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“So your UK friends aren’t truly free, either,” Mahindar asked.
She narrowed her eyes. “Scott still has a choice. I think he just accepted the easy route knowing he was yet to find his passion in life.”
“So his passion wasn’t you?” Mahindar asked smoothly.
She placed her mug down on the bench with a clack. “Scott had many lovers. I wasn’t one of them. I think he liked the chase as much as he did the final act in the bedroom.”
Mahindar expelled a slow breath, his shoulders loosening. “So he failed with you. I bet he hated you were in love with another man.”
She shook her head, her voice cracking. “I guess I’ll never know. Not that I ever imagined I would end up returning to the Middle East, as a bride no less, to a sheikh.”
Her husband’s eyes glowed. “You must hate that I brought you here without first making love to the man of your heart.”
She swallowed. Her one little lie was getting too deeply entrenched. But she refused to add more to it. Silence was the far safer option.
When she didn’t answer he ran a hand over his face. “I honestly never cared if you were a virgin or not. But purityisconsidered a rare prize in Rajhabi as much as it is in Lumana,” he conceded softly. “I truly believe you were fated to be mine.”
“Then it was your fate. It was never mine.”
“Only time will tell.” Before she could argue some more, he put his mug down and said decisively, “Let’s get breakfast.”
She drank the last of her coffee and glanced out one of the front windows which showed the ramp that connected to a small driveway outside, and the road that continued past. No car waited for them. “Are we waiting for a driver?”’
“No. We’ll stroll along the beach if you’re up for it.”
She placed her mug in the sink, intrigued. Were they having a picnic breakfast on the beach? “I’d like that.”
The strong coffee had revived her, left her feeling a little more optimistic after her bald faced lie, and she followed him outside on the high deck and down its stairs, breathing deep of the salty air.
The sand squeaked under their shoes and a faint breeze played with the strands of her hair she’d left out of the topknot. Though his hand loosely held hers, there was serious strength in his fingers along with some rough calluses on his skin that told her he didn’t just sign paperwork to rule his country.
“Where are we going?” she asked, squinting a little at the gleaming swathe of sand that continued onward for miles without a single other person to be seen.
“I wanted you to meet someone.”
“Oh?”
He nodded. “A lovely old woman who chose to live outside the village.” He chuckled. “She’s…different, but I think you’ll like her and understand her better than most people might.”
Ten minutes later they veered off the beach and up an embankment with a light track that had been packed down over time by regular walks. Following the trail through some palms and hardy coastal trees they came to a hut where half a dozen chickens scratched in the sand near its veranda.
A rocking chair sat empty beside a little round table with a teapot, while the scent of wood smoke filled the air, its white haze curling into the sky from a crooked chimney.
Mahindar smiled. “Let’s hope she’s in the mood for some company.”
The door opened and a small figure appeared in the doorway, an old, hunched over woman who looked at them through nut-brown eyes that were dulled by age but sharp with intelligence. “Who is it?” she called out. She shaded her eyes with a shaky hand. “Is that you, Mahindar?”
He chuckled. “Yes, Aisha. Who else would dare visit you here?”
“Who else indeed!” the old woman chuckled. She shuffled out onto the veranda and down the trio of steps, the chickens flapping out of her way with indignant clucks. “I hope you’re here to share some arrack with me. As you said, visitors here and few and far between.”
“To be fair, we both know that is your choice, Aisha.”
“So it is,” she conceded and stepped into his arms for a hug that looked comical with her so tiny and frail and Mahindar so tall and powerful. “And you know I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Mahindar smiled down at her. “Bit early in the day for Arrack.”
“Then you’d better have some of my fish stew first. I know how much you enjoy it.”
