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CHAPTER NINE
THEFACTTHATHazin had spoken to Maggie about his late wife stunned Ilyas.
‘I don’t...’ His voice trailed off, when it was rare he wavered.
Ilyas had been about to say that he didn’t believe Maggie, but he didn’t finish his sentence.
It was clear she was speaking the truth, yet it truly confused him for the brother he knew never spoke about feelings and certainly not about his wife.
Ever.
Petra’s death had been the tragedy that had befallen the palace all those years ago but it had been rarely spoken of since.
And while Ilyas was fighting to keep his brother from being disinherited, from what Maggie had just said, Hazin was actively fighting to lose his title.
‘He spoke to you about Petra?’
Maggie nodded.
‘What did he say?’
‘He told me that she died nearly ten years ago.’ She cast her mind back to the conversation. ‘He said there is a new wing at the hospital, due to be opened in her name, and he’s supposed to deliver a speech. He doesn’t want to...’
‘What else?’
‘Ilyas.’ Maggie shook her head. ‘I’m not going to relay everything that we discussed.’
‘I’m asking you to.’
‘No!’ Maggie shook her head. ‘We’re not partners, you’ve made that abundantly clear, yet you expect me to open up to you completely and to betray Hazin’s trust.’
‘Your conversation with my brother was clearly an intimate one.’
‘Yes, but it didn’t take place on a pillow.’
She wanted that with him instead.
And Ilyas wanted the same.
‘We’re lovers,’ he said. ‘You can tell me.’
‘Wewerelovers,’ Maggie corrected. ‘Once.’
‘Come on, Maggie.’ His voice showed a rare glimpse of the disquiet he felt on that matter. ‘We both know it felt like more than a one-night stand.’
It was cruel of him to play that card, Maggie thought. Cruel of him to push for whispers and private conversations to take place now when, by his own rules, it could be nothing more than sex, no matter what he said about how it had felt.
‘If being lovers for one night gives you carte blanche access to me, then I deserve the same from you. So tell me, Ilyas, why, if it felt like more than a one-night stand, would you let me simply walk away?’
He looked at her and for one dangerous moment considered telling Maggie the real reason they could never be.
The real reason that he chose not to pursue a relationship or marry.
But he didn’t.
Ilyas had learned long ago to tell no one of the plans he had made.
Not the elders or his trusted advisors. Not even his brother, who was next in line to the throne.
