âYou should fear me.â
Her heart quivered to a standstill.
This was the moment sheâd waited and worked for since sheâd laid eyes on him. The full disclosure. The final negotiation before he surrendered. Before he let her give him herself, let her have him.
She rose to her knees, shaking. âI would fear anything and anyone but you.â
âHow did you come by this certainty?â
His bass rasp shivered down each quailing nerve. She had to be very, very careful. The wild, wounded tiger was giving her one chance to reach out and pet him. If she got it right, heâd be hers for life, she knew it.
But if she didnât get it right â¦
âDo you have a few years? Iâll tell you, show you.â
âWhat if I told you I donât deserve your trust?â
Her lips trembled on a smile at the ferocity of his final struggle. âDonât bother. You have it. So if you think you donât deserve it, how about doing all you can from now on so that you do.â
Dear Reader,
As soon as Amjad Aal Shalaan made an appearance in the first book of the PRIDE OF ZOHAYD trilogy, I knew. He would be my favourite of all my heroes so far. For not only is Amjad a man who has barely survived treachery and sworn to never think the best of anyone ever again, heâs a man whoâs hidden for so long behind an impenetrable barrier of cynicism, he now believes heâs indifferent as well as invulnerable.
So it was easily the most fun Iâve ever had writing, penning his every wickedly irreverent word and thought. The fun escalated when I gave him the only heroine who could ⦠undo him, in every way, and sat back and watched them spar and parry and fall irrevocably, absolutely in love.
With this book, the PRIDE OF ZOHAYD trilogy comes to an end. For me, it has been an exhilarating journey that concluded on a high note. I hope you enjoy this book, and the other two in the trilogy, as much as I delighted in writing them.
I love to hear from readers, so please contact me at [email protected]. Also please visit my website www.oliviagates.com for my latest news and contests. I would also love it if you like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.
Thanks for reading!
Olivia
OLIVIA GATES has always pursued creative passions like singing and handicrafts. She still does, but only one of her passions grew gratifying enough, consuming enough, to become an ongoing careerâwriting.
She is most fulfilled when she is creating worlds and conflicts for her characters, then exploring and untangling them bit by bit, sharing her protagonistsâ every heart-wrenching heartache and hope, their every heart-pounding doubt and trial, until she leads them to an indisputably earned and gloriously satisfying happy ending.
When sheâs not writing, she is a doctor, a wife to her own alpha male and a mother to one brilliant girl and one demanding Angora cat. Visit Olivia at www.oliviagates.com.
To Marialina Tota, the first one who loved Amjad. For
all your support. Wish I could have âdedicatedâ him to you for real! ;-)
âWill you forgive, Amjad?â
Amjad Aal Shalaan could barely raise his gaze to the man whose voice boomed out the question.
His father and king loomed over him in full regalia, his responsibility-carved face frozen in a mask of control. His eyes blazed with an amalgam of regret and wrath, agony and outrage.
Amjadâs unfocused gaze panned to his brothers, who flanked his father, then to the sea of tribal representatives who crowded the expansive glory of Dar Al AdlâZohaydâs Hall of Justice. Their faces blurred into a homogenous mass of anticipation as his fatherâs question reverberated off the arches and domes of the venerable place in a taunting echo.
Will you forgive?
But heâd already forgiven what no other man would have.
Heâd forgiven his bride for not coming to their marriage bed a virgin. Heâd soothed her fear, assured her he wouldnât hold against her what he couldnât provide himself. What mattered were her life choices after she became his wife.
Then heâd forgiven her when heâd discovered that she carried a baby. From her previous lover.
People made mistakes. No sense in destroying a life, or even a relationship, over one.
He couldnât feel betrayed. Sheâd been a stranger heâd pickedâor rather had had pointed out to him with a ⦠strong recommendationâfrom a list of convenient brides a week before the wedding. As crown prince of a kingdom ruled by tribal pacts, his own considerations hadnât come into play.
But sheâd become his wife, was going to be his one woman. And because he couldnât live the rest of his life for the cold convenience of everyone else, heâd determined to see only the best in her, to give her the best of himself. Heâd focused on what he appreciated in her, dismissed what he didnât.
And sheâd repaid his clemency and compassion with deceit and destruction.
âAmjad?â His fatherâs gruff whisper prodded him to answer.
Heâd had many answers. To his worries when loss of appetite had been followed by pins and needles in his palms and cramps in his calves. Overwork, stress, exhaustion.