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The rejection of her parents was one thing, but the rejection of the man she loved...? The man who was everything her heart and soul desired? Could she withstand it if her hopes were dashed?
She clenched her fist, the answer too terrible to contemplate. And yet...
Could she live with herself if she didn’t?
No, she couldn’t.
A strange, almost euphoric resolve in place, Lauren whirled about. Then stopped. Tahir was occupied with a phone call elsewhere. Should she wait for him here or return to her room?
Here.
Decision made, she stepped out onto the terrace because being in the room where he’d made such sublime love to her threatened to scramble her brain. For what lay ahead, she needed every available faculty.
Night-time in the desert was even more mesmerising than the day. The elements of danger that lingered only heightened the brightness of the start, the crispness of the air. Eyes on the constellation, she gasped softly when a comet streaked across the sky.
She wasn’t too far gone to make a wish, but she hoped with every fibre of her being that this time he wouldn’t slip through her fingers too soon.
That she would be—
Tahir’s deep, serious tones interrupted her fanciful thoughts, for which she was half grateful. Pulse racing, she turned, but he wasn’t in the bedroom or on the terrace with her. It dawned on her that the labyrinthine layout of the villa meant he could be above, below or in a room beside her.
It turned out he was on a half-level above her, on a smaller terrace connecting to what looked like a study.
The last thing Lauren wanted was to be caught eavesdropping on a conference call.
And she would’ve retreated from the terrace had she not heard her name uttered by a voice she didn’t recognise.
Her feet froze. Her palms grew clammy. Every instinct urged her to leave. But Tahir was responding. And with the resonance of a sonic boom, shattered every last one of her dreams.
‘You’ve wasted both your time and mine by gambling with a weak hand, Adnan. Lauren Winchester has no bearing on the decisions I make regarding my kingdom, at present or in the future. If you think I’m distracted enough by her or you are spying on me to see what happens with her brother so you can leverage it to alter a single clause in our agreement, you’re going to be woefully disappointed. Nothing has changed. Nothingwillchange. Javid has agreed to help you advance this agreement. I suggest you make the most of his expertise. That is the only concession you will receive.’
CHAPTER TEN
ITDIDN’TTAKETahir very long at all to realise he’d taken this call for one reason only. Distance.
An excuse to step back from the emotions bombarding him when Lauren dragged up painful subjects. So fast on the heels of his own soul-searching, he’d felt as if he were coming apart at the seams.
He’d taken the reprieve. And now every cell in his body was straining to be back there with her. To jump into the deep end and to hell with keeping his every emotion locked down tight.
In a world where everyone wanted something from him—case in point, this conversation with his cousin—Lauren had asked for nothing for herself except his forgiveness. Forgiveness she still believed he withheld because he hadn’t fully conveyed it before they’d been interrupted.
He frowned, impatience digging deeper claws into him as his cousin droned on.
As he’d suspected, Adnan had played the card he believed would sway Tahir. Now he was tugging on family bonds, with mild threats thrown in about knowledge of Winchester’s arrest. Tahir heard Javid’s faint snort in the background. He would’ve laughed himself had the need to get back to Lauren not been so visceral. If this was what twenty minutes away from her felt like, how would it be when their twenty-fourhourswere up?
What would it be like if she left him...?
‘...for the sake of my future heirs,’ Adnan petitioned plaintively.
Future...heirs.
Tahir jack-knifed in his chair, sending an expensive paperweight skidding across his desk. Tense silence echoed from the connection, then, ‘Everything all right?’ his cousin asked.
Control honed since birth came to his aid as, with his heart jammed firmly in his throat, he answered evenly, ‘I’m not interested in going around in circles with you, cousin. This conversation is over.’
He hung up and jumped to his feet, his urgent strides eating up the distance to his private suite. Tahir wasn’t sure why he’d assumed she would be there and the tingling sensation at the back of his neck didn’t help as he barked at an aide as to her whereabouts.
Miss Winchester had returned to her rooms and taken the hourglasses with her, he was told.
