An Inconvenient Marriage (Married to a Prince) (6 page)

Sami grinned triumphantly. He knew from that first night he’d kissed her. She had not responded like a woman in love with another man. He cleared his throat to get her attention.

Delilah jumped and turned toward him. “I have to go, Mom.” She disconnected her phone immediately, apparently cutting off a reply. She blushed as if guilty of some unknown crime. But she didn’t appear broken up over the end of her love affair.

“Was your mother upset that you’re staying a while?”

“No.”

He cracked a smile. “You’re lucky it isn’t a crime to lie to the royal family.”

“You were listening to my conversation?”

He shrugged without guilt.
“Just the end. I’m sorry about your broken engagement plans.”

“No you’re not.”

“You’re right. I’m not. But neither are you.”

“I’m not going to discuss this with you.” She rose from her seat and put her phone in a fully stuffed, oversized purse. What was it with women and their need to tote their entire lives around with them?

“It must be awkward to discuss other men with your husband.”

“No more difficult than explaining about your wife to your harem of woman.”

Did he detect a note of jealousy?

His name had been linked to more than a few women recently, but if his sex life had been as active as rumored, he wouldn’t be able to walk upright. And he wouldn’t be as hard as a horny teenage while glancing at his prim little spouse. He really needed to take her shopping before the press made a sport out of her overly conservative wardrobe.

“Do you have plans for today?” he asked.

“I will have to check my calendar.”

“In other words, nothing. Make sure you wear something that is easy to get off."

“Excuse me?” she sputtered. Her cheeks flushed.

“We’re going shopping.”

Her green eyes widened.
“We?”

“Yes. Think Julia Roberts and Pretty Woman.”

“She was a hooker?”

Hooker.
Wife. Not much difference to him. Both cost a lot of money with no return on investment. At least he used to believe that. With all Lilah agreed to take on to honor the father she never knew he might have to change his mind about her.  But judging by her scowl, she wasn’t about to change her mind about him. Did he really care for the few short months they would play out the charade for their families?

Hell, yes.

Chapter Five

Having lived her last five years in New Jersey, with more shopping centers per square mile than any place in America, Delilah had been to her share of trendy malls, but City Stars surpassed any she had ever seen. Sami led her to an exclusive shop on the third floor called Butterfly. The lobby resembled the Hanging Gardens of Babylon with colorful namesakes fluttering behind a huge glass wall. The sweet, floral scents surrounded her.

Customers were greeted at the door with tea and scones. Sami hadn’t exaggerated when he compared it to the shops in Rodeo Drive.  While she would have preferred to peruse the racks—alone—they were seated in a private viewing room while the current collections were presented to them. Or should she say Sami, since he seemed to be the one the saleswomen hoped to impress. What started out as mildly amusing, became downright insulting.
Especially since he could hardly turn his attention away from his IPad.

“You must do a lot of shopping for women’s clothing,” she said.

“Not really. My mother and sister suggested it for the privacy.”

One clerk presented two, gaudy and overly proofed dresses to Sami for inspection.  “I’m not the customer.” With an annoyed grunt he came to his feet. “I’m going for coffee. I’ll be back in a while.”

Please take me with you, her mind screamed but he left without a backwards glance.

The staff, now completely attentive to her, showed the finest in French, Italian and American fashions. Clothes she had seen only in Vogue Magazine or on the Red Carpet. Clothes she could neither afford nor carry off. Although Sami offered to pay, she did not want to be indebted to him.

Shopping was not her ‘thing’.  Many of her coworkers planned their weekends around the seasonal sales. Delilah viewed it as a sporadic necessity. She stuck with simple, timeless styles in muted colors that didn’t change from year to year.

“Boring,” a saleswoman named
Reem said.

Had she spoken the words aloud? “Excuse me?”

“Don’t you want color?”

Delilah looked over the choices again. The styles, which could be dressed up or down with colorful scarves or accessories, made sense to her. “These are fine for me.”

“What about your husband?”

The question surprised her. “What about him?”

“Don’t you think you should try to be a bit more stylish in light of that article in the paper?”

“What article?” Delilah asked.

“Reem,” the other staff member chided. “We are not to mention it.”

“Mention what?”

“We are doing her a favor, Mariam. Otherwise she will continue embarrassing the royal family.” The woman handed her a copy of the morning paper with a series of photographs of her and Sami taken throughout the city. She didn’t need to understand the language to guess the story was as unflattering as the pictures.

A suffocating ache settled over her chest.
An embarrassment? Was that how Sami viewed her or had the saleswoman’s words lost something in translation? She sucked in several deep breaths. Salty tears burned in her eyes but she refused to cry.

“Now why don’t you try these on?”
Reem pushed two red dresses in her face.

Delilah had never enjoyed shopping but she could say now with absolute certainty that she hated it.
And her feelings for her husband? Well she was too much of a lady to say. She believed their understanding involved mutual respect.

She plastered on a rigid smile and tried a line of designer clothes in a rainbow of colors. But inside a burning rage spread through her and she clenched every body part to stop from shaking. She didn’t look at them. She didn’t care. If it fit, she put it in a pile. Since it was so damned important to Sami, that he felt humiliating
her an acceptable practice, he could choose what she would be seen in when they appeared in public. And she would make sure that would not be often.

* * * *

Sami checked his watch. How long did it take to try on clothes? He had been gone over an hour.  Why hadn’t he listened to his mother and sent Delilah with her maid. Another 10 minutes passed before two clerks appeared from the changing area.

He glanced at the pieces of ladies’ apparel hanging on a rack. He wasn’t sure why he was called over, but if it signified the end, he’d play.

“Where is my wife?”

The shop manager,
Reem pushed in front of the other clerk. “In the bathroom. Upset stomach I think. She should be out soon.”

“And we’re all done here?”

“I guess so, for now. If you can just let me know which you want and I will box them up and put it on the palace account.”

“What I want?” Now he knew why he never went shopping in the past and why he would never go again.

“Well I took out all the pieces she favored. A few others might require alterations. We haven’t even begun yet on evening wear. It really depends on the kind of look she wants to present as your wife.”

He glanced between the two women at the cash register. One had a greedy glint in her eyes. As commissioned workers they stood to gain a lot today. So why did the other clerk remain silent and glare at him as if he were the Prince of Darkness?

“What is your opinion, Miss …?”

“Mariam, Your Highness, and I have no opinion.”

Nadiarians seldom spoke their minds to him. Even his college friends rarely put him in his place. So he respected anyone who told him the truth, weather he liked it or not. “I am sure you do. And I want to hear it.”

Her colleague shot her a cold glare. She didn’t answer at first, as if weighing her options.

“She is new here,” Reem said.

“She still has an opinion.”

Conflicting emotions played out on Mariam’s face.  With a what the heck shrug she said, “My opinion is that your wife is not in the bathroom with an upset stomach. She is in the dressing room, hurt and humiliated. Someone should have told her about the newspaper before coming here today. And I really couldn’t tell you what she would prefer because the only thing she said is to let you choose because her clothes are obviously more important to you than they are to her.”

“Who told her about the article?” he asked but he knew. Miss Dollar Signs had obviously thought to play on the insecurities of a client to increase her sales. Funny how men got blamed for keeping women down when they seemed to be their own worst enemies.

He pointed to Mariam. “Have them all sent to the palace. She will choose what she wants and you will return the rest.”

The young woman’s eyes widened. “I should bring them?
To the palace?”

The manager seemed to have a comment until Sami glared at her. “Is that a problem?”

As if he needed another screw up with Delilah.  When she asked her family for permission to divorce, his behavior could not and would not be the reason. As he started toward the dressing room, Delilah came out. Her emerald eyes shimmered with unspent tears but the fury shone through. 

“May we leave now?”

Sami tried not to grin. Grammatically correct and polite, even though he was sure she wanted to hit him. He wished she would.

* * * *

They went straight back to the palace at Delilah’s insistence. After the horrible morning, she wanted to close herself up in a room alone. Sami seemed to have other plans.  She couldn’t shake him as they made their way through the maze of corridors to her suite.  Outside the entrance he clasped his hand on her forearm. “We need to talk.”

It was too late to have the discussion now. “Why don’t you talk to the salesgirls since you obviously have so much to say to them?”

“I asked them not to mention the newspaper. That’s all.”

She exhaled slowly, fighting to hold back her anger. “Well, it appears, Your Highness, your subjects don’t listen to you.”

“It was a nasty thing to do. Do you want me to have her fired? Will that make you feel better?”

“No.” She was upset but not spiteful.

“Then what do you want?” he asked.

“Nothing.” She tried to edge past him, but he held onto her arm. “Let go.”

“No. We are going to have this out.”

“Don’t push me,” she warned in an annoyed whisper.

“What are you going to do? Hit me?”

She met his amused gaze. He found the whole situation funny. That hurt even more than the damned pictures.  “Leave me alone.”

“Oh come on, get it out of your system. You’ll feel better.”

“Do you need a front page picture for tomorrow?”

He cupped his hand over neck and pressed her back against the wall. “Do you think I had something to do with that?”

She didn’t know what to think. The collage of photos was taken all over the city yesterday. How was the reporter able to follow them through every twist and turn of their journey?  “Then why not tell me about it?” 

He groaned.
“To avoid this.”

“If you had just told me what an embarrassment I am…”

“Let’s get one thing straight. I don’t give a damn if you walk around in a plastic garbage bag. I am incapable of feeling embarrassment for myself or anyone else for that matter. I have made the front page with more unflattering pictures and stories than you can imagine. And since there is very little truth in any of them I couldn’t care less.”

“But…”

He ran his thumb across her cheek.  Warm breath fanned her neck and ear. “You’ve got beautiful skin, Lilah, but it needs to be thicker if you are going to survive your time here.”

“Easy for you to say,” she mumbled.

“Well that’s true. It wasn’t my backside they were commenting on in the headline.”

“What!” she yelped?  Did he really say that? She didn’t know what came over her. The churning of emotions came to a head and she did something, she had never done in her life. She hit him.

Hard to say who was more surprised. Sami? Her?  Or the security detail at the end of the hall moving quickly towards them.

With a laugh he waved off the highly trained body guards. “Feel better now?”

“You bet your ass I do.”

She stepped around the two stunned men and entered the suite. Sami followed. She had hoped for alone time to regroup. A loud knock said that wasn’t going to happen. Sami opened the door. Mona stood on the landing.

“I have to go to the office,” he said.

“Who says I came to see you?” Mona’s affectionate smile showed a depth of love despite her teasing.