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Abby barely heard as she watched as Zain, looking just as rampantly male and awe-inspiring as the first time she had seen him, dismounted and walked over to the car.
He wrenched open the door. ‘Get out, cara.’
She thought about ignoring the order but decided getting out of her own volition would be more dignified than being dragged out, and Zain looked more than capable of that.
While she stood there he leaned into the cab and spoke to the driver, who turned the car around and drove away before her horrified eyes.
Leaving her, Zain, the stallion and a lot of sand.
‘Just like old times,’ he said, walking towards her with long, purposeful strides.
She shook her head. He was standing almost toe to toe with her and looking at her in a way that made Abby’s head spin as she looked up into his dark, lean, beautiful face, her heart lurching wildly in hope.
‘What is this about, Zain...?’
‘This.’ He took her by the shoulders and dragged her into him, covering her mouth with his. The kiss went on and on.
When it stopped she stood there feeling quite crazily bereft.
‘That doesn’t change anything, except fine... Oh, God, I have no self-control when it comes to you! I’m just—’
‘In love?’
She froze and thought, Am I that obvious? ‘I wasn’t trying to fall in love...’
He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, the action so tender that it brought tears to her eyes. ‘I know... I was actively fighting it...’ A grin split his lean face... Suddenly he looked younger. ‘I was a fool. It feels great to surrender to you.’
Golden joy burst inside her but she shook her head. ‘You can’t stay married to me.’
He looked at her with frustration. ‘Are you going to tell me why?’
‘The polls.’
‘What polls?’
She gritted her teeth; he really wasn’t making this easy for her. ‘You don’t have to pretend,’ she said, wishing that doing the noble thing felt less absolutely awful. ‘I know that the numbers were bad.’ Her carefully composed voice acquired a little wobble that required her to stop and swallow several times before she continued, looking up into his face through a glaze of tears. ‘I know that the longer I stay the worse they will get...the people will reject you because I remind them of your mother. So, I’m going now before things get worse, and don’t try and stop me,’ she warned, knowing that if he did she wouldn’t have the strength to do the right thing.
He didn’t look at all impressed by her sacrifice. ‘Who the hell has been filling your head with this nonsense?’
‘Kayla. And it’s not nonsense, it’s the truth.’
His expression darkened. ‘Kayla...is poison.’ He dismissed the other woman with a contemptuous click of his long, expressive fingers. ‘The woman wants power and position. She had an affair with me to get it and, when I didn’t play the game like she wanted, she married my brother. I should have kept her away from you. I thought I had; I’m sorry, cara.’
She knew she shouldn’t but she leaned in as he stroked her cheek, the tenderness in his face bringing tears to her eyes. ‘The poll...’
He sighed. ‘There was a poll, not instigated by me,’ he added. ‘And the numbers were not good but that was when the news was first broken. Another, this time with my approval, was put out in the field yesterday and the results came back this morning.’
Abby closed her eyes. ‘I’m so sorry, Zain.’
‘My popularity ratings have soared, all thanks, it seems, to my redheaded wife.’
Her eyes flew wide. ‘Kayla lied!’
He arched a sardonic brow and drawled, ‘Now, there’s a shocker.’ All hint of sardonic humour vanished as he framed her face between his hands. ‘You’re the dream I never even admitted I had, Abby. The dream I was afraid of. I’ve been a coward, and my only excuse is that I’ve been guarding my heart so long that I forgot I had one, and I was too cowardly to admit what I felt...felt from that first moment I saw you...so brave, so beautiful, so...’
She raised herself on tiptoes, grabbed his head and kissed him. The kiss led inevitably to another then another...and by the time they surfaced the horse had wandered a few yards away.
‘Does this mean...?’ Was it possible to explode from sheer happiness? She felt as though she was walking on air as light as the bubbles of happiness popping in her bloodstream.
