She opened the wrought-iron gate, which led to the wilder part of the garden. It was only when she’d walked through the palms and bushes toward the central fountain that she stopped. She dipped her hand in the water, which sparkled under the rising crescent moon. Gabrielle allowed the sound of water, the smell of the newly watered gardens, and the heavy scents of flowers to calm her spirits. And it worked until she inhaled another scent.
She opened her eyes wide and turned as the smell of sandalwood, leather, and fresh desert air invaded her nostrils. He was walking toward her. She turned quickly, looking for a place to hide, but it was too late. His eyes were locked on her.
“Gabrielle,” Zavian greeted, coming to a stop a few paces away from her.
“Zavian.” She nodded awkwardly, instantly forgetting all the doubts and irritation and anger that had filled her day. He was here, now, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. He had the lights of the building behind him, and she couldn’t see his face. The silence lengthened between them. “You’ve been away,” she said, trying to fill the silence and instantly regretting it. She sounded as if she’d missed him. But wasn’t that the truth?
“Yes. But I’m back now.” He paused. “Would you care to join me for a drink?”
Her heart thumped. Was he going to continue where they left off in the desert? Or was he going to tell her that he’d had a change of heart and that it had been a one-off, and that there would be no recurrence—that the ‘cure’ had been affected?
“Sure.” She gave him a brief, uncertain smile. She suddenly remembered her promise to the museum director. “We’ve finished the piece on the Qur’an. We just need your sign-off.”
He stepped aside and indicated she should join him. “We’ll talk of it over a drink.”
He was stalling. Something had happened, but she didn’t know what. Was it the Qur’an, was it politics with the kings, or was it her?
He seemed distracted as they walked the short distance across the garden. He opened the gate for her and followed her through. From there, instead of turning to her bedroom suite, they turned the other way, and she found herself stepping into his private apartments. She hadn’t realized that they were so close to hers.
At least he didn’t show her into his bedroom. Although she wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign. How could she know what a good sign was when she didn’t know what it was she wanted?
“Please take a seat.”
He opened the drinks cabinet. “Would you like a drink? An aperitif, maybe?”
She raised an eyebrow. “A gin and tonic would be great, thanks. But I thought you left things like that to the staff. Have you given everyone the night off?”
He glanced at her sideways but ignored her teasing comment, and dropped some ice into a cut-glass tumbler, followed by the gin and tonic, and poured himself a whiskey on ice. He handed her the drink and took a long sip himself before placing it on the table.
“You look like you needed that.” She tried to sound as calm as possible, but inside she was anything but.
He shrugged and sat down, his eyes settling on her as if he was trying to decide something.
She took a sip of her drink and pushed it onto the table, sitting up tall. “What’s going on, Zavian? You’ve been behaving strangely ever since we left the cave.”
His eyes flickered at the memory, and his expression warmed. “Yes,” he agreed.
“Is that it?” She gave a half-laugh.
He sat back in the chair, hooking a leg over his knee as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “I met with Amir and Roshan.”
“Ah, I remember you used to talk about them. But that was in days before you became king.”
“Yes, we were friends first, and now we work together for the good of our kingdoms. We meet regularly, but today’s meeting was unscheduled.”
“Oh.”
An unscheduled meeting. Something extraordinary must have come up. Gabrielle wondered what it might be. There was a pause while she waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t.
“So what have you been doing today?” he asked as if the previous conversation hadn’t ended on a cliffhanger. “So, you’ve finished…”
She took another sip of her drink and crossed her legs primly. If he wanted to play it that way, it was fine with her. “Yes. We spent all day on it.” She’d intended to give him only the minimum. Still, after she began talking about how the team had worked to produce such an exciting exhibit, she found she’d told him every little detail of how the afternoon had gone. Even at the end of that, she still had no idea what he was thinking. He continued to sit, his hands rubbing his lips from time to time, as if deep in thought, his eyes never leaving hers. “So, are you pleased with the progress of the story?”
He looked up and eyed her straight. “Up to a point.”
“And that point is?”
“When you said that you wouldn’t front the video because it’s not appropriate. Why do you consider it inappropriate?”