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Ali’s eyes widened in alarm and surprise. ‘Umm...well... I believe it’s prudent to not dismiss the political positioning of this considering her father’s role in the British government. It may prove useful in the future.’
Political positioning.
Would that any of that mattered to him regarding Lauren Winchester. The only positioning he’d been interested in during those youth-flushed days at university had been her beneath him, her sinful lips, beautifully greedy hands, and bottle-green eyes encouraging him to lose himself completely and utterly.
And he had.
Much to his deep regret when her true nature had revealed itself.
Political positioning.
He silently sneered at the words, but slowly a different emotion shook free of the miasma, tunnelling through to take centre stage. Reminding him of every vow he’d made to himself twelve years ago.
He glanced once more at Ali, wondering whether there was an argument to be made for not dismissing his words out of hand.
There was a reason Ali was firmly sealed within Tahir’s inner circle of trusted aides and advisers. Often the man wore both hats because he possessed an astuteness many underestimated.
‘Is that it?’ he prodded. ‘Or is your penchant for mental chess hoping this would lead elsewhere?’
Ali delivered another of his rare wry smiles and shrugged. ‘Some situations need a definitive check or checkmate. I’m merely facilitating an avenue for closure if it’s required.’
Closure.
A fancy term peddled by psychologists for those too weak to put their problems behind them.
But...hadhe moved on? Was this unasked for but perhaps opportune situation what he needed to lay the despicable set of events to rest once and for all so he could pursue another subject his advisors were feverishly interested in—the task of picking a bride, producing heirs and fully securing his place as the ruler of Jukrat?
Tahir jerked to a stop when he realised he was pacing; he’d prowled from his desk to the far side of his impressively large office and now stood in front of his father’s portrait.
He met the stern-faced, steely eyes of the previous sovereign of Jukrat, an unforgiving man who’d ruled with an equally unforgiving hand. A man who’d never given quarter, never mind suffering fools gladly, even when that fool was his own firstborn son.
Would his father approve of the decision slowly unspooling in Tahir’s mind? Or would he see it as another display of the gross error of judgment he’d scathingly condemned him for twelve years ago?
Ali’s throat cleared. ‘Sire? Do you have instructions for me?’
Closure.
Now the word was seared onto his brain, there was no shaking it free. He hadn’t asked for nor desired this particular creature to wander into his lair. But would he be an even bigger fool to let her slip away? To let this wrong go unanswered?
His father might have disparaged him for what Tahir had let happen, but from that time to this, no such slurs had dared crossed the lips of friends or foes alike because he’d lived an exemplary life steeped in a single-minded dedication to duty, shrewd alliances and rigid personal discipline.
Yet somewhere deep within his own psyche the incident chafed, like a burr he’d been unable to root out despite his best efforts.
So...
No, came the bracing answer. He could not let this go unanswered.
‘Cancel my remaining appointments. And bring Lauren Winchester to me.’
Tahir wasn’t sure what he’d expected in the woman he hadn’t seen in a dozen years. Precisely because he’d trained himself never to dwell on Lauren Winchester.
What confronted him ten minutes later, when the tall, sveltely shaped woman was ushered into his presence, was at once disturbing and curiously even morechargedthan their first meeting.
The first thing he noticed was that she was the worse for wear for having camped outside his palace gates purportedly for days. Her pale peach knee-length dress was smudged with dirt and the dark gold hair she’d once worn in tumbling waves was tamed now, half hidden beneath the white scarf she’d wrapped loosely over her head and shoulders.
The second searingly visceral thing he noticed was that—the first observation notwithstanding—Lauren Winchester hadn’t lost an iota of her allure. If anything, she was more stunning.
Features once caught in the final flushes of girlhood had blossomed into true womanhood, her heart-shaped face with more pronounced cheekbones drawing attention to the worldliness and intelligence that sparked in her eyes.
