His Arranged Marriage (16 page)

“Queen Layla has orchestrated the problems behind the situation that has brought Princess Serena home,” Abdul-Rahim explained. “Upon discovering that you and the princess had not consummated the royal marriage, she realized there was still a chance for her to marry one of her own into the palace.”

Cade cocked a brow at the nervous man. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because I do not feel it is in the best interests of my king to give his daughter to Prince Ali Denarif, which he is on the verge of doing. Indeed, he must, to quiet the storm Layla has been stirring in Sorajhee against King Zakariyya.”

“And so what do you expect me to do?” Cade wasn’t certain if he could trust the advice of a man who appeared like a rabbit out of a hat. He wasn’t about to jump into a national problem he barely understood.

“You must consummate your marriage to the Princess Serena, in order that the marriage remains valid,” Abdul-Rahim explained.

Cade stared at him. “Right. There are a few things standing in the way of that happening, friend. Mainly, she’s just told me to shove off. Second, I couldn’t get into the palace if I wanted. Third, it goes against my grain to do something just to thwart someone, this Layla person. In other words, I’m not going to make love to a woman just to brand her.”

Abdul-Rahim was shocked. “For what other reason does a man make love to his wife, then?”

Raising his brows, Cade said, “We may be suffering a bit of culture clash.”

“I do not understand. If you want to stay married to Serena, why will you not do this thing? Do you not find her desirable?”

“Yes,” Cade growled, not wanting Serena’s desirability discussed like the weather. “If she doesn’t love me, though, I’m not going to stampede into the palace and haul my wife off like a steer.”

“Perhaps I am not using the proper words,” Abdul-Rahim apologized. “I am only wishing to do what is best for my king. Having Layla nearer the throne does not suit me, Prince Kadar. Although she believes I am loyal to her and Azzam, King Zak is my sovereign.”

Cade started at the sound of his royal title. “Call me Cade. It is who I am.”

“You are Prince Kadar, son of Ibrahim, and right now, it is best for you to remember that fact,” the adviser said stubbornly. “It was dangerous for me to come here. I do not have time to explain your royal duty to you.”

“I don’t do duty to crowns and thrones.”

“Then do it for family,” Abdul-Rahim snapped. “Princess Serena would be completely unhappy with Ali Denarif, as unhappy as your mother ever was by what was done to her by Queen Layla’s hand.”

Cade’s blood went cold.

“So I have finally got your attention.” He walked over to the table, where grapes and bananas were arranged in an ornamental bowl. Picking some grapes, he carefully said, “You do not know Prince Ali Denarif. He is not a good person. He would not make a good ruler.”

“That’s not my concern.”

“It is your concern!” Abdul-Rahim thundered. He tossed the grapes back into the bowl and stared at Cade sternly. “What was the life of your father to you that you would so carelessly say you don’t do duty to crowns and thrones, that you have no concerns here? Was your father’s life nothing to you?”

“I wasn’t old enough—”

“You are now. You are old enough,” Abdul-Rahim said quietly. “You must be man enough to
assist the countries your father felt strongly about. And you must be prince enough to keep your wife yours.”

Cade exhaled, his emotions torn. For years he had been hidden, kept from the light of destiny. Now it was blazing on him like an inescapable inferno. “What the hell, exactly, do you think I should do?”

Abdul-Rahim smiled thinly, his eyes shining with triumph. “I think you should take your case to the people. Let them choose between you and Ali Denarif.”

Cade snorted. “They will not choose me. They do not know me.”

“They know Ali Denarif the Cruel.”

Cade felt the blood drain from his head. “What are you saying?”

The adviser raised an eyebrow. “He is cruel and has earned the name by the people.”

“Cruel to whom?”

“What difference? Servants. Animals. Why does that concern you?”

“Women?” Cade’s heart raced painfully in his chest.

“Oh, women.” Abdul-Rahim snapped his fingers dismissively. “He does not like women at all.”

“I don’t believe King Zak would consent for his daughter to marry a man who would hurt her.”

“Ali Denarif will not hurt Serena physically. But neither will he show her the accord of favored wife.
She will be ignored except for when he must have her at state functions.”

“Then how will his marriage to Serena be consummated? It wouldn’t be any more a real marriage than when she was with me.”

“Oh. Well, he will force himself once, you see. Determination for a throne runs strong in most men. They will do anything, including a sex act that they are not used to performing.”

“I’ve got the picture in Technicolor,” Cade said stonily. “Tell me exactly how you suggest I throw myself on the will of the people.”

I
T WAS EVENING
, and Serena’s heart was heavy. All day she had dreaded this moment. Tonight, at a Balahar-Sorajhee festival celebrated by royals and non-royals alike, her father would most likely make the announcement concerning her official engagement to Ali Denarif. There would be no turning back once those words were spoken.

Serena shivered, wishing she could magically stop the clock on the mantel. The delicate hands ticked omnipresently onward. She wrapped her white silk shawl more closely to her, though she didn’t need warmth on this summer evening. Her shoes were square-heeled gold sandals; she had chosen an Arabian fooston of white and gold with elaborate golden beadwork, and a gold circlet holding a light veil over her hair. Rather than hide herself in the shame
she knew other people thought she should feel, she chose to hold her head high, dressing accordingly.

The marriage annulment had turned out to be a non-event. Cade’s agreement had not even been required; Serena was fairly certain that his acquiescence was a foregone conclusion since the marriage had never been consummated.

To be certain of her pure state, she’d undergone a humiliating appointment with the palace physician. The memory still made her wince.

Yet after enjoying the freedom she’d experienced in the United States, she told herself she could be happy in Balahar again. There was much work here still to be done, work only a female could do.

She could serve her country better here than married to Kadar and living on The Desert Rose.

Her eyelashes lowered. She didn’t feel very princesslike to wish she could have had a happily-ever-after in Texas. Nothing in her life would ever make her feel the way she’d felt with Kadar—wanted, for herself.

Pushing the thought from her mind, she slipped her fingers behind a light curtain and peered at the crowd of hundreds gathering outside of the palace. This festival was one of the people’s favorite events of the year. A nonreligious holiday, it was mainly a chance for people of Balahar and Sorajhee alike to mingle on the palace grounds. Tiny lights sparkled
all through the trees, lending a magical glow to the balmy night.

She sighed, and let the curtain fall back into place as a knock sounded at the door. “Yes?”

Her father came inside. “You are ready, daughter?”

“I am.”

He held out his arm for her to take, which she did. “You are beautiful.”

“Thank you, Father.” But she couldn’t smile at the compliment.

“You seem…pensive tonight. Are you unhappy to be back at the palace?” he asked, his tone worried.

“No, Father,” she said softly. She thought about the fires that burned on the border between Sorajhee and Balahar and held her head high. “I pray we will all be happy tonight. This festival comes at the best possible time to generate goodwill between the peoples. That is all I am thinking about.”

He patted her hand. “You are more queen than you realize, Serena. I am proud of you.”

Sharif joined them, kissing his sister on the cheek, and the three of them went out to stand on the marble patio overlooking the lawns. Ali Denarif no doubt would soon join them.

And then she would force herself to be the blossoming queen her father believed her to be.

P
EOPLE THRONGED
the sides of the patio, standing toe-to-toe on the lawns to peer at their king and his children. Serena smiled to herself as her father raised a hand to salute his people. Off to the side, Prince Ali Denarif and a royal entourage marched in and stepped onto the marble near the king. Serena’s breath caught in her throat.

Then her breath nearly died as a hush fell over the people. Rather than the cheering that usually erupted when a royal personage appeared, it was as if they silently voiced their disapproval.

This is all wrong,
Serena thought wildly.
The people do not want Prince Ali Denarif—and neither do I!

T
HE UNCOMFORTABLE SILENCE
that came over the crowd was the spur Cade needed to vault out of hiding and jump the short, marble enclosure, landing neatly in between Serena and Ali Denarif. A gasp went up from the crowd; Ali Denarif’s people drew their decorative swords; Sharif grinned, and Serena’s eyes went wide as she stared at him.

And that, Cade thought, was coming to rescue the princess with a bang—Texas-style. “What do you think about the duds?” he asked.

She eyed his headdress of white
gutrah
and black-banded
agal,
and black formal suit with approval. “You look like the sheikh prince I always dreamed of for myself.”

He winked at her. “I am.” Turning, he faced the crowd.

“I am Prince Kadar Coleman-El Jeved,” he announced loudly. “Son of Ibrahim Bin Habib El Jeved, grandson of King Habib Bin Mohammed El Jeved of Sorajhee.” He held up his hand to show the ring with the royal crest of Sorajhee as the citizens erupted with shrieking and clapping. He waved them to silence. “I wish to wed with the Princess Serena, but so does Prince Ali Denarif. I throw myself on the mercy of the people to accept me as part of their family. I ask this most humbly, because I love Princess Serena, and I believe she loves me.”

Clapping, chanting and crying rent the air, and flowers were thrown onto the marble. Ali Denarif kicked away the flowers that landed nearest him.

“You cannot do this,” he told Kadar. “You are an imposter who has the king under his spell. Everyone knows the princes of El Jeved died in childhood.”

“Actually, every one of us lives,” Cade said quietly, his voice tinged with warning. “Do not use that tone with me again,” he commanded.

Ali Denarif stiffened but said not another word.

“Kadar,” Princess Serena said, her fingers lightly touching the ends of his headdress. “What are you doing?”

“I am begging the people to allow me to keep
the woman I love,” he said huskily. The cheering and chanting grew louder as the crowd realized something special was happening. They remembered Ibrahim, and they felt it an honor to welcome home a favored son from the dead, a miracle no one imagined to witness. “I am asking you to keep me, Serena. Stay with me. Be my wife. Bear my princes and princesses. Most of all, love me.”

She twined her fingers into his as they gazed into each other’s eyes. The people clapped, stomping the ground to show their approval, and neither she nor Kadar noticed that Ali Denarif left in disgust, nor that her father nodded his happy benediction of their love.

“Yes,” Serena said, her voice holding all the joy he wanted to hear her speak. “I will love you, and marry you, and hopefully, one day bear children as wise and brave as their father.”

It might not have been tradition, but Kadar had handled all the royal details he could for one night. He had his wife in his arms for good and he kissed her long and gratefully, a man who suddenly knew exactly what it felt like to win the woman of his dreams.

“At last I have you exactly where I want you,” Serena teased her prince as they lay in each other’s arms in the marriage bed. Beneath hanging velvet swags and enclosed by curtains, they’d made love, falling in love with each other a little more with this new bonding between them.

“At last I have
you
exactly where I want
you,
” Cade echoed, rolling over so that he could kiss Serena. “I’ve dreamed of this for so long I feel I’m living an Arabian tale.”

Serena laughed softly. “I thought perhaps you never spent a night sleepless for desiring me.”

“Oh, I spent those,” he said with a growl, nipping at her neck. “And days, too.”

“That’s all over now, my husband proper.” She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him close.

“No,” he said, before his lips closed over hers,
“the honeymoon begins right now—and whether we’re in Texas or Balahar, it never ends.”

I
N
T
EXAS
, happy tears jumped into Rose’s eyes as she saw the television replay the moment her son raised his hand high to reveal the royal crest, saw the highly unorthodox kiss her son laid on his princess. With gratitude, she heard the people cheer, saw the smile on King Zak’s face.

She’d cried out so loudly upon seeing Cade on TV that everyone in the kitchen had run into the room to see what was happening. Alex high-fived Mac, and Jessica grinned.

“Well, Mac,” Jessica said, “I guess that ended with the right prince getting the right woman after all.”

Mac raised a brow at his cousin. “I said in the beginning that I wasn’t getting married, didn’t I? I’m always right.”

Jessica smirked at her cousin. “You won’t always be such a renegade,” she warned, her grin knowing. “Two princes down…it’s turning into a real wedding rodeo around here.”

She sighed with dramatic abandon, and the men in the room rolled their eyes. Ignoring their teasing, she perked up, all thoughts of weddings leaving her mind. “By the way, did I tell you all that my friend, Abbie, is staying with us for the summer? She says
she’s got something important to tell me—and I can’t wait to hear!”