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Being with him here, like this, she could almost forget the dark days of the beginning they'd shared.
He drew her closer, his arm coiling around her waist. These days, his touch triggered instant sensation in her. She knew she could get used to this. Given a chance.
As she and Kadeem headed out of the blue suite and into the corridor, she wondered if she was really going to get a chance to find out what kind of life she could have with Kadeem. Or whether this was just another dream, destined to fade.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
They'd been walking for almost a half hour, wandering down long, cool corridors, when they finally came back to the front of the palace. Kadeem had undoubtedly been impressed, Eliana told herself. She'd taken him to every place in the palace with a memory attached from her childhood.
She'd taken him to rooms where she'd played as a child; the room where she'd studied with her tutor during her school age years; the room where she'd learned how to play piano.
That had been something her mother had insisted upon. Eliana's family, on her mother's side, had been talented musicians. It seemed that special ability had been passed down to Eliana. She'd been an able student, but she knew it wasn't something at which she'd ever be truly proficient. Still, learning the piano, even modestly, had made her mother happy. And that was all that mattered.
Her life had been exactly the kind of life a princess would be expected to enjoy. She felt privileged, of course. But, the fact that she was an only child had always added an occasional touch of sadness to her life. She recalled how her father would talk about how he'd wished to have a male child. Somehow that had never happened. Of course, it wasn't that her father didn't love her. She knew that he did. It was just that sometimes, she couldn't help thinking that she was somehow a disappointment to him.
"Do you want to see the gardens?" she asked Kadeem. "There's no gazebo," she added with a sly lift of her brow.
He smiled at her. "I guess that's just a bit too modest for a place like this," he suggested.
She laughed."You could say that," she agreed.
Eliana led him into one of the sitting rooms and out onto the terrace. Steps led down to the garden lawn. They walked alongside each other for a while. The sun was bright, and the air was pleasantly fresh. Her flat shoes sank into the cool softness of the lawn.
They were quiet together, seemingly content just to be in each other's company. That was something new, she told herself. There were times when she just felt so comfortable with Kadeem. As if some kind of unspoken understanding had been forged between them. She wondered how that had happened. She guessed it had something to do with Kadeem's obvious determination to be with her at every available moment.
Arranged engagements seemed extraordinary to her. But it was like everything about her entire life, she reflected. She had grown up having to follow so many rules, so many protocols. In a sense, there was really nothing unusual about this kind of arrangement. Not for her, at least.
But for him? All of this must seem so different from what he had been used to all his life. There were really so many differences between them that it seemed almost miraculous that it was beginning to work out. Because it was, she told herself. In spite of an unpromising start, her arranged relationship with Kadeem had turned into something completely surprising.
They'd walked a short distance across the garden lawn when he spoke at last. "Tell me what it was like growing up here," he said softly.
She glanced up at him. "You really want to know?"
He gazed at her. "I told you. I want to know everything about you."
"Everything?"
He nodded emphatically and smiled.
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," she joked.
"You're not telling me I need to get back on that plane and go back to Qazhar, frightened for my life," he said lightly.
She laughed. "What's there to tell? I've lived the life of an ordinary princess."
He laughed heartily. "You see, there you go again."
"What?"
He gazed at the palace, at the walls which seemed to stretch forever into the distance. "There's nothing ordinary about any of this."
"You have this back in Qazhar, don't you?" she said.
"Only the King and Crown Prince have anything remotely like this."
"It's just as well our two countries have always been friendly toward each other, then, isn't it?"
"I suppose so," Kadeem admitted. "Although I couldn't help noticing there was somebody missing when I arrived."
