Seduced by the Sheik (The Raminar Family #1)- Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,54
nieces needed him to be strong! He didn’t have time to rage. Not yet, anyway. “She has to get back to her job.”
Both brothers froze as Amit continued forward. Gaelen turned to his younger brother. “What the hell is going on?”
Tarin shrugged. “I have no idea. But I think someone seriously messed up.”
They stared down the hallway where Amit had disappeared, but neither went after him. They knew by their brother’s silence that he was in a great deal of pain. The only way Amit dealt with that kind of pain was to shut down and keep moving forward. Amit didn’t have the luxury of wallowing in his pain. He had to keep going.
Chapter 19
Twenty-hours later, Harper dragged her suitcase through the door of her tiny apartment and looked around. Everything looked just as she’d left it so long ago, although, there was a lot of dust. But the magazines she’d intended to read over the summer months were still on the corner of her coffee table. The dry cleaning was still hung over the back of the chair. Her bed was made, but the tee-shirt she’d dumped beside the bed that last morning was still there, mocking her.
She was home.
Yes, she was home, but her heart had been left behind in Izara. And she was cold! So darn cold that she could barely stand it!
With a sob, she dropped her suitcase and sank into the chair, curling up into a ball of misery. She hadn’t allowed herself to cry on the flight. But now that she was alone, Harper didn’t try to hold back the tears.
He’d offered her a job and she’d wanted his heart. But did the man have a heart? Could he ever love her? Probably not. He had so much responsibility on his shoulders and…just like Elsa and Ellora, he’d most likely buried his emotions deep down inside of himself.
She had no idea what time it was or even what day it was. Vaguely, she remembered the flight to Izara, the heat when she’d landed that had felt like a boulder across her shoulders. Everything was the opposite now. She’d grown used to the heat, craved the sunshine! It was grey and dreary here, with the humidity like an oppressive blanket that she couldn’t throw off. She wanted the dry desert heat and not this icky mess of humidity!
Instead, she cried. She cried because she was lonely, because she didn’t want to sleep without Amit and because he hadn’t said the three little words that she needed to hear. She would have thrown her whole life up in the air and stayed if he’d just said those words. But he didn’t love her! He wasn’t capable of loving anyone!
Damn him! Damn him for being so wonderful and making her love him when he couldn’t love her back!
For a long time, she cried curled up in the chair, not able or willing to move. She should get some food, but the idea of going to the grocery store made her ache. It was easier to just sit here and cry.
A long time later, she remembered that she’d promised to call Elsa and Ellora. When she knew it was a good time, a break in their schedule, she dialed into the palace line. It took over a half hour, but eventually, she was able to speak to the girls just before they went to bed. They were excited to see her, but because she already missed their adorable faces so much, the conversation was painful. The girls told Harper everything that they’d done with Amit that day and it hurt her so much that he’d just gone on with his life without her when she felt as if every moment, she was walking through shards of glass.
Fortunately, it was late in Izara and they had to go to bed, so the conversation didn’t last too long. Harper promised to call them again soon. But she wasn’t sure when that would be.
By the time the sun rose the following morning, Harper knew that she had to pull herself together. She needed to get some food and coffee. Her head ached and her stomach growled. She was miserable.
“What advice would I give my patients?” she thought. So, instead of curling up into a miserable ball, she got in the shower and cleaned herself up, brushed her teeth, then grabbed her car keys and headed to the grocery store.