“Is that how you would prefer to be addressed?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Then Beth is what I shall call you.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“Please call me Malik. I wish to put you at ease.”
So he had noticed her nerves. Hopefully he’d chalk it up to the circumstances. “Being an ambassador’s daughter, I learned the proper form of address for distinguished persons at an early age. It’s difficult for me to relax old habits and training.”
“That is understandable. Think of it this way. Sometimes I am called His Royal Highness. Sometimes Sir. Occasionally I am called things not fit to repeat in front of a lady.” He grinned suddenly, showing very white teeth against his tanned skin. “However, in private, as we are now, my given name is preferable.”
Was it her imagination or had his voice dropped and become sexier on the word private? Was it also her imagination that the oxygen in this room had suddenly thinned, making her want to take long, deep breaths?
“Malik it is, then,” she said, trying to relax. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“The pleasure is mine, Beth.” He held out his hand.
She put hers into his palm and felt the warmth and strength of his long fingers. Then the tingles started. They danced up her arm and settled in her breasts, as if he were touching her there. His dark eyes turned smoky and intense, as if he felt the same flash of heat.
“Yes. Okay. Introductions accomplished,” she said, pulling her hand from his. Again she couldn’t think straight. It was as if touching him short-circuited her brain functions.
“Indeed.” He nodded toward the other room. “Let us sit and relax, get to know one another.”
“All right.”
She backed away from him, then turned and went into the living room, grateful that she made it all the way to the sofa without her legs giving out. Relaxing wasn’t going to happen. She had a feeling that even if she wasn’t pretending to be her sister she’d be a fool to let down her guard around this man. The aura of confidence and power surrounding him—the very qualities that had landed her in trouble before—were compelling and exciting.
“I wish you to tell me everything about yourself,” he said.
Was that an order? The imperious tone touched a nerve before the words sank in. “But we’re betrothed. Don’t you already know everything?”
He unbuttoned his suit coat, revealing a snow-white shirt and flat abdomen. Then he sat a foot away and met her gaze. “It is impossible to know everything. I know you were raised in the United States until attending boarding school in Switzerland and college in France, where you received a degree in Art History. I know we are betrothed because your father is my father’s trusted ambassador and friend. May I ask how he is?”
“Fine.” The last time she’d seen him, and she couldn’t remember when that was.
“I am pleased that he is well. He has assured me of your impeccable background and speaks very highly of you. But I have been supplied only with details.”
The devil was in the details. She hated this, and it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him what was going on, but she decided to wait. “Well, I don’t know what to say.” And that was definitely the truth.
He met her gaze and his own darkened. “I prefer to act as if we had met by chance. I wish the facets of your individuality to be revealed as we indulge in the dance of learning about each other. I like surprises.”
That was good. If he ever found out she wasn’t who he thought, he was in for a big surprise. The thing was, when she and Addie were kids, who dressed alike and wore their hair in identical styles, it had been far easier to fool everyone. They’d both gone to finishing school, but Beth had become a teacher and Addie could throw a formal dinner party for the population of a small country.
“Prepare to be surprised,” she said. If her cover was blown and the pretense stopped here, Addie would pay a high price. The best plan was to tell the truth when at all possible. “I’m a teacher—high school English.” And this ruse was how she was spending her summer vacation.
“That is a detail I did not know. So you have a career?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like teaching?” His expression appeared to be one of genuine interest, not an aha-you’re-lying-and-now-you’re-busted look.
“Yes.”
“And children?”
“I like them very much. Why do you ask?”
“Because I am expected to produce an heir to the throne.”
“Then you be pregnant and go through childbirth.” The words popped out of her mouth before she could stop them. Her sister wouldn’t have slipped up like that.
He frowned. “You do not want children?”
“Someday I’d like to be a mother.” But she didn’t expect it to happen. Not without love. And she really didn’t expect that.
“Will you miss it when we are married?”
“What?”
“Teaching. Your career.”
So it was expected that being his bride would be a full-time job, one for which her sister had been exquisitely trained. But he’d asked her, Beth, and she’d worked hard. She loved her job and felt she really connected with the teenagers she taught. “I have to be honest.”
“I expect nothing less.”
“I would miss it very much. Is that a problem?”
He sat back as he thought. “It is a bridge we will cross when the time comes.”
Spoken like a powerful politician, she thought. Translation: we’ll do it my way, and it doesn’t matter if your heart gets broken. The woman he married would be subject to this attitude. But Beth wasn’t the woman he was supposed to marry, thank goodness.
“Later works for me,” she said.
“What do you think of Bha’Khar?”
“I haven’t seen much yet,” she admitted. “But I remember going to the open-air market when I was a child. My mother used to—”
She had a sudden, vivid vision of smells and sights and sounds, and the safe, secure feeling of her hand in her mother’s. The emptiness inside her was like a black hole that swallowed up all the light. A part of her had stayed empty ever since her mother had abandoned her and Addie to be raised by a stern, autocratic father. The scandal and abandonment had devastated Beth, but her twin had taken it even harder.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing.” The knot in her stomach said different, but this wasn’t the right time to discuss it. While she was in the country she planned to see her mother and tell her to her face exactly what she thought about someone who would abandon her children. And, more than that, Beth wanted to know why she’d done it.
Speaking of interrogations, Malik was asking most of the questions. It was time to take the heat off herself and learn about him. For Addie’s agenda to extricate herself from this contract, she told herself, not her own reluctant curiosity about a man who had shown a romantic streak in that “dance of learning about each other” remark.
“Tell me about you,” she said.
He thought for a moment. “I will soon be the King. From birth, I have been in training to assume the throne and lead my country and my people into more prosperity than we currently enjoy. My father has been a great example and has challenged