More Precious than a Crown

‘The closer you get, the less I can see.’

‘Can I be your mistress?’

‘I would never take a mistress,’ Zahid said. ‘Which is why I would not have been at any christening.’ She worried him so. ‘Why would you want to be a mistress?’

‘It was a joke, Zahid.’ Trinity tried to turn it into that. In fact, she didn’t want to be a mistress, just something of his.

‘So how will you decide who will be your bride?’

‘Alliances.’

She turned onto her back and chose to stare at the ceiling for she did not like his detached answer and it did not sound like him, or rather it did not sound like the Zahid that only she saw. ‘So you’ll marry for alliances with the hope love will grow?’

‘Love is for fools and peasants, not for a future king.’

‘Thanks,’ Trinity said, and she turned and watched his haughty face twitch into a slight smile. ‘Then I’m either a fool or a peasant.’

‘I was not talking about you.’

‘Of course you are. Just because you are going to be king one day, you think feelings are beneath you...’

‘I am telling you how it is in my land,’ Zahid said, refusing to be swayed. ‘I am telling you my reasoning.’ But not all of it. He chose not to tell her about his father’s illness and when Layla had been born, for he could not share that with another and remain aloof, could not return to that memory and somehow stay detached, yet he knew to be fair to Trinity he must make things clear. ‘I am telling you that in Ishla things will be very different between us.’ He went to get up. ‘I will have some refreshments brought in to you and then you should get dressed as we need to be out there when the plane starts its descent.’

‘I know things will be different but we’re not in Ishla yet,’ Trinity said, as he rose from the bed and went to the door and she waited, breath held as Zahid halted and went against his own moral code, just for that one last time with her.

She watched as he turned and then undressed and it was Trinity who held the covers open this time. Naked beside him, it felt as if she had been cold for the entire month and had just remembered how it felt to be warm. ‘Thank you,’ Trinity said.

‘I haven’t done anything yet.’

‘For making me happy. I shouldn’t be happy today but I am.’

‘You should be happy every day,’ Zahid said, for even on the worst days they made the other smile.

His mouth was tender. It was a slow and long kiss for even if they did not have very long he still did not rush her.

Slow was the hand that explored her, that stroked her breasts and then her hips, and Trinity could feel the building need in him. When she rolled to her back, when he moved deep into her, Zahid took his own weight on his elbows and their kissing stopped and he looked down at Trinity as she looked back at him.

She felt him build, yet she felt him hold back and it was his passion she wanted.

‘You don’t have to be careful around me.’

She saw the twist of pain on his lips, for the news had devastated him, she knew.

‘You don’t have to hold back,’ Trinity said, because she wanted the Zahid who wanted her as she was, with no thought what had been. And right now she wanted his anger, for she was angry too and had every right to be—this was their last time. ‘Please don’t hold back on me, Zahid.’

He took her the way he wanted to and drove hard into her, but far from scaring her he drove her fear away, for her hands were pressing him in and her body was arching to his as they both refused to allow anything other than themselves in the bedroom.

It was Zahid who shouted and to feel him unleash just unravelled her more.

Deep, intense, blissful was the orgasm that met his and Trinity did her best not to cry out, but did and then frantically glanced at the door, but he brought her face back with his hand and his mouth took her moans and there was nothing she was scared of with Zahid.

‘You were right,’ Zahid said, looking down at the woman he would crave for ever. ‘My feelings are beneath me.’

It took a moment for Trinity to understand his words.

Yes, his feelings lay beneath him right now, every one of them contained in her.

As a bell warned that they would soon be descending, Zahid knew he must leave feelings here.

He just wasn’t sure how.

They quickly washed and dressed but instead of putting on his suit, for the first time she saw him in robes and wearing a kafiya.

He saw her startle.

‘I...’ She didn’t know what to say. ‘It all seems a bit more real now.’

‘I don’t know if I am making things worse for you,’ Zahid admitted, for it had simply seemed right to bring her when he had found out what had happened. The reality, though, made little sense.

‘I don’t want to meet the women you’ll...’

‘I know.’

For the first time jealousy stirred in Trinity and despite herself she wanted to know more.

‘Must she be a virgin?’

‘Trinity, we need to get back to our seats,’ Zahid said, for he did not want to discuss his future wife now.

‘So you’re not going to answer my question?’

‘She must have kept herself only for me.’

He went to open the door but her words halted him. His kiss, his lovemaking, the way he had been with her had changed her world and Zahid deserved to know the gift he had given to her. ‘I have.’

She saw the line between his eyes deepen as he tried to fathom her words.

‘There’s been no one but you, apart from...’

‘Don’t,’ Zahid said. ‘Don’t put the two together, for what that bastard did does not count in any land that I would rule.’ He did not know what to believe. ‘Trinity, the woman I took to bed that day was confident...’

‘Not at first,’ she admitted. ‘Zahid, I’ve had issues since that night, I’ve tried so many things. I know I flirt, I know I seem bold but that’s how I am with you...’

‘I should have known!’ Zahid said. ‘I would have done things differently.’

‘Exactly!’ Trinity said, as the bell carried on pinging and then there was a knock on the door.

Zahid called out something in Arabic.

‘Had I told you the truth, would it have happened?’ When Zahid didn’t answer, Trinity did for him. ‘Of course not.’

‘You should have told me.’

‘No.’ Trinity shook her head. ‘Because then it would never have happened and I refuse to regret that it did. I know it can’t happen again,’ she said. ‘I get it that it doesn’t change things.’

But for Zahid it did.

CHAPTER NINE

TRINITY HAD NEVER really given his land much thought but as they neared she looked down at and knew it was not what she might have expected.

Old married new, for there were ancient villages, yet as they flew along the peninsula she saw too the high glitter of modern architecture, but most beautiful by far was the palace for it gleamed the brightest all.

‘It’s amazing.’ When she got no response she glanced over at Zahid, whose face might have been carved from one of the stone palace walls.

‘Zahid....’

There was no chance to talk. The plane was a second from landing and as it hit the palace runway, Zahid was actually grateful for the jolt of landing and the sound of wheels on the tarmac for it gave him two seconds away from his thoughts.

He had been her first.

He needed to process it, they needed to discuss it, but first somehow he had to clear his head.

A car drove them the short distance from the plane and though Zahid’s driver did his best to keep his face impassive, Trinity could feel him repeatedly glancing in the rear-view mirror. It was the same when they arrived. The maids gaped in surprise as Prince Zahid arrived with a blonde foreigner dressed only in black and Trinity stood, her face burning, as Zahid spoke to a man in Arabic, who then walked off.

‘That is Abdul, my father’s chief aide, I have told him to let my father know that I wish to speak with him and to have a suite arranged for you.’ He halted and turned as a very beautiful, raven-haired woman walked towards them with a curious expression on her face. ‘This is my sister, Layla.’

‘And this is?’ Layla asked, when for once Zahid forgot his manners.

‘Trinity,’ Zahid responded, and Trinity watched as Layla raised an eyebrow and waited for her brother to elaborate. ‘Trinity Foster.’

‘It is lovely to meet you, Trinity,’ Layla said.

‘I am about to let Father know that I have a guest,’ Zahid said. ‘Layla, perhaps you could help Trinity to settle in and sort out some clothes and things for her. She came at short notice and so has nothing much with her.’

‘Of course.’ Layla smiled. ‘This way.’

They were all so terribly polite, Trinity thought. Surely Layla must have a thousand questions but instead a maid was called and they drank mint tea as they waited for her room to be readied.

* * *

The king, though, did not hold back.

‘Zahid,’ the king said sharply. ‘You said you wanted nothing more to do with that family...’

‘I was not referring to Trinity when I said that.’ He looked at his father.

‘Perhaps,’ the king said, ‘but here the rules are different.’