His Arranged Marriage (15 page)

If no one else remembered the treachery of Rose Coleman, Layla had never forgotten. Layla’s loyalty to her country ran more fiercely than a raging river. Had Ibrahim married Layla, his true betrothed, instead of the scheming Rose, he would have reached a greater destiny in his abbreviated life.

However, now her loyalty had to be to her hus
band, the rightful king.
How rich and well deserved it will be to bargain for Princess Serena for a mere song of quick thinking on my part. One day, Azzam will understand how brilliant I am, and appreciate everything I’ve done.

For him.

“I have received three offers of marriage this very morning,” King Zak told Serena with some surprise. “I must admit some astonishment, considering the situation.”

“Refuse them all,” Serena said listlessly, “if you can, Father. I do not wish to marry again so soon.”

She might have an annulled marriage, but in her heart she had been married to Cade. It was impossible to imagine herself with any other.

“I am not eager to encourage you to do that which you do not wish,” her father replied. “However, there is one proposal that must receive stringent consideration. Prince Ali Denarif offers the goodwill of his country, and his family, if you will consent to wed with him.”

“Prince Ali is a worm, and his family a den of maggots!” Serena said with horror. “You cannot be serious thinking of such an alliance!”

King Zak shook his head. “I only said his pro
posal bears measured thought. You are as aware as any that one should keep their friends close to them, but keep their enemies closer. Layla and Azzam conspire constantly against us. With a marriage to Denarif, they would feel more appeased.”

“Ugh!” Serena thought about Jessica and the expressive language her friend would have used if she were in Serena’s shoes right now. No one would get Jessica to wed if she did not want to. She smiled, thinking about Kadar’s claim that no one would ever marry his bossy cousin with the mismatched eyes.

“You find something amusing, daughter?”

“No,” she murmured. “I was just thinking about someone I liked very much.”

“Prince Kadar?”

She shook her head. “It is not a smile that comes to my face when I think about him. I want to kick him in the pants.”

“That’s an interesting way to speak of someone whom you seem quite…unable to forget,” the king observed wryly.

Blowing out a breath, she said, “Kadar is an exasperating man, Father. Just when I thought he would not budge an inch, he would willingly give me a mile. But I still want to kick him in the pants.”

“Did you always feel that way?”

She smiled. “Pretty much. And he felt that way about me as well.”

“Ah, you were well matched, then.” The king chuckled.

Serena wrinkled her nose. “I do not know if I would say that, exactly.”

“Hmm.” The king adjusted his robe and reached for a goblet before saying, “You will not miss him, then.”

She put her head down. “He is infuriating.”

“I see.”

“And arrogant.”

“Oh.”

“Impossible. Incorrigible. And…well, words cannot describe how I feel about him.”

Her father looked at her with concern. “Such strong emotions to be vented upon one hapless male.”

“Hapless? Hardly. No, I will not miss him.” Serena would not allow herself to miss a man who had not uttered his love for her. He had not wanted to marry her in the first place; he had come to Balahar on an errand for his brother. If he had wanted her, he would have made their marriage a real one. “I will not miss him,” she said softly, “but I am not eager to test the waters of marriage again so quickly.”

“Your dilemma is known over the world, daughter,” her father said gently. “It is best to solve the problem and put the matter behind us.”

Serena shuddered. “Not Prince Ali Denarif. He is…he and I would not suit.”

“You say you and Prince Kadar did not suit.”

“That was different!” Serena exclaimed. “He could be quite stubborn about most everything!”

“Prince Ali will not be stubborn,” the king reminded her. “It will be basically a political alliance, as I’m sure you are aware.”

Serena closed her eyes. Rose had not wished to languish in a sanitarium as a political pawn, but she had survived it. Jessica did not want mismatched eyes, but she didn’t let it bother her unduly. What was a marriage, if the heart was not involved? Merely something she could deal with, as other women dealt with their circumstances as they had to. “Let me think about it for one night, Father.”

He patted her hand. “In my heart, I wonder if you did not find Prince Kadar more to your liking than you are willing to admit. You are quite headstrong yourself, Serena.”

Kadar had been quite to her liking.

She had not been to his.

And how was that any different from marrying Prince Ali Denarif?

“T
ELEPHONE
, P
RINCESS
,” King Zak’s secretary said upon entering the palace garden where Serena was walking, lost in her thoughts.

“Who is it?”

“It is Prince Kadar,” the secretary said without change in expression.

Serena’s heart fluttered inside her like a freed butterfly. “Where shall I take the call?”

“Inside your father’s study would be best.”

Serena hurried to the study and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Howdy, Princess. I’m just checking to see if you’re ready to catch a pony outta here.”

She gasped at his audacity. “Where are you?”

“Hanging out in a nearby city. Waiting on you to come to your senses.”

Her heart soared, then crashed as she realized that nothing had changed to allow her to accept his offer. “I am glad you called, but I am afraid I have come to my senses.”

“Good. I’ll swing by and pick you up. We’ll be back in Texas before you can blink your eyes and say ‘Wow, was that a crazy dream or what?”’

She smiled sadly. “I must stay here, Kadar. But your call has warmed my heart.”

“To be honest, I’d rather warm your bed at this point. I’ve been noble long enough. I’m staying at the Hilton in Penzar if you decide to take me up on the honeymoon we haven’t yet had.”

He would not make her cry. She would not weep tears of self-pity. “My father has received three offers of marriage. It seems that in my shamed state, I am more sought after than even before.”

Several American curse words flowed from Cade’s lips. “You are still my wife. I didn’t change my mind. You changed yours.”

“I cannot change it back now. Where kingdoms are concerned, one must do that which benefits the people most. Imagine how you would feel if your president was not a strong leader. You would surely feel less secure.”

“Let’s leave politics out of it for now. I hope you’re not seriously considering marrying someone else.”

“Prince Ali Denarif makes a strong suit for a welcome political alliance. You see, I cannot leave politics out of my life, Kadar. It is not done that way in this country.”

“Do you like him?”

Kadar’s blunt question brought a wry smile to her face. “Again, you are concerned with the who, when I must think of the what. It is not a matter of whom I like, it is a fact of what I must do to strengthen my father’s position and that of my country.”

“I asked you if you liked him,” Cade said, his voice tight and tense.

“Actually, I do not. He is repugnant to me. But I will be equally repugnant to him, so that is not a concern.”

“Is that how it’s done in your country? You
marry the person most repugnant to you and live happily ever after?”

She frowned at his sarcasm. “You asked the question. I answered. Do not criticize me, or the way in which we do things. This is not The Desert Rose, where you are the king on your small parcel of land.”

“Small parcel of land!”

“It is not a country, Kadar. It is yours and your family owns it, so you can do as you wish. Here we are servants to the people, something a good king never forgets.”

“Nor does he let his daughter forget it, obviously.”

“Do not assume that words have been put in my mouth,” she snapped. “I am glad you called, Kadar. I had just told my father how we did not see eye-to-eye on anything. It is good to know that I remembered our brief marriage with clarity.”

“Now wait just a da—”

“Goodbye, Prince Kadar,” she said, purposefully thumping her fingers hard against the mouthpiece to simulate the noise of a slammed-down receiver.

“Serena?” he said. “Serena?”

When she didn’t answer, he cursed again and hung up.

And just as she had suspected, the very quiet and unmistakable click of another phone hanging up traveled to her ear. Serena allowed herself a dry
smile. Prince Kadar had taught her well in Texas, but he had forgotten the lessons he had learned in Balahar before. Spies were a part of life she was used to. She was worried that he had said exactly where he was “hanging out.” But she was relieved to have been able to pick an argument with him. The best thing he could do was stay out of Balahar. It was critical that he leave the country as soon as possible.

Her heart banged against her ribs as she thought about the very real risks to him if he remained. Unused to thinking about royal power struggles, he thought only of recapturing what he had obviously decided to keep—her.

He had not considered that his presence would adversely affect the marriage negotiations her father was entertaining. Other suitors would not wish to learn that Kadar was still in the vicinity. Someone on the other end of the phone had learned exactly that. Poison in the food, a fall that came in the darkness, an unlikely vehicle accident; Kadar did not realize how far other people would go to get closer to the throne. As an American male, he thought of her as a woman, a wife, or possibly in his most obstinate moments, a desirable possession; whereas the men who sought her hand now thought of her as a stepping stone.

Kadar did not see her that way because he had no
interest in the throne. She had to send him away, as much as her soul had not wanted to be cruel to him.

But they were no longer in Texas. And they would never be married for real.

“S
ERENA HAS TOLD
C
ADE
he can come on home,” Rose told the gathering in the kitchen. “She will not return with him.”

“I don’t understand why not,” Jessica said. “She was crazy about him.”

Mac nodded. “I’d have to say I thought Cade wasn’t acting quite like his old self once he married Serena. Which, in Cade’s case, is a good thing. I’ve never seen one woman hold his attention the way she did.”

Rose shook her head. “I understand her feelings. The paparazzi gave her an unflattering light to live under. She didn’t want her father’s choice of her husband ridiculed.”

“In time, perhaps we could have worked through that,” Randy said. He and Vi sat near each other, but not touching the way they had in previous years. “However, the strength in our survival here has been the fact that the family lineage is secure.”

“I know Serena felt very guilty that our security had been diminished because of her deceptive marriage to Cade. I can’t imagine how that secret got out.”

“I can,” Rose said. “I’m positive that were we
to dig deep enough, we would find Layla just under the top layer of dirt, hiding from the light.”

“Who is this Prince Ali Denarif Cade says Serena may marry?” Mac asked.

“He is a cousin of Layla’s, and a disgusting excuse for humanity,” Rose stated. “She would do better to run away and hide in a jungle rather than marry him. Unfortunately, I can see where the alliance will cool tensions between Balahar and Sorajhee. I understand Serena’s predicament all too well, in fact.”

“Will she marry him?” Jessica asked.

“Of course,” Rose murmured. “She will do what she must to help her father, and she also has Sharif to think about. If none of you wishes the throne, then it falls to him.” She shivered as she remembered the face of the prince in the photograph. If she did not know better, she would swear that Sharif was much like her sons in appearance…

She straightened. “What must be done, will be done. Tell Kadar that he should return home at once. Prolonging his stay will do nothing but endanger him, and I am positive that is the last thing Serena would want.”

Tears jumped into her eyes, unanticipated, so Rose turned away. She flipped on the television to deflect her family’s attention from her—and halted. There on the screen was Serena, in a picture taken
at The Desert Rose, wearing the apron she had been so fond of wearing.

The news anchor stated that a band of renegade bandits from Sorajhee had lit several fires along the border of Balahar—a sign that trouble there was worsening. Rose clasped her hands together, her lips pressed tight. As a former queen, she knew exactly what those burning fires undeniably meant.

Serena would have no choice but to quench the blaze—by marrying a man she could never love.

“I
’M RETURNING HOME
,” Cade told his co-pilot, who was staying in the hotel room next door. “I’ll be ready to leave in an hour.” He hung up the phone, his heart heavy.

Serena had been quite adamant that she would not see him, nor return with him. He’d been prepared to wait around until he could change her mind; he wanted so badly for her to understand that he’d come to feel about her something he’d never expected.

But her voice had been cool, her words cold. He had heard the purpose in her words to him.

She would do her duty.

Which really shouldn’t surprise him. She had done her duty when she’d married him—and been completely up-front about her reasons for leaving the country with him and not exposing his identity.
Oh, no. Serena had been all about her family and her country from the start.

He just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge that there was something out there more important to her than him.

A knock on the door sounded. “I like co-pilots who can be ready to fly on a moment’s notice,” Cade muttered, getting up to answer it.

The tall man outside was a stranger to him. “Can I help you?” he asked.

The man glanced in both directions in the hall before asking, “I am Abdul-Rahim. If I may come in, I would like to speak to you on a matter of some urgency concerning the Princess Serena.”