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The silence pulsed between them.
She made him dream about a life he had no right to pursue. Hafiz winced as resentment shot through his chest. He took in a deep sigh, and he realized nothing had changed. No, that wasn’t true. When he was with Lacey, everything he felt was sharper and stronger. Life after Lacey was going to be excruciating.
He needed to be strong and not give in to his wants. He had done that for years until he met Lacey. After disappointing a nation, he had sacrificed his happiness to make amends. He could do it again, but he had to stop teasing himself with the fantasy of life with Lacey.
“Hafiz,” Lacey said in a husky voice, “there are many reasons why I love you. You have worked hard to make up for your mistakes. You try to be a good man, a good son and a good prince. I have always admired your willpower and your strength. But your one weakness is me.”
Hafiz wanted to deny it.
She slowly shook her head. “All this time I’ve hated the idea that I’m your one and only vice. Your weakness. But it’s true. I am making you into the man you don’t want to be.”
“That’s not true. I like who I am when I’m with you.”
“You like sneaking around?” she asked. “Breaking promises? Feeling guilty because you shouldn’t love a woman like me?”
“No,” he admitted gruffly.
“Would you have acted this way with another woman? Would you make love to her in public?”
Hafiz wanted to lie and say yes. But even when he was known as the playboy prince, he had always been aware of his surroundings. But when he was with Lacey, nothing else mattered. It wasn’t just a weakness. It was a sickness.
“You know what kind of woman I want to be?” she asked.
He knew. She never said it out loud, but he knew of her plans and dreams. Lacey wanted to be a woman surrounded by love and family.
“I can tell you that I didn’t grow up thinking I wanted to be a femme fatale. I didn’t want to be the kind of woman who ruined lives.”
“You’re not ruining my life. My—” He stopped. He wasn’t going to think it. Voice it. His royal status was part of his identity and the one true constant in his life. It was not an obstacle that kept him from being with Lacey.
“I’m a problem for you, Hafiz. What do you think is going to happen if this photo gets out? What will the sultan do?”
Hafiz gritted his teeth. He wasn’t going to tell Lacey. She would try to protect him and keep him in Abu Dhabi. “I can take care of myself.”
“No, that’s the wrong way to go around it,” Lacey said. “That’s expected. You’ll probably use the words that every powerful man has used when denying an affair. I will take care of this.”
Hafiz’s shoulders went rigid. “No, you will not.”
“Why not?” Lacey’s eyes lit up, and she held up her hands. Hafiz knew that look. Lacey had a plan. “This is what we’re going to do. If the picture gets published, I’ll take the blame.”
“Not a chance.”
“Listen to me, Hafiz.” She placed her hand on his arm as she pleaded. “It’s so simple. I’ll tell people that I saw you at this party, and I came onto you. You rejected my advances.”
He wasn’t going to let anyone think that his woman was an indiscriminate seductress. “The picture says otherwise.”
“Pictures lie.” She dismissed his words with the wave of her hand. “No one knows what happened before or after. It’s very possible that I propositioned you. It’s just as possible that you declined my offer.”
Hafiz gave her a disbelieving look. He couldn’t remember a time when he refused Lacey. “No.”
She squeezed his arm. “It will work.”
He placed his hand over hers. “No, it won’t. I am not hiding behind a woman.”
She jerked her hand away. “Excuse me?”
He leaned closer. “And no one is going to believe you.”
“Yes, they will.”
“Not when every gossip site is going to drag up my playboy past and follows up with my former lovers.”
He felt the weight of his past on his shoulders. Why had he thought he could erase those moments? And why did it all have to be dug up now?
