Sheikh's Purchased Princess by Sophia Lynn Page A

and you lied to me. You didn't even tell me your real name.” She shrugged. “But it doesn't matter now, does it? That ended when you left the United States, and this has ended now that you're done with what's happened here.”
    His silence was all the response that she needed.
    “It's still dark outside,” she said, aware that her voice was flat and strange. “I'm going to go sleep on the couch.”
    She walked past him, and this time, he didn't reach for her. She would have said that it broke her heart, but as she was realizing, her heart had been broken years ago. It was only now that she could really explore the extent of the injury.
    ***
    Hours later, as dawn was beginning to peek over the city, Adnan gave up on sleep and opened the bedroom door. Emily was curled up on the couch, making herself as small as possible. When he saw the tracks on her face, evidence of her tears, his heart tore.
    “I have treated you very badly,” he murmured. He wanted more than anything to scoop her up in his arms and hold her until everything was better, but he suspected it would take more drastic measures than that.
    Instead, he dressed and walked out of the hotel room, past the faithful bodyguards that still watched over him. He walked to the balcony at the end of the hall, leaning against the stone bannisters as the sun rose.
    A part of him could barely believe that she had been the Emily he had met while he was in the United States. Another part of him wondered if he had known the whole time, despite the change of hair color. That girl had been altogether too young for him, shy and nervous. She had looked at him as if he were a knight who could slay all her dragons for her.
    This Emily had all the innocence of that one, but this one was a fighter. She had learned to battle, and it only made her more beautiful.
    The right thing to do, he thought, would be to send her home. At home, she could start to heal, start to forget about the nightmare that had seized her one dark night. She could forget about Nahr, forget about him, move on as she deserved to do.
    The moment that thought occurred to him, however, he pushed it away. It was selfish, it might even have been cruel, but nothing in him would allow him to let her leave. The idea of saying goodbye to her was like carving out his own heart.
    The twin impulses tugged at him, making him rest his head in his hands. He couldn't let her leave. He didn't want to see her unhappy.
    Adnan wasn't sure how long he had stayed like that, but at some point, a plan began to form. At the core of it was his love for her, and at this point, all he could hope was that perhaps it was enough.
    He straightened, looking east, where his beloved city lay. He had dreamed just twenty-four hours ago that perhaps she would come to love it as much as he did. Perhaps that was still possible.
    He started to walk back into the hotel, his phone already in his hand. He had arrangements to make.

Chapter Ten
    Emily awoke to an empty apartment, but the last few days had been full of so many strange twists and turns that she was losing the ability to be surprised.
    She had just taken her shower and put on clothes when there was a knock at the door. For a moment, she froze. Knocks were for people who actually had power, whose privacy other people respected. Knocks hadn't been for her for what felt like forever, and she was slow as she made her way to the door.
    At the last moment, she remembered to check the peephole, and to her surprise, a pair of women stood in the hall. They were roughly her age, and they both wore the colorful tunic, trousers, and light scarf that she knew were customary among the women of the region.
    “Who are you?” she asked, opening the door. “What are you doing here?”
    She noted with some chagrin that the bodyguards were still there. Wherever Adnan was, he was still intent on keeping an eye on her.
    “We are here for you,” the first woman said warmly. “I am Bina, and this is Masha.