“You love them all?”
He chuckled, then fell into a coughing fit that concerned me. “If they are blowing on my balls and sucking my staff, yes, I fall in love. I like to fall in love several times a day. But you, Marco, you are at a very great disadvantage. You should have been raised in our part of the world. You could have—”
“I never wanted more than one woman at a time. That’s where we’re different.”
“Ah, so you have been bitten hard by the snake of love. Then it is simple. You will feel much pain and be miserable until the day you die.”
It was my time to laugh. I nearly spit out my coffee.
“Haven’t you learned by now how to ignore them? I’ve seen pictures of you guys running on the beach. You don’t grab the pretty ladies who like to show themselves to you and take them in the waves, do you? You focus on your mission, and that is why what you offer is a gift greater than happiness, than all the wealth of the world. Me? I don’t have that. I learned my lesson. I fell in love with Harry’s mother. I could never make her my wife but she was the wife of my heart. It was her face I saw when I was bedding my wives. I saw little Harry’s tiny face when I greeted my other children and grandchildren into the world. And because of that, I had to move her away from the palace where both their lives could be at risk.”
“You see her?”
“It was a long time ago, Marco. I don’t want to see her now. She was the sweetest flower of all the land. I want to remember her that way. My seeing her would be dangerous for her. I had to cut out those feelings with a sharp knife because it was my love that would cause her death.”
“Fascinating. We are polar opposites.”
“So why all this talk of managing harems you will never have? Sounds like perhaps you are in love with two women at the same time?”
“No, not really. I thought I was in love when I was married. But now I don’t know what it was. It was like I was running away from something. I needed something from her for a time, and then when I stopped needing it, somehow, we just ended. The fun and excitement were gone. She’s probably right, I was the one who walked away, even though she was the one who was unfaithful.”
“Women are complicated. You ignore them. You let them go. You bury your happy memories if you have to, but you let them go find someone else.”
“So I shouldn’t have gotten angry when she sued me for divorce and took away half my fortune—or more?”
“Mmmm. I see, young Marco. You didn’t fix this soon enough. What were you doing, this running away?”
“I was driven to become a success. And the woman I loved, I made her wait too long.”
“Go back and get her, Marco. And tell these two other women who are fighting over you to—how do they say it, “put your big panties on?” The sultan laughed until he began the coughing spell again.
“Are you sure you are well?”
“Who cares? I am in pain, and I know there are things inside me that are not right. But as long as I can still fuck, I’m alive. In my mind, I go someplace else, and I cavort with all the nubile virgins who I haven’t tried yet.”
Maybe the sultan was right. I was running from Rebecca, who wouldn’t let go. I was running into the arms of someone new. Perhaps I’ve been running away from the one I should have married, my dear, sweet Emily. And I couldn’t go get her because she was gone forever.
“You are too pensive. I don’t like you pensive, Marco. I wish my sons had as much honor and commitment as you have in your little finger. I wish they thought more about their choices and the consequences of those choices. You’re too hard on yourself.”
“You’re probably right. But my problem is that the first one I loved is no longer walking this planet.”
“Yes, I think Harry told me about this. I am so sorry for you. So you cannot repair things with your wife, or is the new girlfriend too much of a temptation to walk away from?”
“Neither. Rebecca, my wife, won’t leave me alone, even though I left years ago. And now she’s bitter, spiteful, and making my life miserable.”
“You will really have a problem when she learns about the new one.”
“She won’t.”
He laughed again, this time surviving without the coughs. “Women always find out. You be careful. Your new one is tough?”
“She’s strong, not tough. I don’t need tough. I need to feel like I did when I had Emily. She’s very much like her, in certain ways. In other ways, no. Emily was simple. She wouldn’t have cared about all the money I made or what kind of a house we lived in. In a way, I don’t think she would have loved the man I became when I was married to Rebecca. And all Rebecca wants to do is take everything away from me.”
“Ask the favor you are afraid to ask, my son. I see no easy doorways open to you.”
“No, I’ll think of something.”
“Marco, you need a loyal friend who can play in your sandbox. You are going to help me with these kids of mine and their project in Africa. I don’t care if they lose money, I just don’t want them killed in the process. They don’t see danger all around them. They still think they’re in Disneyland. I send them to schools. They are indulged, fancy boys who make horrible decisions and even father children from low caste women. And why? They could have all the beauties they want. But no, they want the common girls, the street
