The Royal Elite: Ahsan (Elite, Book 2) (25 page)

“Hey, look. I love Anna, but let's face it. That's not a reason to stay. And I'm not an invalid. I'll be back to work soon, able to take care of myself. As much as I'd miss you, don't stay for me. If you can have a better life, get out of this town and travel and see the world—do it. I would.” Iris's stark expression suggested she wouldn't hesitate a moment if she was in the same boat.

Sessily glanced from Iris to the apartment. They'd lived here for several years, settling into the cramped space. They alternated sleeping between the twin bed and the couch, which was never comfortable either on the neck or the spine. It was home, however, and although it wasn't grandiose in scale or decor, she could be herself within its walls. Leaving it wouldn't exactly be a hardship, especially after the luxury she'd experienced in Dubai and Ahsan's palace.

“Would you?” she asked Iris. “Would you really light out of here without looking back?”

“Yes. This is a go-nowhere life and you know it. We'll both work our fingers to the bone for a pittance, never able to rise very far above where we are now. Degrees cost money, and we just don't have it to spare. So yes. If I felt anything for him at all, I'd go. Because even if you don't love him now, who's to say you won't eventually? That's the point. To give yourself a chance.”

“It's more complicated than that. He's the Emir now. A man bound to his country before anything else. I don't even know how I'd fit in there if he wanted to take me back for a visit. You saw how things are. It's different than we live here. He wants change, and I think he'll eventually get it. But will they accept a foreigner? They have very strict traditions about the Emir marrying a woman of their own culture—it was why I thought he was already wed. There are a lot of politics involved. I'm not sure how I'll handle all that.”

“The Sessily I grew up with wouldn't let that stop her. You'll handle it with class and sophistication and the good sense mom and dad gave us both. The real issue here to me is whether you like him enough to go in the first place.” Iris laced her fingers around a knee.

Sessily glanced at the wall clock. More time had passed than she realized. There was less than an hour to meet Ahsan. A buzz of panic swept through her and she pushed to a stand. “I don't know. I don't know what to do.”

“Honestly, Sessily, I think you're going to regret it if you don't go. Look at you. You're fidgeting and can't sit still. If you decided that you didn't like him enough to try, you'd be more at peace. What's holding you back?”

Sessily lifted a shoulder. “I just don't know. He's promised he won't womanize anymore, either, and--”

“Oh. So that's it.” Iris leaned back with a knowing look on her face. “You're afraid he'll break your heart. Really break it.”

Sessily snapped a look at her sister. “What?”

“You've been distracted since we got back. Not quite yourself. I've noticed, of course, I just wasn't sure what or who was the problem. You've missed him, haven't you? You've missed him, but thought he was married, and it hurt. So you're projecting forward—what if you fall hard, and he breaks your heart? You're thinking you might not want to risk it because the pain will be twenty times what it's been the last two weeks.”

And just like that, it all fell into place. It took someone on the outside looking in, someone who knew her well, to figure out the problem. Sessily knew Iris was right the second she heard the words. She was afraid of experiencing even more heartbreak than in recent weeks. Hard on the heels of that, she understood with startling clarity that she loved Ahsan with every fiber of her being. Loved him beyond reason. She'd stuffed down her emotions and feelings because she'd had to, thinking he was married to another.

“Help me pack.” Sessily ran into the small bedroom and yanked the only suitcase they owned between them out from under the rickety bed.

“I'll get your toiletries, you get your clothes!” Iris said, diverting to the hallway and the single bathroom next to the bedroom. She snatched up a small cosmetic case and dumped everything into the sink. Then she jammed Sessily's make up inside, just the essentials to save time. Mascara, lipstick, eye shadow and rouge.

Sessily tugged open the closet door, frantic to grab a few clothes and get on her way. A shirt got stuck on a hanger—she left it. A sundress fell to the floor. She was making a mess of the small closet and the clothes she tore from the confines. Stuffing several sundresses inside the suitcase, she added two pair of jeans, two pairs of shoes and an old nightgown with Tweety-bird on the front.

Not very sexy. The hell with it. Ahsan was rich. He could buy her something see through and feminine when she got there.

“Here, here.” Out of breath, Iris handed the case over. “I even put a couple tampons in there, just in case.”

“Iris!” Sessily might have laughed if she wasn't so busy pushing everything down so the zipper would close. “I'll press on the top, you get the zipper.”

Iris fought with the zipper, grunting. “It's stuck.”

“Don't say that.”

“It's stuck.”

Sessily groaned and took over, yanking at the stubborn piece of metal. She used a finger to stab a small bit of material further into the suitcase and was rewarded when the zipper skimmed along the teeth.

“Okay, I got it! Iris—I'm leaving the money Ahsan gave me. I'll take just enough for an emergency. It should see you through the next three months.” Sessily opened the top drawer of her dresser and pulled a few hundred dollars bills from the stash she'd won from Ahsan for the chicken dance.

“Don't worry about me. You need to go!” Iris grabbed Sessily into a tight hug. “Remember that I love you. You can do this. Call me when you can, okay?”

Sessily, with a fist full of money, hugged Iris and kissed her cheek. “I love you, too. We'll all go on a big vacation later, when everything gets worked out.”

Folding the bills, Sessily pushed them into her pants pocket and grabbed the suitcase. After a tearful goodbye at the door, she lugged the suitcase down the stairs and broke into a jog for Anna's shop. She half expected to see the sleek limousine parked in front of the bakery when she rounded the corner onto the main street.

Nothing. No limousine. Ahsan was where he said he'd be, and she had very little time to get to the airstrip. Entering the bakery, she found Anna behind the counter, filling display cases.

“Anna! I need to borrow your car. It's an emergency.”

Anna set down the tray of pastries with a frown of concentration. “Anna wants to know what's going on. Are you going, child? You have a suitcase.” Fishing car keys out of a drawer, she tossed them to Sessily.

“I don't have time to explain. I'll call. And thank you. I love you, Anna!” Sessily caught the keys and went out the back door. Anna always parked behind the shop to leave room in the front for customers.

Rushing up to the older-than-old blue Peugeot, Sessily tossed the suitcase into the passenger seat and slid behind the wheel. “Okay. No funny stuff,” she warned the car. Anna fought with it daily. Sometimes it ran, sometimes it didn't.

She inserted the key and turned the ignition. The car sputtered...and died. Sessily pumped the gas. “Come on!”

Again, the car churned and sputtered, but didn't catch. Sessily tried again, and again.

“I don't have time for this. I'm going to miss the plane.” There wasn't any other way to the airstrip. She didn't own a car, and it wasn't as if taxis cruised the streets, waiting for business.

She twisted the key, and the Peugeot coughed to life.

“Yes!” Gunning the engine, she backed out of the slot and tore onto the street, heading east toward the runway. It wasn't a big airport, and really, she thought, they were lucky to have one at all this far from a big city.

The buildings of main street fell away, giving over to green fields with foothills and low mountains as a backdrop. Pushed to the limit, the Peugeot sputtered and whined as it rolled down the road, reaching its top speed of forty-three miles per hour. Sitting forward, hands gripping the wheel, Sessily whispered a mantra. “Please be there, please be there, please be there.”

A half mile from the air strip, the Peugeot growled, coughed, and died. She pulled over to the side of the road, fighting the steering wheel the whole way. “Not now! You can't do this to me now.”

She knew she was way short on time. Perhaps even a few minutes late. No, she wouldn't think of that. Didn't want to contemplate the plane leaving without her.

Giving the car a little gas, she tried the engine again. It churned and didn't start. Banging the wheel with the heel of her hand, she gauged the distance to the little white building she could see squatting against the landscape ahead. Maybe she should leave the suitcase and just run.

The engine caught, to her surprise, and puttered into a frighteningly off-beat rhythm. Sessily jammed the car into gear and stomped the gas. The Peugeot surged onto the road, picking up speed. Not enough speed to suit her, but she didn't have far to go.

To the right of the road sat the runway. It stretched ahead toward the white building that served as
the terminal, then further beyond, giving aircraft plenty of room for take off and landing. Just as she veered into the parking lot, Sessily noticed a jet at the end of the runway. She drove the Peugeot beyond the normal parking area and stopped against a chain link fence separating the runway from the rest of the terminal.

The jet, white and sleek, surged down the runway. Picking up speed with its engines roaring. There could only be one person that plane belonged to, departing at this particular time.

“No, no! Wait!” Sessily jumped out of the car and hit the chain link fence as the jet ripped by, the nose tilting into the air as it left the tarmac.

“Wait! I'm here!” Tears spilled over her lashes as the jet climbed, gaining altitude. Leaving the town behind. Leaving her behind. “But the car had trouble, and I had to pack...”

Lame excuses. She should have accepted Ahsan's invitation when he stood in front of her in Anna's shop. He'd come all this way, made an effort to sway her. The man who didn't chase women had flown hundreds of miles to chase
her.

Fingers caught through the chain link, Sessily tipped her forehead against the cool metal, jagged sobs and gasps lost under the jet engine noise that was getting further and further away.

She was too late, and now he was gone.

Sessily stared at the sky where the jet had once been. She couldn't see even a speck of white any more, nor hear the rumble of the engines. Her tears continued to slide down her cheeks, punctuated by ridiculous gasps for breath. Why hadn't she left sooner? Made up her mind faster?

“You're eight minutes late,” a voice said behind her.

Sessily let go of the chain link and whipped around. Ahsan stood there, suit coat unbuttoned now, looking a little more rakish with a third button undone at his throat. Without thinking, Sessily launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck. “I thought you were gone. I thought you were gone, and I'd never see you again.”

“Shh. I'm here,” he said, voice a rumble. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her snug against his body.

Sessily pulled the scent of him in, reveled in the hard angles of his body. His whiskers scraped her cheek, and she didn't care. “Why weren't you on the plane? That was yours, it had to be.”

“Because we're not done. Because I'm in love with you, and I don't give up that easy. I figured I'd rent a room here instead and spend my time trying to convince you that you love me, too.” He tipped his face into her neck, leaving a few warm kisses behind.

Sessily shivered and leaned her head back far enough to see his eyes. “You were going to stay? Really?”

“Yes. I will, and we'll still go on dates, and I'll come to work with you one day, and you can show me your town.” His eyes glittered with determination and love.

Sessily laughed at the thought of him spending a day working at the bakery. “That's kind of you. And maybe some day I'd like to do that. But I realized somewhere along the line that I love you, that I can't live without you, and I want to do all those things we planned on doing. I want to experience them with you, learn about you and your habits. I want to know what your favorite dessert is, your favorite color, and what makes you say my name in that husky way I adore.”

His arms tightened around her when she admitted that she loved him. Sessily saw the impact of her words in his expression, in the way he stroked a hand up her back with reverence.

“I have a better idea,” he said, voice low.

“What's that?” she asked, running her fingers over his nape. She glanced at his mouth, then his eyes.

“Why don't I show you instead.” He swooped down and claimed her mouth, all tongue and hot
breath and insistent need.

A flash of her future hit Sessily the moment their mouths met. A future of travels and laughter and his roguish teasing. Of steamy nights in bed, of disagreements and intense make up sex.

Nothing this good ever came easy and she knew it was worth fighting for.

He
was worth fighting for.

. . .

About the Author

Born and raised in Corona California, Danielle now resides in Texas with her husband and two sons. She has been writing for as long as she can remember, penning works in a number of genres. To date, she has published nineteen novels and nine short stories. Her interests vary wildly: reading, traveling, photography, graphic art and baking, among others.

There is a black cat named Sheba involved who thinks Danielle's laptop is her personal grooming station.

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