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CHAPTER ONE
‘I’D RATHER DIE than be your wife a er’
Khal opened his eyes, clean cool air filling his lungs with painful force His surroundings were a jolt to his system, the sleek interior of the royal jet’s ry red sands and fathomless black water of his drea up at the ceiling as his heartbeat found its rhythm once more
His subconscious had long ago stopped tor him with every detail of his last conversation with his wife before her death Or so he had believed
He unbuckled his seat belt and stood, stretching out the painful tightness in his shoulders He could have chosen to sleep in any one of the three luxurious bedrooms on board, but sleep had not coeance The saued him for an entire year after his wife’s death Stress seeer and the past feeeks hadtime
He pressed a button on the panel by his side and, as if by ed fro hot towels and fresh ice water was placed on the nearest table without a word His chair was returned to the upright position and a pot of hot coffee set doithin reach
‘That will be all, thank you,’ he said, his voice unintentionally gravelly frolanced up just in time to see one of the woht the urge to roll his eyes with irritation Without another word, they hurried back behind the curtain and he was alone once more Just as he preferred it
Most of his staff knew hiard the ruusting, slanderous rumours that he had worked hard to dispel even while in the first days of his grief But still, whispers spread and somehow the idea that he was a man to be feared had stuck
People believed him to be a villain and it suited him to keep it that way He was not forced to make idle conversation, to pretend to care He did not throw social functions nor did he attend a great many
Or at least he hadn’t until recently
Khal opened his laptop and scanned an assortment of international news articles that his press team had collated from the past week The Most Romantic Royal Love Story of the Decade, one headline proclaimed It was any news reporter’s dreado her back on her lofty title to marry a man her family deemed unsuitable One picture showed Khal’s close friend Roman Lazarov as he walked hand in hand with the beautiful redhead What a cruel twist of fate it was that the woman he had finally chosen as his second wife, the answer to all his economic woes, would be snatched up at the last moment And by his best friend, no less
Ren as Sheikh He had been a youngday, filled with naïve hope for the future That version of hione He had no desire to find a woman to mend his broken heart, or any of the other schemes he had heard whispered by his ht he could not hear Thanks to his sister, he had two strong nephews that would carry on the Al Rhas bloodline and therefore he’d believed he had absolutely no need for a wife
But he could no longer deny that the ru Zayyar’s international ie His country had been peaceful for over two decades, his father and grandfather before hidom back from the brink of complete ruin Khal had no wish for fame or a place in the history books, but he refused to be remembered as the Sheikh who had ruined all of their hard work
Known for his careful planning, he had spent ement with Monteverre, one of the oldest and doms in Europe It was a deal that would solve all his problems in one fell swoop He would provide the Monteverrian economy with a very healthy injection of capital and in return he would gain a loyal alliance in the form of the perfect bride with the perfect amount of political influence and public appeal
By now the whole world knew that the Princess had given up her formal title to be with her scandalous Russian lover There was no ement to the Sheikh of Zayyar in any newspaper, nor would there ever be, thanks to his tearaced any of the world es He paid handso he was about to arrive unannounced into a foreign country to retrieve his replacement bride
He knew nothing of the youngest Sandoval Princess, only that she had been studying abroad in England for e of convenience with very little hesitation She had even agreed to sign a for in person He should feel relieved that his plans had not been co seemed off
He had ainal fore in name only, followed by an easy divorce settlement With such a solid link to European royalty provided by his bride, five years would be es that had been burned by his reputation Divorce was a colobe; Zayyar was no different Still, he kneould not truly rest until he had spoken to his fiancée in person
He spent the re that they had landed until his pilot announced the incredibly low temperature in the city of London It was the middle of May and yet he felt the need to pull up the collar of his impeccably tailored wool coat as he rateful that he had chosen to change into Western-style clothingwhite robes were perfect for the desert heat, but not designed for the chilly, eather so common in this part of the world
His Chief of Security sat waiting in the car, his expression stressed—Sayyid never looked stressed Immediately Khal’s instincts stood to attention
‘There has been a small problem,’ Sayyid said solemnly