LITMIR.BIZ

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power has been able to stop it?”

      She agreed. There’d been something that had come over her before she’d even fully awakened after the sandstorm, bonding her to him. But she possessed a secret he didn’t know anything about yet. Lauren could keep it to herself, but could she live with the guilt of it over a lifetime?

      She already knew the answer to that question. No matter how much she wanted to belong to Rafi, she realized the knowledge would eventually destroy them both. She had to tell him the truth.

      “Don’t look at me like that, Lauren,” he implored, misunderstanding the pain in her eyes.

      “I’ll go to my father tonight. When I explain to him about us, he’ll call off the plans for my wedding. I couldn’t go through with it now.” He started kissing her face, every part of it, thrilling her so completely her body throbbed with need.

      “Farah said it would take place at the end of the year.”

      He smothered a moan before clasping her hands and kissing her fingertips. “The timeline has changed to a month away. I have to go to him before another day passes.”

      Jealousy drove a shaft through Lauren. “Who is she?”

      “It doesn’t matter.”

      “Of course it matters. Already she’s planning to be your wife. You can’t undo what’s been done.”

      “You think not?” he came back in a voice of command. “Princess Azzah will rejoice when she learns it’s been called off.”

      No, she won’t, Lauren lamented. Farah didn’t have to tell Lauren that her brother was desired by other women. There was no other man like him. “She’s already anticipating her marriage to you.”

      His eyes, so black and alive, searched hers. “Why are you fighting me on this?”

      “Because I’m not going to be the woman responsible for causing a breach with your father. When you and I were together the other night, I thought you were the king’s chief of security. I thought you were emotionally free.

      “When you told me you were a pot who still hadn’t found its cover, I interpreted that to mean you were a bachelor who enjoyed the life you were living. But now that I know your identity, everything’s changed.

      “Farah has told me things. She says your father isn’t well. One day you’ll be taking his place. You have no choice but to carry on certain traditions for which your life has always been destined.”

      Lines marred his handsome features. “Your argument rings hollow. You’re holding back another secret from me. What else did Farah tell you?”

      “Nothing.”

      “That’s not true. Why won’t you look at me?”

      “Rafi—I need to leave.”

      “You’re not going anywhere.” He grasped her arms. “I want to know what my sister said to you.”

      “It was just a passing comment, but it appears to have come true.” In fact Lauren was haunted by it now.

      She heard him expel an angry breath. “Is your silence intended to be punishment for me because of the way I dealt with you?”

      “No—” she cried, hearing the anguish in his voice. She lifted imploring eyes to him. “While we were all at the pool the other day, she made the passing comment you had been too favored. She said your mother feared that because you’d been given every gift there’d be a price to pay.

      “I asked her what she thought her mother meant. She said that heaven was jealous of you. One day when something came along you wanted more than anything on earth, it wouldn’t be granted.”

      Rafi bit out an epithet. She didn’t have to know Arabic to understand the emotion behind it. “I love Farah, but she’s a very dramatic, impressionable person who overstates things at times without realizing it.”

      “Nevertheless, she was right about this, wasn’t she? You and I want something that can’t be. I’m going to have to do what my grandmother did. Somehow she found the strength to leave King Malik and never come back. Now it’s my turn to do the right thing.”

      “No,” Rafi declared. “That’s not the right thing for either of us. My nation has come out of the Dark Ages, Lauren. I’ve been doing everything possible to modernize our way of life and keep up with the new advances, particularly in technology.

      “Change has been inevitable and will continue to happen. The point is, I’m not a product of another era. I was born into this one. Some traditions from the past are good and important. Yet I have a different view of many things to make life better for our people.

      “Certainly I haven’t grown up being in favor of archaic marriage traditions, but until I met you, I was willing to go along with my father’s expectations. Now everything has changed. I refuse to be like my grandfather who was so strong in his own beliefs, he gave up the great love of his life and sent your grandmother away. That decision left them no joy.”

      When Rafi would have kissed her mouth, Lauren hid her face from him. “Then I’ll have to be strong for both of us.”

      “Why?” he cried.

      “Because King Malik was my grandfather, too.”

      Silence shattered everything.

      As the revelation computed, his arms tightened around her. “Say that again?” he whispered into her hair.

      With tears in her voice she said, “We both have the same grandfather. My grandmother went home not realizing she was pregnant with my mother. Their daughter.”

      His hands tightened in her curls before sliding to her upper arms. He eased her far enough away to look into her eyes. “But that’s impossible.”

      “No. It was very possible, Rafi. They were lovers for a fortnight … i-in the garden suite.”

      Rafi’s skin took on an ashen color.

      “Though she never admitted it to me, I’m positive she wanted his child when she realized she couldn’t have him.”

      Unspeakable pain turned his features to a facsimile of his former self. “I don’t believe you.”

      “A DNA test would provide definitive proof, but I have something else that will convince you.”

      His eyes impaled her. “What proof?” In them she saw grief so profound, she had to look away.

      “It’s even stronger evidence than the medallion. I’ll show you. In my wallet there are some pictures of my mother.”

      She watched the struggle he was having to swallow. “Let me see them.”

      Lauren moved out of his arms and reached for her purse. Inside her wallet she kept a packet of pictures. She pulled out the three she’d put in of her parents. The first colored photo she handed him showed a full-length picture of Lana holding Lauren outside on the deck of her grandmother’s apartment. At five months Lauren’s golden hair had come in curly and gleamed in the sun.

      Rafi took the photo in his fingers and looked at it, then at Lauren. “But this is a picture of Samira!”

      “It’s an amazing likeness of her. When I met your sister, I could see my mother in her. But if you’ll look closely, you’ll notice Lake Geneva is in the background and she’s holding a blonde baby. That’s me at five months.”

      “No,” he moaned the word.

      Gaunt with shock, he looked at the other two pictures she handed him. Both of them showed her blond father holding Lauren, with his arm around her mother.

      A lifetime seemed to pass before a haunting groan came out of him filled with soul-deep anguish. He caught her to him. They clung with a desperation that racked them both.

      “Tell

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