An Inconvenient Marriage (Married to a Prince) Read Free Page B

tell her husband that she was about to become engaged to another man?  “I’m not sure...”
    “There is only one reason she would be pressed to reveal her lie, and that would be if you wanted to marry someone else.  Is that correct Delilah?”
    “Yes.” She doubted she could feel any worse, any more guilt ridden or any more selfish than she did at this moment. 
     
    * * * *
     
    Sami stepped back; half afraid he would shake the life out of her.  How dare she come here without regard to the commotion she had caused, to ask him to divorce her so she could marry another?  He could not and would not humiliate his family by divorcing the woman he had just been obligated to acknowledge as his wife.
    “Well, you can forget plan A.  Have you got a contingency plan?”
    “I don’t understand,” she said.
    He folded his arms across his rock solid abs and glared down at her.  “I’m not going to divorce you.”  But he sure as hell wanted to make her pay for backing him into a corner.  If she had contacted him quietly they might have been able to work out an arrangement that would have benefited them both.
    “I can divorce you back in America.  I was trying to make this easy on you.”
    “You were trying to make it easy on yourself.  I’m sure your lawyer told you it would take a matter of hours for me to end the marriage here in Nadiar.  Where as in the States, you would have to file papers, and since I couldn’t be served here, and you might have to wait up to two years.”
    Her eyes widened in surprise.  “You know a lot about American law.”
    “I spent four years in college and four years in law school in your country. I’m a member of the New York Bar.”
    She wrapped her arms around herself in a protective gesture.  “Then what do you want?  You can barely stand to look at me unless you’re scowling, so don’t try to tell me you want a real marriage.”
    What he wanted was immaterial.  He was bound by family honor to uphold the promise made to her father.  Even if she resisted the idea, her family would expect him to acknowledge Delilah as his wife and the future queen of Nadiar.
    “There are some people who want to meet you.  People who have prayed every day for your safe return.  People to whom my family owes a great debt of gratitude.”
    Sorrow made her eyes glistened like emeralds.  “I understand that.  I want to meet my family.”
    “Good.”  He tipped his head. “Convince them that you want a divorce.  If they release me from this promise, then I will go to the States so that I may be served with papers.  It won’t take more than a couple of months.  But either way, I will not initiate the process. I hope your fiancé will accept that.”
    “He is not my fiancé.”
    “No?”
    She looked away, focusing on some point over his shoulder.  “I couldn’t very well take his ring when I learned about... when I learned I was...”
    “Married?” he finished for her.
    “Yes,” she whispered.
    At least she understood honor and doing what was right.  Neither family needed a public scandal right now.  He knew her family would not agree to release him from the contract, but he didn’t want to take the chance she would leave before seeing them.  They had waited too long for this day.
    He tried not to recall the past but the memories haunted him still. Back then he spent a lot of time with her father and his. As the secret service agent for the Emir, Ahmed Rafik was always around. Sadly Sami’s only memory of Lilah was at her father’s funeral. 
    Like it or not, she was his wife.  She wasn’t to his taste with her prim schoolmarm look, but with her hair down and those ugly wire framed glasses off, she might be attractive.  He could grow to tolerate her if he had to.  She had pretty eyes and a full pink mouth just ripe for kissing.
    Damn!  Where’s your brain?  The woman was in love with another man.  He would be wise to remember that.  “I’m sure you must be