Prince Hafiz's Only Vice

She didn’t want to hear that. Thick emotions already clogged her aching throat. “You should never have agreed to marry this woman,” she said as her voice wobbled.

He turned his attention back to her. “I gave my consent,” he said gently. “I can’t take it back.”

What about the promises he made to her? The ones he made first. The ones about how they would be together. Didn’t those promises matter? Didn’t she matter?

“Why did you agree in the first place?” She held the plastic bag to her chest. She would rather hold on to something solid and strong like Hafiz until the emotional storm passed, which would still leave her feeling battered and stinging with pain, but he would prevent her from breaking. “You should have refused.”

“I couldn’t this time.” Hafiz winced the moment he revealed too much. He pressed his lips into a straight line.

Lacey stared at him with open suspicion. “This time?” she echoed. “How long have you been looking for a wife?”

“Could we not discuss this here?” he bit out tersely. “Let’s go back to the apartment.” He guided her to the elevator, keeping a firm hand on her arm as she still weaved from the unpleasant shock. He pressed the call button, and she watched as if her life depended on it, but her brain couldn’t register the simple, everyday action.

“Marry,” she repeated and shook her head. “I don’t believe this. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I am telling you.” He kept his eyes on the descending lighted floor numbers.

“Now. After everything is settled.” She couldn’t be bothered to hide the accusation in her voice.

He spared a glance at her. “Not quite, but it is official as of this morning. I wanted to tell you before you found out from another source.”

That explained the missing newspapers. “How considerate.” She felt his start of surprise from her bitter sarcasm, but she didn’t care. Hafiz was getting married. To someone else. The knowledge stabbed at her heart. It was a wonder she didn’t break from the piercing force. “When is the wedding taking place?”

“After Eid.” His answer was almost swallowed by the clank and thump of the arriving elevator.

Eid. That holiday came after the month of Ramadan, if she recalled correctly. She remembered something being mentioned in the paper about that coming soon. “Three months?” she made a guess.

He held the sliding metal doors open for her. “More or less.”

Lacey walked into the elevator compartment, her head spinning. Three months. She only had three months with Hafiz.

What was she thinking? She had no more time left. Oh, God. She wasn’t strong enough to handle this. She was going to shatter from the pain. Hafiz was an engaged man. Off-limits. And she never had any warning.

Her mouth suddenly felt dry as she instinctively pressed the burgeoning wails and sobs into silence until they were ready to burst from her skin. “You should have told me you were looking for a wife.”

“I wasn’t. I have no interest in getting married. I held it off for as long as possible.”

Lacey reeled back in shock. Hafiz had no interest in marriage? At all? Not even to her? If that was the case, then what had the past six months been about?

“My parents were looking for a wife for me,” he clarified sternly.

“But you knew they were,” she argued. “You knew this was going to happen.”

Hafiz said nothing and pressed the top floor button several times as the elevator doors slowly shut.

Winning that point of the argument was a hollow victory. “How long have they been looking?” A part of her wanted to know, the other part wanted to deny that any of this was happening.

He stood silently, his jaw tightly clenched. A muscle twitched in his cheek. Lacey thought for a moment he didn’t hear her and was about to repeat the question when he finally answered. “A couple of years.”

“A...couple of years?” She couldn’t possibly have heard that correctly. Lacey folded her arms across her chest. “From the time that you knew me, from the very first time you propositioned me, you were also on the marriage market? And not once did you find the chance to tell me?”

Why would he? Lacey thought bitterly. He hadn’t considered her to be in the running. She was just a bit of fun on the side. A temporary distraction. Oh, she was a fool.

“Marriage negotiations are delicate and complex,” he explained as impatience roughened his words. “It could have taken even longer to find a suitable match.”

Suitable. She sneered at the term. It was a code word for the right bloodline and the right upbringing from the right family. Not a blue-eyed American who was also an unemployed nightclub musician.

Oh, and suitable meant someone who was pure and virginal. She mustn’t forget that.

The injustice of it all flared to new heights. “Not once did you tell me, and yet I dropped my entire life to be with you.” Her voice raised another octave. “I moved to the far-off corners of the earth, to this hell—”

“The Sultanate of Rudaynah is not hell.” His low growl was similar to that of a wild cat ready to pounce.

“—And exist solely for you and your pleasure! And you don’t have the decency to tell me that you’re getting married?” Her eyes narrowed into a withering glare.

He gestured with his hands. “Calm down.”

“Calm down?” She thought now was as good a time as any to rant. She was ready to punctuate her tantrum by throwing her shopping bag at his sinfully gorgeous face. “Calm down! No, I will not calm down. The man I love, the man I sacrificed everything for is throwing it all away right back into my face,” she hissed, her cheeks hot with fury. “Believe me, this is not a time to calm down.”

Hafiz was suddenly in front of her. He made a grab for her, but she raised her hands, warding him off. Lacey fought the urge to burrow her head into his shoulder and weep.

“I am not throwing you away, damn it. How could I?” he asked as his bronze eyes silently pleaded for understanding. “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Lacey looked away and tilted her head against the corner. She needed something to lean against anyway as her knees were incapable of supporting her. A buzzing filled her head. She took short, even breaths of the stifling air and blinked back the dark spots.

As the elevator made its slow, rocky ascent, Lacey realized that Hafiz must be equally unnerved by the turn of the events. He had cursed. Another first for the day. Hafiz never, ever cursed. But then, he always controlled the situation and his environment with the same iron will he used over his temper.

Over himself, really. The man never drank alcohol or gambled. He did not live in excess. His sculpted muscles were that of an athlete in training. He barely slept, too busy working to improve the living conditions of Rudaynah. When he wasn’t fulfilling his royal and patriotic duties, he met every family obligation. Even marry his parent’s choice.

The only time he went wild, the only time he allowed his control to slip, was when they were in bed. Lacey winced, and the first scalding teardrop fell.

Tears streamed out of her eyes and burned jagged lines down her hot cheeks. Why had she thought Hafiz was considering a future with her? Not once did he mention the possibility of happily-ever-after. Never did the word “marriage” ever cross his lips.

But the dream had been harbored deep in her heart, secretly growing. It had been incredibly naïve and wrong to think all she had to do was be patient. She thought that if she came here and slowly entered the culture, she would eventually stand publicly by Hafiz’s side as his wife.

Only that dream died the moment Hafiz pledged himself to another. She gasped as the words plunged into her heart. The surrounding blackness she had been fighting back swiftly invaded her mind.

Pledged to another...

The buzzing grew louder and almost masked Hafiz’s shout of alarm.

* * *

“Lacey!” Hafiz caught her as she slid down the wall. He plucked off her scarf, and her head lolled to one side. He supported her head with his shoulder and noted that her unnaturally pale face was sticky with sweat. He patted her clammy cheek with his hand. “Lacey,” he repeated, trying to rouse her.

Her eyelashes fluttered. “So hot.”

He gathered her in his arms. The ill-fitting black gown bunched around her slender figure. “I’ll take care of you,” he promised, holding her tighter. And he would, he vowed to himself, until his last breath. No matter what she thought, he would never cast her aside.