He made a frustrated hissing noise under his breath. “I’ve waited so long for your explanation, and this is all I am to expect? A lie? And not even a very convincing one?”
“You really think I’d be so awful as to go to bed with Andrew, take photographs, and email them to you, the man I believed I was madly in love with at the time?”
“All evidence points to that conclusion,” he said frankly.
“Why would I do that?”
He scanned her face thoughtfully. “I believed it was because you’d been raised selfishly. That you wanted more of my attention than I was able to give you, and so you tried to earn it by making me jealous.”
For some reason, Julia laughed, though she was not even close to amused. “You’re kidding me? You’re a bloody genius, and that’s what you came up with?”
She spun back to the view and gripped the railing with both hands. “Why didn’t you talk to me? Then, I mean.”
“And give you what you wanted? You know I have more pride than that, Julia. To beg at the feet of a woman with so little regard for her body and her dignity…”
“I can’t believe this.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “So this marriage was your way of getting me back for some years’ old betrayal?”
“Not just that,” he contradicted honestly. “I always thought you would make a perfect royal wife.”
She shook her head angrily. “I told you the day you ‘proposed’ to me that I don’t want to be Queen.”
“And I said nothing,” he reminded her firmly. “I made you no promises.”
“But you knew how I felt. If you cared about me at all, why did you let me go through with this?”
“Because I wanted you,” he said honestly. “And I was prepared to do whatever it took to bring you to Naman as my wife.”
“Why?” She asked quietly, rubbing her hands along the smooth metal of the balustrade.
“Because I wanted you.” He repeated slowly.
“Like a possession,” she remembered with a shaking voice.
Zayn didn’t answer. Though he had known it was imminent, in some ways, he had not been prepared for the return of her memory just yet, and he certainly wasn’t ready to answer questions about the photographs.
“Amal has wanted to abdicate for years. It stands to reason your country will accept the transition more readily if you appear to have settled down. Married, maybe even with a child on the way.”
“Yes.” His eyes glowed in his symmetrical face and Julia fought the tide of nausea rising in her.
“But Zayn, you must have had any number of women begging to marry you.”
“The circumstances of our marriage made me believe you would always be loyal to me. After all, without my assistance, your father would be destitute by now.”
She nodded, sick comprehension dawning on her. “You really did want a wife you could control.”
“It’s more than that. I wanted you. Completely. I hadn’t stopped thinking about you in four years. I knew I had to marry you.”
“So you forced me to marry you. Real suave, Zayn.”
“Did I really have to force you?” He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face him. His eyes trapped hers in his analytical gaze and she felt a huge wall of sadness hit her in the face.
“What do you mean?” She asked, though she knew.
“You might not have slept with him, but you ended up in bed with Andrew. And I still couldn’t stop wanting you, despite despising you for your betrayal. I believe you despised my tactics, but are pleased with the result.”
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “The result? Being married to you?”
“Exactly.”