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That’s why people work at their marriages, you know?” For all that she’d loved her husband, they’d had their problems, but everyone in a long-term relationship did.
    “Do you want my faithfulness?”
    She half snorted half laughed. “Hardly.”
    “Then why make an issue of it? I won’t demand yours, either. So long as Leena is cared for, I can’t be bothered by what you do or who you’re doing it with.”
    “Did you honestly just question whether or not I will care for Leena? I’ve been doing it for the past year—it’s hardly going to change now. It’s all I want to do. She’s what I want.”
    “And because of that you have no interest in relationships?”
    “I had a relationship,” she said, feeling, for some reason, like claiming Sunil as a husband, considering the conversation, might cheapen it in some way. “He was all I ever wanted in a man, and he’s gone now. That part of my life is gone. Over. Leena is my life now.”
    “Very noble of you.”
    “Hardly. I just know that I already had what a lot of people spend a lifetime looking for. No one gets that lucky twice.”
    He skipped over her words, as though he hadn’t even been listening. “As I said, I don’t care either way.”
    She felt numb. Light-headed. There was only one answer she could give.
    “I will have to collect my things,” she said, her words detached, as though they were being spoken by a stranger.
    “I can send someone to do that for you.”
    Of course he could. He was a billionaire and all. “When would the marriage take place?”
    “As soon as possible. In fact, I know just the place to have the wedding.”
    “Wedding?” she repeated, knowing she sounded dull.
    “Of course we will have a wedding. We want it all to look authentic. For Leena’s sake if for no other reason.”
    Just like that, she was treated with a welcome burst of anger. She stood from her chair, Leena still in her arms. “And your being seen with other women won’t seem abnormal to Leena? I hope to God it does.”
    “She won’t know about it,” he said.
    “How?”
    He smiled, bright white teeth against tanned skin. “I’m a ghost, Jada. You don’t read about me in the news, and there’s a very good reason for that.”
    “You don’t read about me in the news, either, and the reason is that I’m boring.”
    “Oh, I am not boring, and if the press ever got wind of me? I would be a headline.” Coming from another man it would have sounded like bragging. Like he was talking himself up. But Alik said it like he was stating the most mundane of facts. And it made her believe him. “As it is,” he continued, “they know nothing about me, and I intend to keep it that way.”
    A shiver ran up her back, the hair on her neck standing on end. “You have a high opinion of yourself and your media appeal.”
    Granted, he would have media appeal in spades. Even if it was just because he had model good looks. She looked at him harder. No, perhaps he didn’t have a model’s good looks. Models usually possessed some sort of androgynous beauty, while Alik was hard. A scar ran through the center of his chin, one marring the smooth line of his upper lip. His hands were no better. Rough, looking as though the skin on the backsof them had been, at some point in his life, reduced to hamburger, and had since healed badly.
    She hadn’t noticed at first. She’d been too bowled over by his presence in general to take in the finer details. And now she was wondering exactly who this man was. This man she’d agreed to marry.
    She had a feeling that she didn’t really want to know.
    “I’m simply realistic,” he said. “However, anonymity suits me. It always has.”
    “Well, that’s good, because it suits me, too.”
    “Glad to hear it.” He picked up his cell phone and punched in a number. “Bring the car to the front of the coffee shop. And map the route to the airport.”
    “The airport?” Panic clawed at her, warring with despair for the