His Majesty's Mistake

“And hundreds of emails, as well as dozens of phone messages all waiting for your attention, but they can wait a little longer,” he said firmly. “I want you to take the rest of the day for yourself. Eat, sleep, read, go for a swim. Do whatever you need to do so that you can get back to work. I need your help, Hannah, but you’re absolutely useless to me right now.”

She felt her cheeks grow hot. “I’m sorry. I hate being a problem.”

He gave her a peculiar look before his broad shoulders shifted. “Rest. Feel better. That would be the biggest help.” Then he walked away, leaving her in the living room as if this was where she belonged.

But as the door closed behind him, she knew this wasn’t where she belonged. It was where Hannah belonged.

These rooms, the food in the kitchen, the clothes in the closet … they were all Hannah’s. Hannah needed her life back.

Emmeline glanced down at herself, feeling grimy and disheveled in her creased cocktail dress, and while she longed for a shower—and food—she had something more important to do first.

She had to reach Hannah. She’d put in calls yesterday but they’d all gone straight to voice mail. Hannah had texted her back, asking when Emmeline planned to arrive. Hannah was expecting Emmeline to show up in Raguva any moment to change places with her before anyone knew the difference. Which obviously wasn’t going to happen.

Taking her phone from her small evening purse, Emmeline dialed Hannah’s number, praying that she’d actually get through this time instead of reaching Hannah’s voice mail again.

The phone rang and rang again before Hannah answered breathlessly. “Hello?”

Emmeline dragged a dark red embroidered pillow against her chest. “Hannah, it’s me.”

“I know. Are you okay?”

Emmeline squeezed the pillow tighter, her insides starting to churn. “I … I don’t know.”

“Are you coming here?”

“I.” Emmeline hesitated. “I … don’t … know,” she repeated, stumbling a bit, feeling dishonest, because she knew the answer. She could never go to Raguva. Not now.

Tense silence stretched over the line and then Hannah asked tightly, “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

Emmeline stared at the tall red mountains visible beyond the palace walls. She felt just as jagged as the mountain peaks. She’d flown all night, was seven weeks pregnant, and thousands of miles from Miami where Alejandro lay in critical condition. “I’m in Kadar.”

Silence stretched over the line. “Kadar?” Hannah repeated wonderingly. “Why?”

Emmeline’s shoulders rose, hunching. “Sheikh Al-Koury thinks I’m you.”

Hannah exhaled hard. “Tell him you’re not! Tell him the truth.”

“I can’t.” Emmeline felt dangerously close to just losing it. It’d been such a difficult few weeks and she’d been so sure that she could turn things around, make it all right. But instead of things improving, they’d taken a dramatic turn for the worse. “I can’t. Not before Sheikh Al-Koury’s conference. It’d ruin everything.”

“But everything’s already ruined,” Hannah cried, her voice rising and then breaking. “You have no idea what’s happened—”

“I’m sorry, Hannah, I really am. But everything’s out of my control.”

“Your control. Your life. It’s always about you, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t mean it that way—”

“But you did mean to send me here in your place and you didn’t intend to come right away. You used me. Manipulated me. But how do you think I feel being trapped here, pretending to—” Hannah broke off abruptly.

The line went dead.

Hannah had hung up.

Emmeline stared at the phone, stunned. But what did she expect? She had done an amazing job of messing up Hannah’s life.

Makin had met briefly with his staff after leaving Hannah’s room and spent fifteen minutes in his office listening to updates from his various department managers before dismissing them all with a wave of his hand.

He couldn’t focus on the updates. His thoughts were elsewhere, back with Hannah in her room.

Telling Hannah about Alejandro’s accident had been far harder than he’d imagined. He hadn’t liked giving her bad news. It didn’t feel right. He’d never felt protective of her before, but he did now.

Maybe it was because she wasn’t well.

Maybe it was knowing she’d had her heart broken.

Maybe it’s because he was suddenly aware of her in a way he hadn’t been before.

Aware of her as a woman. Aware that she was very much a woman. A highly desirable woman. And that was a problem.

Mouth compressing, he rose from behind his desk, left his office and set off to meet the Kasbah’s director of security, who had promised to give him a tour of the guest wings and go over the security measures in place for the safety of their guests.

The tour was interrupted by a phone call with information that Alejandro was out of surgery and in recovery. He hadn’t woken yet, and while the prognosis was still grim, he’d at least survived the nine-hour operation. For Hannah’s sake, he was glad.

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