Penny removed her glasses and tried to rub the grit from her eyes. Not sleeping all night did that to a girl. How fitting that she was leaving El Zafir in just about the same condition as she’d arrived. There should have been something satisfying about coming full circle. Well, not quite full.
She’d fallen asleep in the office. Rafiq had offered marriage without emotional commitment. There was something not quite equal in the two humiliations. The first had upset her dignity, the second had broken her heart.
Her first day had been filled with the exhilaration of fulfilling her dream to start a preschool in her mother’s name. The following days she’d begun to hope for her own fairy tale. Both fantasies had disappeared at the stroke of midnight—or more to the point had been ripped apart when she realized Rafiq didn’t love her and never could.
She stood at the French door, looking into the garden below her balcony. She’d grown to love El Zafir—the country, the people, the members of the royal family. Saying goodbye to Princess Farrah had been more difficult than she’d anticipated.
And then there was Rafiq.
It would tear her apart to leave. But she couldn’t stay. Sighing, she remembered her words to him last night—that she might never achieve her dream. She wouldn’t let a personal misstep keep her from a goal she’d cherished for as long as she could remember. It would just require more sacrifice, dedication and ingenuity. Earning the start-up capital would take so much longer without the employment incentives offered by El Zafir. But Penny was sure her mother would understand that staying, seeing Rafiq and knowing he could never return her feelings, was more than she could bear.
A knock sounded on her door. She’d called for someone to take her bags to the car. That was probably an attendant. On her way through the living room, she noticed the black lace dress she hadn’t persuaded herself to wear the previous night carelessly tossed over a chair. She gazed at it and instantly tears burned at the backs of her eyes. She’d felt beautiful in that dress. Or maybe it was the expression in Rafiq’s eyes when he’d looked at her.
She blinked furiously but the moisture still blurred her vision. But she was leaving. Why should she care if she was a blubbering mess when she answered the door? She opened it, shocked to see Rafiq standing there.
“Penny,” he said.
He looked terrible. He looked like she felt, as if he hadn’t slept in days. His slacks were wrinkled. So was the white shirt with the sleeves rolled to just below his elbows. Stubble darkened his cheeks and jaw. She’d never seen him anything less than impeccably groomed—hardly even a hint of a crease in his slacks, let alone not cleanly shaven. Was it what she’d said last night? Pity started to creep in. It took every ounce of her strength, but she managed to bite back words of apology.
“Your Highness.”
“Since when do you address me in such a formal manner?” he asked, moving into the entryway.
“It’s better than ‘Your Worship.”’ She was being a smart aleck. It was her last means of defense.
“Indeed it is.” He stood with his hands behind his back and glanced down at her suitcases. “Please close the door.”
“Is that an order?”
“It is if that’s the only way I can compel you to obey.”
She closed the door. “What is it you want? I didn’t think we had more to say.”
He pulled her satin pump from behind his back. “You left this.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Although it wasn’t necessary to return it. I left the other one in the bedroom.”
He set it on a table beside the door. “Its mate?”
“Yes,” she said. “Along with the rest of the clothes that are part of the job. I’d love to stick around and see your assistant in some of those numbers. He’s probably—”
“Not your size,” he interrupted. “You were going to leave without saying goodbye.” Anger laced his words.
“We said everything there was to say last night.”
He shook his head. “Hardly.”
“What else is there?”
“I have secured in your name the land you wanted for the preschool.”
“Why should I believe you?”
He pulled an envelope from his coat pocket and held it out. “The papers are in here, including names and phone numbers of the agent who negotiated the transaction and the bank representative who is handling the account for construction, start-up and operation.”
With shaking fingers, she took it and glanced through the paperwork. It was all there. “You’re giving me my preschool?”
He shrugged. “It is important to you.”
“But why? After what I said—”
“My aunt has grown fond of you. She blames me for your hasty departure. And the fact that I’ve deprived her of an able and amusing assistant.”
Penny turned away, hiding the tears that sprang to her eyes again. “I will miss Princess Farrah very much.”
“Is there anyone else you will miss?”
You, she wanted to say. But she couldn’t and still maintain her dignity. “I regret that I must leave before my contract is fulfilled. But the princess understood and said she wouldn’t force me to stay if I was unhappy.”
“Are you?” When she didn’t comment he said, “I wish to see your face, your eyes. Turn around. Look at me, Penny.”
She shook her head. “I need to go home.”
“This is your home.”
“No.”
He moved behind her, barely touching. Every nerve ending in her body hummed with anticipation. She could feel the heat of his body, his warm breath stirring her hair. His strong hands curved around her upper arms and she wanted to lean into his strength. Instead, she let him turn her to face him.
“They say home is where the heart is. I want to hear from your own lips that it is not here.” His dark eyes burned into hers. “You will not lie. I know you too well. Tell me you would not leave your heart behind—with me—when you return to the United States.”
Again she blinked, trying to dispel the moisture she didn’t want him to see. “I have fond memories of my time in El Zafir.”
“I do not wish you to leave.” There was a note of desperation in his voice.
“Staying is out of the question.”
“That is absurd. Of course you can stay. I have asked you to be my wife.”
“I can’t. I never thought I could have the fairy tale. Now I know settling for anything less would be a mistake.”
“You cannot go,” he said again. “If you do I will be Penny-less.”
“That’s ridiculous. You’ve got everything money can buy. And enough money to buy whatever you want that you don’t have.”
“All I have is a terrible pain here,” he said, putting a fist over his chest. “It is where my heart used to be.”
“Used to be?” she asked.
He nodded. “It has been stolen.”
All her senses went on alert. It was stupid, but her hope quotient shot up.
“By who? Or is it whom?”
“You.” He took her in his arms. “The only time I am whole is when I hold you.”
She was awfully glad he was holding her, because her head was spinning. But her heart… Hope, desire, expectation longing, all of that was growing in her despite her warnings. “Please don’t toy with me.”
“Never. You are correct. I have money to purchase anything I desire. But there is something you must understand. I desire you. But there is only one Penny Doyle and that makes you priceless. My desert jewel.”
“I don’t know what to say—”
“It’s simple. Tell me you will stay and take away this terrible pain.”
He still hadn’t said what she wanted—no, needed—to hear. If she gave in without it, she sensed their relationship would never be on a level playing field. He was right. Material belongings meant very little, but emotional commitment was irreplaceable. She refused to be satisfied with anything less than hearing him say the words.
“I’m sorry to cause you any discomfort,” she said. “But I have heard nothing that compels me to stay. Under the circumstances, to do so would maximize my own distress.”
“Ah,” he said. There was humor and male satisfaction in that single, small syllable. It was the sound of a man who knew what he had to do to get what he wanted.
But Penny had grown to know this man well. He would say nothing if it wasn’t the truth. Her future happiness hung in the balance and she held her breath.
“You want tender words.” He looked into her eyes. “Do you remember when you asked me if there was anything I wasn’t good at?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I have discovered I am not good at love.”
“Do tell.” She couldn’t help smiling. The words were chocolate to a sweets-deprived soul. “So are you ready yet to admit that love is important? Not just a complication made up by women to vex men?”
He smiled. “It was too much to hope you had forgotten my careless words.” Then he grew serious. “I will admit only that I love you.”
“Oh, Rafiq—” She tried to step back, to better see his expression.
His grip tightened as his eyes smoldered. “You have not yet said how you feel about me.”
“Yes—surely I did. You must know.”
“No. You have only said you would rather eat glass than be my wife. I am new at this love business. I find it would be most beneficial to hear the words.” He cupped her cheek in the warm palm of his hand. “Tell me you love me, Penny. I think I see it in your eyes. Tell me I’m right. I must hear you say it.”
“I love you, Rafiq. I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you, before I knew you were a prince.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and pulled her to him in a relentlessly fierce embrace. “I am glad. So you will stay?”
“As your assistant?”
Laughter rumbled in his chest. “I think we have done this before. I did not like your answer.”
“Try me again. I think there’s magic in the air tonight.”
He set her away from him then took her hand and grabbed her high-heeled shoe from the table beside them. “Come with me.”
Anywhere, she wanted to say.
He led her into the living room and gently urged her onto the couch. Then he went down on one knee and cupped her ankle in his hand. Slipping off her sensible brown shoe, he said, “Penny Doyle, will you marry me?”
She looked at him. “I’m new at this, too, but in books and movies when someone proposes, he slips something on. Usually a ring.”
“In the fairy tale, the maiden whose foot fits the glass slipper must marry the prince,” he said, easily sliding the black satin pump on her foot. “It looks like a perfect fit to me.”
“It’s my shoe. Of course it fits.”
“I do not wish to take a chance. The outcome is far too important to me. Do not keep me in suspense. I love you. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
Penny slid off the sofa and knelt in front of him. “I would be honored to be your wife. But I have one request.”
“I understand that you want to oversee starting the preschool. If you’d like we can honeymoon in the States and I will help you. And when we return to El Zafir, I would insist the king make you minister of early childhood education and preschool development in this country. Women work here, too, and need to care for their children.”
Her heart was so full of love for this man she thought she would burst with happiness. This was more than she’d ever dared to dream. “I accept. But that isn’t what I was going to ask.”
“What is it you require?”
“I require you to kiss me at least once a day the way you did in the garden the night of the charity ball. You made me believe in fairy tales. I want to live it for the rest of our lives.”
“How very fortunate for me that I can deny you nothing.” He smiled, a smile filled with tenderness and love. “It will be my pleasure to make all your dreams come true for eternity.”
Then Rafiq Hassan, Prince of El Zafir, Minister of Domestic and Foreign Affairs took Penny Doyle, soon to be his desert bride into his arms and kissed her, sealing his promise of happily ever after.