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Lily’s heart softened at the memory of the teenage boy she’d first known. She could only guess at the responsibilities heaped upon the man now.
‘I think you’ll enjoy this suite.’
His mother had paused at a set of doors. Lily swiftly untangled her thoughts.
‘It’s the most comfortable we have, and the views are wonderful,’ Eleanor said, ushering Lily into a stunning set of rooms.
Cream sofas scattered with silk cushions and side tables of intricately carved rosewood sat before arched windows that led to a balcony with a view of the sea. To her right, in a second room, a vast bed stood dressed in ivory linen, piled with downy pillows.
Eleanor placed a hand to Lily’s cheek. ‘We’ll leave you so that you can rest. A servant will come later, to help you find your way around, but for now take as long as you need.’
She gathered up her girls, and in a flurry of goodbyes they were gone.
Lily took a breath.
It would be too easy to be seduced by all this. Eleanor had been so kind, and the twins had obviously been excited to meet her.
And then there was the Crown Prince himself, and the impact of that searing look.
Not ready to explore the reasons for that, she explored her suite instead.
The bedroom alone would swallow her entire flat back home.
Another floor length window led to the balcony. Lily pushed it open and stepped outside.
Eleanor hadn’t exaggerated. The views were beautiful. Below there were more lavish gardens, and beyond a cluster of sand dunes and a beach of ivory sand that ran down to the sea.
Lily inhaled a breath of clean salt air laced with the warm spicy scent she’d noticed when she’d first stepped from the plane. Was even the air itself seductive in Nabhan?
A yawn erupted from somewhere.
How little sleep she’d had in the last few weeks since her stepfather’s death, with the hurried sale and clearing of the house. Was it really less than a day since she’d deposited her possessions in her new shared flat? Mere hours since she’d hidden in Khaled’s dressing room?
It wouldn’t hurt to rest a little. Then, later, she’d figure out how to help Nate.
She lay down on the bed, sank into blissful comfort and, lulled by the distant wash of waves on the shore, closed her eyes.
Her last thoughts were of a sad teenage boy who’d become a sad beautiful man. A man with a haunted expression but such gentle hands.
Mercifully, before she could torture herself further, Lily was asleep.
Lily woke with a start, confused by the unfamiliar surroundings and the lingering images of a dream she hadn’t had in years.
She’d dreamt of Khaled.
Not the man he was now, but the grieving sixteen-year-old she’d first met that summer in her stepfather’s house.
She’d been nearly eight, and would have proudly shared that fact with anyone interested enough to ask. No one ever had.
But one day that summer the household had been even more uninterested than usual, with the staff in a complete flurry. A school friend of her stepbrother had arrived suddenly and mysteriously, and nobody would answer her questions except to say he was ‘Prince Khaled’ and not to be disturbed.
‘A prince?’ she’d asked breathlessly. ‘Like in Cinderella?’
‘Never you mind,’ they’d said.
She hadn’t minded. Quite the opposite. She’d been thrilled that there was someone in the house even remotely close to her own age. None of her friends lived nearby. Nate was away on a school expedition. Her mother kept to her rooms. Even her stepfather, who mostly ignored her anyway, was abroad on business.
But more than that, there was a real, liveprincein her house.
