Page 84 of The Stallion & The Tigress
“It is not your fault, Lala.It’s all been myown doing.It’s been my pride that kept me from accepting hisproposal, if not his passion.My willful stubbornness that chasedhim away.”
Into another woman’s arms.
“There’s still hope.I saw the way he lookedat you at our wedding.I may be a newly wedded woman,” she said,blushing again, “but I know desire when I see it in a man’s eyes,and Aleksandr desires you.”
“Lack of desire has never been our problem,”Sahar said.“Other things have come to pass recently, things that Iam not at liberty to tell you or anyone else yet, things that havemade it impossible for us to be together.”
“Impossible?”Halah asked, “orimprobable?”
Sahar shrugged.“Either way, Aleksi will notbe asking me to marry him again.”
“So you ask him.”
“No.”Sahar shook her head.“I’ve lost mychance.”
My stallion has moved on to greenerpastures.
“If that’s true, then I’m sorry for youboth,” Halah said, patting Sahar’s shoulder.
“Thank you, Lala.”Sahar gave her cousin asad, rueful smile.“It’s good to have someone else know what I’velost.Someone who understands.”
“I’m here for you,” Halah assured her.“Always.”
Sahar nodded, ridiculously close totears.
“I was on my way to visit Rima and Ammar,”Halah said.“You should come with me.Rima will be glad to see you,and a baby can’t help but cheer you up.”
Two happily married women and a newborn babywould only be reminders of all that Sahar had lost, but her lifehad to go on without Aleksi.
She rolled her shoulders back and lifted herchin.
She may as well get on with it.
Aleksi pushed back from the table with agroan, glad for once to be wearing robes instead of breeches.Anyahad outdone herself with the feast tonight celebrating hisascension as his father’s heir.
The announcement had been received withshocked silence at first, but then King Asad had stood and clapped,followed by his queen, and his son and his daughter, until one byone, every person in the hall was standing and clapping.Aleksi’sfather had beamed and Aleksi had smiled and acceptedcongratulations.He shook hands with seemingly every person there,but for Sahar, who had sat down without a word, her hands primly inher lap until the first course of the meal was served.
She’d remained quiet, partaking of more winethan food and keeping her gaze on the table or off in the distancesomewhere, except for whenever Ursula was in the hall.Then hernarrowed gaze followed the maidservant’s every move, and wouldflicker over at Aleksi with a quizzical glare.
Which was one of about a hundred questionsAleksi wanted to ask Sahar, but he hadn’t been able to get heralone for days, not since their encounter at the river.About theonly question he had no intention of asking her again was to marryhim.She had stated repeatedly she had no want or need of ahusband, or a man.Especially him.Though Aleksi knew that was notcompletely true.She may not have needed him, but she had wantedhis body and the sensual pleasures it could give her.As he wantedher.The difference between them was, he wanted more than herbody—he wanted her mind and her heart too.He wanted her standingby his side as his wife and his queen, the same as she had stoodand fought by his side in the wilds.Her, and no other.
Maybe if he’d courted and wooed her ratherthan competed and argued with her.
Aleksi snorted into his goblet of wine.Thetigress he knew would have eaten him or any other man alive whotried.She was not one to fall for false praise and flattery.Well,he amended, remembering the Wolf’s oily courting, not for longanyway.Aleksi supposed he and Sahar had courted in their own way.They’d teased, argued, and tangled with each other, eventuallybecoming allies and lovers who had fought for and saved eachother’s lives.It hadn’t been enough for Aleksi to win his tigress,a woman who refused to be any man’s prize.As much as he hated thathe’d have to go on without her, he had to respect her for beingtrue to herself.
“Well, Father, would you like to meet thehead cook now?”
His father patted his full belly.“I wouldindeed.”
They made their way to the kitchens whereAleksi spied the back of Anya’s head at a table she and two otherwomen were working at preparing dough for the next day’s flatbread.He led his father over and tapped Anya on the shoulder.
“Father,” Aleksi said as she turned around,her wide eyes fixing on his father, “this is—”
“Anya?”his father called.“Anya, is itreally you?”
Anya nodded wordlessly, her gaze neverleaving his.
“Anya.”His father wrapped her in hisembrace.“My Anya.”
