Page 70 of Modern Romance Collection Books (5-8)

“I don’t think he wants me to come back. He... He set me free. And he told me that I wasn’t supposed to come back.”

“Cairo tried that with me,” said Ariel. “He told me that I hadn’t chosen to be married to him. He told me that I needed to be free. To make my own choices.”

“So they’re the same man, just in a slightly different configuration of trauma.”

“Yes. And they did both take us without permission.”

She waved a hand even though Ariel wasn’t there to see it. “Semantics. I think it’s pretty apparent we both want to stay.”

“Riyaz was a man in a dungeon, Brianna. I think he couldn’t stand the thought of you feeling locked away also.”

“I think he’s a man afraid of being locked in the dungeon by his feelings for me. That’s what I think.”

There was a long pause. “Maybe you have a point.”

“Did Cairo talk to you? About the fact that he feels responsible for what happened at the palace?”

“Yes. He said Riyaz was very calm.”

“He was. He almost didn’t react at all. But he’s broken by it. And I’m afraid... Actually, I’m afraid the real issue is he doesn’t want to step outside the dungeon. He doesn’t want to be too angry. He doesn’t want to want too much. He doesn’t want to feel too much. He doesn’t want to ever love anything that can be taken from him.” And for a moment, she just felt overwhelmed. By everything that he needed. By everything she wanted to do for him.

And the limits of what she would be able to.

She was just a girl who had been playing the part of somebody who understood normal.

You understand him. You want to. Maybe that’s what matters.

“What should I do? I love him. But he already has to do so much for so many people. He has to be the ruler of his country. And where does that leave him? Where does that leave him and what choice does he have in anything?”

“He’s going to have to step out of the dungeon,” she said. “The dungeon in his mind. More than anything else. He’s going to have to... He has to decide.”

“And if he can’t?” Brianna asked.

“He will,” said Ariel.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because I know his brother very well. And because I know how those men love. He might not be able to tell you that he loves you, Brianna, but he does. I’m certain of it.”

“Should I come back?”

“Give it a few days,” said Ariel. “I think my husband is going to return the favor that he owes your fiancée.”

“What favor is that?”

“You know, even when Cairo confessed to Riyaz that it was his fault the palace had been taken... He encouraged Cairo to go back to me. To have me. He could recognize when something is good for someone else. I just think he’s having difficulty accepting it for himself. Let Cairo help. And trust... Trust that Riyaz is strong enough to break the chains.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

RIYAZHADNOTfelt pain like this since his parents’ deaths. On the nights when he had flashed back to their deaths, it was the closest. That was what it was to wake up without Brianna in the palace. Pain. Like a death. It was he who was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down into the dungeon, when he heard footsteps behind him.

“So here we are in a very similar position to what we were in only a couple of weeks ago,” said his brother, Cairo, from behind.

“Yes.”

“You sent her away.”

“I had to. I was forcing her to stay with me when I knew that she wanted something else. You know what you saved Brianna from. You know that her father was going to traffic her. He was a criminal. How can I hold her captive?”

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