Chapter 12
“Grandpa, I’m fine, I swear it.” Libby sighed into the phone over his worry. “Today is the last day I’ll be in contact for a week.”
“Why on earth you would pay to spend a week in a teepee with no modern amenities is beyond me, Libby girl. I know your heart is broken sweet girl, but don’t you think this is a little extreme?”
“Nope. I need to clear my mind and get focused so I can figure out my future.” After leaving he who shall not be named, Libby had gone back to Paris to wrap up her life there and she’d found a nice French couple interested in purchasing her business. She hadn’t wanted to do it but it turned out to give her the cushion she needed to figure out her life. “Besides, I can spend a few days without being connected. If there’s an emergency call the number I gave you and they’ll get it to me right away.”
Nate huffed out another long suffering sigh. “I don’t like it Libby girl, but I get it. I’m surprised at that boy.”
She grinned. Leave it up to Grandpa Nate to call a member of the royal family a boy. “Don’t be. It was always fake and I was the one who forgot. My fault.”
“His loss. I love you Libby girl. Have fun meditating or communing, or whatever you’ll be doing.”
She laughed. “Thanks Grandpa. I love you too.” The call ended and she put the phone on airplane mode before shoving it in her pocket. Later she would use the GPS to find the exact location of her tent. The trek through the wooded area was just what she needed to clear her mind while exhausting her body. Her mind barely wandered to Amir at all, except to wonder if he was already engaged to Nissa.
“Not my problem,” she mumbled and stopped to take photos of a gorgeous monarch butterfly. The lush wooded area was just what she needed after the strange few months she’d had. Nature had a way of making problems seem small by comparison. So I got my heart broken. It wasn’t the first time, but it just might be the last. She wasn’t sure she was cut out for love and over the past two weeks she concluded that it was best if she focused on the rest of her life. Maybe she would take a lover if the mood struck, but that wouldn’t happen for quite some time.
The trees and the wooded area soon gave way to an expansive golden red dessert. It took a few hours to set up the tent because it was one of those fancy ones with a lot of space which she was happy about even if the sun had begun to set by the time her tent was ready. Luckily she was on her own for the entire week, so there were no schedules to keep.
She built a fire and ate some of the soup she’d prepared before packing her bags and driving to the retreat property. That night she fell asleep around eight.
The next day she was up before the sun and dressed for a long hike. By noon she was sweaty and tired and decided to stop at the top of a small hill that gave her a view of the dessert and the wooded area to meditate. Too much time had gone by since she last meditated which was probably how she’d let herself get into the position she had with him. Without finding her center she was susceptible to handsome men with ulterior motives.
“Enough!” She stood and shook off the thoughts making it impossible to meditate and made her way back to camp. The hike back felt longer and her fatigue had already set in. Have I gotten so out of shape? Though she couldn’t blame Amir for that she really wanted to.
By the end of day two she had a new goal. Completely banish all thoughts of Amir. It wasn’t his fault that she’d fallen in love—mostly, anyway—and it wasn’t his fault he didn’t return her feelings. But the lying fell on his shoulders. He’d deceived her from the start and she knew she should have been prepared for that. He’d recruited her to join in the lying game and silly her, she thought that somehow made her exempt.
“Lesson learned.” Libby couldn’t help but smile as the long yoga and meditation sessions centered her and cleared her mind of the nonstop clutter.
* * *
Amir felt delirious, he was so tired. The last full night of sleep he’d had was the one when Libby was still in his arms. Since then he had enjoyed an hour here and there of peaceful sleep, but since leaving Kadrishan he’d spent more time in the air pinging between time zones than he had in a bed.
In Paris, he hadn’t gotten much out of Nate, which he fully expected. Though Libby hadn’t told her grandfather much he’d seen enough to know she was broken hearted and that Amir was to blame. “Haven’t seen her,” he’d said casually when Amir approached him.
“But you know where she is?”
“Can’t say I do.”
It took everything in him not to shout at the old man. “She didn’t hear it all Nate and I need to speak with her. Help me out here.”
“Help you use her and hurt her again?”
“I love her Nate and I didn’t get a chance to tell her.”
He shook his head. “Why? Because you thought she was always gonna be around?”
Yes, he guessed that was true. “Maybe, but not anymore. Where is she?”
“Some yoga retreat in California.”
So Amir had taken off under the mistaken belief that she would be easy to find. How many yoga retreats could there possibly be happening in one state? The answer, it turned out, was a lot. So he’d started in San Diego and worked his way up, checking off the impossibly long list until he’d reached a large property just outside the Sierra Nevada foothills. This has to be it.
He lumbered into the main structure, a large cabin that appeared to be made of actual logwood. “Hello, I’m looking for someone.”
A sedate redhead nodded patiently. “I’m sorry we can’t give out information on our guests.”
Of course. “Then I would like to purchase a spot or whatever.”
Her lips twitched. “Okay. How long will you be staying?”
He had no idea. “As long as it takes to find her.” Her green gaze turned to the computer screen but he needed her to understand. “Her name is Liberty but she goes by Libby.” He rattled off her description but the damn woman said nothing.
“We have a tent open in plot 127d. Do you want it?” At his nod, she pulled out a map and showed him how to get there from here. “You can park in lot 120 and then it’s only a two and a half mile hike to your plot.
“Seriously?” He didn’t think he would make it without passing out and napping first. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome Mr. Randatha. Good luck,” she said ominously and that little smile told him she had helped him in some way.
Energized, he hopped back in the rental and made his way to the designated lot. Grabbing his luggage he used the last of his stored energy to make it to his tent. There were two and they weren’t numbered, so he went inside the one on the right, finding it empty he laid on the bed and closed his eyes. “Just for a minute,” he said and promptly fell asleep.
“What are you doing in my tent?”
He knew that voice, had been dreaming of it for weeks now. Only in his dreams the voice didn’t yell. “Even in my dreams you hate me sweet Libby.”
* * *
I will not be moved by his words. I will not be moved by his words. Even though he was more asleep than awake, his words hit her hard. “Believe me life would be a lot easier if I could hate you Amir.” He still didn’t stir and that just made her angry. How dare he invade her space and take it over like he owned it.
She’d had a long hike today and she felt more exhausted than she should and now when all she wanted to do was sleep there was a giant royal in her bed. “Amir get out of my bed!”
“Soon. Promise.”
“Your promises don’t mean a whole lot to me right now.” She went to him and shook his shoulders. “No,” she yelled when his arms wrapped around her and pulled her down beside him.
“Libby, sweet Libby my love.”
“Don’t call me that.”
He froze and she could tell the moment he was fully awake. “Libby? What are you doing in here?”
She tried not to shiver at his deep voice in her ear. “This is my tent. What are you doing here?”
“Your tent?” He looked around as though seeing it for the first time. “How can you tell?”
“Because I’ve been staying here for days.”
“There were two and I was so tired.”
She squirmed to get away, but his grip tightened around her waist. “What are you doing here?”
“I came for you Libby. You gutted me when you left without giving me a chance to explain.”
“Your words spoke for themselves,” she told him angrily.
“I know and I’m so damn sorry you had to hear them, but sweetheart, you didn’t hear me tell my dad that despite all that I found you were absolutely perfect for me.”
“You set out to make a fool of me.”
“I know and I’ll spend the rest of our lives making it up to you, Libby. When I started this I couldn’t have anticipated you.” He laughed and pressed gentle kiss to her lips. “You were an unexpected delight Libby. The beautiful bohemian I never could have seen coming.”
His words were sweet and she wanted to believe him, wanted to stay right here in his arms because it was the calmest she’d felt since sliding out of his bed with her body still humming from his loving. “I want to believe you Amir because I love you, but I think that’s clouding my judgment.”
“No, it isn’t.” He turned her onto her back so he could look at her, his black hair free of product and falling over his face as dark brown eyes pleaded with her. “I wanted to tell you everything the night of the ball, but that lingerie stole all of my thoughts. I love you Libby. I think I fell in love with you before I even knew your name. No one has ever saved me before and you did it twice.”
“Twice?”
He nodded and when he smiled down at her, she felt a tear slip from her eyes. “First from that speeding car and then you saved me from myself with your love of life, the way you approach life with such joy and excitement. You saved me from a life of boredom. A life without love.”
“I did?”
He nodded. “Libby just tell me it’s not too late. I’ll do anything you want. We can date for a while if you want so you can learn to trust me again but Libby I need you. I love you.”
She cupped his jaw and let her thumbs run along the edge of his jaw where he hadn’t shaved in a day or two. She loved this man more than she’d ever loved someone she wasn’t related to, how could she not give him, give them a second chance? “Amir I don’t know when I fell in love with you, all I know is that I did. You made me believe in love again and even when you hurt me, I still loved you.”
His smile brightened. “Good. Because I’m going to love you forever.”
“Even with my inappropriateness?”
He groaned. “Hell Libby I love you just the way you are and I know everyone else does too. I don’t want you to change a thing.”
“Not even my wardrobe?”
“Well, if it were up to me, I’d throw away all of your clothes and have you naked day and night.” She laughed and he leaned forward to kiss her. “But when we leave the house I won’t say a word.”
“At all,” she asked in disbelief.
“I have one request.”
Her heart felt so free, so light. “Name it.”
“That you always wear those flowers in your hair. You never looked more beautiful to me.”
“Maybe it was the dress. Or the lingerie.”
“Or maybe sweet Libby it was just you.”
More tears fell and she kissed him again. “I love you Amir. I really, really do.”
“That’s good Libby because I love you too and I’m keeping you forever.”
“That’s a good place to start,” she grinned and gasped when she felt something cold against her finger. “What are you…oh my god!” The beautiful pink and yellow diamond ring was back on her finger.
“I’m too tired to get down on one knee Libby, but I promise to give you a proposal worthy of your beauty and your spirit, and my love for you. But right now I just need to know that you know how much you mean to me. How much I can’t wait to start our lives together.” His kiss caused an inferno to start within her, boiling her blood so it moved slow and thick like lava through her veins. She turned to him and tossed a leg over his hip, whimpering when he pulled back. “Liberty Birch, my lovely little hippie chic, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, my Sheikha and my best friend?”
“Amir I want nothing more than to wake up next to you everyday for the next hundred years.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“That is a hell yes. I love you and I can’t wait to be your wife.” She pushed at his chest so she could straddle his body and kiss him properly. “I know you’re tired Amir and because I love you so much, because I need you so much, I’m going to do all the work,” she told him as she began to undress him.
Amir chuckled. “You’re going to be the best wife a man could ever have,” he sighed contentedly.
“Don’t you forget it, babe.”
“Not ever.” His hands gripped her hips and she looked down at his handsome face and kissed him again.
“Now let’s get started on forever.”