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‘Yes, you’re wrong. And I... I don’t know what to say to make you believe how sorry I am.’
Expecting another scathing put-down, Tahir surprised her by throwing his head back and letting out a bark of laughter.
‘In my wildest dreams I didn’t think we would find ourselves here, full circle, with the shoe on the other foot,’ he said when the laughter died away. His accent had grown thicker, an indication, she recalled, that his emotions were running close to the surface.
He’d sounded like that when in the throes of passion, a reminder that arrived with far too much heat in her body.
‘The irony isn’t lost on me,’ she whispered.
The gleam in his eyes intensified. ‘Good. Then something else that shouldn’t be lost on you is exactly how this is going to go.’
She shook her head, taking an involuntary step forward before she could help herself. ‘I...we don’t have to repeat the mistakes of the past. Please, Tahir... I’ll do—’ She paused, aware she was straying into unwise territory. But it was too late. He’d scented the weakness in her unfinished statement.
He inhaled sharply, his eyes darkening to molten gold. Slowly he inhaled, his body uncoiling like a majestic creature rising from its aeons-long slumber. In his dark golden robes, with those gleaming eyes and commanding presence, he was almost otherworldly.
Against her will, Lauren was utterly transfixed, unable to move as he prowled even closer. When he reached her, he didn’t stop. Instead, he circled her, drawing ever nearer until the scent of spice, earth and man saturated her.
On his second circuit, he stopped behind her. ‘Go on. Say it,’ he murmured softly in her ear. ‘Be brave enough to finish that sentence.’
Shivers coursed through her, the gravity of the situation drying her mouth harder and lodging a stone in her throat. Silently she shook her head.
‘Shall I say it for you, then? You can deny it if I’m wrong. “I’ll do anything.” That’s what you meant to say, isn’t it?’
Digging deep to find her courage, she lifted her chin, fixed her gaze on the exquisite Moorish cabinet on the other side of the room. ‘Maybe it was. But I didn’t say it.’
‘Why not? Because youwon’tdo anything to save Matt and avoid scandal for you and your family? That’s what this is ultimately about, isn’t it? Are you saying there’s a line you won’t cross?’
Guilt pummelled her at the deep censure in those words. But in the silence thickening around them, she hardened her resolve. Keeping her gaze forward, because she wasn’t quite brave enough to face him yet, she answered, ‘We should discuss what happened between us twelve years ago. Maybe if we clear the air—’
She froze as he gave another bark of scornful laughter. ‘What is there to say? You invited me to your home for a presumed dinner for two when your parents were away and failed to tell me aspecialkind of party was happening right under our noses. And when reports emerged of Prince Tahir being in the same location a booze-filled sex party was happening, you helped things along by providing pictures of us taken on your phone.’
She spun around then, danger be damned, because she needed to say this while looking into his eyes. Even if those eyes threatened to devour and annihilate her at the same time. ‘No, Ididn’thelp things along. I denied your involvement with that party.’
His jaw gritted. ‘Did you? Because you seemed to be curiously unwilling to give a definitive opinion after the fact on how those pictures got into the papers.’
Because even then, she’d suspected who was behind it. Matt had denied it, of course. And her parents had warned her not to implicate her brother without concrete proof. A warning she’d taken to heart because, even back then, she’d seen how ruthless her father could be when crossed. Fear of making things worse for Tahir—because the phone that held those pictures had gone missing, along with texts they’d sent each other—had held her tongue. While the pictures and texts hadn’t been overtly graphic, they’d been intimate. Passionate. Deeply personal.
The sort of thing a prince and future king wouldn’t want advertised to the world. The sort of thing that caused scandals when it was.
That threat of the unknown—and the knowledge that her father wasn’t above using it and other means to keep her in line—had kept her stifled over the years, much to her distress.
It was partly why she was in Jukrat, pleading for Matt, after all.
‘I know you don’t believe me, but I don’t know how they got hold of those photos.’ She sighed, the cloak of defeat threatening again. ‘I tried to convince them you weren’t involved. Please believe me, Tahir.’
His nostrils flared at her mention of his name. She fully expected him to order her to use his title as she’d been strictly directed by his aide. But for good or ill, she yearned to reach the Tahir she’d known back in those heady university days when she’d felt as if the world were her oyster and he were her unicorn, a fantastical myth somehow come to life and seemingly interested in plain old her.
She’d never understood what he saw in her but, by God, she’d clung to it, treasured every second as if it would be her last. And with a simple error, it had been.
‘The Lauren I believed I knew was brave. Bold. Unwavering. She believed in right and wrong.’ His eyes narrowed to guillotine-sharp blades.
Except when it came to the murky business of her family. ‘I know it sounds naive but... I thought it’d all blow over within days. I didn’t know the newspapers would go to those relentless lengths.’
‘Oh, but they did. My family lawyers did their job well, but do you realise what those pictures did to my reputation? To my father’s reputation? The damage it did to Jukrat in the eyes of the world?’
Lauren felt the blood leave her face as she stared at him. At the time she’d been devastated to discover that Tahir had withdrawn from university following the relentless hounding of the press and the unsavoury things said about him. Moreover, that he’d left without giving her a chance to explain or beg his forgiveness.
And yes, her misjudgement of Matt’s activities that night with his friends had been unforgivable, but she’d hoped Tahir would see things from her perspective. That her family’s emotional blackmail had been equally unbearable. As usual, they’d believed Matt when he’d pleaded his innocence and Lauren had felt the force of her father’s will when he’d pressed her into distancing herself from Tahir and the whole event once the tabloid press had dug their claws into the scandal.
