Free The Call of the Desert by Abby Green Page A

and the huge responsibility he faced as the incumbent ruler. She’d never realised until then how different it would have been if he had already been ruler. Much to her shame, she hadn’t been able to stop the feeling of insecurity growing when there was no word, even though she’d known it was selfish.
    A few nights before she’d been due to leave, Julia had given in to the urging of some fellow archaeology students and gone out for a drink, telling herself it was futile to waste another evening pining for Kaden. She hadn’t been used to drinking much normally, and all she could remember was standing up at one point and feeling very dizzy. One of her colleagues had taken her outside to get some air. And it was then that he had tried to kiss her.
    At first Julia had rejected his advances, but he’d been persistent … and that awful insecurity had risen up. What if Kaden had finished with her without even telling her? What if he wasn’t even going to say goodbye to her? Even stronger had been the rising sense of desperation to think that Kaden might be the only man who would ever make her feel whole, who would ever be able to awaken her sensuality. The thought of being beholden to one man who didn’t want her terrified her. The way she’d come to depend on Kaden, to love him, had raised all her very private fears and vulnerabilities about being adopted … and rejection.
    He
couldn’t
be the only one who would ever makeher feel anything again, she’d determined. So she had allowed that man to kiss her—almost in an attempt to prove something to herself.
    It had been an effort in futility from the first moment, making instant nausea rise.
    And that was when she’d seen Kaden, across the dark street, in long robes and looking half wild, with stubble darkening his jaw. She’d been so shocked she hadn’t been able to move, and then … too late … she’d started to struggle. Kaden had just looked at her with those dark implacable eyes, and then he’d turned and left.
    The following day the death of Kaden’s father had been announced.
    Only by refusing to move from outside the state offices had Julia eventually been allowed to see Kaden before she left the country a few days later. She’d stepped into a huge, opulent office to see Kaden standing in the middle of the room, legs splayed, dressed in ceremonial robes, gorgeous and formidable. And like an utter stranger.
    She’d been incredibly nervous. “Kaden … I …” She’d never found it hard to speak with him, not from the moment they’d first met, but suddenly she struggled to get two words out. “I’m so sorry about your father.”
    “Thank you.” His voice was clipped. Curt.
    “I … I’ve tried to see you before now, but you’ve been busy.”
    His mouth thinned. “From the looks of things you’ve been busy yourself.”
    Julia flushed brick red when she remembered her tangled emotions and what they’d led her to do. “What you saw the other night … it was nothing. I’d had a bit too much to drink and—”
    Kaden lifted a hand, an expression of distaste etched on his face. “Please, spare me the sordid details. It does not interest me in the slightest how or when or where you made love to that man.”
    Julia protested. “We didn’t make love. It was just a stupid kiss … It stopped almost as soon as it had started.”
    Kaden’s voice was icy. “Like I said, I’m really not interested. Now, what was it you wanted to see me about? As you said yourself, I’m very busy.”
    Julia immediately felt ashamed. Kaden was grieving.
    “I just … I wanted to give you my condolences personally and to say … goodbye. I’m leaving tomorrow.”
    A layer of shock was making her a little numb. Not so long ago this man had held her in his arms underneath a blanket of stars and said to her fervently, “
I love you. I won’t ever love another woman again
.”
    Nausea surged, and Julia had to put her hands against the shower wall and breathe