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CHAPTER TWELVE
KHALED’SCARARRIVEDat ten minutes after midnight, gliding through the palace gates with little ceremony. Today was the day of his father’s anniversary party. In a few hours the preparations would make this entrance a bustling thoroughfare. For now, a routine snap to attention by the guards and a single aide stepping forward as the car drew to a halt was the extent of his welcome home.
Exactly as he’d ordered.
He wasn’t ready to face his family.
Or the family friends starting to fill the guest suites.
Or the single occupant of the most comfortable guest suite of all.
It was almost a month since he’d absented himself from his home to keep Lily safe. Hoping, too, that physical distance would lessen the craving he felt for her.
It had not.
Desire still burned like a fever in his blood. As fiery now as when he’d left her that evening, with the taste of her on his lips and the imprint of her hot little hands on his skin.
Every day, even though he’d plunged into work, his waking moments had been dogged by thoughts of her, and when he’d slept—if he’d slept—she’d haunted his dreams, too. He’d woken sweating, frustrated, and more than once to embarrassingly sticky sheets after the dreams had felt vividly, erotically real.
Hot, too, was his shame, seething like a nest of vipers in his belly.
To have treated Lily as he had—a woman effectively under his protection—simply because she’d had the temerity to accuse him of feeling no guilt... How could she have known it was carved across his heart? Touching a wound so raw he’d lashed out, wanting to humble her. A female less than half his size, injured and in pain.
May God forgive him.
But even that wasn’t the worst of it. That was not the memory that made his skin crawl with utter self-loathing. He’d saved that for the final tawdry act...the most shaming thing of all.
When he’d confessed his darkest secret she hadn’t turned away in revulsion. She’d offered him compassion and comfort. And how had he responded? By almost ravishing her on his desk.
No matter that she’d been eager beneath him, her hands tugging at his clothes. He had known the risks, what might have happened if George had discovered them together. Thank goodness for Sabir’s interruption—because even now... Hell, he wasn’t sure he’d have stopped without it.
Yeah, searing, gut-wrenching shame.
They’d reached his office. The aide pointed out a number of files awaiting his attention. There was an hour’s work there before he retired if he chose.
He ran a palm across his face. When had he last truly rested? Slept for more than a few hours at a time? Sometimes he felt it had been years. But heading to bed with the promise of another night of disturbing dreams did not appeal. He welcomed the prospect of a densely worded report to plough through. It might deaden the clamour in his head.
Dismissing the aide, Khaled fired up his laptop and reached for the first file.
An hour later he was down to the last two. An update on the missing charity funds and the continuing negotiations for the terms of his marriage.
No new evidence had been found to implicate George, and Khaled had done as Lily suggested. Made a noise about how the charity funds were being used, praising Hyde-Wallace for his loyalty and his concern for the Nabhani marshlands. For the time being George couldn’t hint at malfeasance without arousing suspicions about how he’d gained that knowledge.
Won over by Khaled’s successes in New York, the Council of Families had also rallied round. George was losing his leverage. Meaning he needed to be carefully watched. A cornered animal was dangerous and unpredictable.
As for his marriage? Khaled had told his team to get it done or they’d be looking for new employment. It had worked. He now had water rights on acceptable terms, though his prospective father-in-law continued to hinder reform in the region.
Khaled’s hope lay in shape of the seventeen-year-old Crown Prince—a moderniser like himself. Eventually he’d hold the power in Qaydar, and in the meantime he’d be taking the boy’s sister to be his wife.
Not the woman he truly desired.
Lily.
What would become of her? Would Nate be there for her? He was all she had.
The thought of her being alone in the world tightened a steel band around Khaled’s chest.
He hadn’t had George’s claims investigated. He couldn’t risk it. Word would get out.
