“He is there, beyond that door.”
Hakim pressed his back to the wall and motioned her past him. Megan stared at the cold eyes, the slash of a mouth. She didn’t want to move…
Motion through the lattice caught her eye.
She saw her husband, standing in the center of a small room. A woman was with him.
Her heart filled with dread. Don’t look, a voice inside her whispered. Megan, don’t look…
Her feet moved forward, seemingly of their own volition. She put her eye to the lattice, stared at the woman…and immediately recognized her. This was who she’d seen with Caz weeks ago, the stunning brunette who’d kissed him.
His cousin, Caz had said. She’d kissed him to thank him for not forcing her to marry a man she didn’t love.
She wasn’t kissing him now. Instead she was wrapped in his arms, her eyes closed, her face pressed to his chest. Caz…Caz’s eyes were closed, too. His chin rested on the top of the woman’s head.
A pulse began beating in Megan’s temple. She swung around, brushed past Hakim and hurried down the hall.
“Miss O’Connell! Wait.”
“I’m not going to spy on my husband.”
Hakim caught up to her where the corridor made its turn. “You are my lord’s wife. There are things you must know.”
Megan spun toward him. “I do know! Do you think you can make me jealous? My husband told me of this woman. She is his cousin.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“She was to marry a man she didn’t love.”
Hakim inclined his head. “That is correct, too.”
“She loves another man. My husband arranged for her to be with that man.”
“He did.”
“And—and what we just saw…” Megan drew a shuddering breath. ‘‘What we saw was—it was just her, thanking my husband again.”
“You are right, Miss O’Connell. It is all as you say.”
“Then what is this all about? Why did you bring me here? Why did you want me to see this?”
“You are not one of us.”
“Well, that’s an amazing revelation!”
“You know nothing of our traditions.”
“Oh, for God’s sake—”
She started to turn away. Hakim caught her arm. It was, she knew, as close to a capital offense as one could come in Suliyam. She was not just a woman, she was the king’s wife.
Her heart beat faster. She was alone in a place that looked as if no one even knew it existed, and the man with her had hated her from the minute he’d set eyes on her.
“Take your hands off me,” she said sharply, “or my husband will hear of this.”
“You have bewitched him, “Hakim said, his words thick with disdain.
“Did you hear me? Let go!”