Page 25 of Passion and Deception

And why the hell wasn’t Ciara married yet? She’d been betrothed to her fiancée over ten years ago on her seventeenth birthday. She’d looked star-struck on that day.

However, he hadn’t seen that expression on her lovely features since then. In fact, the last time Falk bin Alon, Sheik of Itim, had come for a visit, Ciara had been mysteriously absent.

Why hadn’t Ramit realized that something was off with his sister’s engagement? How had he been so oblivious about his sister’s happiness? And why hadn’t she set a date for the wedding? Was she waiting for him to give her the go ahead? She’d been betrothed for ten years! If she was waiting for Falk, it was well past time for her to move ahead with the plans!

Ramit paused in the middle of the hallway. Images of Maggie laughing at him as he’d stared at a painting in the art gallery, attempting to see what she saw. He’d been such a misogynistic ass! He’d viewed the images through a male perspective, never questioning the women in the paintings. He’d arrogantly assumed the same beliefs as the artist; that women were for marriage and child rearing.

Was he doing the same to Ciara?

Maggie. His body ached every time he thought of her. It had been months since he’d last seen her. Why did it still hurt when he thought of her?

Banishing the image of Maggie’s soft, sweet smile and the way she’d felt when he’d held her in his arms…Ramit shook his head and forced his thoughts to focus on the present. Maggie, as beautiful, soft, and lovely as she’d been…Maggie was in the past. She’d betrayed him with another man, and he wasn’t able to forgive that.

“Ramit?” his sister called out.

Startled, Ramit realized that he’d been lost in his thoughts outside of his sister’s office. Shifting, he found Ciara standing in the hallway with a cup of coffee, looking amused as she watched him.

“What are you doing out here?” he demanded brusquely.

She laughed and he was surprised by the lovely, musical sound. “I could ask you the same thing. It’s not often that we find you in this part of the building.”

Building. Not palace. She’d said “building”. Was that significant? He suspected that it was, but for the life of him, he couldn’t put his finger on why.

“I came to speak with you.”

She waited, her eyebrows lifting as if prompting him to speak.

“Alone.In private.”

They both looked around. The hallway was wide and open, but there were guards and servants hurrying about.

Ciara gestured to the door. “Why don’t you come into my office, then?”

Ramit nodded and followed her through the doorway. In her office, he was surprised to discover that there wasn’t just a personal assistant sitting at the reception desk. There were several people moving about as if they had important tasks to complete.

This wasn’t what he was expecting. And that, again, raised the question of what his sister did all day. He was starting to suspect that Ciara wasn’t the bit of fluff that he’d assumed.

“Ramit?” she prompted again, leading him towards a set of double doors. She pushed through, waited for him to follow, then leaned out of the doors and said to her assistant, “Would you push my next meeting back fifteen minutes?”

Ramit paused, startled that she had meetings, but also wondering if his conversation with her was going to take longer than fifteen minutes. But that’s when he realized that he rarely gave anyone more than that allotment of time during his day. There were just too many people who needed some of his time, so he had to be strict about boundaries and time limits.

She smiled politely at her assistant, although he didn’t hear the other woman’s response. Ciara nodded, then softly closed the doors and turned to face him. She walked over to the white desk and sat down, gesturing to one of the visitors’ chairs in front of her desk as she sipped her coffee.

“What can I do for you?” she asked.

Ramit glared at her for a moment, wondering why he suddenly felt like a guest in his own damn palace! Why was his sister treating him as if he were…a client!

Pulling the pictures out from under his arm, he tossed them onto her desk. “I retrieved these for you.”

When she leaned forward to examine the pictures, Ramit stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched for her reaction.

It wasn’t what he’d been expecting.

“Well…uh…thank you?” she offered, blinking up at him. “I’m not sure why you wanted to retrieve someone’s sex pictures for me, but…?” she paused, tilting her head. “Should I thank you?”

He stared at her, stunned by that question. He was also surprised at how lovely his sister was. When had she changed from an obnoxious elf that had chased him around the palace to…this stunning beauty?

Shaking his head, he reminded himself of the current problem. With a tilt of his head, he asked, “Are you seriously going to tell me that isn’t you in those pictures?”

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