“For me! For me. For me to meet her.” Taavi looked ready to jump to the ceiling and back down again.

  “Take a deep breath and explain. For you to meet her why, Taavi?”

  Amare had to coach him through several deep breaths before the boy could steady himself. He was smiling harder than Nadia had ever seen anyone smile.

  “Because,” Taavi said finally. “She’s my favorite YouTuber! I showed you her videos! I showed them to you before.” The little boy threw his arms around Amare’s neck. “Thank you for bringing her to Kirisil for me.”

  “My apologies, Sheikh Amare.” For the first time, Nadia noticed that Taavi had been followed in by a young woman in dark clothes who had a frazzled look in her eyes.

  “It’s no trouble, Cira. Take some time for yourself. Taavi can eat breakfast with us. Can’t you?” He nudged his son playfully with an elbow. “If you’re not too busy.”

  “I’m not too busy.” Taavi took the seat closest to Nadia and grinned at her. It was like being grinned at by the sun. “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi,” she said back. “Do you like eggs?”

  She served him some eggs and sausage and an English muffin, and Taavi was off, telling her about her videos and other YouTubers he watched, but mostly a running recap of everything she’d done in the past few months. Nadia thanked her lucky stars that she’d chosen something relatively family friendly, like travel, and had kept things suitable for children.

  “Apologies,” Amare said over Taavi’s head fifteen minutes later, when his son was still going. “He’s quite enthusiastic.”

  “He’s wonderful,” she told him, then fielded a question about swimming with dolphins.

  Breakfast wound down, and Amare checked his watch. “I need to meet with my mother soon. Taavi, would you mind showing Nadia the courtyard?”

  “Right now.” Taavi leapt from his seat and took Nadia’s hand. “I’ll show you right now.”

  “I’ll see you later,” she called over her shoulder as Taavi tugged her out of the room. Amare waved back. She only caught a moment of movement before they were headed down the long corridor and out into a storybook.

  Truly, a storybook scene of flowers and plants and a fountain that rippled gently over strains of string music that emanated from the fountain itself. A breeze ruffled their hair, and it was the kind of perfect, cloudless morning that made everything around them glow with possibility. Nadia had no idea why the courtyard made her feel like the world was waiting for her—it was just a courtyard, enclosed within a palace. There were possibilities here, sure, but not like the great big world.

  “This is my dad’s waiting room,” Taavi informed her solemnly. “It’s where his most important guests wait for him to be done with his meetings.”

  “I’m honored to be here.” The courtyard was a million times nicer than being locked in a bedroom, the way she had been in Larasan.

  “What’s it like to travel around the whole world?” Taavi sat on a low stone bench, then jumped up again. “Is it fun?”

  “It’s very fun. I get to see the most interesting places on the planet. And meet the most interesting people, too.”

  Taavi considered this, then watched her out of the corner of his eye. A bird chirped on a nearby tree branch, the song a bright contrast to the murmur of the water in the fountain. The light was something else. Ideal video lighting. Nadia didn’t have her camera.

  “Are you going to make a video while you’re staying with us?” Taavi asked. “Can I be in it?”

  “I was thinking about it. But I suspect your father would rather you weren’t.” He looked so disappointed that Nadia’s heart twisted. “I’m focusing on a book project this trip, though.”

  The little boy nodded, then walked with great care to the fountain and perched on the edge of it. He fixed her with a serious expression. “What are you writing about?”

  He was so much like his father that she had to fight down a laugh. No laughing in this moment. She’d match him if it took every last bit of her strength. “I’ve always wanted to write a proper travel book, and I finally decided it was time to do that.”

  “Will Kirisil be in your book?”

  She hadn’t thought much about it. “In order to do that,” she mused, “I’d have to ask your dad’s permission first, since I’m staying in your home.”

  The door leading into the palace opened, and a staff member stepped out and gave a small bow. “Would you and Taavi like to join the sheikh and his mother in the sitting room?”

  Nadia’s heart kicked up into her throat. Deciding to continue their fake engagement had been fairly abstract until this point. It was one thing to decide with Amare that they would do it. Another thing entirely to include his family. Nadia had known Amare all of a day, but she still didn’t want to earn his family’s disapproval. Or cause them any heartache. It would be worse if a war started over this, however.

  It was on the tip of Nadia’s tongue to ask if they could postpone the meeting, but she’d half-dismissed this as a bad idea when Taavi took her hand. “Let’s go,” he said. “You’ll like my grandmother.”

  That settled it. “I’m sure I’ll love her,” Nadia told him, and together they followed the staff member back into the cool of the palace.

  4

  Amare’s mother and sister waited for him in his mother’s sitting room, and their faces were the first things he saw when he entered. His mother, smiling so wide he thought her face might hurt. Samira, his sister, had one corner of her mouth curved up and laughter in her eyes. He had the impression they’d been in the sitting room for some time, talking about him.

  They’d seen the news, then.

  “I asked you to rescue Nadia, not kidnap her for yourself.” Samira bit her lip, too amused to contain herself. Her tone was teasing and on the verge of bursting into laughter. “What happened? You would never kidnap a bride.”

  He wouldn’t. Amare had worked too hard to drag Kirisil into the present day and do away with their most unacceptable practices. Samira was teasing, but the teasing hinged on his deception, and Amare couldn’t let that continue. He didn’t want to keep them in the dark. He’d never wanted that. It reminded him too much of the way his father had acted. Amare wouldn’t have such secrets lurking in his own life.

  Amare stopped in front of the loveseat where his mother sat next to his sister. His mother looked so happy. This was going to be the least fun part of the whole business.

  “I need you to know, in no uncertain terms, that the engagement is false.”

  His mother’s face fell. The joy dropped away and was replaced by disappointed sorrow. Samira’s mouth dropped open. It didn’t feel fantastic to watch his mother understand his words. He’d expected her to be relieved that the engagement wasn’t real. For some reason, he’d expected her to still want the traditional courtship and ceremony that his father had given her, despite the way their marriage had turned out.

  Amare was very glad he hadn’t decided to wait to tell them. His mother was going to like Nadia, just like Samira did, and it would be wrong to let them get their hopes up for even a moment longer than necessary.

  His mother’s hand had fluttered to her chest, and now it dropped into her lap. “Why would you do such a thing?”

  Amare took a deep breath. “Haatim had taken Nadia captive.”

  “Captive?” she gasped. “During the summit meetings?”

  “Yes—the timing was fortunate, I suppose,” he said, reaching out to take her hand. Amare gave it a quick squeeze, then let go. Samira listened with her lips in a tight line. “She got a message to Samira, who told me. In the process of our making contact, Nadia bumped into a table and sent a vase crashing to the floor.”

  Samira put a hand to her forehead. “And the rest of them came running?”

  “Haatim led his people to us right away. The engagement story was the only thing I could think to say to keep us both safe. He had intended to force her into marriage, from the things he said when he caught us in the hall.”

  Samira shook her head. “What are you going to do now, if the engagement isn’t real?” There was a quaver in her voice. Samira wasn’t the sheikh, but she had a deep understanding about the way things would play in the press and in the palace.

  “I understand your worry. If the engagement ends too quickly, it will look suspicious, and Haatim will know that I deceived him. But if it lingers too long without proper planning, people will talk.”

  “You’ll have to go through the motions for a time, and the breakup will need to be convincing,” his mother put in.

  “Agreed.” It felt wrong, somehow, to be discussing the demise of his engagement. It felt wrong to plan it, and it felt wrong to picture himself after he was no longer with Nadia, pretending to be engaged or otherwise. It was not his favorite sensation. Amare wasn’t going to make the mistake of falling for someone a second time. He couldn’t.

  “You cannot afford to make a liar out of Sheikh Haatim—or admit to lying yourself,” his mother said gently, settling back into her place on the loveseats.

  “I know it.” A soft knock at the door to the sitting room. It would be Taavi and Nadia, he knew. He’d asked for them to be brought to the room after he’d had time to break the news to his mother and Samira. “Enter!”

  He had the feeling there was more to say about Nadia, more to discuss, but maybe he just wanted to talk about her. He couldn’t say those things to his mother and sister, anyway. He couldn’t say that something had rushed through him at Nadia’s bravery in the palace, or how he’d loved her wit on the car ride home, or how, when he saw her in the morning sun this morning in her pajamas and tousled hair, he’d briefly thought about taking her to bed.

  Taavi came in at a good clip, followed by Nadia. Nadia’s face lit up at the sight of her friend, who rose from the loveseat to hug her.

  “How are you?” his sister asked, looking into her friend’s face. “It’s all a lot, isn’t it?”

  Nadia waved this off. “It’s all right. You came to my rescue.”

  “I sent the rescue,” said Samira. She let go of Nadia and turned them both to where Taavi was embracing his grandmother on the loveseat. “Mama, this is Nadia, my friend from the film festival. And Amare’s rescued fiancée. Nadia, my mother Queen Qadira.”

  “It’s lovely to meet you, Nadia.” Amare’s mother smiled at her, welcoming and warm as always.

  A quiver at the corner of Nadia’s mouth gave away that she didn’t feel as confident as she seemed, but her shoulders settled more naturally at the kind words. “It’s so lovely to meet you.”

  “Come and sit.” Amare guided her to a chair next to his, and Samira went back to the loveseat. They all looked so at home in the sitting room. The space was decorated in pale blues and creams, and Amare could imagine them sitting here for years to come, meeting regularly in the mornings for coffee or tea and conversation. He could see Nadia making a real home here, and not a temporary, pretend one. For now, he needed her to know that his family would support them.

  “Mother, would you and Taavi go see if there are any snacks in the kitchen?”

  His mother arched an eyebrow at him, a bit affronted, but he looked back at her with what he hoped was a plea in his eyes.

  “Oh, all right. Come on, Taavi. I think there are fresh pastries. Should we see?”

  Taavi jumped up and punched the air. “Yes, yes, yes.”

  He took his grandmother’s hand, and the two of them began to go out—but not before she stopped by Nadia’s chair and looked down into her face. “She’s a pretty one, Amare.” His mother winked at him, and Nadia blushed.

  “Thank you so much, I—”

  But they were already going through the door with a wave. Samira hopped up to close it behind them. When she turned around, her eyes were wide with disbelief.

  “Nadia. How could you give up your phone? In a stranger’s palace?”

  Nadia laughed, and all at once Amare saw that the events of the last day had rattled her more than he thought. She’d seemed fine when she’d left his rooms earlier, and all right at breakfast, but now, with her friend nearby...

  Her laugh sounded almost like a cry. Shaky and unsettled. “I don’t know. I don’t know, and now all this—”

  Samira went to her and slung an arm around her shoulder. “Oh, Nadia, I’m only giving you a hard time. No one could have expected that Haatim would go that far.”

  Amare pushed down a powerful urge to put his own arms around Nadia. He got up from his seat and let his sister be the one to get close, but he couldn’t remain silent.

  “You’re safe here,” he told her. “Quite safe. And we’ll figure everything out.”

  “See?” said Samira.

  “We’ll need to keep acting out an engagement for a time, and then we’ll stage a breakup for the press. Simple as that. No complications, no entanglements, everything that happens will be perfectly safe and controlled.”

  His fake fiancée nodded, a little too hard. “That’s right. We will.”

  Samira rubbed at her shoulder. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, you know. If you want to go home to America, I will make sure that happens.” His sister cut a glance at him over Nadia’s head.

  “Of course,” Amare agreed, though if Nadia fled back to America, it would screw him over. There were no two ways about it.

  Nadia was already shaking her head. “No. I’m in this now. There’s no going back. I won’t waste it.”

  Samira gave her a look. “Waste what? A fake engagement?”

  “I’ll be getting some material for my book out of this.” Nadia took one deep breath, then another, and she didn’t seem so unsettled by the end of them. “I’ve been wanting to shift my focus from social media to travel books, and being in Kirisil will help me do that.”

  “It’s an excellent idea.” Amare wondered if he sounded too forceful, but Nadia grinned. “This will be the perfect way to introduce the new Kirisil to the world.”

  “The new Kirisil?” Nadia asked.

  “My Kirisil.” Amare took his seat again. “We can talk about it while you’re here. I want to bring the country out of the past—Kirisil used to be much like Larasan, our sheikhs much like Haatim. It’s time for a new path into the future.”

  Nadia looked at him, thoughtful. “How long do you think we’ll have to play the happy couple? I have travel plans that can be changed, but I need to know dates in order to change my tickets and not lose my money.”

  “Not a moment longer than necessary. I appreciate you going along with this, Nadia.” And I want to spend more time with you. I shouldn’t want that, but I do. “We’ll get dates, and I promise, this will be perfectly painless.”

  “Thank you,” Nadia said. “I’m glad it won’t hurt at all.”

  A joke. Samira laughed, then tugged her friend over to sit with her on the loveseat. Nadia leaned back into it, a hand on her forehead, and Samira nudged her. The two women fell into conversation, and the sound of their voices rising and falling made Amare want to sit and listen all day.

  Out of the question.

  He stood up and made his goodbyes, then went out into the hall, back to his office. Amare settled in for the day’s work—meetings and audiences and planning for the future he wanted to build. The future of Kirisil was his passion and had been for many years. There was nothing he wanted more than to see his country thriving in the present, without all the traditional minefields holding it back.

  So why did he want time to slow down? Why did he want it to last and last with Nadia?

  5

  First things first—they needed a routine, so Amare made one for them. He and Nadia met for breakfast each morning in her sitting room with the door wide open. Now that his mother and sister knew the plan, they’d made their “engagement” public within the palace, and he’d put out an official press release. So there was breakfast, after which they’d split up and spend time on their respective jobs. But after four days of relative privacy, Amare knew it was time to make an appearance.

  Nadia was waiting for him on the fifth day, already at the table, stirring cream into her coffee.

  “Good morning,” she said. Her smile lit something up in him. Her voice. He looked forward to this more than he was willing to admit.

  “Good morning. Sleep well?” He had not, in fact, slept very well. He had been thinking of Nadia, and though he’d never admit it himself, he wondered if she thought of him, too.

  “Very. Most comfortable bed on the planet.” Nadia sipped at her coffee, and a staff member came in with the breakfast tray.

  Amare waited until they’d both been served to ask his question. “Do you think you’d like to go sightseeing today? If your schedule allows.”

  Nadia grinned, the smile wrinkling her nose in a way that did something in the vicinity of his heart. “I think my schedule as your fiancée allows it, yes.”

  He smiled back at her. “Good. There’s a new science museum that I’d like to take Taavi to, and I would appreciate it if you’d join us.”

  Because the people would begin to ask questions if he didn’t appear with her soon, but also because...he wanted her there.

  “I love museums.” Nadia took her first bite of eggs and closed her eyes. Amare had never met a person who savored simple things like eggs the way Nadia did. She finished her bite and loaded her fork for a second. “And I want to see more of the city, so it’s a match made in heaven.”

  After breakfast, he sent for Taavi’s nanny, and she met them behind the palace carrying a bag of emergency essentials. There were several other buildings in the palace compound—stables for their horses and another building that looked much like the stables. Nadia blinked up at it as they approached, shading her eyes from the sun with one hand. Taavi skipped along at her side.

  “Are we riding to the museum?” Nadia asked.

  “In one of my cars,” Amare said with a smile, and Nadia laughed. “You can be the one to choose.”