Page 36 of To Tango, with Desire

“I couldn’t forget you. Amira, walla, I tried.”

“You’re digging yourself deeper into your own grave. I’m not impressed by a man who tells himself to forget about me. We’ve been through this already. I don’t want or need that in my life. And I certainly don’t want to marry you.”

I craved a love that bordered on obsession. I wanted to be needed by a man so completely that I would burst from the feeling. To marry a man I didn’t love, a man who didn’t love me in return was simply not an option.

“I’m not making myself clear,” he continued.

“Hopefully I am. You can’t force someone to marry you! Someone being me.”

“Can’t I?”

“No. It’s barbaric. Ridiculous. Unfair.”

“So is Hasan’s back pain.”

I gasped. A cold fear dampened my anger. “What the hell do you know about my dad? It’s none of your business.”

“I’ve made it my business.”

“Unmake it.”

“Your dad needs back surgery, but first he needs heart surgery. I hear he’s not too keen on either.”

“Block your ears then.”

Zane’s smile was fleeting. “Look, I—”

“Don’t try to reason with me. My mind is set.”

“And once you make up your mind, it’s hard to change. I remember. I can help your dad. I can make sure he gets the best medical care, that he gets fully compensated. I can do all of this.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to.”

“Hold up. Let me understand this. You want to marry me, a complete stranger. And you’ll help my dad, get him the best medical care if I marry you?”

Zane’s gesture was simple, but it spoke volumes.

“This is ludicrous. Demented!” I tried to make sense of it all, but my brain was in a loop. Zane wanted to marry me. Zane wanted to marry me. “Nobody just demands to marry someone else without knowing them.”

“I know you intimately, if you recall.”

“Bas! Lower your voice! This has nothing to do with that,” I whispered, glancing over my shoulder.

“I disagree. That night changed everything between us.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“Amira—”

“No phone service in Europe?”

“Let it go. I made a mistake in trying to forget you. But what happened in the past should stay there.”

“I agree. You’re in my past. We had a thing, it was great, and it’s time to move on.”

Zane’s voice lowered. “I wonder if your parents would think differently knowing you aren’t a virgin anymore.”