At the Sheikh's Command (Diamond Sheikhs Book 1) by Diana Fraser

Author:Diana Fraser [Fraser, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: © 2023 Diana Fraser
Published: 2023-05-19T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

For a second night running, Leonora had a disturbed night because of Darrius. Except this time she’d been kept awake by her conflicting thoughts and desires. Part of her had wanted to go to him, just as she’d done the previous night, but another part resisted because she knew that opening the door to his room and to a night of bliss would challenge her defenses—and she really didn’t need her defenses challenged right now. They were already pretty shaky.

So by the time the sun had risen, Leonora had already been up for hours, working at her laptop, trying, but failing, to re-focus on her research. It had always been her savior, but now it seemed even this had left her. Instead, her gaze was drawn to the city below the palace and a slightly raised hill to the north. With its 360-degree views of the city, it was a popular beauty spot, despite its function.

She glanced at her watch. She’d been sent strict instructions as to the time she and Darrius would leave to travel into the desert. But she’d made sure she had a few hours when no one would know where she was, so she could go to the place she’d wanted to visit as soon as she’d entered the country. Darrius had stopped her then, and she was determined he wouldn’t stop her again.

It turned out to be easier than she imagined to slip past the guards. Dressed in her full hijab, she could have been anyone. She continued on through the streets toward the edge of town. She took a few wrong turnings before she found it. After all, she’d only been there once before. Two days after her premature baby had died. One day before she’d left this country for what she’d thought was forever. Darrius wanted to know why she didn’t have a heart? That was easy. She’d left it here.

It was for the views most people came to the grassy hill which rose above the city. The graves in the cemetery were clustered to one side, out of sight, and it was to one of these Leonora made her way. She found the small grave and pulled out the well-worn photograph she always kept with her and compared it. Yes, this was the one. And it was maintained well. The nurse she’d paid to look after it had obviously kept her word. She knelt down and touched the top of the gravestone gently, as if she were touching the soft hair on her baby’s head. Despite being premature, her baby had had a full head of dark hair. Her little girl. Azra. She would have been a beauty.

She touched the engraved words—the only ones she could think of at the time—and remembered how, eight years earlier, she’d been alone in this city, spurned by Darrius’s family, but determined to wait for his return from university. She’d told him she’d wait for him and she’d fully intended to. What she hadn’t told him was that she was pregnant.

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