“But why?”
Tamir shook his head. “He does not matter. He is no longer a part of my service. He will never bother you again.”
She stared at him, her surprise obvious in her features. “You fired him?”
“I dispensed with him,” Tamir corrected with a nonchalant shrug. “I require only those I can trust. He is not such a man as I thought.” He lifted her arm, and gently touched the bruised flesh of her elbow. “He hurt you. Do you not understand? In doing so, he also hurt me. I cannot forgive him for his treatment of you. I will not.”
She shivered. “He was so angry.”
“I know.” He pulled her closer. “He didn’t understand. About us.”
Olivia’s heart turned over in her chest. Brazenly, she forced herself to look at him. “I don’t think even I understand about us.”
Tamir wasn’t sure what to say. Truth warred with sense; logic battled instinct. His voice was thick with emotion when he spoke. “Then don’t think about understanding. Come swimming.”
“In there?”
He nodded.
“In what?”
He grinned. “I have swimwear for you in the jeep.”
She arched a brow. “You mean I can actually wear bathers?”
He nodded. “At my private beach, certainly.”
The swimwear was, in fact, reasonably modest. A simple black one piece, it barely hinted at her cleavage. But nothing could disguise the slender length of her tanned legs. A tent had been erected on the sand dunes, and Olivia emerged from it feeling strangely self-conscious, given that she was virtually alone, with her husband.
“Definitely only at my beach,” Tamir muttered, when Olivia stepped out onto the hot white sand of the beach. He had thought the suit perfectly acceptable, until he saw for himself the way it caressed her body. It displayed her curves to anyone who cared to look. He glowered as she approached, until Olivia laughed.
“It is really very modest, Tamir. Stop looking at me as though I’m about to perform a striptease in front of a thousand men.”
The very imagery had his spine straightening. He pulled at her waist, crushing her body to his. It startled Olivia, so that her green eyes flew to his face. “The only man you will ever be naked for again is me.”
Her heart turned over in her chest, and she forced herself to say what she’d been thinking for days. The fear that had lodged in her chest. “This isn’t a real marriage, Tamir.” As the words left her mouth, she wished she could recall them.
Tamir’s expression was like stone, but his chest was rising rapidly, in time with his heartbeat. He forced himself to speak calmly. “Meaning?”
She looked away, her mouth dry. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand why you married me, but I know it can’t last.” She bit down on her lip. “You’ll get tired of me eventually… and I’ll go back to my life. This will all just be a dream. And one day,” she dredged a smile up from the depths of her unhappiness, “when I’m old and very grey, I’ll wonder if it really happened. The time I became a princess of a beautiful, mysterious country, for a while.”
He almost groaned, for the image she was painting. It spoke of a time when this would all be in the past. An inevitable conclusion to what they now shared. His voice was deep with desire when he spoke. “I have never married before. Why are you so certain this is not going to last?”
She shook her head wistfully. “Because we have sex in common, and that’s it.” She lifted her hands to his chest. “Sex is why you approached me at the theatre, and sex is why I came to the embassy. We’re no different to any other couple who got caught up in that first infatuation of physical connection.”
“What if I don’t let you go,” he whispered in her ear, running his hands down her back.
She laughed shakily, pushing him away. “You will.”
“You’re so certain?”
“Yes.” She took a shaky step towards the water.
“How can you be?”
“Simple.” She turned to face him challengingly. “Do you love me?”
He froze, his dark face impossible to read. He stared at her in a complete panic. Her blonde hair whipped around her face, reminding him of the fabric he’d seen on the golf course. Her face was silhouetted by the sun, pale and luminous with magical green eyes. He stared at her, but did not speak.