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“I am a good man, and I offer you my life and loyalty. I serve you now, and for always, Olivia.”
His words made love spiral through her veins. The anger she’d held onto for days was ebbing away. Because he was right. He was a good man. And she couldn’t help but see him for who he truly was. Temptation sparked fiercely inside of her. But she wasn’t yet ready to admit her acceptance. She was no fool, and marrying a man like Zamir was a decision that no one could take lightly.
And so she shrugged her shoulders and angled her face away from his. “I need time to think.”
With the certainty that he was saying goodbye for the second time to the love of his life, he nodded. He could only hope this time it would not be for good.
“I’ll be waiting.”
Chapter 12
That night, Olivia dreamed of her home.
She was in the vineyards she’d grown up in, running her fingers over the soft leaves of spring, feeling their green newness brush against her touch. They were slightly furry and they smelled of sunshine. The earth was dusty and warm beneath her bare feet, and insects buzzed contentedly in the ocean breeze.
Olivia could almost have reached out and touched her past, so vivid was the dream. She began to skip, further down the lane of vines, until a noise caught her attention. She spun around, and saw him.
Zamir.
Not as he was now, but as she imagined he had been as a young boy. Enormous golden eyes, shining earnestly in his face, and a sombre expression on his handsome features.
Her heart clenched, for this little boy was inside of the man she loved.
Olivia walked towards him and held a hand out. He put his in hers and she felt then the burst of understanding.
She woke with a start. The room was dark; the stars, though they shone bright, cast no light, and the moon was only a tiny sliver of colour in the sky.
Her breathing was rushed.
Zamir.
A king in the making. A man who shouldered the world’s worries on his shoulders. A man who loved her. Who had made mistakes, because he was more than just a King. He was human.
He had lost the first love of his life when he was only a boy. Had loving Olivia opened up those fears in him anew?
She slipped her arms into the silk robe that hung beside her bed and moved through the apartment.
Only Olivia had no idea where Zamir slept. She crept from one room to the other, finding nothing but empty beds. At the very end of the corridor, there was a staircase, and she climbed it slowly.
It led to another floor upstairs. The layout was identical, but the room formation was different. Some of these were bedrooms, but many were sitting rooms or formal state rooms. The fifth room along had a wedge of golden light flicking from under the door.
It could only be Zamir.
She pushed it inwards without knocking, and caught him in an unguarded moment. He was staring at the window, his body in profile. And his face was set in a mask of deep and perplexing thought.
Olivia moved to him, and without speaking, she lifted a finger to his lips. Her eyes met his, then she dropped her hand to link her fingers through his. A breeze rustled in the window and stirred her hair around her face.
He scanned her expression with both hope and fear. Was he about to have his worst fears confirmed? Or all his hopes in the world answered?
“I don’t know what to say to you,” she said finally, a small smile on her lips. “I’m so angry with you! I can’t believe what an idiot you’ve been.”
He closed his eyes. “Nor can I, believe me.”
“I have only ever loved one person. One man. That’s you.” She bit down on her lip. “When you left Vegas, I almost fell apart, Zamir. I’m not prone to melodrama, but you need to understand the power you have over me. You left, and a huge part of me died. I was beyond miserable. I was unrecognisable. I couldn’t eat or drink or think, or sleep.”
He couldn’t help but drag his eyes over her too-skinny frame with a gnawing sense of guilt.
“It is my biggest regret. I look back on that night and I want to reach back through time to shake myself. How could I have been so stupid?”
