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“Will we be taking all of our meals together?”
“For a time, yes.”
“And what other lessons will there be?” he pressed.
“It’s not really like that. There isn’t a lesson plan. I want to make things easier for you. So if there is anything that feels especially difficult, you tell me.”
And then he laughed. He looked as surprised by it as she did, but the laughter continued. “You wish for me to tell you if I am uncomfortable?”
“Why is that funny?” she asked.
“I no longer know how to recognize discomfort. Or perhaps... Everything around me makes me uncomfortable. I was comfortable in the dungeon, Brianna.” He paused then. And she could see him direct the shift in topics. Watch the change in his expression before he did it, marked and clear. “I like the way your name feels to say.Brianna. It is an interesting name.”
“Well, I know for certain no one has ever said that to me before.”
“I have never said that name.”
“Well, I have never said the name Riyaz before being prepared to meet you. So I suppose that is... Something we have in common.”
“I do not think that comfort matters here,” he said. Abruptly switching back. “How can it? The aim of this is not to make me comfortable, but to restore order to the country. So I do not think we should talk of my comfort.”
“You had a plan,” she said, trying again. “To keep yourself while you were in the dungeon. You had a way of keeping your mind about you. You had a way of making sure that your body didn’t fail you. This is not unlike that. There is a mission here. And it is to get you back on the throne. That is as far as we will go now. It doesn’t need to be about all the rest of your years. Just about this moment. About presenting you to the people.”
“I’m to be married,” he said.
“Right,” she said. They had spoken of a woman. While she was standing there, but she supposed she hadn’t entirely taken the meaning on board.
“Does this woman know you?” she asked.
“She is a woman who was promised to me back when we were children. My brother knows where she is. She will honor the agreement.”
She fought against the strange feeling. One of being left behind. Cairo was going to come back here and help his brother. If she understood correctly, maybe even be in charge of the military. He wasn’t going to continue his life in Europe or the United States. He wasn’t going to continue to be part of her life in the way that he always had been. There was a place for him here. There was a place for Riyaz.
And for this woman that was going to marry Riyaz.
Brianna didn’t have a place.
She should be used to that. But even so, she fought against the strange feeling of loneliness that threatened to overwhelm her.
“Well, I will prepare you for your marriage also.”
CHAPTER THREE
HEWOKEUPthe next morning when the cold from the concrete he slept on became too intrusive for him to ignore.
The aches and pains in his body were, for him, the equivalent of a sunrise. It was the way that he greeted the day. It was... It was how he knew he was alive.
He dragged his fingertips along the hash marks he had carved into the wall, part of marking his days, part of keeping control. When he had been thrown into the dungeon, he’d had a choice. Surrender to captivity, or turn the dungeon into a kingdom of one, which he ruled.
He had opted for the latter. Within the walls of his prison, he had been master of all.
Being able to leave when he chose was still a surprise.
He began to walk up the stairs, his body automatically bracing itself. Tensing. For the intensity of the light and the sound.
But what he was not prepared for was the side of Brianna. Standing very near the top of the stairs, facing away from him. She was wearing a cream-colored dress that fell just above her knee. Her ankles were slim and were a most fascinating shape. Her calves creamy and compelling.
And then there was the way the dress hugged itself over her rear end. Which was a craving that surpassed any for food he’d yet had.
