There was a lovely breakfast cart waiting outside her room the next morning. Fresh fruit, warm pita and lemon hummus, cardamom-sugar cakes, and Darjeeling tea.

All her favorites.

Too little, too late, she thought to herself, but she’d certainly earned a little groveling. Grabbing a plate, she filled it, poured herself some tea, and wandered to the terrace. Although it was early, Dubai hardly seemed to sleep, and the streets were already buzzing beneath her.

“You must know that he loves you.”

Coughing in surprise, she whirled around. “Amira,” she grumbled, “You nearly made me spill my tea. How did you even get in?”

“I have a key to all my brothers’ suites. They have no privacy when it comes to me,” the other woman said as she sauntered in. “Did you hear what I said?”

“I did, and you’re wrong. I know you want to think the best of your brother—and you should. He’s family. I’m more than happy to be the villain here, but Amira, he was with another woman. He clearly does not love me.”

Amira perched daringly on the thin railing. “He would not do that to you,” she insisted. “Even if he didn’t love you, he would not risk being seen with another woman.”

“I know what I saw. Maybe he’s lost his mind. Maybe he’s getting cold feet.” The idea of getting cold feet before the wedding that would dissolve in six months anyway made her giggle. “Anyway, I’m not shutting him down. I’m still marrying him. I’m just changing some of the terms. As you already pointed out, I do have a choice.”

The princess shook her head sadly. “You’re freezing him out, though, and he’s as bullheaded as our father. He’s not going to tell you that he loves you until you force him. You must give him a chance, or the two of you will never recover.”

Liyah was already certain that she wasn’t going to recover. She gave her friend a pointed look and let loose some of her anger. “Weren’t you the one who suggested that I play hot and cold? Consider this my cold side.”

“I’m sorry,” Amira whispered, and she bit her bottom lip. “I can see that you’re hurting, but I knew from the moment you seated us in that lounge and tried to play server that you were meant for my brother. I’m only asking that you give him a chance to get over his pride and show you.”

“I’m sure that there are plenty of other women who will help him get over his pride,” Liyah said dryly, even though her heart was breaking. “I won’t be one of them. In fact, I believe that I’m going to stay with Sahaar until the wedding. I’m sure our wedding night will be more romantic that way.”

* * *

“What the hell do you mean, she’s gone?” Asad bellowed. “Our wedding is in a week!”

“Calm down,” his sister snapped. “She’s spending the next week with her exchange family.”

“The hell she is,” he grumbled as he started to move to the door. “I don’t know what is going on with her, but I intend to find out.”

“Why?” Amira asked softly. “Why not, for once, tell her how you feel? She’s been dumped into this farce of a relationship, and she can’t tell what’s real and what’s not. She’s protecting herself, and I’m the one who told her to do that.”

“Is she?” Asad asked coldly. “Or is she just showing her true colors, now that it’s time to collect the money.”

For a moment, he thought his sister might slap him, but what else was he supposed to think? Liyah had practically changed personalities overnight, and the only thing that had changed was that he’d tried to open up to her and be honest about how he felt.

Exactly what Amira was telling him to do now. Only Liyah had shut him out.

“If you think that’s true, then you deserve to be alone,” Amira hissed and spun on her heels and stalked out. Asad could see the icy trail that followed her. In all their years together, through the fights and the squabbles, he’d never known Amira to be truly angry at him.

Everything was unraveling.

He left Liyah alone until the night before the wedding. Then, he could remain aloof no longer. Banging on the door of the small home where she was staying, he was surprisingly humbled when a small, elderly woman answered it.

“Sheikh,” she said respectfully, but he could see the disdain in her eyes. “I suggest you leave.”

“You’re Sahaar? I’m sorry to disrupt your night, but I must see her.”

“She’ll be at the ceremony tomorrow. That’s all you need to know.”

“I’m coming in, whether you let me or not,” he growled.

For a moment, he thought the old woman was going to challenge him.

Liyah appeared at the top of the stairs. “It’s all right, Sahaar. I’ll speak with him. You go and get your rest and try not to worry, okay?”

Sahaar grumbled under her breath, but she let Asad pass.

He thundered up the steps, and she led him into her room and shut the door. “You have a lot of nerve, threatening a sweet woman like that,” she hissed quietly as she whirled around. “Are you concerned that I’m going to disappear in the middle of the night? I want to be paid, remember.”

The words he’d so carefully rehearsed left him as soon as she mentioned the money. Icy cold betrayal spread slowly and painfully through his chest. Angrily, he reached out for her and pulled her against his body. “Are you going to miss this when you’re gone, rolling in all that money?” he whispered in her ear.

"Have you no feelings at all?"

He released her. “I could ask you the same question. You are hot and then you are cold." He arched a brow. “I just want to know why.”

"Why do you care? I'm your toy, bought and paid for. Why do you care what I feel?"

Clenching his jaw, his eyes bored into her. "Are you a woman with no intuition? Do you see the way I watch your every move? Merge my soul with you when we make love? Do you think me so low that I would pretend to want you? I do not have to pretend. I own you, but I would not have to pretend, even if I didn't."

She took a step back, and there was nothing but raw pain on her face. “You do not own me. You're enjoying me for the period of our contract terms. And you have, haven't you? You've enjoyed me. Many times. I’m surprised you're not bored right now."

This was a mistake. He should never have come here. Taking a shaky step back, he wondered if he could outrun her rage, escape the cutting remarks. “You will not get paid if you do not show up tomorrow,” he warned her.

“Trust me, I’ll be there. I didn’t go through all of this just to skip the best part.”

Three hours before the wedding, Liyah’s mother finally called her back and tearfully apologized for missing her wedding. “I’ll be there in spirit,” she said.

“Mom, why haven’t you called me back? I’ve been so worried,” Liyah muttered.

“Oh, sweetheart, you’ll understand after your own wedding. Time will just slip on by and you won’t even have realized it. That’s what love does.”

Liyah felt completely alone. All her life, she and her mother had been side by side, and now, when she needed her mother the most, not because she was getting married but because she was in pain, her mother wasn’t there.

She’d been abandoned for a virtual stranger.

Two hours before the wedding, she cried and blew into a paper bag while Mila and Sahaar tried to finish her hair and make-up. When she got up and started pacing in a panic, they got so disgusted that they told her to get married looking just like she did. It would serve the bastard right, anyway.

One hour before the wedding, she was calm and collected. She politely asked Sahaar and Mila to finish helping her get ready. Chances were looking good that this would be her only wedding ever, and she didn’t want to look like a complete disaster.

When the door to her dressing room opened and Amira stuck her head in, Liyah felt her heart skip a beat.

“It’s time,” Asad’s sister said quietly, and there was so much sadness in those words that Liyah feared she would be crushed beneath them.