Chapter 420

• It was her own fault; she had brooded dismally on the morning of her wedding. She had lied to him, and he thought that she and Farhan had shared a "normal" marriage. Amazingly, he had not realized the level of her inexperience even when he kissed her. She must be a quick learner, she reasoned. Either that or she was as morally deficient as her mother, because when she was in Ahsan’s arms, nothing seemed more important than assuaging the burning need for sexual fulfillment that he aroused in her.
• To her relief, the wedding was a simple, low-key event compared to the extravagant banquets, during which she had been conscious of the curious stares of the hundreds of guests who had been keen to see Prince Ahsan’s future bride. The ceremony took place in one of the palace state rooms—a breathtakingly opulent room with a pink marble-tiled floor, walls inlaid with gold, and magnificent crystal chandeliers suspended from the ceiling, glistening like diamond tears.
• Kate’s heart was beating unnaturally fast when she entered the state room and walked on trembling legs to where Ahsan was waiting for her beneath an ornate brocade canopy. She had assumed she would wear one of her new outfits—possibly the cream suit from one of the world’s leading fashion houses that Ahsan had insisted on buying without even glancing at the exorbitant price tag. But when she emerged from her bathroom this morning—after drying her hair into a mass of red curls that rippled down her back—her maids had been waiting to dress her in a forget-me-not-blue silk caftan decorated with exquisite beading on the bodice and sleeves and fastened at the back with tiny hooks.