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“You can’t go back in time,” she murmured, remembering her conversations with Ra’if.
“I know that. And I’m failing completely to fix the present,” he said with a frustrated quality to his words. “I will do whatever you ask of me, but please, tell me what I can do.”
“Yes. That’s what I came here for.”
She sucked in a deep breath, and with it, she breathed in courage and faith, trust and hope. She pushed out worry and doubt, anger and resentment. And then she smiled up at him, the man she loved. The man who was so inexperienced with love that he had been wrong-footed almost the entire way.
“I want to see that ring again.”
His eyes widened.
“But not now; not just yet.” She lifted a hand and put it on his heart “You asked what I need of you? I need you to think. To really, truly think about what you want.”
He nodded slowly.
“If you give me that ring again, I need to know that you mean to make me the happiest I’ve ever been. I do love you, Zamir.” She smiled tentatively when he let out a huge breath of relief. “But if you offer me that ring I need to know that I’m making a good decision. That you understand that I’m trusting you again, and that you have hurt me in a way I don’t ever want to feel again. I need you to admit, in giving me that ring, that you won’t ever break my heart like you did when you left Vegas.” She bit down on her lower lip. “We were never a vase that could be broken, so much as a vase that is constantly changing to house different flowers. What we were in Vegas is not what we are now. We’ve both changed. You changed me, as I did you. I’ve grown. But love isn’t something that can easily pass, and I don’t want it to. I love you in a way that I will carry with me always. If you promise to be respectful of that love, I will share it with you again.”
He opened his mouth to speak but she shook her head. “Not now. Think now. You say you left Vegas without thinking. You brought me here without thinking. Do not let our marriage be something else you do without thinking. For God’s sake, be sure. Be sure when I see you next.”
She walked away from him, and anxiety and uncertainty were filling up her body; but there was hope too, and happiness.
“And Zamir? You should probably speak to your father first. I don’t think he’s going to be happy about this.”
As soon as the dawn rays punctured the steel sky, he went to speak to Faisal. The older man had always been an early riser and this morning was no exception. He sat by the window, reading quietly. At the sound of Zamir’s approach, he placed a finger in between the pages and closed the book.
“Father,” Zamir said respectfully. He rarely called him by this title, and it caused Faisal’s brows to lift expectantly.
“You know why I have come to see you.”
“Ah, yes. The American who does not love you,” he cackled. The joke was one only he understood.
Zamir was impatient. “Olivia, yes.”
“Well, you had better sit down and tell me, then.”
Zamir took the chair opposite. He was not nervous, but he was anxious to break the news to his father, so that he could go to Olivia and beg her to put him out of his misery.
“I have asked her to marry me. She is … considering it,” he said with a laugh.
Faisal suppressed his smile. “She insists she does not love you.”
“With good reason; but she does.”
“I suspected as much. She was very careful not to tell me what a pig-headed bastard you’ve been to her.”
Zamir shook his head. “More consideration and courtesy than I deserve.”
“I believe so.”
“I wasn’t expecting to meet someone like her. She is … breathtaking.”
“Yes,” Faisal nodded. “She is quite impressive.”
“I am going to marry her, if she’ll have me.”
“Good.” The Sultan nodded. “A marriage to a princess from a neighbouring country would have been wiser. But it would not have made you so happy.”
Zamir frowned. “I thought you wouldn’t approve.”
