Even though I cherished every single second I spent with Sophia, those seconds were moving quicker than I wanted. All the money in the world couldn’t compete with the inevitability of time. With each passing minute, the hard conversation came closer to us, threatening to split us apart again.

After hearing Sophia tell me that she loved me and being with her, behaving like a normal couple, I knew I couldn’t go back to Qatar without her. I would do anything to convince her that being together was the only choice for both of us to live a happy life.

I regretted our month-long breakup but concluded that it was necessary for us to realize how much we needed each other.

Sophia wasn’t who Mother imagined I would be with, but she was the only choice for me. While Jaabir would fight me more, he had an expiration date for being on the council. I had the rest of my life to deal with the fallout if I broke it off with Sophia for good.

The warring thoughts flew to the front of my mind as I awoke on Wednesday morning. Sophia had mentioned over dinner the night before that she wanted to show me around Dallas. I was in serious need of a distraction, and keeping busy was the only way to make that happen.

We showered and went out for breakfast at a nearby diner.

“You have to get the huevos rancheros,” she said after the waitress poured our coffee.

The older waitress winked at me as if Sophia had told me that I was about to win the lottery.

“You’ve convinced me,” I said, putting down the menu.

The diner wasn’t that busy. We had missed the morning rush after sleeping in. It was a nice change from being at the palace with the early morning council meetings. This was what a vacation felt like, although I would rather Sophia and I were on a white sandy beach, sipping from cocktails as the ocean water hit our feet.

We would get there someday. I wasn’t going to let that dream go without a fight.

---

After breakfast, we walked around downtown. Sophia had been right. The food in Dallas was delicious, something I hadn’t expected from the small, dingy diner. She proved to me that the best things sometimes came in unlikely packages. Just like her. Meeting her for the first time, I saw an American reporter and expected her to be ditzy and to use her body to get her story. In actuality, she was an intelligent spitfire destined to take my heart into her hands.

I took her hand in mine as we strolled across the sidewalk. “What’s next on your agenda?”

“Since it’s so warm today,” she said, tilting her head toward the sky, “I thought we could visit a nearby zoo or the amusement park.”

Weighing the options in my head, I chose the amusement park. It offered more opportunities for Sophia to grip my arm in excitement and terror on the rides. The closer we were, the better.

“What time does the amusement park open?” I asked.

She smirked, checking her phone. “I was hoping you’d go with that. I haven’t been in years, but I used to love it as a child.”

“Great minds think alike,” I said before kissing her. Her lips were sweet, and the lingering taste of syrup from her stack of pancakes flooded my taste buds.

“We better walk off our breakfast before getting on any rides,” Sophia said. “I don’t want the food to make a reappearance.”

I shoved a lock of Sophia’s hair behind her ear. I would be there for her in sickness and in health, but it was a good idea not to force the former.

We took a taxi to the amusement park. The roller coasters reached toward the sky in the distance as we approached the gates.

“Which rides do you like?” I asked Sophia.

“All of them,” she said, staring out the window. “The bigger and twistier, the better.”

“I’ve never been to an amusement park before,” I admitted.

“What?” she asked. “You’re a virgin?”

The driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror.

“I suppose you can say that,” I said.

“Oh, wow,” she said. Her eyes were shiny with tears; I knew she was trying not to laugh at me. So what if I was a grown man who’d never been on a roller coaster before? I grew up in a palace. When I was old enough to travel, it was for the family business. There hadn’t been a lot of time for that kind of fun.

“That’s why you wanted to go here,” she said.

I took her hand, twining our fingers together. “I want to be anywhere that you are. But popping my cherry, so to speak, was another part of my agenda.”

“Oh, this is going to be fun!” she squealed.

“Should I regret this decision?” I asked her.

She nodded her head. “Most definitely.”

I paid for a day pass for Sophia and me, only after agreeing to let her pay for our lunch. I crossed my fingers while I made the arrangement, but she would forgive me.

I would break her of the habit of wanting to pay for things when she was with me… or at all. If all went according to plan, she would share my unlimited funds. She would soon realize that a sixty-dollar pass was a mere blip on my bank account. If she were to be with me, I planned on taking her to much more luxurious and expensive places.

While we walked, Sophia pointed out the different rides and gaming stalls she frequented as a child. She was convinced the games were rigged, but she swore she knew how to get the biggest prizes. I wasn’t sure going up against her would earn me any points or a big stuffed animal, but I would try. It was something men did for their women, and I intended to keep up with the tradition.

“Should we start off with something easy?” she asked as we arrived at the rides section of the park.

“Probably,” I said. “Until I get my sea legs.”

“I know the perfect one,” she said, tugging on my hand.

I followed her to a monstrous ride that had close to fifty chairs attached to the mushroom-shaped ride by long chains.

“What is that thing?” I asked, curling my lip.

“They’re called swings,” she said. “Come on.”

She flashed our tickets to the ride operator—we’d picked the unlimited ride voucher—and she sat down in one of the chairs, buckling herself in.

I sat next to her, unsure of what the ride did. The swing sagged when I sat down, and I tested the chains by pulling on them. “Are you sure this is safe?”

“As safe as we’re going to get,” she said.

I frowned. I wanted Sophia safe forever, but I couldn’t allow her to think I was a coward. I sucked in a breath and buckled myself in, pulling the strap tight. Due to the long chain, I was able to move closer to her. Making sure she was securely fastened to the chair, I was able to release the breath lodged in my throat.

The ride operator came around to each of us and visually checked that we were buckled in. I wished he would have tested to be doubly sure, but I wasn’t going to show my fears to anyone, especially Sophia.

He started the ride, and we slowly rose into the air. I gripped the chains of my swing as Sophia let out a squeal of excitement. My feet dangled over the hard concrete below as the top of the mushroom-like structure started to rotate.

My stomach swooped as we moved in a large circle. Once the speed picked up, Sophia let out a “Wooo!” sound, and a few others joined in.

We circled for what felt like an eternity. I had never felt so out of control in my life, and I understood why I had never been to one of these places before. It was utterly terrifying.

Sophia tilted her head back, enough to make the swing dip backward. On instinct, I reached out for her, but the motion of the ride put her at quite a distance from me.

I counted down the seconds until the ride ended. When we stopped moving, and I could touch the ground again, I had the urge to lay down on the concrete and pray for our safe return to real life.

“That was so much fun!” Sophia said. “Let’s do another ride.”

I stood on wobbly legs and took her hand, more for comfort. “How about something a little less intense?”

“Less intense?” she repeated. “Those were easy.”

I balked, tasting the remnants of my huevos rancheros. “Easy?”

“Was it that bad?” she asked me. She grinned like a crazy woman, and I didn’t want to be the one to make her smile go away.

“No,” I said, trying to hold onto whatever manhood I had left. “How about a ride where we sit together?” I offered my hand to her and she took it.

“Sounds good to me,” she said. “I’ll take you on an easy roller coaster.”

“Does such a thing exist?” I asked.

She chewed on her lip. “It doesn’t have any loops.”

The idea of going upside down made my stomach flip-flop. “Works for me.”

On our way to my imminent doom, Sophia and I wandered through the crowds toward the massive wooden rollercoaster in the distance. It was white with chips in the paint and looked as if it could use more than a few repairs. Distracting myself from the coaster for the time being, I focused on the crowd. There were people of all shapes and sizes. Families and couples walked past us, many of them with smiles on their faces.

Sophia and I melted into the crowd as if we were two regular people. To those around us, that was what we were. Not a king and the love of his life. The anonymity was the biggest thing I loved in England, and America now offered me the same sort of invisibility. Going to a public place in Qatar was much different than anywhere else. Here, no one balked or stared at me when I entered a room or walked into a public park. I knew I couldn’t stay away forever, so I tried to memorize the feeling of warmth that flooded my body as we walked together, hand-in-hand without a care in the world.

The anticipation of riding the rollercoaster was much worse for me than the ride itself. Other than the initial fall from the highest peak, I understood why people thought they were so fun. Unlike the swings, I was able to be close to Sophia. I felt her body tense as we dropped and swooped around each corner after that.

When the ride finished, we took another loop around the line and did it again.

---

“Coasters are your thing,” Sophia said after we rode two more of them. Both had loops. While I closed my eyes for most of the rides, I enjoyed the rush of adrenaline. No other part of my life offered that feeling.

“I suppose so,” I said.

“I’m famished,” she said. “How about we take a break and eat something?”

I pressed a hand against my stomach. “And then more rides? I’m not sure.”

“We don’t have to do more rides,” she said. “Especially right after eating. We can do some shopping or play some games.”

She was the one who wanted to play the games. I wasn’t going to be the one to disappoint her.

We stopped at a smokehouse restaurant on the far end of the park. Since it was later in the afternoon, we didn’t have to wait for a table. Once we were seated, Sophia and I downed our glasses of water before ordering two beers.

“I think this is the place with the amazing chili-cheese fries,” Sophia said, checking out the menu.

“I’ll leave the ordering up to you,” I said, putting my menu down.

Sophia winked at me. “I won’t disappoint.”

After the waiter took our order, we sat back and sipped our beers. My body ached from all the jolts from the rides, and it felt nice to be on solid ground.

Sophia’s gaze was far away, and I reached over to take her hand.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked, glancing in the direction where she looked.

A family of five sat at one of the larger tables. The three kids were coloring, and two of them were fighting over the blue crayon while their parents—who looked utterly exhausted—didn’t bother to break up the fight.

Sophia blinked, coming out of her trance, and looked at me. “Have you ever thought about starting a family?”