Total pages in book: 230
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Despite her obvious weariness, there was a light in her eyes. “It’s not insane. It’s quite good, my plan. And you will marry, won’t you, Kashmir?”
So neatly was her trap sprung. Still, he couldn’t say the word. He couldn’t give this up. She would be gone and he would be trapped in some loveless, sexless, hopeless marriage.
“I want to see you happy.” The words sounded more like a plea coming out of his mother’s mouth.
“Then don’t ask me to marry.” He stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the city. In the distance, he could see the Arabian Sea. When he’d been a child, he and Shray had played on those beaches, building sand castles to rival their home.
He was going to be alone. No one would remember who he’d been. He would be who he was now for the rest of his life. He would be the player king, the party boy.
“What do you think of this one, Your Majesty?” a feminine voice said. “I like it but I worry it’s a bit revealing.”
He turned as a woman in a brilliant yellow dress walked in from the side room.
For the second time in minutes, he felt the world flip and realign.
“Day?”
She turned and her spine straightened. Her body, so relaxed before, seemed to grow a few inches, and her gaze took him in.
She looked like a queen with her steely eyes.
“Hello, Kashmir,” she said, her voice deeper than he’d remembered. That voice of hers washed over him. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”
Dayita Samar. How many years had flown by? She didn’t look older, merely more mature. As though the beautiful girl he’d cared for had turned into a gorgeous woman who knew exactly who she was.
Day. The first woman he’d ever thought about settling down with.
God, was she really the only woman he’d ever thought about settling down with? He’d had a few girlfriends over the years, women he’d spent time with, escorted to the world’s glittering events, but none of them had ever been like Day. None of those women had talked science and politics and put him on his ass when he needed it.
“Hello, Day.” He couldn’t help but stare at her. It was like a ghost had walked back into his life at the precise moment he needed to be reminded of his past.
“Well, are you going through with it or should I take off this dress and get back to work?” There was no mistaking the challenge in her eyes.
Oh, she should take off the dress. He remembered vividly how he’d wished he could get her out of those ridiculously prim clothes she’d worn at Oxford. Gone were the heavy sweaters and thick, too-long skirts. The gossamer yellow fabric skimmed her every curve and she was luscious.
More than that. She looked like home, a home he’d long thought lost to him.
His mother looked up at him expectantly. “Well, I thought if I was going to force you into a quickie marriage, I should at least give you a bride, too. Should I tell you why I selected Dayita? She’s lovely and of the right age and you have much in common. She has a master’s degree in physics from Oxford, so she’s intelligent. We don’t want an uneducated queen.”
“I thought you planned to go for your doctorate.” He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. While he was looking at Day, he didn’t have to acknowledge that his mother was dying.
“Circumstances changed,” she replied, gathering the flowing skirt around her. “My father required help at home so I returned to Loa Mali and I eventually took over the education department, with her majesty’s blessing.”
His mother smiled Day’s way. “She’s been brilliant, but the parliament is giving her trouble about funding for elementary education. It seems they would prefer to spend it on other things.”
Day had been here on Loa Mali all this time? She headed his education department? And what the hell was his parliament doing? “There is nothing more important than our children receiving the best possible education we can afford.”
“Our girls and our boys,” Day said with a quiet will.
Those old men were giving her hell about educating girls? Another thing he’d allowed to slip by. “You’ll have your funding.”
“Will I have my wedding?” His mother started to stand, her hands shaking. “Or should I prepare the lawyers?”
She was really going to do it. His mother was lovely, but when she decided, her mind was made up. She would force them into a constitutional crisis and he had no idea what the fallout would be. Day had reminded him what was at stake. Education and equality for an entire generation of Loa Mali’s daughters.
“You’ll have your wedding.” He rushed to steady his mother, her hand so small and frail in his.