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She did not possess the power to become a problem.
Riyaz had demanded her. Cairo would fulfill the promise.
After the plane landed, the door opened, and she remained. Sitting. Looking straight ahead.
“If you have the idea that I will not take you in hand and bodily remove you, I believe I have already disproven such a notion.”
“Why must you make everything about you?”
She stood and disembarked on the plane on her own two feet, and he could only stare.
He remembered her well from his time at the palace, though he had spent many years attempting to not remember at all.
He tried not to remember that life. For it created an ache in his chest that had no home. It could not.
He could not allow such a thing to take up residence within him. No. Not when he himself was far too essential to this cause.
There could not be a moment of self-pity. And so, he did not cast his mind back. But she... She forced him to think of those days.
He thought of his brother, as he had once been. His older brother, his idol in every way. Much more serious than he had ever been.
And the only sticking point ever in their relationship was one that Riyaz had not known about.
His eyes drifted to Ariel.
What a foolish boy he’d been.
He had loved it when the sulky American girl had come to stay with them. She was beautiful.
She had been quite the most singular thing he’d ever seen with her aqua blue eyes and pale blond hair. Her lips were the most delicate shade of pink, and his thoughts of Ariel had been his very first thoughts that were quite so... Specific. He had thought of kissing those lips.
Devouring them.
As a teenage boy, it had made him ache. She had made him ache. And she had been for his brother. And so, all he had been able to do was... He remembered stolen moments in the garden, and he was certain they had not been quite the same for him.
And now?
She was no less beautiful. She was singular.
Of course he had kept tabs on her. But the photographs of her in the media did not do her justice.
And he marveled at his own behavior. Buying her jewelry for his cast-off lovers. In many ways, he wondered if it was an intentional nod to that first experience of desire.
Of course, she was twenty-eight years old now. Likely the innocence of youth had long been banished for her, as it certainly had for him.
She is no concern of yours. Not beyond bringing her here.
As a green boy, he’d let himself get far too close to temptation.
He’d been playing with fire. But he knew better now.
She was here for Riyaz. Nothing more. She had always been for Riyaz.
It was only a twenty-minute ride by helicopter from this home down to the palace in the capital city. They were close. And yet, Riyaz did not know of their presence.
Necessary.
He needed to speak to Brianna. And he would. Soon.
