Christmas Bride For The Sheikh

He knew nothing.

Ilyas, who had always been so distant, suddenly reaching out did not sit right with Hazin.

‘We don’t talk, Ilyas. We never have, unless it was you telling me to raise my game. You know nothing of my life yet ten years after Petra’s death you sit here and tell me you know how I feel?’ Hazin shook his head. ‘Too late.’

‘No.’ Ilyas said. ‘I want—’

‘You can keep wanting, then,’ Hazin said. ‘But I have no desire to come back home, and certainly not for a wedding.’

The last one he had been to had been his own.

They had all assumed he had been blinded with grief since Petra’s death and that was why he had gone off the rails.

They didn’t know him at all and it was too late now to try.

‘Why didn’t you show up last night?’ Hazin asked.

He saw Ilyas’s slight eyebrow rise at the odd question, given the rather vital news, but Hazin was starting to realise what might have occurred.

‘I went to see Maggie,’ he said. ‘She was actually on her way to try and meet you, so you could have me contact her.’

Hazin pressed his fingers into his forehead and closed his eyes. He could see now what had happened. Worse, he could see himself tossing Flo her clothes and shouting at her to get out.

He had to get back and try to explain somehow, and now had no desire to play catch-up with his brother.

‘Good luck with the wedding,’ Hazin said, and stood.

Ilyas did not try to dissuade him from leaving. They may not have been close, but he knew his younger brother would take time later to think it through.

And Hazin would.

Right now there was somewhere else he needed to be.

He walked briskly back to the hotel and took the elevator up to his floor. He pulled out his card and swiped the door open.

Too late.

Flo was gone.

He had known that she would be.

Hazin really hadn’t imagined he’d find her sitting there, tucking into breakfast. Instead it had been set up on the table and remained untouched.

He walked through to the bedroom and the unmade bed.

There was the towel he had dropped on the floor and there was another so he guessed she must have showered and left.

Hazin walked back to the untouched breakfast and felt a curl of guilt when he saw a box of tissues by the window and a little pile of knotted ones.

She’d been crying.

Hazin was very used to being a deliberate bastard.

This morning he’d been an inadvertent one.

CHAPTER FOUR (#u04dc8459-e341-5a3f-a28a-4932707cbbfa)

IF EVER THERE was a walk of shame, this was one. Not only was Flo clearly wearing last night’s clothes, she’d also had to go down to the bar to retrieve her phone.

When she stepped out onto the street it was raining.

Of course it was, Flo thought as she trudged in high heels towards the underground.

What on earth had she been thinking last night?

Only she hadn’t been thinking—one look into those smoky eyes and she’d forgotten why she was even at Dion’s. How the hell was she going to tell Maggie the mess she had made of things?

And where the hell was Maggie?

Flo turned on her phone and on a cold, miserable wet morning there was suddenly a reason to smile.

Ilyas had proposed.

Oh, she was going to start crying again and hadn’t thought to stuff her purse with tissues from the hotel.

So she used the back of her hand and read on and saw that Maggie wanted her to come straight over.

Er, that would be a no.

Flo first went back to her tiny flat and pulled on something a bit less last night!

Then she did what she could with foundation because her chin was a little red and her mouth was all swollen from his delicious kisses and soft nips with his teeth.

She was going to start crying again, but that would not do.

So, instead of weeping, Flo headed over to her friend’s and bought a bunch of flowers on the way.

‘What happened?’ Flo smiled, putting her own woes aside to celebrate the wonderful news with her friend, though there were rather too many stars in Maggie’s eyes to see the threat of tears in Flo’s.

‘A lot,’ Maggie said. ‘I was just on my way to meet you when Ilyas came to the door. I’m so sorry I left you waiting...’

‘Of course you did!’ Flo said, for she totally understood the wonderful surprise that it must have been. ‘What did he say about the baby?’

‘He’s thrilled,’ Maggie said, but then her face became worried. ‘I don’t know how the people will react, though, or his family. Flo, there is so much going on back in Zayrinia—Ilyas has challenged his father, the King.’

‘What does that even mean?’

‘That Ilyas is to be the silent leader. From now on nothing is to get passed without his approval. He has told his father that if he doesn’t comply then he will take it to the people.’