Roxanne’s heart fluttered. With delight at what Haidar was saying, agitation at what he’d just done and anxiety at Rashid’s approach.
Rashid stopped a couple of steps away, drawing both her and Haidar’s focus back to him.
His eyes bored into Haidar. “Don’t tell me you think you can escape my payback by stepping down?”
Haidar shook his head, sighed.
Roxanne put herself between them. “Sheikh Aal Munsoori, I’m convinced there has been a tragic misunderstanding that’s led to the current regrettable state of affairs between you and Haidar. But I am confident that we will be able to resolve the situation, and restore your relationship to its former closeness.”
Rashid’s darker-than-the-night eyes regarded her with nerve-rattling stillness, assessing, contemplating.
Then he gave her a smile that made goose bumps storm over her body. “I told Haidar you were very good. I was wrong. I’m now in possession of enough data to know you’re superlative. But it’s evident you’re blinded by emotions—for now. So marry him, if you currently believe you can’t live without him. But also do what will count, in your life and that of others. Join my team.” Rashid suddenly picked up her hand, took it to his lips for a brief electrifying peck, his eyes glittering onyxes as he looked down at her. “Just name your terms.”
Haidar growled something exasperated at her back. “Don’t even think of using Roxanne as part of your payback plans.”
Rashid slanted his gaze back to him, one formidable eyebrow arching sardonically. “I think too much of her and too little of you to do that. This is a legitimate offer, and all for her. She will end up wising up and dumping you as she should all on her own.”
“Don’t hold your breath, or only if you can for the rest of our lives. This is how long Roxanne and me will last. As for you, I’m shoving peace down your throat whether you like it or not.”
“And you’ll do that while hiding behind your lady?”
Haidar stepped before her and in Rashid’s face, his face relaxing in a smile. “Your inflammatory tactics won’t get a rise from me again, Rashid. This war is over.”
Rasid’s summing-up gaze lengthened until Roxanne felt she’d snap with the tension.
Then in ultimate calmness, he said, “I’ll grant you only a ceasefire, Haidar, for Ms. Gleeson’s sake. Once the honeymoon is over, the war resumes.”
Then with a courteous bow to her, he walked away.
Roxanne let out the breath that had been clogged in her lungs on a tremulous exhalation. “We really need to find out what he believes he has against you. Fast.”
Haidar exhaled heavily. “Aih.” He suddenly lifted her off the ground in a fierce hug, smiling full down at her. “After a very, very prolonged honeymoon.”
Before she could think of a response, he pressed her against the wall, took her lips in a kiss that wiped away anything else but him from her mind.
She surfaced from his kiss struggling to remember the other paramount issue at hand, gasped, “But promise me another thing. If Azmahar demands you on the throne anyway, you won’t refuse, for any reason.”
“I promise.” His solemn expression turned bedeviling as he winked at her. “If I can prove the whole population wasn’t mass-manipulated by my mother, that is.”
“Haidar!”
He kissed her indignation away, had her objections and arguments blurring before he withdrew to look down at her, grinning teasingly. “So what do you think it is about me that makes the women in my life want to put me on a throne?”
She sighed, dreamily, resignedly. “You’d be gorgeous on one?”
His eyes twinkled. “I thought I was gorgeous on, in and out of anything.”
She surrendered, dragged him down for another life-affirming kiss. “You are that, and then awesome.”
* * *
A long time later, after loving her into the night, he hugged her more securely into his body, whispered against her cooling cheek, “I do promise, ya naar hayati. I will answer the call of duty if Azmahar issues it and I’m certain it has made the right decision. But know this. For myself, I crave only your love, aspire only to having you for my lover, my princess, my partner in everything. I want us to work together to bring Azmahar back to its former glory. Whether I become king or not.”
She turned to look into his eyes, saw his heart, let him see hers and pledged, “I promise you that, too. And everything else that you yet have to wish for or imagine…”