CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The plane had landed at the Qazhar city airport. As he'd arranged by cell phone, his limo had been waiting for him to take him to his apartment.
Now he was alone.
The apartment felt so very empty. Cavernous and solitary. The memory of his time with Eliana in this place already felt like an exquisite, but fading dream.
All throughout the brief flight from Zahram, Kadeem had run over in his mind the conversation with Azem. The bitter, last confrontation.
Kadeem had been defeated. It was that simple. And, even worse, he had not even been able to say goodbye to Eliana. Had not been able to hold her in his arms one last time. Had been denied the delight of gazing upon her before being cast aside.
That had been the most unforgivable part. Kadeem could not even imagine how Eliana had reacted upon discovering that Kadeem had just left without saying goodbye.
But, Azem had made sure that Kadeem would not even have that opportunity. And that had been the biggest hurt of all. Compared to that, comprehending how he'd handed Azem an excuse to get rid of him had been nothing.
Kadeem flopped, exhausted, down onto the sofa, and tried to contain the swirling emotions which had taken possession of him. His heart ached already, thinking that he might never see Eliana again. It was almost unbearable to even think of being forever parted from her.
What would she be thinking of him? Kadeem even believed that Azem was capable of telling Eliana that Kadeem had simply been seized by a cowardly change of heart. Or even that he had ran out on her, now that he'd seen exactly what was expected of him.
No matter what version of Azem's lies Kadeem invented in his mind, all of them were believable. And all of them made him feel a powerful mixture of rage and sadness.
He groaned out loud, roaring his frustration at the top of his voice.
He sighed, wondering what he could do. He knew he would have to break the news of the separation to his family. But he knew that, right now, the last thing he wanted to do was be the bearer of such bad news. His failure would disappoint his mother and father.
Right now, he didn't want to face that. He needed time to think. He needed to be in the one place where he knew he would be guaranteed solitude. Where he would be sure that no-on could interrupt his reflections.
The desert.
He had to understand where he had gone wrong. How he had allowed himself to throw away the only chance at happiness which he sure destiny would ever hand him.
How he'd been a fool.
He went to his bedroom and packed a small bag, including some changes of clothing. Where he was going, he wouldn't need much. He was used to the spartan life, to the life of the desert. It always served its purpose at times like this. The desert had always been there for him, just as it had been for his ancestors. There, he could regroup. There he could renew himself for the battles ahead.
The new life he faced without Eliana.
Even as that thought came to him, he felt his heart ache, sensed the awful heaviness in the pit of his stomach. It was a sensation he knew would never go away. It would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Perhaps the desert could burn some of that pain out of him. Make the future a little more bearable.
He made his way back down to the limo and gave instructions to his driver. He'd done this often enough that his driver understood exactly where to go. There was a trading post miles to the north of his parents palace. It lay close to the main highway which cut through the desert. From there he would be able to obtain a horse. And it would be a short ride across familiar terrain until he reached his private encampment. His desert oasis of calm and reflection. The one place where he felt truly solitary. Truly himself.
As he sat back against the seat, watching traffic pass by in the afternoon sunlight, Kadeem sighed and began to think long and hard about what his future might bring.
One thing was for sure, he told himself. It would not be a future he would ever share with the beautiful Princess Eliana of Zahram.
****
Eliana's stomach lurched as her private jet took off from the Zahram palace runway. The sinking sensation in her stomach was nothing compared to the burning ache in her heart at the prospect of losing Kadeem.
Eliana gazed out at the palace far down below. It looked so small now. But the drama which had been played out there this morning was anything but small. She already felt Kadeem's absence in her soul. She wondered what it must have been like for him to have been marched unceremoniously out of the palace. It couldn't have been easy, she told herself. And, of course, Eliana's father had made sure that Kadeem wouldn't even have been able to find her after the fateful confrontation with her father. Azem had slyly sent Eliana to be with her mother while he had engineered Kadeem's departure.
Eliana shook her head and sighed. She thought about her father's explanation for his actions. Was it really understandable that he had merely wanted to spare his daughter the kinds of pain which her mother had suffered? The prospect of forming a union with an outsider had driven Eliana's father to take drastic action to protect her from a similar, difficult fate. If only her father had been honest with them all, then maybe all of this pain might have been avoided.
But, she knew her father. He was a proud man, someone who, once he decided upon a course of action, would not budge until he had won his victory.
The only consolation, as far as Eliana was concerned, was that her father had finally relented. He had seemed shocked at Eliana's confession of her love for Kadeem. Had he thought his daughter had been merely going through the motions? Or had her and Kadeem's pretense at animosity during the start of their courtship been so convincing that her father had just been trying to do what he thought was right?
In the end, it didn't matter, she concluded. All she knew was that she had to find Kadeem and explain to him just how much all of this had been a terrible misunderstanding. And, most important of all, just how much she already missed him.
The plane banked and began to head toward Qazhar. She felt as if she was chasing him. Pursuing her sheikh.
In ancient days, such a pursuit would have taken place on horseback across the hot desert. Now, in the modern age, she pursued him by other, more advanced means. But that didn't change the urgency she felt. It didn't lessen the anxiety which gripped her heart.
Eliana reflected upon the whirlwind which had been Kadeem. She recalled their love-making the previous night. It had been breathtaking. He had been astonishing, taking her to heights of ecstasy she'd never believed possible.
But then, that was what she had come to expect whenever she found herself enslaved to him, possessed by him, claimed by him. Kadeem was like a force of nature, a raging, feral animal when desire was triggered in him.
Even just thinking about his hard body, his powerful muscles, his penetrating gaze, his powerful thrusts, made her core warm with longing. Made her heartbeat quicken. She drew in a deep breath, trying and failing to calm herself.
She could not give that up. Would not give him up. Not without a fight. Not without one last effort to convince him that she belonged by his side. And that he belonged alongside her.
Her Prince.
Her Sheikh.
Her one, true destined love.