Sheikh's Purchased Princess (18 page)

“No,” she whispered, but he either couldn't hear her or refused to hear her. Instead, he only nodded at her distantly before striding out. The elevator doors opened for him with a soft whoosh, and a moment later, he was gone.

For what felt like an age, Emily stood stock still. She gazed at the place where Adnan had stood, as if she could will him into existence.

While I'm at it, I suppose I could make him love me,
she thought, slightly hysterical, but instead of laughing, she started to sob.

He was right—she had gone through so much in the last few weeks, but right now, she felt as if this was the worst of it. Was this what it was like to have her heart ripped out of her chest? Was this what it was like to feel as if she had been completely destroyed?

Emily was dreadfully afraid that she would never stop crying. Instead, she would simply sob forever at her loss. But when the tears slackened, she went to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. In the mirror, she looked horrible, her eyes swollen and her skin puffy. It didn't matter at all.

She went to the bedroom, realizing with a certain bemusement that she couldn't pack because she had no suitcase. Presumably Adnan would have something for her. After all, he had taken over everything else.

I never got to tell him I love him,
she thought, and for a moment, she almost gave in to despair again.

She took a deep breath, staring at the ceiling until the tears retreated. It didn't matter. At this point, she told herself, it simply didn't matter. Her love had nothing to do with the facts, and the facts were simple.

Adnan was tired of her. She was going back to the United States. She tried to comfort herself with the fact that she was going back a wealthy woman, but it all rang hollow. She felt a little like a bell that had had its clapper taken out. No matter how hard she rang, no one would come. No one could hear her.

She wondered dully if Adnan would return, but as the clock ticked endlessly forward, she realized that he would not.

***

The moment Adnan left the apartment, he took the elevator straight down to the ground floor, curtly dismissed his driver, and got behind the wheel. He was a good driver, trained from his military service, but the risks he took on the road that day were ones that would have made his old instructors shake their heads.

It didn't seem to matter how far he drove or what he did. No matter what, he could not escape the memory of Emily's clear gray eyes, wide and full of pain.

You're hurting me now,
she had said, and a part of him flinched away at that. He wanted to shout at her, to tell her that he could not put up with pain forever. When it was so obvious that she wished to go, he couldn't stop her, not for a deal, not for anything.

He tried to tell himself that she was young. The pain she felt today would barely be a memory tomorrow. Someday, he and Nahr would just be a memory. It was unimaginably painful.

Finally, he pulled over by the side of the road, only vaguely surprised that he had come to the border of the city. When he looked out over the place where the desert started, he wondered at how they had come to this. A month ago, he had not known she was alive. She had been a distant memory of a young girl who was both frightened and awed by her own situation at college. He remembered vaguely thinking at the time that the girl would grow up to be a beauty, and now, years later, he was proven correct.

They had known each other such a short time, and now he had lost half his heart to her. He would have laughed if it wasn't so painful.

At that moment, Adnan could see his life stretching in front of him, the career in politics, the beautiful and suitable wife he would take some day. It would be a good life in some ways, or at least, it would be a good life if it was one he cared about at all.

He shook his head. This was his life now, and he knew that for better or for worse, he needed to learn to live it.

Chapter Nineteen

Emily had somehow fallen asleep, but the gentle chime of the elevator woke her.

Adnan?

Hoping against hope that he had changed his mind, that he had realized that there was something to save, she hurried to the living room.

Emily gasped at the familiar figure waiting for her. When she had last seen Oma, the older woman had looked as dour and lifeless as a piece of dough. Now, however, she stood taller, and Emily could sense a lively strength in her.

Without stopping for pause, Oma stepped into the room, sweeping Emily up in her arms. Emily held on to her tightly, clinging to her and marveling at the wonder of the world that had brought her back to the woman who had helped her survive her captivity.

“I didn't know what happened to you after I was sold,” Emily exclaimed. “I had no idea!”

“I was rescued,” Oma said with a broad smile. “My brother  was one of the men who conducted the operation. He nearly fainted when he saw me, and it was a good thing I saw him, because I was able to move through the compound and lock some of the men inside before the big fight.”

Emily shivered. “Where Adnan got that wound.”

Oma nodded. “Yes, the shiekh was wounded in that fight. He fought like a lion, and it is easy to see why so many men are willing to fight for him, even to die for him.”

Emily hesitated. She had no idea if Oma knew about her situation, what she had been through with Adnan, but the older woman was leading her to the couch and reassuring her even as they went.

“Your relationship with the sheikh is something that many of us in the inner circle are aware of. We know that he has allowed you to make your own choice, that you are a free woman.”

Emily found herself holding on to Oma's hands, much as she had during her first few days of captivity. This was a woman who understood. If she hadn't wept so much that she thought she would dry up and wither away, she might have burst into tears then and there.

“He hasn’t though,” she said bitterly. “He has decided that he knows what is best for me. I think…I think there was something that fascinated him in those early days after he…after he bought me. He was infatuated. That has worn off, and now…and now he is sending me home.”

Oma scowled, shaking her head. “The sheikh is a powerful man, but he is not as wise as he will be. Sometimes he thinks too much and feels too little.”

Emily nodded miserably, but who could go against a man like Adnan? It didn't matter how much she thought he was fighting an inner war with no winner. He was the sheikh, and what he said went.

“You must think that I am a terrible fool,” she said, her voice soft and miserable.

“No, I save that for the men who sent me here,” Oma said, waving her hand. “Roja, my brother, thought I might have some influence, try to make you stay.” She snorted inelegantly. “If he thinks that I will deny any woman her free will after all this time, he is a greater fool than when he was as a boy. No, I came to see a young woman I care for a great deal, and to perhaps say goodbye to her. I know that the sheikh has given you your papers and tickets back to your home in the United States.”

“Home,” Emily echoed. “I don't even know if it feels like home. It has been less than two months since I left, but I feel as if everything will have changed…”

“No, it is you who has changed,” Oma said. “You are a different person now, and there is no going back who you used to be. There is only going ahead.”

“What would you do in my place?” Emily asked, and Oma looked at her thoughtfully. Another woman would have seen the wealth and privilege that Adnan was offering and told her to stay, but Oma thought about it.

“I would follow my heart,” she said finally. “Where my heart went, I would follow it.”

“That sounds too easy,” Emily objected, but Oma only shrugged.

“You are a free woman now,” she said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “That is what a free woman does.”

Those words stuck with Emily, even as she and Oma talked. She heard about Oma's life now, about how she was living with her brother and getting to know her new sister-in-law and her nephews, how she was learning what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. How she was healing.

When Oma stood, giving Emily one last bone-crushing hug, Emily could feel a deep happiness welling up in herself for the other woman. She had found a friend for life, she knew, no matter what else happened.

“Remember,” Oma said. “You are free. Act like it.”

Emily prowled the apartment. The shadows grew longer and she started to feel like a panther caught in a cage. She couldn't think about Adnan, because if she thought of him too much, she would simply lose her temper or start crying again, and she wanted to do neither of those things.

“All right,” she said abruptly. “Time for a change.”

She strode to the wardrobe, where she pulled out a classic black dress. She had worn little black dresses before, but those had always been off the rack. This one had been made for her, and the black fabric clung to her like a second skin. When she glanced at herself in the mirror, she barely recognized the wild-eyed woman who stared back, but that gave her an ugly sense of satisfaction.

Tonight, she didn't want to be herself, so she might as well be someone else.

She called up the car, and when she stepped into the elevator, she couldn't resist a moment of grief. Tomorrow, everything would change, but tonight…tonight she was still in Nahr, and she would make the most of it.

The driver seemed slightly alarmed by her request to go to a club, but he nodded cautiously.

“Perhaps you would care to bring one of the bodyguards along with you?” he asked, and she shook her head.

“I don't know if you've heard, but I'm a private citizen. No bodyguards for me. I can do as I like.”

He shot her a vaguely disapproving look in the rear view mirror, but he pulled the car into traffic.

Now that she was well and truly on her way, she felt a thread of excitement trickle through her. This may not have been what she wanted to do on her last night in Nahr, but given the fact that she didn't want to leave Nahr and Adnan at all, that became less than a problem. If she had to leave, she was certainly going to do it on her own terms.

The club that the driver pulled up to had a long line of people snaking down the sidewalk. Consumed by a confidence she did not feel, she walked straight up to the door. She had no idea whether it was because the bouncer recognized her from the paper or whether he liked the way she looked in her form fitting black dress, but he waved her in.

A hard wave of sound slammed Emily, and she could feel a part of herself coming to life. Music had always been a part of her, and now she could feel herself bobbing in time with the rhythm. It was definitely more of a pop sound than she generally preferred, but the truth was that it didn't matter. This was a place where she could lose herself in the darkness, dance as she pleased.

She wasn't blind to the men who were eying her from the sidelines, but she ignored them. Instead, she found her way to a group of women who seemed to be celebrating a birthday or perhaps a bachelorette party and joined in at the edges. In a remarkably short amount of time, she was drawn in, dancing with them and having what she told herself was the time of life.

If she were being honest, her grief over Adnan waited for her at the edges. Not all the dancing in the world would take that away, but perhaps it would blunt it for a while. For the moment, she threw herself into the flow of the music and how it made her feel powerful and wild.

She had lost herself to the music, moving as she had always wanted to, when a hard hand clamped around her wrist. She spun around to face the man who had grabbed her, and when she saw that it was Adnan something melted in her.

“What the hell do you think you're—”

She didn't want listen to whatever he was going to say. She threw her arms around his shoulders, dragging him in for a deep kiss. She could feel the surprise in his body, and then she felt it drain away as he caught her up in his arms, holding her tight as the kiss deepened even further.

In the beat of the music and in the middle of other dancers, she gave herself up to him. He was the man she wanted. She loved him, and for now, no matter what happened later, she had him. He felt perfect wrapped around her.

When he pulled away, she made a disappointed sound. He didn't give her much time to protest. Instead he spun on his heel and dragged her straight out of the club. She thought he might pause when they got to the street, but instead, he ushered her into the front passenger seat of his car.

“Don't move,” he growled.

He circled around to the driver's seat, but he didn't start the car. Instead, he shut the door and only glared at her balefully.

“I do not think that I gave you permission to leave the penthouse.”

“I don't think you did either,” she said, looking at him defiantly. “As you have decided that our association is at an end, I was free to do as I liked.”

“And I take it that what you like is to dance provocatively in front of a club full of people?”

“Don't knock it 'til you've tried it,” she snapped. “This isn't any different from what I was doing at home.”

That was sort of true. At home, she had never had the time and the energy to go clubbing, but still, she could have if she wanted to.

He didn't seem to understand any of this. Instead, Adnan only shook his head.

“Your time in Nahr is growing short. Is this how you really want to spend it?”

“Not at all,” she said. Her voice shook and he looked. “No, that is not how I would like to spend the remainder of my time in Nahr.”

“Emily?”

“I want to spend it with you,” she said, her voice as level as she could make it. “I want to be with you, and I don't want you telling me how young I am, or how little I know my own mind. I want to be with you, and I want to make love with you.”

Adnan looked as if his heart was tearing apart. Blindly, he reached for her hand, and she clung to it as if it were a lifeline.

“I want…I want so much with you,” she said, trying to sound as reasonable as she could. “I want to wake up to you in the morning. I want to go to sleep with you at night. I want to see you laugh, and I want to comfort you when you are sad. I love you, Adnan, and I am not too young, or too foolish. When I think of leaving you and Nahr, it feels like a weight of lead has been placed in my belly.