Only it had taken her nearly thirty years to find Khaled, and even then she hadn’t realized it at first. Hadn’t known that the fiery attraction she’d felt from their very first meeting would only grow and deepen as she came to know him better. What if he hadn’t persevered? He might have listened to all her protests at the beginning. He might never even have kissed her that first time, if she’d said no, and she wouldn’t ever have known.
A splash of something landed on the magazine. Olivia wiped it away and looked around to see what had been spilled. A second splash followed. Tears were gushing down her cheeks now. Furiously, she scrubbed them away, blinking hard in a desperate attempt to control herself. More tears. Damn the man. Everyone around was carefully looking away to give her the illusion of privacy, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that she was sobbing like a child while sitting in business class. It didn’t matter that she would never be CEO. It only mattered that she’d met Khaled, loved him, and had to walk away.
Nothing was going to make that better.
Nothing could.
Chapter Eleven
It was raining in Aberdeen. Mist obscured the sea and the city. Olivia pulled her coat tightly around her neck as she hurried to the taxi. She gave the directions to Dalneith House and sank back against the seat. She’d made this journey a thousand times, out of the city toward her home. This was the first time it hadn’t felt like home.
She checked her watch. Her father would be at the office for a couple of hours yet, which left plenty of time to put her plan into action. She made her arrangements with the taxi driver and then ran up the steps to the familiar gray house. Upstairs, she undid the suitcase she’d taken to Saqat, digging out the business suits and chucking them into a messy pile on the floor. The T-shirts and shorts she left, and the spotty bikini that had worked its magic on Khaled so well.
Olivia took the tissue-wrapped packages she’d bought at the Saqat airport out of their glossy bag and added them to her case. She removed the orange dress, letting its silk slide through her fingers. It hardly seemed possible that it was only last night when she’d worn it, when Khaled had broken off his betrothal. For a few brief, magical moments, she’d allowed herself to hope. Foolish. He’d never promised her anything and she’d known he wasn’t free to do so. Olivia hung the dress up swiftly, hiding it behind her gray suits. She wouldn’t wear it again.
There wasn’t much more to her packing. Some extra underwear, a few more T-shirts, and a pair of jeans. She chucked in a pair of flip-flops and a couple of novels she’d been meaning to read for ages. Done. A quick shower and she’d be on her way back to the airport.
She switched on the tap and waited for the water to run warm before she undressed. When she finally stepped under the flow of water, she felt the tension begin to ease in her neck and shoulders. As she worked the soap over her body, she washed away the last traces of Saqat.
It was over. Khaled needed to marry his sensible Saqati bride, and he’d be kept busy taking over the reins of power from his father. He wouldn’t have time to remember her.
She would remember him. But she couldn’t live her life remembering an unattainable dream. Moping around over a man she couldn’t have was a waste of time.
She stepped out of the shower and quickly toweled herself dry. She’d chosen a light cotton jersey dress to wear for the journey, but for the sake of the Scottish weather, she added a cardigan and a pair of woolly tights that she could dispose of on the plane. Where she was heading, she wouldn’t need them.
She ran a comb through her hair, scanned her room to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything important, then picked up her suitcase and went downstairs to call a cab.
At the sound of a car crunching on the gravel driveway, Olivia opened the front door.
Damn. Not the taxi, but her father returning early from work.
“You should have told me when you were arriving,” Oliver said. “Let me take your case for you, lassie.”
“No.” She held on tightly. “I’m just leaving, Dad.”
“Leaving?” He paused. “But you’ve only arrived.”
“I’m not staying. You were right. I need a break.”
“Aye, well. I’d hoped you’d spare a few days for Scotland first.”
“Why?” She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice. “There’s nothing here for me now. No job to keep me busy. No company to work for.”
“You’re angry about the CEO position. I know you’d hoped I’d give it to you.”
Olivia sighed. It wasn’t worth trying to explain. He wouldn’t understand. He never had. “Yes, I’m angry.”
“It’s better this way, lassie.”
“Better for whom?”
He came toward her, a tentative smile on his lips. “Better for you, Olivia. You can enjoy life for a wee while. You know, you never needed to work so hard.”
She stared at him. “Of course I did. You told me you wouldn’t employ me unless I was better than all the other candidates. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Ah, Olivia.” He shook his head. “You were supposed to enjoy yourself.”
She frowned. He wasn’t making any sense. “I can’t stand here talking. That’s my taxi waiting outside the gate.”