‘Wait!’
She kept walking, head up, shoulders back, but she stumbled as if she wasn’t watching her step.
His heart twisted. ‘Tori.’
‘There’s nothing to say.’
But there was. So much he barely knew where to start. He inserted himself between her and the bedroom door, frustrating her attempt to shove him aside.
‘This isn’t about me protecting my position—it’s about protectingyou.’
‘You’re not protecting me. You’re banishing me.’
His heart, the organ he’d so long thought dormant, beat harder at the torment in her voice.
‘If you’re not here they’ll focus on me, like they always have. You won’t be a target.’
Silence. Silence that lasted so long he wondered if she were trying to freeze him out. Finally she blinked, like a sleepwalker rousing.
‘The stories aren’t about you?’
‘Partly. But...’
But the most negative ones made it sound as if he’d fallen prey to some avariciousfemme fatalewho went through men like a fish through water.
‘They focus on me, then,’ she murmured. ‘That makes sense. It makes you look bad and you can’t afford that.’
Unable to stop himself, Ashraf grabbed her upper arms and pulled her close. ‘How many times do I have to say it? I’m used to bad press. It’syouI want to protect. You shouldn’t have to put up with this.’
Her eyes rounded and she stopped trying to pull free. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Yes, I’m serious!’
He saw her blink and realised he’d raised his voice. It was something he never did. His father had shouted all the time when he was riled—at him, at servants, at inanimate objects.
Ashraf shuddered. Another sign he was losing control.
‘Tell me what they’re saying,’ she said.
At first he refused, but Tori wore him down. When he’d finished she shook her head sadly and Ashraf knew he was right to send her away. If only he had the courage to do it.
‘You’d really banish me so the press won’t hound me?’
His chest rose high on a deep breath. ‘It’s not banishment. It’s—’
‘Sending me away from the man I love is banishment.’ Her soft voice cut across his.
Everything inside Ashraf stilled. Even his pulse slowed, before speeding up to a gallop. He swallowed. This time the sand in his throat had been replaced with a choking knot of tangling emotion.
‘You don’t love me.’
It was impossible. Even his mother hadn’t loved him, choosing instead to run off with her paramour and leave Ashraf to her husband’s mercy.
‘Why don’t I?’
Tori’s smile trembled and his heart with it. He shook his head, unwilling to say the words. It was too big a risk. Yet perhaps for the first time in his life he needed to open himself up, though it made him even more vulnerable.
‘Because I’ve never craved anything so much. And life’s taught me never to expect such a blessing.’