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Chapter 16 The Center Of Love
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DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 17 The Bond
Ali Ahmed POVKyra found Ali Ahmed first. He was hiding in a linen closet, wedged between bed sheets and a stack of towels. She smiled then stepped into the closet, shutting the door quietly behind her.Ali Ahmed was very, very aware of how close together they were, how dark the closet was, and how the sound of their breath was the only thing he could hear. He was torn between wanting Omer to find them as soon as possible and wanting this moment with Kyra to never end. Kyra shifted and Ali Ahmed felt her bare arm slide against his, sending shivers through his whole body."There you are!" With a gleeful shout, Omer flung the door open and Kyra stepped out of the closet quickly, not looking back. Ali Ahmed followed."Congrats! Your turn to hide, right?""Wait," Ali Ahmed said, his heart suddenly skipping a beat. "What time is it?""Just a little before three," Kyra said, glancing at her phone. "Why? What's up?""I have a meeting," Ali Ahmed said, grabbing his bag and starting for the do
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 18 Bonding Time
Kyra Suarez POVKyra gave the pot a gentle shake, listening to the last few pops, before pouring the white, fluffy kernels into a large bowl. As she added salt and a drizzle of melted butter, she listened fondly to the sounds coming from the living room. Omer was telling Ali Ahmed about the movie they were about to watch: an animated film about fish that he'd seen about a hundred times. Ali Ahmed was patiently listening, even asking follow-up questions. It was the sound of family, a sound that Kyra loved.Grabbing the bowl, she headed back into the living room and settled on the couch. Omer had already claimed his spot in the middle, so Kyra found a place on the left side, making eye contact and sharing a smile with Ali Ahmed over Omer's head. As always, meeting Ali Ahmed's gaze made Kyra feel almost shivery."Are we ready?" Omer asked, wiggling with excitement. "This movie is so good.""Let's do it." Kyra grabbed the remote and pressed play. Right away, the opening notes of the movie
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 19 His Secret
Ali Ahmed POVIt was Ali Ahmed's favorite time of day. Omer was sleeping, watched over by Mohammed, and he and Kyra were outside in the gardens. The sun had just set, but the gardens were light with beautiful tiny fairy lights. All of Ali Ahmed's work for the day was done. Now he could just enjoy his time with the beautiful woman beside him. He felt happy and somehow braver than he had before."How was your day?" Kyra asked."Oh, you know, nothing too exciting," Ali Ahmed said. This wasn't strictly true: there'd been a big argument between two of his advisors about an issue involving camels, but Ali Ahmed didn't want to get into it now. He just wanted to enjoy the evening. "How was your day?""Good. Omer made paper airplanes in a combined art and physics lesson that Noora made up. All day he's been throwing the airplanes around the house, which he is loving so much."Ali Ahmed laughed a little at the thought of the little boy with a house full of paper airplanes. "That sounds like him
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 20 Feelings
Kyra Suarez POV Kyra walked through the gardens slowly, humming under her breath as she passed the rose garden where Ali Ahmed had kissed her the night before. She felt like a lovesick teenager. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the kiss again and saw how dark Ali Ahmed's eyes had looked as he leaned towards her. His words about how she could trust him echoed in her ears, making her smile. Kyra hadn't felt like this in years, not since Ali Ahmed had kissed her back in college. She knew that bringing feelings into this arrangement was very likely to complicate things. It was worth it, though. She was already looking forward to seeing Ali Ahmed for dinner that night, maybe going for another walk afterward… Kyra gave herself a little shake. She needed something to do, something to focus on. For the first few weeks, all the time to relax and stroll the gardens had been a blessing. She'd loved being able to finish a book when she started it and to enjoy the occasional movie. Even
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 21 Ali Ahmed's Mind Spun
Ali Ahmed POV "I can't do the state dinner on Tuesday," Ali Ahmed told Omar, his assistant. "Can we send someone else?" Omar gave him a look sharp enough to melt diamonds. "Sheikh Ibrahim, dignitaries from several European countries are coming here to discuss economic cooperation with you. Are you really willing to dishonor them by sending someone in your stead?" "You're right." Ali Ahmed shook his head. He didn't want to cancel any more dinners with Kyra and Omer, especially not after hearing how sad his son was when he didn't show up. But Omar was right. This was an important meeting and it had to be a priority. "What's next?" "A meeting with your advisors Wednesday morning," Omar continued, running his finger across the agenda. "Followed by an appearance at a new university library that was built in your name. After that…" Ali Ahmed tuned out as Omar kept talking. He felt like he was on a hamster wheel these days. He ran and ran but never got where he was going. Sunday had bee
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 22 The Hidden Differences
Kyra POVKyra stood rooted in the hallway for a few minutes after Ali Ahmed left. He'd hurried out, glancing down at his watch with a look of concern as he went. Now Kyra felt like she couldn't move. She felt an icy fear pouring through her veins. Enough was enough."Mommy?"Kyra pulled herself out of her thoughts with a great effort. "Coming, sweets." She took a slow breath, calming herself, then stepped back into Omer's room. He was tucked into bed, the sheets pulled up to his chin so that just his deep brown eyes peered out."Wasn't it nice that Dad came to tuck me in?" he asked, grinning his sweet little grin.Kyra planted a kiss on his forehead, adjusting the covers even though he was already tucked in. "It was nice, huh?""But if Dad can't have dinner with us, why can't we have dinner with him?" Omer asked. He stifled a yawn. "I wouldn't mind eating at a different table if we could eat with Dad.""I know, sweetheart. This is a work dinner, though.""It doesn't seem fair." Omer y
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 23 We Will Leave
Ali Ahmed POVAli Ahmed couldn't bear to see the love of his life walk away, taking their son with her. He felt like his heart was breaking all over again. All his old hurts, from losing his father and Kyra at the same time, reopened."Kyra!" He hurried after her, reaching for her hand. "Please. Don't go.""I have to." She turned around, her teary eyes full of hurt and unshed tears."Then please, stay one more night. Let me have one more family dinner with you and Omer tomorrow. Let me say goodbye." This time, Ali Ahmed's voice broke and he let it, feeling years of pain behind his words. Years of loneliness. Years of keeping his heart shut. Kyra had every right to go, but he couldn't bear it.Her face softened a fraction at his words and she nodded. "All right. We'll stay for one more day and one more dinner. But after that, we're leaving."This time, when Kyra walked away, Ali Ahmed let her, though he kept watching until long after she'd turned the corner. He knew he couldn't ask her
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 24 Promised Your Love
Kyra Suarez POVKyra sat at the table in silence, tapping her fingers lightly against each other. She had agreed to this dinner because she knew it wasn't fair to Omer to have to leave without saying goodbye, but she was ready to get out of there. She'd booked a flight that would leave late that night. Their packed bags, minus anything Ali Ahmed had given them, were sitting by the door of their rooms. All that was left was to say goodbye.It was going to be beyond hard.Despite his keeping her and their child a secret, Kyra still loved Ali Ahmed. He was a good person, a kind and intelligent man. He was beyond handsome. Just the sight of him made Kyra's heartbeat in her chest like a butterfly taking flight. And when they kissed, when he touched her, it was like the whole universe paused to take notice.Kyra hadn't known it was possible to feel a love this powerful. Back in college, she'd loved Ali Ahmed, but she'd done so with the innocence of a young girl falling in love for the very
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DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 86 The Queen And Queen Of Sohar
Omar Farouq trailed kisses from her navel to one breast, then the other, anointing them both with his tongue. “I will make myself vulnerable. I will open myself to you, Aaliyah, and show you all these dark things in me. For you, and my son, I will give whatever you wish. Whatever is needed. Whatever makes us whole.”“And I will do the same,” she said, wiping at her face, though her smile was so wide he thought he could lose himself in it. “I promise you, I will not make up stories in my head and decide they’re real. Never again. I promise you that I will not treat our child the way my parents treated me, never good enough. Always on pins and needles, waiting for the other shoe to drop. I want him happy. So loved it never occurs to him to doubt it.”“How could he be anything else?” Omar Farouq asked.She moved against him, making him suck in a breath. “And I’d like him to be the first, Omar Farouq. Of many.”A family, Omar Farouq thought, letting the notion take hold of him. He had los
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 85 The King Needs A Queen
Aaliyah didn’t need to be urged out of the SUV when it drove her off the ferry that Angelique had commandeered, then brought her to that little parking area halfway up the lonely mountain. She thanked the driver, then charged up the narrow path cut into the side of the mountain as if she had something to prove.Because she did.And it was probably wiser to get as much of her jagged, furious energy out before she reached the Hermitage.Only because she didn’t think that it would serve anyone if she went in there after him, guns blazing.She already knew where that would lead. And she needed this to be different. She had to find some way to make this different from what had come before.Once she got to the Hermitage’s gates, she worried that it was entirely possible Omar Farouq might have locked her out. If he’d had the slightest suspicion that she would come up here after him.But when she reached the door, a simple push opened it up, and she found herself in that stone court once more
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 84 He Needed An Heir
AALIYAH has stayed on that beach for a long time.And when, at last, she turned and started back up the path, she hardly knew how she managed to put one foot in front of the other.She didn’t understand how she was here again. How had she given this same man her heart again only to have him smash it once more?She wandered without paying any attention to where she was going until it occurred to her that everything she’d said to Omar Farouq was true for her, too.Sohar seemed at times a fairy-tale kind of place, but it was all too real. Omar Farouq’s parents had been murdered, for God’s sake. It was just as dangerous for a future queen—or an ex-future queen, to be precise—to wander like this as it was for a king.Or anyway, it was putting an unnecessary target on her back.Aaliyah found it helpful to have something to concentrate on. To figure out where she was, which was easy enough in a place she hardly knew because all she needed to do was look up to see the palace standing there at
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 83 This Is About Justice
“I’m not suggesting otherwise.” She moved closer, there in his arms, to press her fingertips on his chest. “They sound like truly wonderful people. I’m sorrier than you know that I never got the chance to meet them. That Troy never will. But that’s not my point. I spent a lot of time these last year’s thinking about the many ways I could get revenge on my parents for turning their backs on me when I needed them the most. Sometimes it was all I thought about. And do you know what I finally understood tonight?”“I do not want—”“Revenge is a poison, Omar Farouq. It mires you in your worst moments while time marches on without you. It chains you to darkness. I know this. I lived this. And all the while I made up revenge scenarios in my head, my son—our son—was growing up. They tried to make me give him up. And I still spent far too much time in my head, which means I might as well have let them take him.” She let out a soft breath. “Tonight made it all too clear. They don’t have any powe
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 82 Hidden Feelings
Every night, they came together and followed the fire that had always been between them, wherever it led. In the aftermath, they would lie together, with their breath coming fast and hard. And it would nearly burst out of him, the need to confide in her.The way it always had.“You can tell me,” she said quietly, watching him far too closely. “Whatever it is.”And there was something in her voice then that made him pause. He barked out a laugh. “Do you think it’s a woman?”She didn’t reply to that, which was a reply in itself, and he raked his hands over his face. He could not quite bring himself to laugh again. “You credit me with far more stamina than any man could have. Or do you not imagine that the demands we make on each other are more than enough for one person in one day?”“I have always thought so,” she replied, and he could see her eyes flash, there in the dark. Omar Farouq did not miss the emphasis on the word always.“I was in my bedchamber when you returned that day,” he
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 81 Tonight Is Different
She hadn’t even bothered to change out of the gown she’d worn to the party tonight. Her hair was as he’d rendered it personally, after several hours of tearing each other apart. It hung down to her shoulders and looked as if there had been hands in it.There had been. His, and they ached to get back to it.All this while she stood there, fully exposed. Anyone who happened by could see her, the future Queen of Sohar, wandering around in the dark for no good reason.He made as if to go to her, then stopped before he could. Maybe he shouldn’t reveal himself. She clearly couldn’t see where he’d got to. She was scowling, her hands finding her hips the way they often did when she was out of patience. Then she turned in circles, completely heedless of the fact that she was standing beneath the lantern and therefore in full view of anyone who might care to glance out a window.She was not exactly stealthy.The fact that he should stay hidden and make sure she failed to locate him was clear to
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 80 Omar's Cousin Khalid
“We received the news from an emissary of your...of the King,” her father said after several moments inched by. He scowled at her. “He insisted that we come and support you.”“And, naturally, since a random king I doubt you’ve ever heard of insisted, you came at once.”“We heard of him when those rude journalists camped out on our doorstep,” her father barked at her. “The neighbors will never look at us the same way.”“The horror,” Aaliyah murmured, with a bit more sarcasm than befitted an almost-queen.“I see that the years haven’t softened you any, Aaliyah,” her mother said with a sigh that made it clear she considered herself the victim here. “That’s a shame.”Aaliyah let out a laugh. “I didn’t want to give Troy away. You wanted nothing to do with me unless I did. I’m not sure what softening would have done to make that scenario any better.”Her father made a low noise as if registering how concerning he found this conversation. But Aaliyah kept her focus on her mother.As ever, An
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 79 Roller Coaster of Emotions
Especially when she found her aunt sitting on a swing in the rose garden, watching Omar Farouq and Troy kick a soccer ball back and forth on the royal lawn.Her heart squeezed so tight she had to stop walking and fight to breathe. Aaliyah had to remind herself—sternly—of the six hard years she’d struggled through.Almost entirely alone.She found she had to do that a little too much as the days wore on.“Maybe it’s not all bad,” said Corrine on one of their walks through the extensive palace gardens.Back home in Tahoe: They had often tried to put in a bit of a summer garden in what summer there was so high up in the mountains. Unkillable geraniums seemed to be the height of their gardening prowess.It felt a bit like a metaphor that even the gardens here were unutterably lush.“There are worse things, of course,” Aaliyah allowed, trying not to sound disgruntled.When, in fact, she felt disgruntled. She’d woken from strange, dark dreams to find Omar Farouq in the shower. He had bid he
DUBAI THE CITY OF DREAMS Chapter 78 There Is Only Eternity
Molten gold, impossible flame, and that maddening, glorious, drugging heat that was only and ever Aaliyah.Each thrust was better than the one before. Each gasp, each touch, a revelation.There was the fury, the rage. There was the hurt, the need.But beneath it was a deep kind of recognition.A truth he was not sure he could name.They tumbled this way and that. She rolled on top and stayed there for a while, riding him with abandon. Then he could take it no longer and flipped her again, coming over her once more. He took her hands and hauled them up over her head so she arched against him, and both of them sighed out the sweetness of it.All of it was sublime. None of it was enough.Maybe he had known all along, back then and in all the years in between that it never could be. That it never would be.That there was only this woman for him.No matter how he’d tried to pretend otherwise.No matter how he’d failed to forget her.Omar Farouq levered himself down, getting his face as clo
