My lips were swollen and hot from Luke kissing me. I wanted him to bring me over to the couch to make love to me, but with his mother’s phone call, I knew those plans were gone for good.

My chest tightened as Luke picked up the phone and put his mother on speaker. That little gesture meant a lot to me. He trusted me with personal family business, and I could have kissed him for it if it were an appropriate time.

“Hello, Mother?” Luke said into the phone.

There was a long pause, and then a sharp inhale mixed with what sounded like a sob.

My hand clamped over my mouth and tears welled in my eyes. Luke’s eyes didn’t move from the phone as his mother spoke.

“Luke,” she said. “Your father passed away a few minutes ago.”

Luke’s chest heaved with the effort of breathing. It was a good thing that my legs were still around him. If he passed out or something, then I could at least try to prevent him from smacking his head on the marble tile.

“What happened?” he asked.

“It was peaceful,” she said. “He was asleep when it happened. His body gave up. I need you to—”

“I’ll be on the first flight out,” Luke interrupted.

“Thank you,” she said.

Luke was as still as a statue, and my stomach felt as if I had swallowed a boulder. I wasn’t sure what to say. Gia didn’t know I was in on the conversation with them, and I didn’t want to piss her off after she’d just lost her husband.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said and then hung up the phone.

He placed the phone on the counter next to me and then touched my legs, gently removing them from around his waist. His chin brushed close to his chest as he walked through the living room and stopped by the windows.

I slid off the counter and stood there for a moment. Wiping the tears from my cheeks, I took a breath and went to Luke. He needed my support, not my sadness. I barely knew his father, and Luke had a lifetime of memories with the man.

Luke didn’t move as I approached him. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to touch him, but to me, it was the right thing to do. I gently touched the top of his arm.

He turned to me as if he’d forgotten I was in the room at all. His eyes filled with tears, but none were shed. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I said. “Be whatever you need to right now. I’m here for you.”

“You are?” he asked.

At that moment, I got a glimpse of a younger Luke, the one that had been abandoned in an orphanage. “Of course.”

He sniffed and grabbed a tissue from the coffee table to wipe his nose. “I knew it was coming, obviously, but it’s still tough.”

“I know.”

“I should have stayed,” he said in a voice just above a whisper.

“He asked you to come here to get things in order,” I said. “You can’t blame yourself.”

“I suppose not,” he said. “There’s not much to do about it now, huh?”

I shook my head. “What do you need from me?”

He raked a hand through his hair and then unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. “Is it hot in here?”

“Let’s sit,” I said, bringing him over to the couch.

He sat and kicked his shoes off his feet. “I feel dizzy.”

“You did drink a glass of wine in, like, two minutes,” I said. “Let me get you some water.”

“No,” he said, grabbing my arm. He brought me down to the couch and then laid down, resting his head in my lap. “I want you here.”

“Okay,” I said, pushing my fingers through his hair.

His eyes fluttered closed, so I kept going. A tear slipped out from his eye, but neither of us brushed it away. My heart broke for him.

We sat there for some time in silence. Luke’s head appeared to get heavier in my lap, and I thought he had fallen asleep. When I leaned over to check on him, he spoke.

“He was a good man,” Luke said.

“He was,” I said.

A smile touched his lips as his eyes fluttered open. “When I first moved to the palace, I was so scared. At the orphanage, we were crammed into small rooms. All of us were on top of each other all the time. Father gave me a room big enough to fit more than half of the orphanage building inside. It was too much for me, so Father would allow me to sleep in his room.”

“That’s nice.”

He chuckled. “Mother didn’t appreciate it because, apparently, I was quite the restless sleeper. But sleeping in their room helped. Eventually, I felt bad for taking up their days and nights and made my way back to my room. But Father always gave me the time and space that I needed, even when I didn’t know I needed it.”

“Sounds like he cared for you a great deal,” I said.

“He did,” Luke said. “Now that I’m thinking about it, he did a lot more for me than I ever realized.”

“Like what?” I asked, keeping him talking. His voice was stronger, and his eyes were clearer. I would let him rest on me for as long as he needed to work through his emotions. It wasn’t going to get easier, especially when he returned to Qatar, but I would do whatever it took to help him get over this hump.

Luke regaled me with loads of stories about Erol when Luke was younger. To me, it didn’t seem as if Erol had been grooming Luke for the throne. He had taken in a child and had given as much of his time to creating a safe environment for him.

I was sure Luke wasn’t making up the fact that Erol wanted him to become king, but I wondered if it was coming out of a place of love rather than selfishness.

Luke continued to talk about his father well into the night. While I knew he wanted to get on a plane right away, sifting through his emotions was even more important. It amazed me that he calmed down as much as he did. Selfishly, I wondered if I had anything to do with that, but it was his personality. He was intelligent and probably knew that making rash decisions wasn’t the best thing for the situation. Working through all of the feelings in his mind was the most rational first step for him.

When he finally sat up, I took his hand. His hair was mussed from me working out all the gel from the strands, making him appear younger and if possible, more handsome.

He dabbed at his eyes with a tissue. “I suppose Father has always been seen as the King of Qatar, but he’s also been the father that took a scraggly kid into his life as his own son.”

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

“I need to get back there,” he said, standing up. “I’ll call the pilot to prepare the jet and then get Maddox on board with everything.”

While Luke handled his business with the pilot and Maddox, I went into the bedroom and started to pack my things. I only picked out the appropriate clothes since I only had a carry-on suitcase. I didn’t doubt that Luke would let me borrow a bigger one, but he had a lot on his plate.

When he walked into the room sometime later, he glanced at my suitcase and then at me standing next to it.

“You’re coming?” he asked.

“Do you want me to come?” He had never refused me before. In fact, he tended to push me to be by his side in every situation since I returned to Qatar. Had I misread the signs? Did he want to deal with this on his own?

“Y-yes,” he stammered. “Of course. But only if you want to.”

I went over to him and kissed him. “I want to. Is this going to piss off your mother? I don’t want to cause problems.”

“She’s going to have to get over it,” he said, taking my hand in his. He squeezed it. “I want you by my side for all the big moments. Even the bad ones.”

He pulled me close to him in a tight embrace. “Thank you.”

For once, there was no hesitation in my decision. I was going with Luke, and I would be there until he no longer needed me.