She looked up at him. ‘Because it was my home. At least the only one I’ve known. And it suited my purpose to stay. I studied at the local college and it was cheaper to live there than to move out.’
‘But your stepfather insisted you work for him as a condition of your remaining there?’
‘As housekeeper, you mean? Yes, but it didn’t really feel like work. I loved that house,’ she said. ‘The old library, my mother’s roses. Even the leaky roof and the crazy antique plumbing. Yes, sometimes things were difficult, and I often worried over how we’d get the house through another winter without money for repairs. But I got to see Nate when he came home for visits, and Edward had been my guardian and the only parent I ever had. I guess I hoped that one day he’d—’ She stopped, shook her head. ‘You don’t want to hear about this.’
‘Yes, I do.’ He reached out, taking her hand in his. ‘Tell me, please.’
She looked at their entwined fingers, then met his earnest gaze. ‘I secretly hoped that one day he’d be like a real dad,’ she said. ‘You know...that he’d choose me first.’
‘Choose you first?’ he repeated, in a soul-stealing voice, and those little tendrils of hope came flooding back, curling around her heart.
‘Everyone who should have loved me and looked out for me,’ she whispered, ‘they chose something else instead. My dad chose his career over his wife and daughter. My grandfather chose family pride over me. My mum... Well, you know how that turned out.’
She hadn’t meant to share all that with him. But under that intense gaze and the slow caress of his thumb across her knuckles it had slipped out.
‘So that’s why you stayed with your stepfather?’
‘Yes—though it made no difference. Edward couldn’t have cared less. About me or my mum. Like my real father, I suppose. There’s only one thing I know about him for certain. At the beginning at least, he loved Mum enough to defy my grandfather, make everything legal and get married. He must have cared then. I’ve clung to that.’
‘Sir?’ An aide had appeared and bent to whisper in Khaled’s ear.
He listened, frowning. Then, with only a curt nod to her, as if she’d being talking about nothing more significant than the weather, he followed the aide from the terrace.
‘That’s the thing about royals,’ said George, strolling over. ‘One never really has their full attention. Aisha will understand, of course. Being royal herself.’
‘Aisha?’ Lily parroted, still stunned by the way Khaled had simply left.
‘It’s actually a secret. But I don’t want to see you getting hurt, so I think you should know.’ He sank to the cushions beside her. ‘Khaled is in negotiations for the hand in marriage of the eldest daughter of the Qaydari King. Our border with them sits in the middle of the Sakhr mountains. I assume that’s what His Highness was pointing out to you before?’
She’d poured out all that stuff about wanting someone to choose her first, stupidly thinking that Khaled genuinely cared. When what he actually cared about was the woman he was negotiating to marry—the woman he’d already chosen.
A stab of pain pierced her heart. Swift and sure. Lily didn’t like the Queen’s cousin, but she was grateful to him. He couldn’t have told her about the Qaydari Princess at a better time. It reminded her that none of this was real. Khaled wouldn’t ever really be there for her. Despite his offer to help.
Nothing had changed.
She was no worse off than before.
So why did it feel as though a piece of her had just split apart and fallen in two?
CHAPTER EIGHT
THENEXTMORNINGthe photos were everywhere.
Photos of her gazing up at Khaled, all dreamy and besotted as they stepped from that store.
Of him holding her hand at the restaurant while she looked helplessly dazzled.
Pathetic.
Lily flung her phone across the bed. She’d fallen for his false charm twice in one day and now there were stupid photos to prove it.
When she thought he’d steered them to a quiet corner of the roof terrace so they could talk privately, he’d been manoeuvring her to the best spot for the long-lens cameras.
Had that almost-kiss been part of the act, too?
She groaned and flung up an arm to cover her eyes.
Why did she have to think about that?