Page 66 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

‘Time,’ he said.

‘How much time?’

‘A week.’

She swallowed, for his eyes told her that the week was to have been reserved for her.

‘I was going to discuss spending the week with you. That has never happened before.’

He was clearly being honest.

‘Oh.’

‘I don’t even know if you’d have wanted to spend more time with me.’

Violet averted her gaze because she had to. His eyes took her to a place where she was being made love to by him, and she refused to succumb, to nod, to say,Yes, Sahir, I’d have wanted to spend a week with you.

‘A final fling before your marriage?’ She took up her own goblet and drank the herby, syrupy brew.

‘I’ve told you I didn’t know it was about to happen.’

She swallowed, and saw his eyes were on her throat as she did so.

‘Look, I don’t expect you to understand, but here a marriage is not about love. Intimacy and conversation are separate.’

‘How?’

‘The King and Queen work together. For more trivial matters they can take a lover, or confidant.’

‘Trivial?’ Violet checked.

‘These are the laws—country first, everything else second.’

‘And you agree?’

‘I don’t make the rules. I’m not saying they have to take a lover. Just that they can.’

‘I don’t get it,’ Violet said again.

‘Of course you don’t. You’re not going to be a king or a queen.’

‘I meant...’ She could feel her skin hot under her robe. ‘I mean, presumably there would have to be heirs.’

‘Of course.’

‘So how?’ She looked at him. ‘How would they...?’

‘It’s sex, Violet, it doesn’t have to be about love.’

‘So, in this strictly business marriage, do they meet once a month, or...?’

‘The teller states when the time is right for an heir and then they come here.’

‘Oh.’ She blinked. ‘So, this “teller” decides the stars have aligned and off to the desert they go?’

‘It sounds clinical, but...’

‘No,’ Violet refuted. ‘It sounds rather lovely. Well, the stars aligning and the coming to the desert part does. It’s the long, lonely stretches in between that would get to me. I doubt I’d be in the mood if my husband was off taking care of“trivial”matters with someone else.’ She shrugged. ‘But what would I know?’

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