spread across his shoulders. ‘Why would I? I have to marry. That point is not in question. My father is not in good health and yet under his rule Zubran has achieved an unprecedented level of stability and progress. Our economy is strong, I am taking over more and more of his role and ultimately I will be responsible for the country’s future. That is a huge responsibility, but one that I’m prepared for.’ He breathed deeply. ‘But the prospect would have been more appealing had I been able to do it with you by my side. That was what I wanted.’
Something that might have been shock flickered in those blue eyes.
She tucked her legs under her and made herself smaller. ‘So now you’re telling me that? Your timing sucks, Your Highness.’
‘I would have to agree with that.’
‘Why didn’t you say it before?’
‘Because you would have run faster than a stallion in the Zubran Derby.’
The corners of her mouth flickered. Her lips curved. Those lovely lips that he couldn’t look at without wanting to kiss them.
‘So you suffered when we broke up?’
‘Greatly.’
‘Good.’ There was a gleam in her eyes. ‘Because if I went through hell I’d hate to think that you got away free.’
‘Believe me, I didn’t. I asked you to arrange the wedding party in a last-ditch attempt to get some response from you. A small part of me still hoped that you had feelings for me and I assumed that if you had feelings for me then you would refuse to take the business because it would be too difficult for you to plan an event that celebrated my wedding to another woman.’
‘I can’t believe you asked me to do that. It was a terrible thing to do. A sign of a sick mind.’
‘Or the sign of a desperate man.’ He stretched his arm along the back of the sofa. ‘I hoped that by being forced to communicate with me, eventually you would crack and admit how you felt.’
