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“Yes!” she bit out.
Hafiz drew his head back and stared at her. “You’re wrong, Lacey. They missed out on so much.”
“No, you are wrong. I held them back from what they really wanted in life. Once I was gone, they pursued their passion. They are happier than they’ve ever been.”
Did she think he wouldn’t look back at their time together? That he wouldn’t feel the regret of letting her go? “Why do you act like I’m giving you up for something better? I am entering a marriage with a stranger,” he reminded her.
“You made a choice, Hafiz. And it wasn’t me. It was never going to be me.”
A thought suddenly occurred to him. She had been waiting for this to happen. “You’re not fighting for me because deep down you knew I was going to have to make a choice one day. And you knew it wasn’t going to be in your favor.”
“I’m not fighting for you because I know we have run our course.” She gave a sharp intake of breath and tossed her hands in the air. “I should have just kept our relationship to a one-night stand and be done with you.”
“Excuse me?” Anger flashed hot and swift inside him. What he and Lacey shared could not have been contained in one night.
“I knew you were trouble, but that didn’t stop me. No, quite the opposite.” She shook her head in self-disgust. “And, let’s face it, you weren’t thinking about forever after one night with me.”
Hafiz wearily rubbed his hands over his eyes. “All I knew is that I couldn’t stay away.”
“And you kept coming back. I would count the days until we could see each other again. I thought you felt the same way, too.”
“I did.” The anticipation that burned in his veins, the excitement pressing against his chest had never waned.
“No, it’s only been recently when I realized we had approached this affair very differently. I was so happy in love that I wanted to share it with the whole world. You wanted to keep this relationship secret because you were ashamed.”
“For the last time, Lacey, I am not ashamed—”
“No, not of me.” Her jaw trembled as she tried to hold her emotions in check. “You were ashamed that you couldn’t stay away. After all those years of resisting temptation, of demonstrating your willpower, your strength, you couldn’t stay away. An ordinary woman, a nobody, was your weakness.”
He closed his eyes, momentarily overwhelmed. She was right. He didn’t like how Lacey saw right through him. Understood him better than he understood himself.
“I am Prince Hafiz ibn Yusuf Qadi,” he said quietly. “I have spent the last ten years proving that I am worthy of that name. I had purged every wild impulse, and nothing could tempt me off the straight and narrow path. And then I met you.”
“You make me sound like I’m a vice. Something you need to give up to be a better person.”
Hafiz was too deep into the memory to reply. “And then I see you at the piano in a hotel lobby. I didn’t even stop to think. I was drawn to your singing as if I was a sailor listening to the sirens.”
“Being attracted to me does not show weakness of character. Falling for me is not a sin.”
“It is if you are a prince from the Sultanate of Rudaynah.”
She crossed her arms and stared at him. “And yet, you asked me to live here. I thought it was because you loved me. No, it’s because you see me as some kind of bad habit that you couldn’t give up.”
Fury flashed through him, and he held it in check. “You don’t have that kind of power over me. No one does.”
“Especially a young woman who doesn’t understand the royal court politics or influential people. That’s why you felt safe to bring me over here.”
He scoffed at her statement. “Having you here was never safe.”
“I thought you trusted me. I thought that made me different from everyone you knew. It made me special to you. But that’s not it at all, is it? It’s that you contained the situation. You made sure I wasn’t in a position to break your trust.”
“Not a lot of good it did me,” he muttered.
