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Sariq stood there for what felt like a very long time, looking at his wife, as the clarity of his situation expanded through his mind. ‘Zahrah will sit with you. I’ll check on you in the morning.’ He stalked towards the door, turned back to look at her as a sinking feeling dropped his stomach to his feet. ‘You did well today, Daisy.’
He pulled the door inwards but Daisy was there, moving behind him, grabbing his wrist. ‘Don’t you dare walk out on me.’
He stared at her, surprise on his features. ‘Calm down.’
‘No.’ And then, she lifted her hands to his chest and pushed him, her expression like fire. ‘Damn you, Sariq, stop walking away from me. Can you not even stand to be in the same room with me? Are you worried I’m going to beg you to make love to me again?’
Her anger was so obviously born of hurt. He held her shoulders and lightly guided her from the door, away from the ears of the guards beyond.
‘Don’t!’ She wouldn’t be placated.
‘I’m not leaving,’ he assured her and in that moment he was so desperate to say or do anything that would placate her. ‘Just sit down and be calm.’
‘I don’t want to be calm!’
‘For the baby.’
‘The baby’s fine, you heard the doctor.’
‘I heard him say your blood pressure is elevated. Arguing is not going to help that.’
‘I don’t want to argue with you. I just want you to tell me why you’re avoiding me.’
He ground his teeth together, her accusation demanding an answer. But he didn’t know what to say—he couldn’t frame into words the complexity of his feelings.
‘You regret sleeping with me.’
Damn it. He felt caught on the back foot, and it was a new experience, one he didn’t like at all. ‘It was...unwise.’
‘Why?’ She thrust her hands onto her hips so even then he was conscious of the jutting of her breasts, the sweetness of her shape, rounded with his baby. What was wrong with him that even in that moment he could want her?
Everything.
That was the problem.
His feelings for Daisy weren’t logical. They weren’t safe. Nothing about her fitted his usual modus operandi. That was why he had to gain control of this—it was in their mutual interest that he did so.
‘I’ve thought about your request to return to America.’ That was true. In the desert, it was all he could focus on. ‘That would be unwise and potentially unsafe. I want our child raised here, in Haleth.’
She glowered. ‘I’m not asking to go back to America. Not really. I understand why that’s not possible.’
He ignored that, continuing with his train of thought as though she hadn’t spoken. ‘But you
do not have to stay here at the palace. There is another palace on the outskirts of the old city. You should move there and live your own life, away from me and the pressures of this royal life.’
She stared at him for several seconds and he had no idea what she was thinking.
‘Is that what you want?’
When he thought about what he wanted, it was a very dangerous path. So he concentrated instead on what he knew they needed. ‘I want our child to be healthy. I want you to be happy. And I want to be able to focus on ruling the RKH, just as I was before.’
‘And you can’t do that with me here?’
He clenched his jaw, fierce memories burning through him. ‘The situation is more complicated than I would like.’
‘What does that even mean?’
He expelled a hot sigh. ‘You’re not like the wife I imagined,’ he said, dragging a hand through his hair.
