Midnight at the Oasis: His Majesty's Mistake

Makin stood. “You’ll be all right,” he repeated.

She wished she had an ounce of his confidence. “Yes.” She wiped her eyes dry. “You’re right. I’ll shower and change and get to work.” She rose, too, took several steps away to put distance between them. “What time shall I meet you?”

“I don’t think you should try to do anything this afternoon.”

“I know there must be stacks of mail—”

“And hundreds of emails, as well as dozens of phone messages all waiting for your attention, but they can wait a little longer,” he said firmly. “I want you to take the rest of the day for yourself. Eat, sleep, read, go for a swim. Do whatever you need to do so that you can get back to work. I need your help, Hannah, but you’re absolutely useless to me right now.”

She felt her cheeks grow hot. “I’m sorry. I hate being a problem.”

He gave her a peculiar look before his broad shoulders shifted. “Rest. Feel better. That would be the biggest help.” Then he walked away, leaving her in the living room as if this was where she belonged.

But as the door closed behind him, she knew this wasn’t where she belonged. It was where Hannah belonged.

These rooms, the food in the kitchen, the clothes in the closet … they were all Hannah’s. Hannah needed her life back.

Emmeline glanced down at herself, feeling grimy and disheveled in her creased cocktail dress, and while she longed for a shower—and food—she had something more important to do first.

She had to reach Hannah. She’d put in calls yesterday but they’d all gone straight to voice mail. Hannah had texted her back, asking when Emmeline planned to arrive. Hannah was expecting Emmeline to show up in Raguva any moment to change places with her before anyone knew the difference. Which obviously wasn’t going to happen.

Taking her phone from her small evening purse, Emmeline dialed Hannah’s number, praying that she’d actually get through this time instead of reaching Hannah’s voice mail again.

The phone rang and rang again before Hannah answered breathlessly. “Hello?”

Emmeline dragged a dark red embroidered pillow against her chest. “Hannah, it’s me.”

“I know. Are you okay?”

Emmeline squeezed the pillow tighter, her insides starting to churn. “I … I don’t know.”

“Are you coming here?”

“I.” Emmeline hesitated. “I … don’t … know,” she repeated, stumbling a bit, feeling dishonest, because she knew the answer. She could never go to Raguva. Not now.

Tense silence stretched over the line and then Hannah asked tightly, “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

Emmeline stared at the tall red mountains visible beyond the palace walls. She felt just as jagged as the mountain peaks. She’d flown all night, was seven weeks pregnant, and thousands of miles from Miami where Alejandro lay in critical condition. “I’m in Kadar.”

Silence stretched over the line. “Kadar?” Hannah repeated wonderingly. “Why?”

Emmeline’s shoulders rose, hunching. “Sheikh Al-Koury thinks I’m you.”

Hannah exhaled hard. “Tell him you’re not! Tell him the truth.”

“I can’t.” Emmeline felt dangerously close to just losing it. It’d been such a difficult few weeks and she’d been so sure that she could turn things around, make it all right. But instead of things improving, they’d taken a dramatic turn for the worse. “I can’t. Not before Sheikh Al-Koury’s conference. It’d ruin everything.”

“But everything’s already ruined,” Hannah cried, her voice rising and then breaking. “You have no idea what’s happened—”

“I’m sorry, Hannah, I really am. But everything’s out of my control.”

“Your control. Your life. It’s always about you, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t mean it that way—”

“But you did mean to send me here in your place and you didn’t intend to come right away. You used me. Manipulated me. But how do you think I feel being trapped here, pretending to—” Hannah broke off abruptly.

The line went dead.

Hannah had hung up.

Emmeline stared at the phone, stunned. But what did she expect? She had done an amazing job of messing up Hannah’s life.

Makin had met briefly with his staff after leaving Hannah’s room and spent fifteen minutes in his office listening to updates from his various department managers before dismissing them all with a wave of his hand.

He couldn’t focus on the updates. His thoughts were elsewhere, back with Hannah in her room.

Telling Hannah about Alejandro’s accident had been far harder than he’d imagined. He hadn’t liked giving her bad news. It didn’t feel right. He’d never felt protective of her before, but he did now.

Maybe it was because she wasn’t well.

Maybe it was knowing she’d had her heart broken.

Maybe it’s because he was suddenly aware of her in a way he hadn’t been before.

Aware of her as a woman. Aware that she was very much a woman. A highly desirable woman. And that was a problem.

Mouth compressing, he rose from behind his desk, left his office and set off to meet the Kasbah’s director of security, who had promised to give him a tour of the guest wings and go over the security measures in place for the safety of their guests.

The tour was interrupted by a phone call with information that Alejandro was out of surgery and in recovery. He hadn’t woken yet, and while the prognosis was still grim, he’d at least survived the nine-hour operation. For Hannah’s sake, he was glad.

Call concluded, he and the security director passed through a high, arched doorway and stepped outside. “Which families will be in that building?” he asked, struggling to get his attention back on his life, his work, his conference. He wasn’t a man who was easily distracted, but he seemed unable to focus on anything other than Hannah right now.

“The Nuris of Baraka, Your Highness. Sultan Malek Nuri and his brother Sheikh Kalen Nuri, along with their wives. Sheikh Tair of Ohua.”

“And in the building to my right?”

“Our Western dignitaries.”

Makin nodded. “Good.” He was relieved to see that not only was security prepared, but the Kasbah looked immaculate.

While all of Makin’s various homes and palaces were beautiful, Kasbah Raha always took his breath away. The Kasbah itself was hundreds of years old, and lovingly preserved by generations of the Al-Koury family, the colors mirroring the desert—the pink of sunrise, the majestic red mountains, the blue of the sky, and the ivory-and-gold sand.

It was remote. And it was the place he worked best. Which is why he’d never brought Madeline to Raha. Raha was for clarity of thought and personal reflection. not desire or lust. He’d never wanted to associate a carnal pleasure such as sex with Raha, either, but suddenly, with Hannah under his roof, he was thinking about very carnal things instead of focusing on the conference.

Hannah.

Just saying her name made his insides tighten.