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"I was informed about the last-minute change in the program's schedule," Saif said briskly, "and I wanted to take this opportunity to personally thank you. I'm sure it wasn't easy for you to accommodate the new dates."
"It's always an honor to be of service to our kingdom."
"How very noble of you," Saif said dryly.
Adam's lips twitched. "Are you questioning my loyalty to the crown?"
Ember's bemused gaze flicked back and forth between the two men. Was something going on here?
"The whole palace knows how difficult you are to nail down for anything that requires you to acknowledge your ties to the royal family." Saif cocked his head in Ember's direction, saying rather silkily, "Ilyas' secretary seems to be the only one who succeeded where everyone has failed."
Ember shot up in her seat. Wait a minute. Was Saif somehow thinking that—-
Adam suddenly leaned close, and Ember nearly fell out of her chair when she saw the heat in his lush green eyes.
What was happening?
"I finally understand what you are getting at, Your Highness," Adam murmured. "And you are indeed correct. Ember was very persuasive—-"
Ember's jaw dropped.
"—-in a way that I find quite irresistible."
Adam reached to touch her cheek, and Ember recovered from her shock just in time to quickly avoid having his fingers brush against her skin.
Ember made a face at Ilyas' cousin. "Stop it."
Adam's gaze gleamed. "As you wish...mon bébé."
The Crown Prince hid a smirk at the way Ilyas now looked fit to kill. All in good time now, Saif thought.
The rest of the meeting proceeded smoothly, and Ember was able to assiduously take notes while working just as hard at keeping a lid on her feelings.
Thank you, demon prince.
It was all because of his royal bosshole ways that Ember had become exceptionally good at multitasking, and those skills were put further to the test the moment she sensed Ilyas staring at her from across the table.
The sheikh had smashed her heart to pieces when she woke up alone in his bed yesterday...and rejected every one of her fifteen calls. She had been frantic at first, thinking that something had happened to him. But when she had asked his bodyguards about him, and they had told her that he had checked in at another hotel—-
Ember's fingers curled hard around her pen. She had sobbed her heart out last night, and just seeing him now nearly had her breaking down. She wished she could make herself hate him for leaving her, but she didn't.
She loved him still, and she always would...since she also knew exactly why he had left her.
It was only a few months ago when she had accompanied the demon prince in paying his respects to his fallen comrades, and Ilyas had displayed a rare willingness to talk about his past.
'I entrusted my best men to my lieutenant,' the sheikh had told her grimly. 'He was my childhood friend. And he was a good man. But because he had trusted the wrong woman with his secrets, all of them had ended up murdered in their own beds.'
Ember had tried to tell him that those men's deaths were not his fault, but Ilyas had been immovable in his guilt. The sheikh would always hold himself accountable for their murders, and Ember knew it was also why Ilyas believed he didn't have the privilege of trusting another woman...even if that woman was her.
So what now, Ember Hallman?
If being with her would make the past weigh heavier on the demon prince's shoulders, Ember didn't think she had it in her to stay. She had hoped she could one day prove to him that she wasn't the wrong woman for him, but what if that wasn't possible?
Ember reached for her glass and took a quick sip of water in a futile attempt to distract herself from the way her heart was aching so painfully behind her chest.
"You missed something," Adam said huskily.
The words startled her into looking up, and just as Adam bent forward, Ember saw Ilyas in the corner of her eye—-
Oh no.
Tears stung her eyes at the way the demon prince whitened upon seeing Adam wipe a bead of water off the corner of her lip, and the expression on Ilyas' face was still in her mind when the meeting finally came to an end.
I have to try one last time.
I have to.
Ember jumped to her feet and blocked the demon prince from leaving. "Ilyas?" It was Ember's first time to address him by his name, and she pretended not to notice how this had Saif and Adam turn to her direction as well.
She kept her gaze pinned on Ilyas, and she forced herself to continue even when his gorgeous features remained seemingly carved in ice. "May I talk to you in private?"
Ilyas looked as if he planned to refuse her, and her fingers dug painfully into her palms. "Please." It hurt to beg, but she would do anything and everything for this one last chance to fight for him. For them. "Please, Ilyas."
