Olivia felt sick. She pushed the phone away and stood up, moving to stare at the golf course. Her eyes were blurred though, her head spinning. She wanted to deny it, but it made so much sense. What other explanation was there, for the way he’d pursued her so obsessively? Why he’d fought to bring her to Talidar?
She closed her eyes and moaned softly. “I’d like to be alone now.”
“Sure.” Selena shrugged, drained her coffee cup and rose to standing. Her dark eyes narrowed. “I’m so glad we had this chat.”
Olivia didn’t turn around. She waited until she’d heard the door to her private apartment being closed, and then sobbed. None of it made any sense. She turned around and looked at the table, and saw only Marni’s face. Marni’s eyes. Marni’s smile. Marni who had loved Tamir, and been hurt by him. Hurt enough to take her own life!
Olivia pushed angrily through the doors, and stared around the room with no clear idea what she ought to do. Her first instinct was to run, but she had no idea how to do that. Though their relationship had developed into so much more than that of prisoner and captor, she was still effectively in his clutches. It wasn’t as if she could simply book a flight home. Besides, when she thought of Tamir, she knew she had to see him. One last time. To let him try to explain.
She showered slowly, and dressed with care. When he returned from his business trip, she would confront him. And she would make her decisions based on the answers he could give her.
* * *
His need to see Olivia was an actual physical requirement. It controlled him. It caused him to conclude his meetings far earlier than he should have. It brought him home in his helicopter, and straight to their palace bedroom. She was not there. He frowned, as he scanned the room, and his eyes fell on the emptiness of their sanctuary.
He inhaled her scent, and it brought a smile to his face.
“Sir, Her Highness is waiting for you in your office.”
“My office?” He frowned as he turned on his heel and stalked across the palace. Why his office? Why not where he wanted her? Where he could be alone with her?
He pushed the heavy door inwards, ignoring the servant who would have done it for him. Olivia was sitting on the edge of his desk, staring out towards the window. She was wearing a simple black dress, with a pale gold scarf. Her hair was pulled back in a loose plait.
He wanted to pull her into his arms.
He crossed the room, but the rigid set of her features made him pause.
“Olivia?” He asked quietly, instead pressing a chaste kiss against her cheek.
She swallowed. Nervous tension was a bundle in her chest. “We need to talk.”
He disguised his frown. “Of course. I trust you are well?”
She made a strangled noise of dissent and flapped her hand to her throat. Where to begin? She closed her eyes briefly, and then stared straight into his dark and solicitous gaze. “Were you ever going to tell me about Marni?”
He straightened, as though a rod of metal had been injected into his spine. “No. Why should I? She is nothing to us.”
Olivia made a noise of disbelief. “She’s everything to do with us. She’s the reason you married me. The reason you brought me here.”
Tamir managed to contain his reaction with the greatest of difficulties. “Your information is flawed.”
“I saw for myself. My God, Tamir. I look just like her.”
Tamir had an odd sense that his grip on the situation was being wrested from his hand. “You do not.”
“Selena showed me a picture. No wonder you pursued me so aggressively.”
He grabbed her hands and squeezed them in his, reassuringly. Promisingly. “Marni was the farthest person from my mind that night. It was all you, Olivia.”
“Don’t keep lying to me!” She stomped her foot angrily. “I saw her.” She closed her eyes, and the image of Marni flashed behind her eyelids. “Were you disappointed when I got here and you saw my hair was curly, and not straight as hers?”
He groaned. “That is ridiculous. I never once thought of you as Marni, until Selena remarked on the likeness. Yes, you have blonde hair, and the same coloring. Your eyes are similar. Even your smiles, in some ways, but I approached you at the theatre because I couldn’t keep my eyes off you. It was your happiness and joy; the way you watched the performance with your whole body. You were the most beautiful person I’d ever seen. Marni did not enter the equation.”
Olivia wanted to believe him. So badly, she wanted to think that there was something real between them. But it flew in the face of everything sensible she knew to be true. “Do you expect me to believe that you married me after less than two days just because I enjoyed watching the orchestra?” Her tone was rich with scorn. “It doesn’t make sense! It doesn’t add up. If the last month has taught me anything, it’s that you just aren’t that spontaneous. Nor are you inherently risk-taking. Our marriage makes no sense. Unless you allow for the fact that I reminded you so strongly of Marni.”
Tamir’s gut clenched with uncertainty and panic. Two emotions that were completely foreign to him. “Selena had no business planting this doubt inside of you.”
“You should have told me yourself,” she chastised, stepping away from him.