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‘He said that all the time they were speaking your father had a little girl with unforgettable red hair sitting on his shoulders.’
‘“Unforgettable red hair”?’ she grumbled. ‘That sounds like me, all right.’
A wistful look clouded her eyes. It reached into his chest and closed tight about his heart.
‘Perhaps that’s where my memory of him comes from,’ she said. ‘I remember sitting on a man’s shoulders. We were having fun. Apart from with Nate, it’s one of the few times I ever felt like someone really wanted me around. But that can’t really be true, can it? Because in the end he abandoned my mother and me to chase his career.’
Mu’tazz navigated a dip in the path and his riders swayed in the saddle. But that wasn’t the reason for the tightening of the protective arm about Lily’s waist, nor for the tender glance directed to the top of her head.
‘Even though that’s true, I still miss him, you know?’
‘Yes, I do,’ Khaled answered, reminded of his own loss, of the agony of having a beloved brother wrenched from him.
It was curious how being close to this girl eased that pain. Guilt nagged at him. He should have eased her anxieties over her stepbrother yesterday.
‘It was wrong of me. Not telling you I’d spoken with Nate. I apologise.’
She looked up sharply. He allowed one corner of his mouth to lift.
Her eyes narrowed on him, but then she slumped back against his chest. ‘I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to charm me so I forget to be cross with you.’
‘What a dastardly and devious thing to do,’ he said, and after a pause asked, ‘Is it working?’
He heard a huff of irritation, but the trembling of her shoulders told him she was laughing.
‘You know you’re incorrigible?’
‘That’s actually a desirable skill in my line of work.’
She laughed again, then cautiously reached out to touch the horse’s thick neck muscle. ‘What’s he called?’
‘Mu’tazz.’ On hearing his name, the stallion’s ears twitched. ‘And he’s fond of neck-rubs.’
She scratched her fingers back and forth. ‘Maybe he’s not as frightening as I first thought.’
‘Back there he was probably more terrified of you than you were of him.’
‘I doubt that,’ she said, but he noticed she was stroking the glossy black mane, slowly curling one strand over and over in her slender fingers. He looked elsewhere as need shimmered over his skin.
‘Will you tell me something?’ she asked.
Right now he’d gladly talk about anything. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘About Aisha. I mean, why her?’
‘Because of who her father is. An alliance with Qaydar will have benefits for the people here.’ Not that he was quite so certain of that any more.
‘So what were you hoping to gain by pretending I’m your girlfriend?’
No harm in sharing that with her now, and he realised that he trusted her. ‘Her father has been dragging his heels on certain details. I thought seeing you on my arm might prompt him back to the negotiating table.’
‘And never mind if Aisha gets hurt?’
‘It’s not that kind of arrangement. Emotion doesn’t come into it.’
‘Spoken like the one with all the power. If she’s going to be your wife, don’t you think she’ll want to be chosen first—you know...for her? Not because of the mountain range she happens to live by.’
‘Aisha has been raised as a royal. She understands how these things work.’
