She felt as if she was being sucked into the gray depths of his eyes. Helpless under this sustained attack, Analia finally whispered, ‘Yes. I meant it.’
His jaw tightened. ‘What is it that you want, Analia?’
She frowned. ‘I don’t...what do you mean?’
‘Exactly that...what do you want?’
Analia just looked at him. No one had ever asked her that question in her life. She felt scared, disorientated. ‘I want my people to be happy. And safe. Secure.’
Daniel shook his head. ‘No, I want to hear what you want.’
Analia felt a kind of panic rising, a well worn urge to deny herself. ‘I told you...I want what’s best for my people. That’s always been my first priority.’ Her conscience slapped her. Until she’d gone looking for adventure in Venice.
Daniel shook his head again, his eyes flashing. “What do you want, Analia? Just for you?”
What he was asking was huge. She felt cornered. Her vision started blurring, her throat ached. ‘I’m not allowed to want. It’s not about me.’
‘So you’re ready to give up everything you’ve ever dreamed of and everything you’ve worked so hard for just because you’re afraid to admit to human frailty? Why shouldn’t you be allowed personal happiness too?’
A ball of emotion was growing in Analia’s chest. ‘Why are you doing this?’
As relentless as a steam train bearing down on her emotions, Daniel merely asked again, ‘What do you want, Analia?’
Something finally broke apart inside her. Letting out a small sob she gripped the table and said, ‘I want everything. I want it all. I want love. I want you.’
A collective gasp went through the crowd of seasoned hacks but Analia was unaware of it. Something like relief crossed Daniel’s face and he came right up to the table, walking around it and up to Analia where he gently tugged her out of the chair to stand. The chair fell behind her. The bodyguards took a step closer. But neither noticed those things. Analia couldn’t feel her legs. She could only look up into that gorgeous face.
‘Tha
t’s good,’ he said softly, eyes blazing with an emotion that Analia couldn’t dare to let herself believe in. ‘Because I need you and want you too. But I want more.’
Analia’s voice was choked, ‘You do?’
He nodded. ‘I want it all too and I want nothing less than your heart.’
Analia could only look at him, wide-eyed. Daniel’s hands were strong around her waist, anchoring her. She had a moment of déjà vu back to the boat in Venice when he’d lifted her in and she’d had that sense of something deep passing between them.
‘You’ve had my heart since the moment I saw you...’
He lifted a hand and cupped her jaw, making her breath hitch. ‘So it wasn’t just me then?’
She shook her head. Mesmerized. Floating.
Without her realizing what he was doing, he maneuvered them away from everyone by a few feet. He shook his head and spoke in a low voice, just for her ears, ‘It killed me that you’d known who I was but hadn’t contacted me. It killed me to think that you’d just used me like some kind of a pawn for a night of personal hedonism. It killed me to think that you would only have contacted me because of the baby.’
Analia reached out and touched his jaw, reverently, her heart swelling with love and wonder. ‘I wanted to contact you, so much. I dreamed of you. I’ve put myself second for so long that I didn’t even dare to believe I could have you...and then I found out I was pregnant. I was going to tell you, but I was scared...that I’d meant nothing to you.’
Daniel shook his head and declared softly, ‘When I woke up and you were gone I felt as if you’d ripped my heart out of my chest. But I couldn’t believe it, because I’ve never allowed my heart to breathe before now. I was so concerned about protecting myself from the pain of rejection because it was all I knew.’
Analia hiccuped softly, ‘I was so lonely until I met you. I’d always felt as if a part of me was missing.’
He stroked her cheek, cupped her jaw. ‘Together we’re whole.’
He cupped her face in his hands then and slanted his mouth over hers. Desire, hot and instant, engulfed them and the only thing that broke through their bubble of intimacy was the loud, persistent coughing of Analia’s grand vizier who was desperately trying to maintain some semblance of control.
Daniel pulled back and looked at Analia’s flushed face. It took her a second to open her eyes and they shone brilliantly, like two sapphires. The love he felt for this woman almost scared him with its intensity and he could see the same wonder reflected in her eyes.
He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. He could see that she’d forgotten where she was and that the world’s media had been witness to almost every word except for their last exchange.