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But the sheikh's handsome face remained unyielding. "There is no need—-"
"Ilyas." The Crown Prince's sharp tone had Ilyas snapping his mouth shut. "Adam and I will be taking our leave, and you will give Ember the courtesy of hearing her out."
Ilyas' expression turned grim. "As you command, Your Highness."
Adam looked at Ember. "You will be alright?"
Ilyas shot a look of violence at his cousin. "Are you thinking I'll hurt her?"
Adam stared back at him unsmilingly. "Don't you see that she's already hurting because of you?"
Chapter Nine
Ilyas sucked his breath when he realized that Adam was right, and he had just been so fucking blind with his own pain that he hadn't noticed Ember was hurting as well.
The two other men slipped out of the room quietly, and it was now just the two of them.
"I'm sorry," he said tautly.
"That's not what I want to hear," Ember answered tremulously.
Ilyas shoved his hands into his pockets. "There's nothing else for me to say but that."
"Then let me speak."
Ilyas' chest tightened.
"I love you."
Fuck.
Ilyas stared at his secretary in disbelief. She...loved him?
"I have other things to say," Ember said with a teary smile, "but those three words are the most important."
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
She loved him.
Ember loved him.
"Ilyas?"
The quaver in her voice nearly killed him. "Don't do this to yourself," he said hollowly. "It's never going to work between us—-"
"I'll b-beg if—-"
"Goddammit, Ember!"
He saw her flinch, and even though he wanted to kill himself for it, Ilyas knew he had no goddamn choice.
"Just fucking listen to me for once. I can't be what you want me to be so just forget about me—-"
"Why?" Ember choked out. "Why can't you be what I want you to be?"
"Because I don't fucking love you back—-"
"Don't you?"
"No," he forced himself to lie. "I don't."
Ember took a clumsy step towards him, and it took Ilyas everything to stand his ground.
"I know you don't want to risk making the same mistake that your friend did. I know you're terrified that I'll betray you like he was betrayed—-"
How the hell did she fucking know all of these things?
"I know you don't think you can trust me," his secretary whispered, "but you can."
Ember took another step towards him, and this time Ilyas was unable to stop himself from stepping back.
"Your friend loved a woman who didn't love him back—-"
"Shut up."
"But I'm different," Ember forced herself to go on.
"Enough, damn you—-"
"We're different—-"
"No, damn you. You're not fucking different—-" Ilyas broke off when he saw the way his words had made Ember lose all color.
"Do you really believe I'm capable of betraying you? Or is it b-because—-"
Ilyas sucked his breath at the way Ember's voice suddenly broke. "Ember—-"
"Oh God."
And then it was Ember now who was taking a step back from him.
"It's because of where I c-came from, isn't it? Because I grew up the way I did, you t-think it's possible that I might end up being b-blinded by greed or ambition—-"
Ilyas could feel himself turning ashen at her words. She had once confided to him that her greatest insecurity was how she would never fit in his world, and that people would laugh at him behind her back for employing someone like her: a nobody from Nowheresville who didn't even have a four-year degree to her name.
I don't really care about what people think of me, she had told him, but I don't think I'll be able to bear it if people were to laugh at you.
He remembered telling her that he didn't give a fuck about other people either, but his secretary had only shaken her head with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
'You might not, but I do. And if that day ever comes, I'm going to disappear just like this—-'
Ember had snapped her fingers to illustrate how she could vanish from his life in a blink, and it was this memory that made him realize—-
God, no.
He knew right away that he had made the biggest fucking mistake in his life.
I love her.
He had probably been in love with her from the very start, and that was why what she said was true.
She was different. They were different, and it was all because what they had was real.
There was no way he could ever fucking live without her, and he had to win her back before it was too late.
Ilyas reached for her, but Ember jumped back as if his touch could now break her.
And maybe...he already had.
He remembered Adam's words—-
Don't you see that she's already hurting because of you?
The words slashed at him, and desperation made him barely able to think straight. "Ember—-"
But she was already running out of the room, and seeing her leave was like a punch to his guts.
"Wait!"
He caught her in moments, and Ember struck the side of his face as he forced her to face him.
