Free Captive but Forbidden by Lynn Raye Harris

anything, he realized how very fragile she was beneath the layers of steel she cloaked herself in. He had no right to try and break through those barriers.
    “I lost the baby soon after I learned I was pregnant,” she said. She shook her head, swallowed hard. He could hear the audible gulp as she pushed her sobs down deep again. But then she speared him with a look. “I won’t break, Raj. I’m stronger than you think. And I won’t let anyone use this to stop me from doing what’s best for Aliz.”
    Her mind worked much more quickly than he’d given her credit for only yesterday, when he’d watched her work the crowd from his position in the bar. He’dthought her pampered and shallow, but he had to admit that she had depths he’d never guessed at.
    “Who is the woman in the tabloid reports?” he asked. “Because I can hardly credit she’s the same person as the woman sitting beside me now.”
    “Oh, no, she’s definitely the same. Some of it is exaggerated, of course. But much of it is true.” He wondered if she knew she was rubbing her thumb along the underside of his palm. The pressure was light, but it made him want to strip her glove off and see what her touch would feel like on his skin.
    “I can hardly believe it,” he said, trying to lighten the conversation once more.
    “That was my version of acting out,” she said quietly. “My rebellion against my father. The worse I behaved, the angrier he got. Did you ever act out, Raj?”
    Her question surprised him. A dart of pain caught him behind the breastbone. “I think everyone has,” he said.
    Except that he hadn’t. Not really.
    He’d always had to be the adult in the house, especially once his mother started experimenting with drugs the summer he turned twelve. If he hadn’t made sure they had food and a roof over their heads, however temporary, they’d have starved or frozen to death.
    He’d known nothing but responsibility from the time he was young. He’d been stripped of a normal childhood by his mother’s addictions and constant need for attention.
    Acting out had been the furthest thing from his mind when all he’d cared about was food and shelter. Not that he could admit that to Veronica. It made him seem pitiful—and he definitely wasn’t pitiful.
    “Yes, I suppose so,” she said. “Some of us worse thanothers, perhaps. But those days are over now, at least for me. I have too many things I want to do in life. I’ve wasted enough time.”
    Raj stifled a laugh. “You’re twenty-eight and the president of your nation. How have you wasted time?”
    Her smile was unexpected. It shook at the corners, as if she were still on the verge of tears.
    It made him want to kiss her again. A white-hot bolt of need shot through him as he watched her mouth.
    “That’s true, yes. But I’m realizing what I really want. I’m only sorry it took me so long to figure it out.”
    “And what is it you want, Veronica?” Because he knew what he wanted right this minute. He wouldn’t act on it, of course. Kissing her at the party had been one thing. Kissing her now that they were alone was another altogether.
    “You will laugh.”
    “I won’t.”
    “You will, but it’s okay. I want a home. A real home, with a family. Maybe it’ll just be a cat or a dog, or maybe I’ll find a man I adore, who adores me in return. But I want the dream, the happy-ever-after where I like who I am and someone agrees with me.”
    Raj swallowed. Home. Family. He had no idea what those things were, really, other than a roof and four walls, and people whose happiness and welfare you were responsible for. “It’s a nice dream. I hope you get it.”
    “You think it’s ridiculous,” she said.
    “No.”
    “You do.”
    He sighed. “It’s not that. It’s just that I doubt you’ve ever been without a home. You want to imbue the wordwith more than it needs. You want it to fulfill you emotionally when, really, that is your responsibility.”
    Her thumb had