LITMIR.BIZ

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hers. “I need you to be more than half right now,” he said. “Because I feel I have little to contribute.”

      “That’s okay,” she said, swallowing hard, the lingering emotion from her earlier realization making her ache. “Sometimes you might have to be more than half for me.”

      “Should that ever arise, I swear that I will.”

      It wasn’t passionate. It wasn’t romantic. It was nothing like the declaration of love she and Marcus had shared over a dinner on his family yacht, followed by a brilliantly orchestrated proposal. And yet, she felt the weight of it.

      There was meaning in it.

      The girl she’d been five years ago wouldn’t have felt anything in those words. Would have found all of this dispassionate and unexciting.

      The woman she’d become felt the binding quality of his vow down to her core.

      “If you can promise the country what you’ve just promised me, I think your speech will be just fine,” she said.

      “I’m good with vows,” he said slowly. “I kept my word to my brother for fifteen years. I devoted myself to my country. I gave aid when it was required. I never once saw my own pleasure above the safety of the nation. Unlike my brother, I am not a pleasure seeker. There is much more to life than that. When everything in a man’s life is stripped away, the only thing he has left is his purpose. If a man has put his faith in things that burn, then when the fires of this world consume, there will be nothing left behind. But if a man puts his faith in rock, no matter how hot the blaze rages, it cannot be consumed. This country is my rock. If I am left with nothing else, I will fight for that to my dying breath.”

      Olivia looked to the intensity in his black eyes, and for just one moment she wished he could be speaking about her. Why couldn’t someone treasure her that much?

       You don’t need that kind of ridiculousness. You don’t need to depend on anyone.

      She swallowed hard. “Say that. When you get up to speak, that’s all you need to say. Yes, eventually policy will need to be addressed. But that can always be done with press releases. This nation is wounded, and I think those are the words that will heal it. You’re the man who will heal it.”

       The man who might heal me.

      The moment those words flitted through her mind she rebelled against them, panic fluttering in her breast like a terrified bird, raging at the cage of bone and flesh it was trapped in. She didn’t want thoughts like that. She must be insane. Attaching some kind of emotional meaning to his words was foolish. Marcus had loved her, but he hadn’t healed her.

       Why do you suddenly think you need to be healed?

      Really, her brain needed to calm down. Stop asking her questions she didn’t have the answers to.

      “I will simply have to trust you,” he said.

      “I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t regret that,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

      His expression remained stone, and she wondered why she bothered to try to inject humor into any exchange with Tarek.

      “I will do the same,” he said finally.

      “I have no doubt.”

      “I have procured a ring for you,” he said after a small amount of hesitation.

      Her heart scampered into her throat. “You have?” Why was she reacting to this? She was sitting in a man’s office, in a very average day dress, about to be presented with a ring that was more the seal on a business agreement than anything else.

      Her heart was pounding as though she was back on that yacht. With roses and champagne. A man that she loved.

      She fought against the urge to close her eyes and turn away, because that would only make her look crazy. She was being crazy. Maybe because while this was a business arrangement in many ways, it was one that would involve sex. Closeness.

       Only as much as you want.

      That was what frightened her. How much she wanted.

      He moved behind his desk, opening a drawer and producing a little box, placing it on the wooden surface.

      She walked forward, pausing on the other side of the large piece of furniture. It stood between them, and for that she was grateful. Otherwise she might do something ridiculous, like touch him again. There really was no telling.

      She reached out, touching the top of the jewelry box and sliding it toward herself. “Who chose this?”

      “I did.”

      She looked at him, unbearably curious about what would make a man like him select a piece of jewelry over another. If it had anything to do with her, or with something else. It was like studying a rock wall for secrets.

      And he wasn’t going to tell her. Of course he wasn’t.

      She picked up the ring box and opened it slowly.

      Her indrawn breath settled in the back of her throat, never making it all the way to her lungs. It was a simple ring, with a large square-cut stone the color of the crystal-blue water in the pristine lakes found in Alansund. An oasis in this desert. She couldn’t help but see it that way.

      She had removed her engagement ring and wedding band before leaving Alansund, because there was no point wearing them when she was anticipating wearing another man’s ring. Still, the idea of putting on one that was so different in style was both strange and a relief.

      She wanted to ask him why. Why this ring?

      But she didn’t.

      Instead, she took it out of the box without ceremony and slipped it onto the fourth finger of her left hand. “Even fits,” she said.

      “An accident.”

      “Or a sign,” she said.

      “If you believe in such things.”

      “I suppose,” she replied. The man was impenetrable. And he refused to allow her to form a connection, no matter how small.

      “There is much to prepare before the party.” His forehead wrinkled. “I cannot quite fathom that I am attending a party.”

      She couldn’t help but laugh, and it was a relief. There’d been too much tension inside her. “I can see that you aren’t the most party oriented of men.”

      “I don’t know how to have fun,” he said, sounding completely mystified by the concept.

      A scene flashed through her mind, unbidden, of her hands moving over his bare back, her legs wrapped around his hips as he drove in deep. That, she had a feeling, would be fun. She swallowed hard. “I’m sure you know some ways. Or at least some ways to relieve stress.”

      “I am fond of spending a few hours a day doing drills with my sword.”

      She blinked, biting the inside of her cheek. “Is that a euphemism?”

      “I am speaking of an actual sword. What were you thinking?”

      Her face got hot. “Nothing.”

      “I often feel we are speaking a different language sometimes.”

      “That could be because we’re usually speaking your second language.”

      “I do not think that’s it,” he said, his black eyes intense on hers.

      She sensed it was her opportunity to push for information, but she withdrew. Because she was tired of pressing only to be pushed away.

      “It’s a beautiful ring anyway. See, you did that well. No language barriers.” She determinedly lightened things.

      “It will send the proper message, one hopes,” he said. “That we are moving forward unified,

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