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“I’m never going to tell him where she is,” she said finally, “and I’m not going to change my mind about that.”
“But in the meantime, you’re going to let the man drive himself mad with worry while searching for your sister?”
“I already told him she’s safe and alive,” Anisah said defensively. “It’s not my fault he doesn’t believe me.”
Tarif sighed. “We both know he does, but we also both know it doesn’t make a difference.” It was just the way Rayyan was. It was always all or nothing with him, and until Rayyan didn’t see for himself that Hyacinth was indeed safe and sound, the other man wouldn’t literally allow himself any rest until he had found Anisah’s younger sister.
“Can you promise me something?”
Anisah pushed herself up so she could gaze searchingly at her husband’s face. “What is it?”
“If he does find her, and she takes him back, do you promise to also give him another chance?”
“Mm...”
“Before all this, you actually liked him better than you liked me.”
“Because he was hiding his true colors,” she protested.
“Tory...”
His wife’s lips pursed, and it was too cute to resist that he had to steal a kiss.
“Tarif, I’m thinking!”
“And I’m stealing another kiss.” And so he did.
When he lifted his head, both of them were panting, and her lips were rosy and swollen.
“What were we, umm, talking about again?” Anisah’s voice was breathless.
“Your sister,” Tarif supplied with an amused smile, “and my cousin.”
Oh.
Right.
“You’ve got a deal,” she told him. “If he manages to find her, I promise not to act like a sister-in-law from hell.” And the only reason she was willing to make such a promise was because she didn’t really believe Rayyan Al-Atassi could find Hyacinth, whose secret location was specially prepared by a team of the kingdom’s most skilled undercover agents.
Cunning or not, Rayyan’s skills were purely founded in the boardroom (and fine, maybe in the bedroom, too) but other than that?
Nope.
It wasn’t going to happen.
Or so Anisah thought.
One week later, and Hyacinth had the shock of her life, waking up to the sound of the entrance flap of her tent slowly being unzipped.
Before she could even look for something to bash the intruder’s face with, the flap had already peeled open, revealing a dust-covered man, dressed for combat and his face completely covered by a balaclava except for his eyes, which were a beautiful, painfully familiar shade of blue.
Déjà vu.
Her foolish heart started hammering against her chest as she watched the sheikh slowly take his helmet and mask off. “How did you find me?” she blurted out. “The king promised—-”
“Don’t worry.” Rayyan’s voice was curt. “Khalil kept his fucking promise.” In fact, the damn man had even gone as far as issuing a royal command not to have any official of the government aid Rayyan in his search of Hyacinth.
“Then how—-” She could only shake her head, unable to comprehend how the sheikh could have found her. She was in the middle of the desert, for heaven’s sake, and the Emir Sheikh had even assured her that no kind of tracking technology would be able to pinpoint her direction.
“Nothing could keep me from finding you, majamira.”
“Don’t call me that—-” An automatic protest by this time. “And that doesn’t explain anything.”
Seeing that she was hell bent for an explanation for some reason, he said simply, “Altair wasn’t the only Al-Atassi sheikh who went to war.”
Oh.
“It’s not just something most people remember since the time I spent in battle was too short to talk about, but also too long for me to ever want to experience again. My head simply wasn’t in the game – I had only signed up to make my parents proud, but it had only taken me a few months to realize that wasn’t enough motivation to survive a war. If I insisted on staying, I’d have gotten myself killed, and it would have been in vain.”
All she had wanted was to keep the sheikh talking so she could have enough time to regain her composure, but after what he had revealed, things had completely backfired, and her heart was tearing itself into pieces at the thought of Rayyan in battle – and possibly dying.
“I hope you know better than to beat yourself up for it,” she said jerkily. “That kind of life isn’t something everyone’s just cut out for and you...you still did more than most other men would ever do for their country in their entire lifetimes.”
The sheikh only stared at her, and fearing that he might still have some crazy dream of rejoining the army in the future, she added hastily, “It’s more than enough that you fought for your country and risked your life. That’s enough to make any parent proud.”
“Go on.” The sheikh’s lips twitched. “Because if you think I’m going to stop you from convincing yourself I’m a saint, I won’t.”
