Page 51 of At the Sheikh's Command
“You’re right.” It nearly choked Darrius to admit it, but he definitely owed his brother the truth. “And it’s true. I hadn’t discussed my plans with Leonora.”
“Are you mad? Why the hell not?”
“The answers to your questions are first, ‘no’, and second, because I was taking things slowly.”
“Not with me, or the country, you weren’t. You couldn’t wait to get your plans underway with us!”
“I needed to move fast there. But with Leonora?” He shook his head. “I had to go slow. I won’t go into details, but she needed some time to figure some stuff out.”
“And has she done that?”
“Yes, I believe she has.”
“So, then, everything’s okay between you two now?”
“Far from it. She’s upset that I didn’t tell her my plans, and… kept other information from her. She says I lied. But all I did was allow her to believe a different truth.” He grimaced. “I guess that was lying.”
“Oh yes. So let me guess. She doesn’t want to marry someone not so well acquainted with the truth?”
“You got it.” Darrius slumped into a chair and put his head in his hands. “What the hell am I going to do, Zaire?”
“At last, I can give you the benefit of my expertise. Women. First, you’ll have to grovel. Then you’re going to have to prove to her how much she means to you and tell her you’ll always respect her and tell her the truth.”
“Ihavealways respected her!”
“Whatever. It’s irrelevant whether you have or haven’t. It’s whatshebelieves that’s important. You have to persuade her she’s at the center of your life.”
“Sheisat the center of my life!”
“You’re not listening to me! What’s important here is that you tell her, and that she believes you.”
“And how do I do that?”
Zaire rested back against the wall. “Oh, that’s easy. You have to spend a lot of money and talk to her. Tell her the truth about your feelings. Youdohave feelings, I take it?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then tell me what they are.”
“I love her.” He shook his head in despair. “More than life itself. Everything I did was because I wanted her to heal from the hurt which my parents and I had inflicted on her eight years ago. She’d wrapped herself up in more defenses than a desert fortress. And I wanted her to know she had a heart, a heart which I believed in because I loved her so much with my own heart.”
Zaire opened his eyes wide and whistled. “Youhavegot it bad. I’m just happy it’s you with all those feelings and not me. Anyway,” he said, pushing himself from the wall and walking over to the door. “I think my work here is done.” He opened the door. “Remember. Grovel, spend a lot of money, and talk to her. Tell her what you’ve just told me.” He smiled with sympathy. “Especially the last point.”
Darrius watched his brother leave the room. He’d make an excellent king, he thought. Somehow, inside that arrogant, intelligent, handsome exterior was a wise man. How the hell he’d gotten so wise was beyond him. But he had, and Sifra would be in good hands. He didn’t have to worry about his country. All he had to be concerned about was Leonora. And Zaire had shown him a way forward. Groveling and spending money would be easy. But talking? That would be the hard part. But he’d die trying, because without Leonora, he didn’t have a life.
Leonora sat staringout at the garden but not seeing anything. Everything about her felt heavy—from her limbs to her heart, because she could no longer deny she had a heart. Darrius had shown her that. But what he hadn’t shown her was how she could live with that heart, without the man for whom it beat. Because there’d been no sign of him in the hours since she’d walked away. He hadn’t bothered to follow her, and he hadn’t tried to communicate with her. She didn’t need her PhD to figure out what that meant.
So she’d made plans to leave—plans she was sure he’d be informed about. But still nothing. And now her bags were packed, and the taxi waited outside for her.
But still she sat on the elegant sofa in her bedroom, looking straight ahead, waiting.
When her phone rang, she jumped up and, trembling, placed it to her ear. But it was only the taxi. She delayed it once more, tossed the phone on the bed and stepped outside into the gardens.
From the very first moment she’d seen them with her father, she’d loved the gardens of Sifra. Eight years ago, she’d met Darrius in one, and ever after, her two passions had been closely intertwined. When she breathed in the fragrant air of the garden, she felt as if she were breathing him in.
She closed her eyes and inhaled, willing the sound of the softly splashing water from the fountain and the sweet scent to calm her. She had to leave this place. It wasn’t for her, because she couldn’t trust Darrius. It was that simple. But her newly awakened heart told her it was anything but simple.
Suddenly a different fragrance wafted over to her and she snapped open her eyes. She hadn’t heard Darrius approach above the sound of the water.
