For Duty's Sake. Lucy Monroe

       “You are amazing.”

      She could not speak to respond, merely shook her head. He was the incredible one, playing her boldly like a sitar’s strings.

      “Making love to you will be my greatest pleasure.”

      She forgave him the smug tones edging his voice. They were well-earned. Besides, his words weren’t smug at all. He could have said it would be her greatest pleasure, and they both knew that would be the case.

      She was a virgin after all.

       ROYAL BRIDES This month: FOR DUTY’S SAKE

      An innocent princess and her promised husband

       … Zahir is Crown Prince of a desert kingdom, master of

       all he surveys—including the world’s most beautiful

       women. Angele has waited for him and marriage for

       ten long years. Maybe a wedding is no longer on

       the cards, but can they still share that unforgettable

       moment when he will claim her as his woman?

       Coming soon:

       The story of Asad and Iris

      He’s the Sheikh of Kadar, she’s an American

       geologist—he loved her once and lost her. Can he

       win her back to his bed and to his side … as his wife?

       Don’t miss these latest instalments of ROYAL BRIDES

       Lucy Monroe’s enthralling sheikh saga!

       FOR DUTY’S SAKE

      LUCY MONROE

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MILLS & BOON

       Before you start reading, why not sign up?

      Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

       SIGN ME UP!

      Or simply visit

      signup.millsandboon.co.uk

      Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

      For Abigail and Jordan,

       a very special niece and nephew-in-law.

      I’m so proud of both of you, of all

       your accomplishments and the love you two share.

      May it bless you and may you live out your own HEA

       with true joy and a fulfilment

       of the dearest dreams of both your hearts.

      PROLOGUE

       Did love die?

      Angele had asked her mother that question once, after realizing her father, Cemal bin Ahmed al Jawhar—foster brother to the King of Jawhar and her own personal hero—was a serial adulterer. She’d been an extremely naive university freshman. So certain was she of her father’s integrity, she had at first believed the tabloid story about him stuffed in her student mailbox was a hoax, a cruel joke played by someone who would never be called a friend again.

      To this day, she did not know who had disliked her so much they’d felt the need to shred her illusions and with them, her heart.

      Her first hero had tumbled from his pedestal and shattered at her feet, and he had not even known. Not to begin with.

      Her still beautiful Brazilian former supermodel mother had looked at Angele in silence for several seconds. Eyes the same espresso-brown as her daughter’s for once revealed her every emotion, and all of it staggering pain. “I would consider it a great blessing, but some of us are cursed to love unwisely and to do so until death.”

      “But why do you stay with him?”

      “I do not. We live quite separate lives.”

      And another belief had been crushed under the pounding hammer of reality. They lived in the United States for the sake of Angele’s education and the chance for her to be raised in relative anonymity. They’d made the modern country their home because Americans had plenty of their own scandal, they didn’t have to go looking for it among the wealthy community from a small Middle Eastern country like Jawhar.

      In a way, her mother had been protecting Angele. From the truth. But she’d also been protecting herself from the embarrassment of being the well-known wife of an undeniable philanderer. It had explained why their trips to Brazil and Jawhar were shorter and far less frequent than Angele had always wanted. It had also explained why her father’s visits were equally brief, though far more frequent.

      “Why not divorce him?”

      “I love him.”

      “But he …”

      “… is my husband.” Lou-Belia had drawn herself to her full five feet eleven inches. “I will not shame my family, or his, with a divorce.”

      Considering the fact that Angele’s father was considered a de facto member of the royal family of Jawhar, that argument carried some weight. Nevertheless, Angele had vowed never to be her mother that day. She would not be trapped in a marriage by duty and a helpless love that caused more grief than joy.

      She had believed she was safe making the vow. After all, while no formal announcement had been made,

      Angele had been promised to Crown Sheikh Zahir bin Faruq al Zohra since she was thirteen years old. Heir to the throne of Zohra, no more honorable man existed in the Middle East, or anywhere else for that matter.

      Or so she had believed. But that had been before today, when she’d received a packet of pictures of Zahir in the mail.

      A sense of déjà vu washed over her, bringing back old feelings and memories so clear, she could still smell the spring grass clippings that had scented the air on that other fateful day a little over four years ago. The same cold chills washed up and down her spine, leaving a strange clammy flush in their wake.

      If someone had asked her even one hour ago what one certainty she had, it would have been that Zahir would never be the center of a tabloid scandal. Besides being far too aware of his duty to his family and his position, Crown Sheikh Zahir simply had too much integrity to be caught in flagrante delicto with some woman.

      Right. Her other hero.

      Now, staring down at the topmost picture—an almost innocent image of Zahir helping a busty blonde into the passenger side of his Mercedes, Angele choked out a strangled laugh. The barely there sound a pained constriction in her dry throat, the present took full hold with a snap.

      Here, there was no smell of grass clippings, just the subtle scent of citrus her boss favored for the air ventilation system. No clatter of other students greeting one another in the common room of the University Center. Just the sound of her own breathing in the near-empty office.

      The metallic taste of fear in her mouth mocked Angele and her hand shook as she pushed the topmost picture aside with her fingertip.