The Duke's Runaway Princess (Love By Accident) Read Online Free PDF Page A

“No. None of them piqued my interest.”
    There was a slight pause as her brother absorbed her reply. She imagined seeing his face, the look in his eyes confused at first, then turning hard and impatient when the answer didn’t immediately come to him. “Perhaps you should explain yourself, Zarah,” he said sternly.
    She took a deep breath, then dove into her plan. “I’m not marrying any of them Rashid. I’m going to be fine and I don’t want you to worry, but I’m taking a year off to work. I want a bit of professional experience so I’m going to go out into the world and live on my own for a while. I’m sorry and please don’t worry about me.”
    “Zarah…” Rashid started off, but she interrupted him once again.
    “No, Rashid. I’m not going to follow the expected path. I don’t want to get married yet. I want to live my life on my own terms. That’s not unheard of and people do it all the time. I know you’ll try and find me, but please don’t. I’m going to be perfectly safe. I’ll check in with you weekly so you know that I’m okay. I’ve also formed a backup plan, just in case something does happen to me. A friend of mine has your contact information in case anything goes wrong or if I don’t check in with her daily. She’ll contact you immediately and give you location information if I find myself in any trouble. Goodbye.”
    “Don’t you dare hang up,” she heard her brother say but she didn’t hear the next sentence, she simply pressed the end button, then turned off her phone and took out the battery so he couldn’t track her with the GPS located in the phone.
    Boarding for her flight was announced and she took a deep breath, linked her arms with Suzanne and walked onto the flight which would take her into a new life. She wasn’t sure how long she’d be allowed to live this life, but she was going to learn as much from it as possible.
    “What did your brother say when you gave him the news?” Suzanne asked as the plane took off.
    Zarah cringed at the memory of her conversation with Rashid. “He’s probably pretty furious right now. But I didn’t give him a chance to talk. I was too afraid he’d say something that would scare me and I’d come running home with my tail between my legs so I hung up on him. People just don’t do that to Rashid so no matter what, even if I came home right now, he’d still be livid. Hopefully he’ll be calmer next week when I touch base with him, but probably not.”
    Suzanne nodded knowingly. “That’s probably the best move, but I agree that he will be furious when you call him next weekend to reassure him.”
    “Hopefully I’ll be fully engaged in my new life and he won’t have as much influence on me. Right now, I’m pretty terrified of what’s to come.”
    Suzanne shook her head and squeezed her friend’s arm. “Don’t think of it like that. I’ll be with you the whole time. What you need to focus on is finding the kind of guy you want to marry, or more specifically, the fun you’ll have working with Mary.” She settled back in her seat and pushed her chair back so it was more comfortable, showing Zarah how to do it since she’d only been on private jets with more luxury. “So tell me about the guy you picture in your mind when you think of the kind of man you want to marry.”
    Zarah’s mind instantly pictured the man from her dreams. Or nightmare? She wasn’t sure what it was, but she’d been having that dream almost every night for the past few weeks. The dream always ended the same way, with the wave starting to crash down over the top of her, but just as she was about to panic, the faceless stranger’s strong arm reached down and she was able to grab his hand, holding onto him for safety. It was such a strange dream and it scared her that it was so consistent. The ship and the storm were always the same. The man came out of the same door each time and as soon as she saw him, she knew that she was going to be