‘Just tell him Sienna says hello.’
‘Hello?’ he echoed faintly, and then nodded, giving a deep bow before leaving the room.
Sienna felt as if she was operating on some kind of autopilot as she continued with the ritual of decorating cupcakes with Cara. She realised that she was waiting for something, but was not quite sure how she knew—or what, indeed, she was waiting for.
But then her mobile phone rang, and she knew who it would be even before she saw ‘Hashim’ flashing on the screen. Her heart started beating fit to burst.
‘Sienna?’
‘Abdul has been to see me,’ she blurted out.
‘I know he has.’
‘You didn’t think to warn me?’
‘Did you need me to?’ he questioned coolly.
‘He says you’re going to broadcast to the nation.’
‘Indeed I am.’
‘He wanted me to try and stop you.’
‘And are you?’
Sienna laughed. ‘It would be like trying to stop the sun from rising if you had your heart set on something.’
Oh, how true her words. Hashim smiled. ‘Good,’ he murmured. ‘I am glad that we understand one another.’
‘Hashim…’ Sienna hesitated. ‘You aren’t going to do anything foolish, are you?’
Well, that was all down to which way you looked at it. But that was not the answer she needed to hear right now. ‘No, Sienna.’ His voice sounded strangely controlled, but there was a hint of mockery underpinning it. ‘If I send a jet for you then will you fly out to Qudamah?’
Her world spun. A jet? To Qudamah? ‘Why?’ she breathed.
There was a pause. ‘My mother wishes to meet you.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SIENNA’S first sight of Hashim’s palace was against a backdrop of stars—like a distant castle in a fairy tale—and she touched her fingers to her lips in disbelief and a growing sense of wonder. As if this could not be happening. Not now, and not to her.
But it was.
She was summoned to a room all golden and sapphire-blue, but she was scarcely aware of the lavish and opulent décor for only one figure dominated her line of vision. As he always did. Tall and lean and proud—the beautiful-ugly face tense. His flowing white robes made him look like a stranger, but his eyes were oh-so-familiar. Burning into her like smouldering coals that heated her skin and warmed her heart.
He nodded when he saw her, as if she had just confirmed something in his mind, but Sienna was terribly aware of protocol and of the presence of his servants—even though they had their eyes averted. And so she simply nodded back—as if they were two commuters who passed each other on the train platform every morning.
With a curt, clipped statement in his native tongue he dismissed the servants, and after the room was emptied he stood staring at her for long, countless seconds.
‘Now come to me,’ he commanded.
She went like a woman willingly sleepwalking. Towards him. Summoned by her Sheikh. Into his arms. The place where she most wanted to be.
There was no kiss, just a fierce embrace which seemed to force all the breath out of her lungs. He clasped her against him and pressed his face to her scented hair. His words were muffled.
‘You know that I love you, don’t you, Sienna?’
Sienna pulled away and stared up at him, her eyes blinking rapidly, certain that she must have misheard him. ‘Hashim?’