The Prince's Devious Proposal - Holly Rayner Page 0,39

Rick’s good graces. The idea made her feel ill, but what could she do? It was necessary.

Near dawn, she finally managed a few hours of sleep, but when her alarm went off, she felt as exhausted as if she hadn’t slept at all. The first thing she did was to grab her phone, checking to see whether she had missed any calls.

Nothing.

No word from Petr.

Work that day was one of the worst experiences of Naomi’s life. She was terrified to allow Rick to see her checking her phone, so she kept it in her pocket. As often as she could, she stole away to the bathroom to see whether Petr had called—he never had—and did her best to return to her desk without her absence being noticed.

She called Petr again that evening, and again the following morning. Still, she heard nothing from him.

She began to despair of ever hearing from him again. Perhaps he had decided to cut his losses. Perhaps he had run off somewhere to begin another life without her.

But if so…why? What had she done to deserve that?

She felt sick and tormented all the time. The ring on her finger, once a source of pride and happiness, began to feel like an anchor.

Would he really have given me this if he didn’t want to be married? It belonged to the Queen of Sovra.

But…did she know that this had been the queen’s ring?

It wouldn’t be the first thing Petr had lied to her about.

She shuddered. What was true, and what was a lie? She didn’t know what to think.

She got into a routine of calling him every day after work. By the fourth day, she wasn’t really expecting an answer anymore. So it came as a shock when she heard his voice on the other end of the line. “Hello, Naomi.”

She was stunned into momentary silence. “Petr,” she managed.

She waited for him to explain himself. She waited for him to apologize for having not returned her calls for so long.

He said nothing at all.

Finally, it was Naomi who spoke again.

“Where have you been?” she demanded.

“Rome,” he said. “Like I told you.”

“You know that’s not what I’m really asking.” She felt near tears. Where was the man who had made her feel so beautiful and special? Where was the man who had been so kind to her when they had first met? “Why haven't you returned any of my calls before now?”

“I was busy,” he said. “I was working. And then I was traveling.”

“Traveling?”

“I’m back in LA,” he said.

Somehow, this hurt as much as anything else.

“How long have you been back?” she asked.

“About six hours.”

“And you didn’t come to see me?”

“You were at work, Naomi.” As if she was the one who was being unreasonable.

“Well, can we see each other now?” It killed her that she was begging. This was her husband.

“I’m tired,” he said. “I’m jet-lagged. I need to sleep.”

“I don’t need to do anything fancy,” she said. “I could come over and just crash at your place. Or you could come to mine, if you’d rather.”

“Not tonight,” Petr said. “I really just want to catch up on sleep. We’ll meet up tomorrow, okay?”

“Tomorrow.” She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice. “I’ve heard that before.”

Something broke in his voice then, and she heard, for the first time, a hint of vulnerability. “I know,” he said. “I promise, though. Once you’re done with work tomorrow, go back to the Crystal Lounge. I’ll be waiting for you there.”

“Will you really?” she asked. “Or are you going to stand me up?”

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said.

“I don’t know what you’d do.” To her horror, she found that she was crying. “I thought you were going to call me. You’ve been ignoring me for days, Petr. I didn’t know what to think.”

“I know,” Petr said. “God. I know. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

The coldness in his voice had melted. He sounded more like his old self now. Naomi wanted to stop the argument, to reassure him that everything was okay. She wanted to go back to just being happy.

But she couldn’t forget those long, painful days of wondering whether she would ever hear from him again. That had hurt too much for her to simply pretend that everything was fine now.

“I need to know why you haven’t been returning my calls,” she said. “I’ve been going through hell, Petr.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I would have called you back if I’d been able to.”

“You couldn’t have been that busy. Around the