by Leslie North
Skandar went to Gina’s side and offered her his arm. “Do you feel prepared?”
She laughed, glowing from the makeup and the moment, and he was struck by how beautiful she was. “You show me where to sign my name, and I’ll hand over my signature.”
Skandar and Gina led the procession toward the front of the building, where they met another crowd. The people split apart as they came, stepping out of their way—all except one of them.
His ex, Mila Tabrizi.
It was too late to steer Gina around her, because Mila had planted herself directly in front of the exit doors. A cold dread squeezed at his gut. This wasn’t the scene he wanted—not now and not ever. And of course he hadn’t prepared for it. Why would Mila want to show up at an event like this? She’d obviously come as the guest of one of the council VIPs, a man in dark robes who stood nearby, staring at her.
Mila’s face brightened, her eyes narrowing, and she drew one hand up to her hip in an angle that struck something like distaste into him. Skandar wasn’t afraid of her. But this was Gina’s first public appearance, and the last thing he needed was a showdown in front of the entire capital city. Sunshine glinted off camera lenses down in front of the steps to the main entrance. They’d have telephoto lenses. They’d see everything. Skandar refused to slow his pace. As the ascendant king, he had no option but to keep going.
At the last possible moment Mila stepped forward and bobbed something that was more of an homage to a curtsey than anything else. “Congratulations, Skandar,” she said, her voice sharp as a knife. “I’m so happy for you.”
They met in the center of the floor, and he took a breath full of Mila’s too-strong perfume. “Thank you. We’re on our way out.”
Mila’s eyes swept from Gina’s head to her feet. “I expected you to be more...formally dressed.” Gina blinked. Her dress was formal. “Oh, the wrong word—I meant fitted. These are clearly off the rack and not perfectly suited to your coloring. Do you need tips on where to go? Which tailors, which salons?” Before Gina could answer, Mila’s eyes flashed to Skandar, then back to Gina. “You know, normally an event like this would be held at the palace, but this public display?” She pursed her lips. “It’s quite obvious the ascendant king is using you and your baby for his own purposes.”
“Well, yes.” Gina’s face stayed open and happy, and shock ripped across Mila’s expression. “Of course he is. For royal purposes. Is there anything else to be done?” She squeezed his hand, looking up at him with such warmth in her eyes that he felt the heat of it down to his bones. Gina wrinkled her eyes, laughing a little. “Or is there some purpose you haven’t told me about?”
He’d been bracing to intervene in some kind of argument between Mila and Gina, but there was nothing for him to do. “There’s no secret purpose, wife of mine.” Skandar bent his head to kiss Gina’s cheek.
“I’m so sorry,” Gina said to Mila. “I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself. I’m Gina, Skandar’s wife.” She held out her hand to Mila, whose face had gone white, then a deep shade of red. “I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know your name.”
“Mila,” the other woman practically spit, taking Gina’s hand and letting it go as fast as she could. “Congratulations on your marriage.” Then she swept away, her robe lifting in the air, and disappeared into the crowd.
A few other people took advantage of the moment, crowding in to introduce themselves to Gina, and she greeted them all. Skandar had never been more touched. Her duties included this kind of social smoothing, the talking, the shaking hands—but pride burst through him like a glittering firework nonetheless. Skandar waved the others away and pulled her in close, leaning down to kiss her again.
She took in a short breath as their lips met, and Gina leaned in, kissing him back with more fervor than he’d expected. Yes—this. This was what he wanted. He’d rather take her into any of the other rooms in city hall and kiss her more. Or, better yet, back to the desert where they could have a semblance of privacy. Instead, he tasted her tongue for a moment and pulled back, stroking his knuckles down the line of her face.
“You’re doing so well.” More words surfaced and dissolved before he could say them. “Very well.”
“Thank you.” Gina reached for the front of his robes and smoothed the fabric down, her green eyes bright on his. “That means a lot, Skandar. I know how important this all is. How concerned you are for your kingdom.” She rose on tiptoe and pressed a light kiss to his mouth, and he felt it down to the tips of his toes. “I know you’re not doing this all for yourself.” Then she threaded her fingers through his. “I’m ready to sign those papers now.”
7
Gina straightened up from the long table where they’d signed the official paperwork and applause erupted from the crowd that had gathered. It came from every direction—the VIPs and council members stood in a ring around the balcony, and for a disorienting moment, she felt like she was in the middle of the circle at the desert fertility rites. Only, no. Of course not. They’d gone far beyond rituals now.
Person after person came up to congratulate them, but Gina couldn’t get her attention off the whispers that hovered in the air. People talked in low voices about the ceremony, about the signing, about how lovely she was—and something else, too. Skandar’s uncle. The uncle attempting to take the throne. For him, the voice said. To show him his place. But he didn’t come.
Gina searched Skandar’s face for any hint that he was worried about this. His perfect lips were curved in a satisfied smile, the golden sunlight highlighting his carved cheekbones, and he clasped arms without the slightest glance away from the other person’s eyes.
Except for hers.
His dark eyes flicked to her at every available interval, as if she were so stunning that he couldn’t look away. It stole her breath. She tried to focus on the space around them, but everything seemed like a spotlight for Skandar. The table, covered in a white tablecloth and a runner with the kingdom’s crest. The bright blue sky. The crush of people in brightly colored robes, all of them wanting to get close to Skandar and shake his hand. Everything she saw made her want to look at him, and she found herself glancing up at him again and again. At least it would make for good photos—the adoring wife, staring up at her new husband. Would it help him? Gina tried to calculate the value of looking happy next to Skandar for his challenge, but the thought made her laugh. Her calculations would be way off. Not enough information. Best to just stand here and enjoy the day—enjoy the closeness of him. Even if it made her feel a little lightheaded, how many people there were.
Finally, the line of people broke up enough for her to catch her breath, and Skandar put a hand on her lower back. “We should go back to the palace so you can rest.”
“Oh, but the city.” The sun was almost finished setting, and the light on the buildings made Gina’s heart beat faster. “I’d love to stretch my legs and see things.” The desert had been its own adventure, but now, faced with the buildings and the people and the bustle of it all, Gina wanted more. The people seemed to press in closer and closer at every moment, an endless stream of them offering congratulations and asking questions about her family and smiling, smiling, smiling. She needed a breath, but she steeled herself to wade back into the celebration anyway. It wasn’t like Skandar could just walk away from all the things he needed to do.
“All right. Let’s go.”
“What?” A pleasant shock ran over her shoulders like cool water. “You want to get away from all this formality, too?”
Skandar looked into her eyes, a flash of light in the darkness there. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe a...stroll around the city would do us both good.” He located Zaki in the crowd and waved him over. “We’re escaping. Would you and Hamila like to come?”
Zaki laughed. “I think I’m required to come with you, Sheikh Skandar.”
“This is a personal invitation.” Skandar clapped a hand on Zaki’s shoulder. Was he usually this delightful? He’d been
rather serious and focused out in the desert—except when they were in bed, where he was serious and focused and a little playful—but Gina would have wanted to invite Zaki and his wife anyway. Maybe they had more in common than they’d thought.
Zaki and Hamila led the way out to the waiting SUV, and the four of them climbed in. “Would you like a tour?” Skandar murmured in Gina’s ear. “There are plenty of places to show you.”
“Don’t listen to him,” chimed in Zaki. “He only wants to show off.”
“Enough from you,” shot back Skandar, and Gina stared back at Zaki, a laugh bubbling up to cover her surprise.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?” The atmosphere in the SUV was so completely different from the way it had been when they arrived at the palace. “Do you two know each other? I mean, beyond—you know, working together?”
“Zaki and Hamila and I grew up together.” Skandar squeezed her hand. “We had the run of the city.”
“Yes, and now we have the run of the palace.” Hamila beamed, her joke making the rest of them laugh, and Skandar leaned forward to give the driver directions to the first spot.
Fifteen minutes later they pulled up in front of a brick wall painted a gleaming white and a set of gates in wrought iron. Behind it, Gina spied a lush green lawn dotted with planters of desert flowers in orange and pink, paths winding through them to the front door of a brick building in the same white as the fence. The four of them climbed out and stood close to the gates, peering through. “Is it a hotel?”
“A high school,” Zaki said. “Skandar won’t tell you all the things he got up to before we graduated.”
“I never did anything outside the rules,” Skandar said haughtily, and it made them laugh all over again. Gina felt a pang of regret. She hadn’t expected the people in the palace to be as nice as Zaki and Hamila were, and already the clock was ticking down to when they’d part ways. Zaki told a story about a prank they’d tried and failed to pull, and then they piled back in the SUV to see more of the city. A fountain where they’d spent time after school, before Skandar went back to the palace. Skandar’s favorite café, where they treated him like any other student, except for the added security. The final stop was an outdoor mall, arches decorating the sky over the street.
Tiny cafés dotted the area under the arches, along with little shops and restaurants. All of it seemed vaguely under construction, which had thinned out the crowd but not eliminated it. Zaki and Hamila led the way to a beverage cart—fresh juice, cold and sweet. The owner recognized Skandar and offered them free drinks.
“It’s like that, isn’t it?” Gina told Hamila as they carried their drinks down to the other side of the archway.
“What’s like that?”
“I noticed it while I worked as events staff during university. It’s always the people who need it the least who get offered the free gifts.”
Hamila nodded, and Skandar and Zaki came up to walk beside them. “I haven’t been out among the people for quite a while,” Skandar mused. “Except for in the desert.”
His eyes caught Gina’s in a blaze of heat. His formal robes were a fancy reminder of the clothes he’d worn there. The clothes he’d taken off there, for her. Memories breathed around her—his skin against hers, the power of his body moving with the rock of her hips, the pleasure, oh, the pleasure. Rising and cresting and—
“You’ve turned so red,” Hamila said, jerking Gina out of her thoughts. “Do you need to sit down?”
“No, no.” Gina kept walking, tipping her face up to the cool breeze. “Is that—is that water?”
“A man-made lagoon,” said Zaki from behind her.
The sight of water in the city—especially in a part of the city like this, which had half-built buildings and seemed to be reinventing itself—delighted her, and she moved out from under the archway. It was like an oasis. Gina’s heart thrummed underneath her breastbone, quickening as she got closer. She’d been married at an oasis.
“It’s nothing exciting.” Skandar stood beside her at the edge of the site, the two of them surrounded by greenery that had crept in despite the lagoon’s proximity to the city.
“He’s kidding you,” Zaki added. “We have a scientist in the city who wanted to test new ways to build bodies of water.” Skandar lifted his chin, but Zaki kept going. “He came up with a system to create a sustainable body of artificial salt or fresh water using fewer chemicals and less energy than the current methods we have.” Skandar narrowed his eyes at Zaki, and Gina took Skandar’s hand. Why? He didn’t need her comfort, not exactly, but she felt like she needed to stand between him and whatever embarrassment he was facing.
“It’s such an awesome idea.” She breathed in deeply, letting the ripples of the water rill in her ears. “So blue. There are so many possibilities for something like this.” Normally, she didn’t get excited about human developments—they were the kinds of things that made it hard for her to research. This was the opposite. This was bringing the desert back to the people. “There’s just so much you could do.” Her breath caught. The city could be partially returned to nature in this area.
Another voice interrupted her search for the words to share her ideas.
“Interesting. I saw a lot of potential here, too.”
Skandar squeezed Gina’s hand tight, his body tensing, the corners of his mouth curving into a frown. “Uncle Nassif,” he said lightly. “I see you came to visit your project.”
Gina put a smile on her face. “Hello.” Her voice wavered, though there was nothing particularly forbidding about the man. He wore dress pants and a crisp white shirt, and his dark hair had gone silver at the temples. “I’m Gina.”
“Yes, Nassif. Meet my wife. Gina, Nassif encouraged the engineers to test out all their theories and designs for a new kind of artificial body of water. It’s his plan for this area to become a revolutionary new urban area.” The sharp edge of Skandar’s voice told her all she needed to know about his thoughts on this. He’d been diplomatic before, Gina saw—he did not want buildings shoved up around the lagoon. The construction on the stores under the archway snapped into focus. If he’d loved this place before, then he wouldn’t want to see it torn apart for his uncle’s project.
Gina stepped closer to Skandar’s side, a chill running over her skin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Nassif bowed, slow and mocking, and when he straightened up again a smile spread across his face that reminded her of a tiger stalking its prey. “Oh, no. The pleasure is all mine.”
8
No danger—they were in no danger. The shadows of the royal guard had come into view all around them, inching closer by the second, and Nassif wouldn’t do anything physical or even risk trying anything in public. It would be too damaging to his challenge.
Skandar wanted to leave anyway. Every moment they spent near the lagoon, the uglier it looked to him. It had been such a lovely idea in the beginning. And it had gone so horribly wrong.
Gina pressed her hip another fraction of an inch into his, as if she wanted him to lead the way out of here, but she didn’t take a single step.
“You had quite the idea,” she offered. It broke his heart, how hard she tried for everyone, even a monster like Nassif.
“Are you interested in this kind of development?”
“Generally.” It was such a neutral answer from Gina, but the development was anything but neutral. It had led to his father’s illness and death. He’d ceded the land to his brother as a test site for the new sustainable, man-made body of fresh water. It had been carefully designed and maintained using fewer, harmless chemical systems to clean and circulate the water and had the benefit of creating green energy. But that wasn’t enough for Nassif. Once all the systems were online, Skandar’s uncle had announced his real plans for the place—a luxury development on the land that was now his, rather than using the water and space for the people of the country.
It had hurt his father in a way the old king had n
ever been able to show in public. Not when it was his own brother pulling the strings. But it had also damaged his reputation with the people, who resented the way the project had been taken from them and used for royal profit. Some of them had lost their homes to the new construction, the old buildings leveled.
And now Nassif was making a bid for the throne, against the wishes of his family. He had thrown the process into turmoil with the claim that his ideas would advance the kingdom and the people.
Lies. All lies. He only wanted to enrich himself and his cabal.
Skandar yanked himself out of his thoughts and back into the conversation.
“—look at those,” Gina was saying, her hand tight on his. “But I don’t think we have much time.”
No, we should leave. But Skandar didn’t want to give Nassif the impression that they were anything but a united front. “No, we don’t have much time. But you can show Gina what you want to show her.”
Nassif led the four of them to a small site office at the edge of the arched development, a hastily built office off the back of one of the cafés. Its shiny windows and slapped-on white paint meant nothing but an insult to Skandar. All it did was cover up the true nature of the project—money, as fast as it could be had, at any cost. The front window of the office was papered with gleaming photographs of the site as it had looked before Nassif got his hands on it. Before the lagoon had been built.
Gina leaned in close, and Nassif leaned in closer. “At first, we had to reshape the land for the lagoon. The existing structure was just far enough away for it to be able to stay standing while we did so. Made it easier for the workmen, too, with the cafés and the carts. They were some of the few who used those shops by that time.”
Nassif’s eyes shone as if he were really interested in the project for its own sake, but Skandar knew that gleam. It was the same look he’d had in his eyes when Skandar was a child. All those times he’d tried to get close to him—it was all to get the throne. It wasn’t because he was actually interested in any sort of relationship with Skandar, unless you counted the kind of relationship where Skandar happily promised the throne. Nassif had been open about that, after a while. So transparent that Skandar had told his parents.