Chapter 1
Smothering a curse, Calista turned her head away, not wanting to watch as the tall, handsome man stepped up onto the stage. The applause was almost deafening, the crowd cheering for the man. But Calista didn’t get it. She didn’t understand why these people loved him so much. Point of fact, she hated him.
Unfortunately, she was also engaged to him.
Oh, he was handsome enough, she thought, turning back to look at him as he greeted the speaker, shaking the other man’s hand and commenting on whatever the speaker was saying to him. Goran was the epitome of “tall, dark and handsome”. Add in charisma that was off the charts and, intellectually, Calista could understand why everyone loved him.
Everyone else, she corrected!
She watched with her professional, polite mask firmly in place when the crowds continued to cheer, even standing up as if the man had done something extraordinary.
Calista sighed, trying hard not to rub her temples as a headache started to make itself known. She was just tired, she told herself. As soon as she left here, she could head to the airport and go home. Or maybe she should take a moment to tell her fiancé that she wasn’t going to marry him before she boarded the flight home. Yes, that was probably a wise thing to do. Better to end this annoying engagement before she left. That way, she could go back home and leave all this tension behind.
Why in the world had she agreed to such a farcical engagement in the first place?
Oh yeah. He’d kissed her. After her brother’s wedding, the man had asked her to dance. And that dance had led to a quiet, tingling stroll through a moonlit garden and…then he’d kissed her. A week later, through phone calls that had almost felt like a diplomatic negotiation, she’d agreed to his proposal.
A proposal over the phone should have been her first clue, Calista thought.
But she’d kept remembering that kiss in the moonlight!
That kiss had been…wow! She’d kissed men during her college years. But when Sheik Goran el Istara, proud and powerful leader of Skyla, had kissed her, she’d seen sparks flying through the air, even though her eyes had been closed. It was almost as if she’d come alive for the first time in her life with that kiss, her whole body tingling and enervated, wanting…wanting something she’d never even known existed!
Even now, she could remember the singe of her lips, the sparks in her fingers and toes as he’d kissed her that day so long ago. She’d remembered thinking, “Yes! Finally! This was the man!”
Unfortunately, there hadn’t been any additional kisses since that magical night. Every interaction since then had felt…clinical. Passionless! Even worse, every conversation with Goran had felt like an interview, as if he were somehow testing her intelligence and ensuring that her opinions aligned with his own. Those conversations had been difficult as she’d tried very hard to remain diplomatic while still being true to her personal beliefs. All of those conversational struggles had angered her because…well, she’d felt as if she’d failed somehow. She could see the disappointment in his eyes. She’d felt his frustration, even if he didn’t touch her again.
Sighing, Calista focused on the man now standing at the podium. The excited crowd resumed their seats and Calista sank gratefully into the chair on the stage. A hush fell over the crowd as everyone waited to hear what the great Sheik Goran was going to say next!
Knowing that the press was in the back of the room, their cameras clicking away and video recording every expression, every movement of her body which would eventually be analyzed later, Calista pasted a polite smile to her face, shifted her knees towards Goran and demurely crossed her legs at the ankles. Feigning interest, she lifted her chin, trying very hard to listen to the words. Unfortunately, the speakers were facing towards the audience. Calista only heard every third or fourth word so she wasn’t sure what the man was saying!
When she’d first met Goran el Istra, Calista had thought that the man was dashing and daring and…and he’d taken her breath away! They’d talked several times and then…goodness, that kiss! One kiss and she’d melted against him! When he’d asked her to marry him, she’d understood that they didn’t really know each other. He was a powerful ruler and she was the sister to another powerful leader. Goran didn’t have time to court a woman, to have endless conversations and take her out to dinner. He didn’t have the time for all of the dates and rituals that would give them time to get to know one another. But after that kiss, Calista had believed that they could work out any issues. She’d believed! So she’d entered into the engagement thinking that her life would be filled with interesting adventures.
The reality was that her life was now filled with formal dinners and boring conversations with tedious diplomats and dreary world leaders, pompous business executives and mind-numbing social events. It was filled with rules and decorous protocols and monotonous efforts to…to get away from the man! Good grief, Calista had become an expert at coming up with reasons to avoid the man!
Unfortunately, tonight had been one of those events she couldn’t escape. Tonight, Goran’s assistant had called Calista’s assistant, asking if their schedules would allow a joint public appearance. Hence, her presence here on the stage, wearing a sedate…uh, boring…ivory suit and boring ivory heels, her hair pulled back into a sedate chignon designed not to offend anyone. There would be no hand holding, no brief touches and absolutely no kissing during this trip to Skyla. Everything was strictly…yawn…business.
Calista didn’t want this. She didn’t want to be the public wife of a man who didn’t want to touch her. She didn’t want to be the woman who walked by his side, never truly loving her husband.
She’d seen how her older brother, Astir, loved his wife Rachel. Those two were sweetly, madly in love. They couldn’t seem to stop touching each other and Calista couldn’t count the number of times she’d caught those two in some alcove making out or asked if her oldest brother was available, only to find that his office door was locked, with Rachel inside. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what they were doing in Astir’s office!
Damn Astir! Damn him for showing her what she would be missing if she married a dud like Goran! She didn’t want to be constantly smothering a yawn during her marriage. She wanted…passion! She wanted excitement! She wanted to be challenged by her husband and to challenge him back! She wanted…someone other than the powerful world leader who seemed more interested in his next economic policy than in her!
Would Goran even notice if she just…puff…disappeared? Would he even care? Probably not, she thought as Goran shifted on his feet, his speech continuing. For a moment, she wondered what he would say. What was this conference even about? Calista had no idea. Her assistant had put this event on her schedule without asking, then had apologized profusely when Calista had grumbled about the obligation. Granted, it had been over a year since she’d agreed to the engagement, so it was time for them to set a date for the wedding. But every time someone mentioned setting a date, Calista felt as if she were being sentenced to a prison term!
Hence, why Calista was going to tell Goran that she couldn’t marry him. Today! Before she got on that plane to fly home, she would be a single woman again! No way would she subject herself to a lifetime of his boring conversations about economic policies or military spending or…or whatever yawn-worthy topic he brought up during their next meal together.
And yeah, a formal dinner was on the agenda tonight. Alone. With him!
Little did he know that she was going to dump him! She’d be very kind and tell him it was “all about her” and that she couldn’t see tying him down with her, with someone who had “issues”. She wasn’t sure what those issues were, other than the need to not be bored out of her mind for the next fifty years. But she’d come up with something. Something horrible. Maybe a disease? Yes! Yes, a wasting disease that couldn’t be cured. Of course, in a few months, or maybe a year, she could announce that she’d been cured. No, she’d have to wait until after Goran’s wedding to someone else before she was cured.
Tuning out his words, she couldn’t bear to listen to yet another speech about building another university or bridge or hospital or…whatever. Those were all very necessary, wonderful accomplishments. But did she really need to be here? Or even better than her absence, wouldn’t it be amazing to be part of the planning and implementation stages of those accomplishments?
Goran finished his speech and turned, looking at the woman sitting primly on the stage behind him. How the hell had he been so wrong about her? Calista was…uptight. After that one kiss they’d shared so many months ago, he’d had high hopes for their marriage. But she carried that “don’t touch me” attitude around with her, no matter where they were. They could be completely alone or in a crowd of people and Calista’s body language screamed “Don’t touch me!”
She was a stunningly beautiful woman with dark, silky hair that he knew would cascade over her delicate shoulders…if she ever lightened up enough to release it from the tight knot she put it into every time he saw her. He also knew that she had a lust-worthy figure. He’d felt her curves, experienced that body shivering against him during that one kiss.
But every time he saw her now, she was wearing stiff, formal jackets that masked her curves, hiding every delectable inch of her from his view. All he could see were the lovely cat eyes and soft, full lips that he imagined kissing…except that every time he looked at her, she seemed to be pulling away from him, those full, kissable lips in a frown that warned him off. Even today, he was definitely getting the “hands off” vibe from the lovely Princess Calista.